What D23 Announcements Could Mean for the Future of Edutainment at Disney Parks

Three main parks announcements from D23 are making me especially optimistic about how Imagineering might foreground edutainment, learning, curiosity and science in upcoming attractions.

Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent in Tropical Americas at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

First, I’m really excited about Tropical Americas, especially the Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent attraction.

Imagineers Joe Rohde, Joan Hartwig and her team and Mayan archaeologist Dr. Iván Batún did a lot of research to select Tsukán, the jade serpent that protects underground rivers and cenotes, as the main occupant of the temple. Featuring Tsukán enables teaching about the importance and value of water for humans, ecosystems, and animals in the face of climate change.

I think they are intentionally trying to foreground Mayan culture because of their connection to nature and their theatrical traditions, but I suspect synergies with National Geographic series like “Lost Cities with Albert Lin” might have also factored into their decision-making. These shows focus on archaeology and using technology like LIDAR to uncover hidden ruins, including in Tropical Americas regions, offering an at-home learning tie-in.

There’s also an opportunity to call attention to Indy’s famous phrase, “It belongs in a museum!” and stress the importance of living descendants of a culture becoming the caretakers and protectors of their own artifacts, rather than housing them in a museum in a foreign country. Imagineers say the attraction will be set in the 1950s, before the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but maybe Indiana Jones’s cultural sensitivity could be ahead of his time and more in-line with modern archaeological practices.

Additionally, because the Mayan empire included the Yucatán peninsula, where the dinosaur-eliminating asteroid crashed and formed the Chicxulub crater, I hope there will be more than a few hidden dinosaur references for all of my paleontologist friends that loved the land before.

Piston Peak National Park a.k.a Cars Land in Magic Kingdom

Time to switch gears to the Cars Land aka Piston Peak at Magic Kingdom (puns intended there).

The Imagineers in the Horizons pavilion, both in panels and when explaining the large model, talked a lot about their attention to geology and the rock work being reflective of both the actual geology of America, and blending into the geology of the areas surrounding the former Rivers of America. 

There will be waterfalls like you might find in Acadia National Park in Maine and the upstate New York setting of Magic Kingdom’s Haunted Mansion; geysers like Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and buttes of the American Southwest on the Thunder Mountain Frontierland edge; and the focal point Piston Peak will be similar to the granite peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park. Each of these provide guests an opportunity to learn about geological processes and history with puns aplenty.

But I think the most meaningful piece of Piston Peak’s theming to me is how much it emphasizes the importance of national parks themselves and preserving natural beauty in a time when our national parks are under threat from our federal government.

It just makes me feel like these Imagineers are one of us, like they also care about the wonders of nature and protecting our planet.

Reimagining Tomorrowland at Disneyland

And I really hope that same love of nature and science will extend into the reimagined Tomorrowland at Disneyland.

We don’t have a lot of information on what this redo will look like besides including more open spaces and harkening back to Walt Disney’s optimism and outlook about the future.

Early Tomorrowland was full of attractions focused on scientific discoveries and phenomena, from chemistry and aluminum to space travel before the moon landing. It would be so cool to bring this back in some form, although preferably with fewer corporate sponsorships (except maybe NASA).

While I don’t think Imagineers will necessarily revive Innoventions, Tom Morrow, or showcasing the latest technologies, I think they could lean into the solar punk aesthetic and ecofuturism to envision a sustainable, eco-friendly future and technology’s role in renewable energy, healthy aging, and space exploration.

Building Tomorrowland attractions around WALL-E, Meet the Robinsons, or actual scientists and their influence throughout decades of science fiction would be ripe for this kind of storytelling.

Now I want to know what you think - are you also optimistic about the future of edutainment in the Disney Parks? Are there ways you hope they’ll reimagine the Figment ride with Dreamfinder to incorporate more science?

Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you real soon!