On this week's episode of the excellent podcast "Disney Dish," Disney journalist and entrepreneur Len Testa (Touring Plans) describes a Maya Archaeology conference he recently attended, "Maya at the Mouse," in which Disney imagineers presented their current plans for the upcoming "Tropical Americas" land in Disney World's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida.
Within the land will be a new Indiana Jones ride taking place in the ruins of a fictional ancient Maya temple, and the imagineers explained to the group of archaeologists the great lengths to which they've gone to make sure the Maya architecture and culture are depicted accurately. Testa describes the presentation on his podcast, and you can read along and view the photos and illustrations on the podcast's extensive Show Notes and his blog post on TouringPlans.com.
Here is a photo Testa took of the current concept art for the Tropical Americas (all this could change). The Indiana Jones Maya temple is on the upper right. (In the upper left appears to be the planned ride themed for the movie "Encanto.")
The entrance to the ride will feature the temple itself, set by the imagineers as having been built during the Classic Period of the Maya civilization, 200-900 C.E. The temple is red in color; although most ruins today are completely colorless, in their time, they were often painted red. Some Maya temples, because of various rare circumstances, did not lose their color over the ages, and can be still be seen with color intact, such as the Rosalila Temple in Honduras.
Testa writes about this fantastic concept art showing Indiana Jones working on the excavation of the temple.
"One of the next slides was another piece of concept art that showed archaeologists working on the site of this Maya temple. We're not yet sure why they're there or what they're looking for.
"The clothing and Jeep suggest this timeline is during Indiana Jones' heyday. And all of this work is being done with primitive technology, which indicates this temple is too difficult to reach with large, heavy machinery. We're in the deep jungle here."
Most of the conference presentation and slides went into great detail about the intricate carvings on the planned temple, and their many meanings within the Maya culture. Here is a photo of an unpainted model of the temple, lit for both dusk and night.
By the way, also in this week's episode, Testa's "Disney Dish" partner, Jim Hill, followed Testa's description of the Maya presentation with an amazing story about the first planned Disney/Indiana Jones attraction, an abandoned late 1980s expansion in Disneyland (Anaheim, California) that would have incorporated two Indiana Jones ancient river temple rides into the existing Jungle Cruise ride.
Anyway, Testa concluded:
"I came away from Imagineering's presentation overwhelmingly impressed with the amount of research they've done, and with their strong commitment to fidelity, preservation, and presentation of Maya culture. When management gets out of their way, WDI [Walt Disney Imagineering] is the gold standard for themed entertainment around the world. Disney's parks need more things like this."
I couldn't agree with Testa more, and I believe that one of the imagineers chiefly responsible for this commitment to research, authenticity, and respect for the subjects of Disney's theme park projects is the person who was the keynote speaker for the "Maya at the Mouse" conference, Joe Rohde.
Rohde was the lead designer of Animal Kingdom, from its initial conception and construction, through the addition of its magnificent "Pandora – The World of Avatar" land in 2017, and beyond. He retired from Disney in 2021, but last year came back to Disney to "do a bit of work at the old farm." I really recommend Rohde's Instagram account, in which he documents his travels, sketching, and writes eloquently and brilliantly about design and the creation of immersive spaces.
In the early years of Disney theme parks, it seems that efforts to accurately depict a given part of the world didn't go much farther than creating spaces that look the way that area was depicted by old Hollywood movies.
But when Rohde was tapped to lead the design of Animal Kingdom, which opened in 1998, he insisted on basing it on actual research into the lands and peoples the theme park would be evoking. He and his team traveled the world, taking pictures, sketching, gathering items, and making sure they were being inspired by and honoring the people, cultures, land, and wildlife of the places they would bring to Animal Kingdom.
So his African village doesn't look like a 1950s B-movie conception; it rings of verisimilitude. This gives the area so much more charm, making it not only far more interesting, but more fun.
And his Asian area is filled with concepts and details a designer could only conceive of by visiting and studying on the ground. Just walking around Animal Kingdom is a fascinating experience.
Rohde's commitment to authenticity in theme parks is so strong, Testa reports that in his keynote speech to the conference, Rohde actually confessed to an example in which he failed to live up to his own standards. The "Countdown to Extinction / Dinosaur" ride, an opening day Animal Kingdom ride that the new Indiana Jones ride happens to be replacing, features an audio animatronic Carnotaurus dinosaur. For various practical reasons, the imagineers gave the figure thick legs and visible arms even though the actual creature was slender and had virtually no arms. And this bothers Rohde to this day. A link to Rohde's 2021 mea culpa on Instagram, with pictures of Disney's fake Carnotaurus and illustrations of the real dinosaur is here.
I'm heartened that Disney is continuing Rohde's legacy by devoting this much effort and talent to the Maya temple in the upcoming Indiana Jones ride. In fact, Testa told me that he heard a rumor that Spanish will be the language spoken throughout the Tropical Americas land.
That will only add to the fun authenticity of the space. And it should infuriate the Trumpists.
