Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom Imagineers Attend ‘Maya at the Mouse’ with Joe Rohde

Walt Disney World recently hosted the AFAR “Maya at the Mouse” conference at Coronado Springs Resort, which featured presentations by academics, archaeologists, researchers, and Disney Legend(ary) Imagineer Joe Rohde. In attendance was the Imagineering project team working on Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom.

On its official website, AFAR described the “Maya at the Mouse Meetings” as bringing together Maya archaeologists along with noted museologists, film makers and theme park designers to explore the ways the Maya past is presented to people. Archaeologists recreate the past, presenting narratives for learning about the Maya by re-creating their ancient landscapes, understanding their artifacts and interpreting their art and iconography. The creators of museum exhibitions, film and theme parks try to expand the discussion of these narratives by reaching out to wider audiences.

Through presentations, panels and workshops during “Maya at the Mouse,” these different creatives share how they use storytelling and design and how we might better work together to learn and excite about this magnificent culture. “Maya at the Mouse” indicated that it was aimed at those interested in Maya archaeology, set design, story telling, the use of objects to construct narrative. Basically…it was a conference aimed squarely at Imagineers working on the project and, I guess, museum directors? It really seems like AFAR created a conference at Walt Disney World, for Disney. I’m not complaining!

During the conference, Disney Legend(ary) Imagineer Joe Rohde presented a panel titled “The Stickiness of Portrayals and the Obligation of Creative License.” According to the program schedule, this presentation covered the concept of extrapolation from primary resource clues, importance of cohesion in narrative art, how the level of finish on one object can imply the level of finish on others in a related suite, and a framework for understanding how aesthetic logic and stylistic imperatives can be used to reconstruct ancient cultures from the limited evidence provided by primary resources–among many other things.

In concluding, the schedule suggested that carefully considering these factors allows us to develop a more nuanced and accurate picture of the past. Knowing his audience, Rohde did a good job of describing his presentation on Instagram for theme park fans, as opposed to academics, breaking this down with an illustrative example. (The full text is worth reading.)

Rohde summarized his keynote as being about “the value of cross-disciplinary collaboration between artists and researchers… and the dangers that come from putting something out before the public eye that is inaccurate, yet popular.”

Another Imagineer who presented during “Maya at the Mouse” was Executive Creator Director Joan Hartwig, who is the Project Lead on Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom. Her career has spanned 34 years at Disney, beginning as a scenic artist in film and television production before transitioning to theme park & resort design and production. Hartwig has connections to numerous other Animal Kingdom projects, including Harambe and Avatar Flight of Passage.

Hartwig presented “Storytelling in the Built World of the Maya,” which followed the process of building an ancient Maya temple in the 21st century for Indiana Jones Adventure at Animal Kingdom. She peeled back the curtain on the fundamental design considerations that contribute to placemaking, so that guests are transformed as heroes on a mythic adventure. She explained how the fictional Maya temple complex in Tropical Americas reinforces the central theme of the narrative and drives all design choices.

Working with leading Maya scholars, every design discipline creates details to support a story that respects the world of the Maya. The dense and exquisite shapes, surfaces,  and symbols are integrated to invent an experience that feels authentic, but is a crafted composition. Hartwig explored the intersection of specific, real architecture and iconography in the Maya region, academia, and popular culture as they influence the story of the temple that’ll house Indiana Jones Adventure.

On Instagram, Rohde wrote that Hartwig offered an “exceptionally intelligent explanation” of the Tropical Americas’ ancient Maya temple’s intended symbols that was “met with thunderous applause.”

There’s been widespread speculation (fueled by cryptic clues from Disney) that the mythical creature featured in Indiana Jones Adventure will be Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl (the former being its Mayan name, the latter its Aztec). Someone with greater cultural/mythical creature knowledge can share insight into the distinctions between the two beasts, but both appear to be feathered serpent gods.

In any case, this presentation further reinforced this notion, as it highlighted feathers and serpents being among the temple’s symbols (along with various natural elements suggestive of the same). This version of Indiana Jones Adventure featuring Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl would be a fun riff on Indy’s fear of snakes, and in keeping with the culture meets creatures intersection of Animal Kingdom. It would also be a logical way of incorporating mythological creatures into Animal Kingdom, fulfilling one of the park’s original intentions.

Here’s the full program schedule, but again, Rohde broke it down into more digestible layman terms and it really sounds like most of the presentations were right in the wheelhouse of Imagineers working on the Tropical Americas project team. One can’t help but wonder whether Rohde called up a bunch of his buddies in archeology, academia, etc., and had them put on this conference for that specific audience.

He suggested as much by indicating that the conference was set up by a “remarkably industrious” friend of Rohde’s, archaeologist Mat Saunders, and an “equally industrious group” of his friends and colleagues, some of whom are consultants to the upcoming Tropical Americas project.

This is fantastic news. Animal Kingdom’s development continuing to be guided in this manner is reassuring to hear, and further reinforces to me that we dodged a bullet when Bruce Vaughn returned and the Zootopia Land plans were ditched.

As you might recall, Joe Rohde “returned” to Imagineering last March. It was not quite the triumphant homecoming for which many fans hoped, with Rohde taking the reigns as project lead on Tropical Americas.

Instead, Walt Disney Imagineering described his contribution as follows: “Imagineers have an opportunity to participate in a series of master class work sessions led by Joe Rohde. Following in the footsteps of many former Imagineers, Joe continues to mentor and share his years of storytelling knowledge with current Imagineers, contributing to the future of creativity at Walt Disney Imagineering.”

In the past year, Rohde has been spotted in and around the parks on several occasions, seemingly leading tours of Imagineers. Likewise, he’s once again been more involved with the theme park realm, doing presentations and appearing on podcasts. We even had a fortuitous encounter with Joe Rohde at last year’s D23 Expo at the Tropical Americas model, and had a chance to chat briefly about the project.

Ultimately, we’re sharing details of the “Maya at the Mouse Meetings” for a few reasons. First, it once again reinforces that Imagineering is treating Animal Kingdom with reverence, attempting to thread the needle on cultural authenticity and thematic integrity at the last bastion of it at Walt Disney World. Second, it underscores both Rohde’s ongoing influence on Animal Kingdom and his efforts to ensure the above.

Finally, it demonstrates that the Tropical Americas project team “gets it” and understands the importance of the task at hand. When it was first rumored that Joe Rohde was returning, like everyone else, I was hoping that he’d take on a creative role with Imagineering and lead this project. I was disappointed when it turned out that he was only going to be a consultant and mentor.

In the year since, I’ve learned and heard a bit more, and while I’m still convinced Rohde has more projects in him, I also realize this is exactly what Imagineering needs at the moment–and was deprived of with the abrupt “retirement” of so many longtime Imagineerings during the Chapek regime. If master class work sessions, field tours, and conferences like this function as a means of sharing institutional knowledge and expertise, they’re at least a partial win.

Judging by what Rohde shared from “Maya at the Mouse,” the creative and art direction for Tropical Americas should make it a fitting addition to Animal Kingdom. I wouldn’t say Tropical Americas is the project from the 5-Year Plan for Walt Disney World that I’m most excited about (it isn’t), but it’s the one in which I have the most confidence.

Villains Land has the most upside and Cars land had better be good given the sacrifice made for it, but I’m highly skeptical about both. By contrast, every new detail I hear or see about Tropical Americas makes me more optimistic about the land, and that includes this “Maya at the Mouse” conference. It also doesn’t hurt that almost nothing of value is being lost in the process.

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Your Thoughts

Do things like this “Maya at the Mouse” conference make you more optimistic that Indiana Jones Adventure and Encanto will be added to Animal Kingdom in a way that respects thematic integrity? Do you wish Disney Legend(ary) Imagineer Joe Rohde were doing more than just consulting on this project? What do you think of the Tropical Americas expansion for Animal Kingdom? Excited or underwhelmed by the plan? Or, are you in wait and see mode with this? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!