We believe Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a great fit for this project because it was created to give guests the opportunity to experience the worlds of animals and nature – real and mythical – in new ways. Disney’s Animal Kingdom also celebrates adventure, living in harmony with nature and environmental stewardship – themes that are deeply rooted in the story of AVATAR.

Construction is slated to begin in 2013, with opening by 2016.

UPDATE:

RE: Whether or not the world of Avatar belongs in Animal Kingdom, I present you this:

Welcome to a kingdom of animals… real, ancient and imagined: a kingdom ruled by lions, dinosaurs and dragons; a kingdom of balance, harmony and survival; a kingdom we enter to share in the wonder, gaze at the beauty, thrill at the drama, and learn. — Michael Eisner, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Dedication, April 1998

The trains on the EPCOT line will get the TRON overlay as early as later this month (The film premieres on December 17, 2010).

1) Transportation Woes

(July 17) Two WDW Buses collide. The driver of one bus failed to stop on time and ran into the other.

(July 6) Monorail Pink crashes into Monorail Purple. At 2 am, Monorail Pink was moving into the TTC when it ran into the Purple Monorail, which was stationary. The driver of the purple monorail was killed. After the crash, Disney made several changes to improve monorail safety and combined the two wrecked monorails into one: Monorail Teal.

(September 18) Bus system crippled by a bomb scare. After further inspection, it was revealed that the device was a tracking device that had been placed on the bus a number of years ago.

(September 30) Monorail system halted by smoke. After an electrical board short circuited at a platform in the Magic Kingdom Monorail Station, passengers were escorted off the train before the train was taken back to the Monorail Barn.

2) Company Expansion

(February 9) Disney acquired Dreamworks SKG. Under the deal with Steven Spielberg’s wing of Dreamworks, 6 films per year will be produced under the Touchstone films label.

(March 11) Disney Cruise Lines expanded its hold on the deep blue sea. Two new ships, the Disney Dream (which will host the water-coaster “Aquaduck”) and the Disney Fantasy, will be anchored in Port Canaveral from 2012 to 2014.

(May 14) Disney/PIXAR expanded into Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The new studio will focus on short films and non-feature products that feature previously established characters (a.k.a. legacy characters).

3) Memorable Deaths

(May 20) The 3rd voice of Mickey Mouse died. Wayne Allwine passes away at age 62.

(December 16) Walt Disney’s nephew, and savior of the Disney kingdom, died. Roy E. Disney passes away at age 79.

4) The Great Movie Update

(September 11) Disney wants to dare you and take you on a submarine ride. Guillermo del Toro and Richard Cook announce a new film label, Disney’s Double Dare You, that will be animated family films with a bit of horror mixed in. Robert Zemeckis will helm the 3D Performance Capture version of the Beatle’s classic Yellow Submarine.

(October 7) Disney trades in its management. In a strange twist of events, Richard Cook suddenly resigned from the Walt Disney Studios only to have Richard Ross (former President of the Disney Channel) promoted to the position (he’s already axed a number of projects that Cook had on the stove and has another few in limbo).

(December 18) Captain EO returns posthumously. Disney announced that the Captain EO film will be returning to Disneyland in the Magic Eye Theater.

5) Disney Parks & Resorts Expand

(August 4) The Contemporary Resort gets a sibling. After many months of rumors, Disney finally announced and opened Bay Lake Tower next to the Contemporary.

(September 16) The Swiss Family Robinson would be proud. After many years of being left alone, it was finally announced that the Treehouses near Saratoga Springs would be refurbished and turned into DVC Villas.

(September 12) The Fantasyland Expansion. Walt Disney World’s Fantasyland will be receiving a makeover much like Disneyland’s DCA is in the midst of a makeover. Both involve the placing of The Little Mermaid Ride, but WDW’s expansion will give each princess her own area. All classic rides will remain (save Dumbo which will increase its ride capacity). Both projects are set to be finished by 2012.

6) New Investments

(February 16) Disney tries to reel in young male viewers. In an interesting move, Disney replaced Toon Disney with Disney XD, a channel devoted to boys with shows like Aaron Stone and Zeke and Luther.

(April 2) Disney joins Youtube. They use the site to release trailers and other short-form features.

(April 16) Disney helps the blind see. With an innovative new device, people who are deaf can see captioned text of audio being spoken in rides and people who are blind can hear descriptions of rides.

(April 30) Disney buys into Hulu. With a 27% investment, Disney officially became a partner in the online video-streaming site. After the buy in, only CBS remains the main network to abstain from Hulu (NBC and Fox were two of the first partners).

(December 31) Disney powers up with Marvel. In the 4.3 billion dollar purchase, Disney has bought the rights to over 5000 characters (many of the more well known names are tangled up in contracts with Sony or Universal)

7) Strangest Story:

(May 28) Woman “abducted” to Walt Disney World. A Pennsylvania mother faked a call to 911 saying that she and her daughter were thrown in a car trunk when, in the real world, she dropped her daughter off with her mother and continued down to Orlando, where she checked into the Grand Floridian.

Roy Edward Disney was born to Roy Oliver Disney and Edna Francis Disney in Los Angeles on January 10, 1930 (and is their sole child). As a child, he traveled to the Studio where he viewed the films the animators were working on (i.e. “Snow White”, “Pinocchio”) and acted as a sounging board to his father’s (and his uncle’s) workers. He graduated in 1951 from Pomona College with a Bachelor’s degree in English. Once out of college, he returned to the entertainment industry as an assistant film director on “Dragnet” before returning to the Walt Disney Studios in 1954.

Once back at the Studios, he worked on “The Living Desert” and “The Vanishing Prarie” (two True-Life Adventure films that won Academy Awards) as an assistant editor. He continued writing and working on television series like “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” as well as “Zorro”.

He formed his own production unit in 1964 to write, produce, and direct other television and theatrical productions (i.e. “Varda, the Peregrine Falcon”, “Mustang!”, “The Owl That Didn’t Give a Hoot”) before joining the Company’s Board of Directors in 1967.

He left the company in 1977 (after 23 years with the Studios) to become an independent producer/investor because he didn’t agree with the direction of the company. However, he still retained his seat on the board of directors.

In 1984, Roy used his swagger on the Board to oust his cousin’s husband (Ron Miller) and brought in Michael Eisner as CEO and Frank Wells as COO. In this same year, he became the Vice Chairman and head of the animation department (where he oversaw “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Lion King”, and most of the Golden Age films). His favorite movie ever to oversee was Fantasia 2000-the long awaited sequel to his uncle’s Fantasia.

While Disney was head of animation, his department was extremely successful. He also had enormous power over most of his colleagues (even Eisner) which allowed his department to have some artistic freedom.
Towards the end of Eisner’s reign, Disney’s influence started to wane as Eisner appointed high posts to “Suits” that were more loyal to him, not the Disney family. On November 30, 2003, Disney resigned from the company (after the board of directors rejected his request for an extenstion of his term as a board member) based on differences of opinion about the management style and direction within the company.
After his resignation, Disney continued to actively work on forcing out Eisner as CEO (he and Stanley Gold created SaveDisney.com). In 2004, 43% of Disney shareholders voted to oppose the re-election of Eisner to the corporate board of directors, but he retained the CEO title (much to Disney and Gold’s dismay). As criticism against him increased (especially for being dissatisfied with PIXAR), Eisner annouced his resignation from the company on September 30, 2005. To this day, Eisner still holds 1.7% of Disney stock (2nd largest owner) while Roy Disney holds 1% (the 3rd largest owner).

Roy Disney and Stanley Gold have become the Chair and CEO (respectively) of Shamrock Holdings which manages Disney’s personal investments. Disney is also a well known sailor (he set the monohull time record from Los Angeles to Honolulu with 7 days, 11 hours, 41 minutes, 27 seconds) and produced the film “Morning Light”.

Roy E. Disney was named a Disney Legend in 1998 and lost his battle with cancer on Dec. 16, 2009.

{Author’s Note: Upon the news that Roy E. Disney had passed away, I found it only appropriate to learn more about his life. We’ll resume our look at some comic strip artists next week}

A more detailed biography of Roy E. Disney can be found here.