ANIMAL KINGDOM 1998 | Violent ELEPHANT POACHER Storyline with GUNS at Kilimanjaro Safaris

#animalkingdom #animalkingdomlodge #flightofpassage
.
Alright, let's dive into the wacky and wild world of Kilimanjaro Safaris over at Disney's Animal Kingdom, shall we? Picture it: the year is 1998, the Spice Girls are all the rage, and bam! Disney hits us with this brand spanking new attraction on the very day Animal Kingdom decides to fling open its doors to the masses.

Now, imagine you're hopping onto one of those humongous open-air trucks that can pack in a whopping 32 adventure-seekers. You're all giddy because you know you're about to embark on a journey through a sprawling savanna teeming with all sorts of majestic creatures, spread across a mind-boggling 100 acres. It's like stepping into your own real-life nature documentary, minus David Attenborough whispering in your ear, unfortunately.

But here's where it gets juicy - Kilimanjaro Safaris, as we cherish it today, almost took a wildly different path. Picture this: Disney, in their infinite wisdom, initially decided to sprinkle a bit of drama into the safari with a storyline that's more twisty than a pretzel. And not just any twist, but a dark, dark, twisty kind of twist.

In the beginning, Disney's Imagineers, bless their hearts, wanted to tackle the grim tale of animal poaching head-on within the cheerful realms of the ride. You see, poaching is a real menace that's been wreaking havoc on Africa's wildlife, particularly hitting the elephant population hard. Elephants are being hunted for their tusks, leaving them in a tough spot, to say the least. So, the Imagineers dreamt up a subplot featuring Big Red, a majestic mother elephant, and her adorable calf, Baby Red, entangled in a poaching nightmare.

In the original plot, guests aboard "Simba-1" (because every epic safari truck needs a cool callsign) would find themselves thrown into an action-packed mission. The goal? To thwart a band of nasty elephant poachers who had nabbed Big Red and Baby Red. The chase was on, and it all culminated in a heart-wrenching scene where guests were confronted with the sight of Big Red, lifeless and tusks removed. A stark and bloody reminder that they were too late to the rescue.

Miraculously, Baby Red was left unscathed, but let's just say the visual did not sit well with guests during the preview runs. It was a tad too intense for what was supposed to be a light-hearted adventure through the wild. So, Disney quickly nixed the grim part of the storyline, and Big Red's fate was rewritten before the general public ever set foot in Animal Kingdom.

So, there you have it – a tale of how Kilimanjaro Safaris was almost a safari with a very different kind of wild side. Sometimes, the road not taken is a doozy, but hey, we still get to enjoy a fantastic journey through the animal kingdom, sans the soap opera plot twist. And that, my friends, makes for a happy safari indeed.
.
.
D for Disney YouTube Channel -    / @dfordisney  
.
.
.
.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Paradise (Instrumental) by Artegon   / artegon  
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/paradise-instrumental
Music promoted by Audio Library    • Paradise – Artegon (No Copyright Music)  
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––