Michael Eisner knew that the public would need to see Disney’s Animal Kingdom as more than a zoo, and under his watch Imagineers designed two themed lands that would serve that purpose. Just imagine how different Animal Kingdom would’ve been in 1999 – much less today – if these two Possibilitylands had truly come to be.

Beastly Kingdom

Click and expand for a larger and more detailed view. Image: Disney

To this day, the tale of Beastly Kingdom remains one of the most legendary never-built projects in Disney Imagineers’ portfolio. Branching off of the park’s Tree of Life, this land dedicated to “imagined” creatures would take shape. Like the mythological creatures it inspired, Beastly Kingdom would be a land of extremes. Guests would enter via a pathway forking in a dense, fairytale forest.

One path would lead to the land’s “light” half – a Grecian garden of bubbling springs, white marble, crawling vines, and wonder. A tranquil family boat ride through Fantasia’s “Dance of the Hours” segment (with its dancing hippos, ostriches, and alligators) would be a highlight and provide Animal Kingdom with a much-needed fanciful family dark ride.

Image: Disney

But the attraction fans most muse about is Quest for the Unicorn, an immersive, interactive walkthrough hedge-maze. Only those who could locate and awaken the four bronze guardians hidden in the maze would be rewarded with the code necessary to enter the Unicorn’s Grotto for a face-to-face encounter with the steed.

The other path would take on a very different tone, leading into a gnarled, scorched, dark evergreen forest lit by torches and lanterns. Eventually, these twisted woods would empty into a cold, stone village populated by inns, taverns, and shops resembling a storybook medieval town.

Image: Disney

Shopkeepers would always have their eyes turned nervously skyward, wary of the horrific fire-breathing dragon that ruled the land. Look no further than the Dragon’s Tower – the land’s central icon and E-Ticket – a thrilling dark ride / coaster deep into the abandoned castle that served as the Dragon’s roost.

Beastly Kingdom would certainly set Disney’s Animal Kingdom apart from any local zoo, and infuse some much-needed Disney identity into the park. But it wasn’t alone.

Dinoland, U.S.A.

Image: Disney

Like Beastly Kingdom, Dinoland would take Animal Kingdom to places that even the best zoos couldn't match. This land would be dedicated to “ancient” animals long-since extinct. And smartly, Dinoland would neither transport guests back to prehistoric times nor bring dinosaurs to ours. This land would be a photorealistic, habitable world just like Harambe or Anadapur, but perhaps a little less exotic.

Set along U.S. Highway 498 somewhere in the United States, quiet Diggs County was barely more than a blip on the map until 1947 when the fossil find of the century changed it all. Suddenly, the quiet patch of land became a paleontological paradise attracting not only college students and scientists, but family-packed sedans looking for roadside attractions on their family vacations. Enterprising locals cashed in on their sleepy town’s new notoriety by embracing their newfound roadside attraction status.

Image: Disney

That’s why the land’s reigning E-Ticket would’ve been The Excavator – a rumbling roller coaster (made of steel, but disguised as wood like Disneyland’s California Screamin’… er, uh… the Incredicoaster) constructed around and through inactive dig sites, racing through trenches, diving into tunnels, and shambling past artisan “dinosaurs” constructed of reclaimed digging equipment. (Legendary in its own right, the Excavator made it onto our must-read list of Possibilitylands: Never-Built Disney "Mountains.")

The second attraction would’ve been a bit more scholarly... and a bit tamer: a time-traveling family dark ride beginning in the Dino Institute. Seated in ankylosaurus-shaped vehicles, guests would travel through a time portal and into the prehistoric world via a slow-moving journey both indoors and outdoors past Audio Animatronic dinosaurs. An awe-inspiring sightseeing trip, the ride would no doubt be a family favorite.

Dragons fall…

Just imagine how different Animal Kingdom would be today if Beastly Kingdom and Dinoland had come to exist as Imagineers had planned! Perhaps most importantly, the park would’ve opened with three solid E-Tickets (Dragon’s Tower, The Excavator, and Kilimanjaro Safaris) and at least two family dark rides (the boat ride through Fantasia and a journey through the primeval world).

Both Beastly Kingdom and Dinoland would elevate Disney’s Animal Kingdom and would differentiate Animal Kingdom from any zoo. So what happened instead?

Image: Disney

As design of Disney’s Animal Kingdom entered its final phase, then-CEO Michael Eisner was allegedly astonished by the ballooning price tag of the mega-park and – particularly – by the higher-than-expected cost of backstage animal care and housing that guests would never ever see. Insiders say that he determined that to keep the park’s budget balanced, only one of the two big-budget lands could be financed to open alongside the park. The other, it was certain, would open… eventually. But it would need to wait for a “Phase II” expansion once the park had proven its popularity and recouped some of its initial cost.

Insiders say that the two Imagineering teams working on Beastly Kingdom and Dinoland, respectively, went to war, each petitioning for their land to win Eisner’s affection… and his green light. One need only look at the park’s map today to know which won. But why?

… Dinosaurs rise

There are a few reasons Dinoland beat out Beastly Kingdom...

Image: Universal

1) Prehistory in pop culture. The design and concept phase of Disney’s Animal Kingdom began with – and rose alongside – the popularity of Jurassic Park. The Steven Spielberg film had brought dinosaurs into pop culture as never before, cementing Disney’s desire for a dino-land. (In 1996, Universal Studios Hollywood all the way out on the West Coast opened Jurassic Park: The Ride; it would be duplicated at the brand new Universal’s Islands of Adventure in 1999, just a year after Animal Kingdom’s opening).

2) A project in the pipeline. When Michael Eisner arrived at Walt Disney Productions in 1984, he was hand-selected for his cinematic credentials (as CEO of Paramount Pictures) that were needed to revive Disney’s languishing movie studios. In retrospect, we know that the New Millennium also signaled the end of Eisner's decade-long Disney Renaissance, but at the time he expected the studio's 2000 film DINOSAUR to be a groundbreaking spectacle integrating CGI and live footage as never before. More on that later, but suffice it to say Eisner understood early on that a dinosaur-themed land at Disney's Animal Kingdom would help to prime audiences for the blockbuster movie that would debut two years after...

3) Mesozoic merchandise. Chances are that you or someone you know went through a serious “dinosaur” phase somewhere between ages 3 and 12 (or perhaps continuing unto today for some of us). The merchandising opportunities behind dinosaurs were simply too spectacular to pass-up, ensuring that a land dedicated to prehistoric creatures would be one packed with popular souvenirs, too. No doubt that would be even truer once DINOSAUR opened in theaters.

4) A technological breakthrough. But there’s one undeniable reason why Dinoland got the go-ahead over Beastly Kingdom… And it’s because of an innovation on the other side of the country and a world away. Can you guess which ride changed the course of Dinoland and Disney’s Animal Kingdom forever? Read on…