Between Book - The Imagineering Field Guide to Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World

The Imagineering Field Guide to Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World continues the visual tour of the Walt Disney World parks by the Imagineers.  Alex Wright the author of The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World also writes this guide.  Wright reintroduces, or introduces if your first read in the series, the concepts and tools of Imagineering.  From the Oasis to the Theater in the Wild, Wright walks his readers through the park.  He provides details to his readers about why and how the Imagineers crafted the stories of Disney’s Animal Kingdom.  The highlight of the text is pictures, pictures, pictures with visuals ranging from the attraction photos and concept art.  Like others in the series, the book is setup like a guide book, being small and compact and something one can throw into a backpack or small bag on a trip to the Animal Kingdom. 

This was the second Imagineering Guide that I read.  To be honest it was a really odd choice for me as Disney’s Animal Kingdom is the park that I have spent the least amount of time in when visiting Florida.  Like The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World the images throughout this book are top notch.  And the Guide helped me to see behind the heat in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which I have convinced myself is 27 degrees hotter than any other Walt Disney World park on a given day, and to see the masterpiece the Imagineers have created.  If one slows down, opens their eye, looks, listens and smells a guest really is transported out of Florida and to Africa or Asia.  The amount of theming in this park is incredible and simply cannot be ignored, despite all of our sarcastic jokes.  We may complain about DinoLand U.S.A, but if one understands the story of this area we can clearly see the Imagineers vision of this area and the jokes behind it.  In the end, this park is a work of art, and it took the images and details found in this book for me to truly understand what it is.  It makes me want to toss this guide in my backpack and walk a little slower when I next visit this park.   

For more from the Imagineering Guide series see “Between Books – The Imagineering Field Guide to Disneyland” and “Between Books – The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.”

Between Books - The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World

The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World: Over 600 Secrets of the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the Animal Kingdom by Susan Veness provides context, history and interesting facts to the parks of the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando Florida. The book serves as a tour of the parks, leading readers systemically through the lands of the four parks. Along with attraction and entertainment information, Veness provides readers with an easy to understand historical timeline for each park. Some text is bolded in the book to provide easy reference when casually scanning or using the text as a guidebook. Along with attraction descriptions there are also additional call outs called “Fascinating Fact” which calls attention to specific behind the scenes or interesting details and “Imagine That” which discusses in more depth the philosophy of Walt Disney Imagineering when developing projects.

This book provides an all in one overview of the Florida parks. So instead of needing multiple books on Walt Disney World, like with the Imagineering guides, one can sit down with one text and get a behind the scenes look at the entire resort. The text is easy to read, and a read most will probably find enjoyable. The Imagineering guides, do serve as a point of comparison with the most striking the difference between the two being images. The Imagineering guides are full of images and concept art. The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World is image free. Like the Imagineering Guide to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, my viewpoint of this book has also changed from a guide to more of a historical testament of what was with the removal of Mickey’s Toontown Fair and the growth of Fantasyland. It really is amazing how quickly a book representing itself as a guide can move from timely to historical with the rate of change within the Disney parks! Veness notes she wants to help her readers see the details of the parks and attractions. In that goal she succeeds as she helps those of us often moving too fast to see what is in front of us to look behind our first glance to the remarkable details Imagineers have built into the parks. The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World is a nice all in one view of the parks of the Walt Disney World resort and a good starting point for growing a Disney obsession living Between Disney.


For more from the Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World series see Between Books - The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World Planner: A Complete Organizer, Journal and Keepsake for Your Unforgettable Vacation  and Between Books - The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney Trivia.