A Disney Imagineer is sharing behind-the-scenes secrets about Animal Kingdom on Instagram

• Joe Rohde is a Disney Imagineer and the creative force behind Disney World's Animal Kingdom.
• Rohde is using his Instagram account to share details throughout the park that most people would never notice, including murals and other paintings.
• Many of the park's thematic elements tell a story, from the 325 animal carvings embedded into the Tree of Life to the fossils at DinoLand U.S.A.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

This April marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the 25th anniversary of the Disney Conservation Fund. Disney World was planning on celebrating in a mammoth way, by inviting Animal Kingdom fans to dine with and learn from Disney Imagineer, Joe Rohde.

Rohde was set to host the intimate event, called Tiffins Talks, but, with the parks currently closed, he has taken to Instagram to give a behind-the-scenes look at how he and the rest of the creative team brought Animal Kingdom to life.

"It doesn't look like we are meeting up at Disney's Animal Kingdom real soon, so how about a tour of my personal photos of the park," Rohde wrote in the caption of an Instagram post from March. "If you haven't been to the park, or ever heard of it [...] perhaps this will help people understand what it is. Maybe even convince some skeptics to try it out. If you have been there, it might just be more inside knowledge."

Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde has been sharing his photos of the park almost daily on his Instagram account, giving fans an inside look at how the park was designed and built

Many of the details Rohde features blend into the park's landscape so seamlessly that you might never have noticed them otherwise.

First, Rohde took readers straight to the heart of the park with these photos of the Tree of Life.

Well. It doesn’t look like we are meeting up at Disney’s Animal Kingdom real soon, so how about a tour of my personal photos of the park. If you haven’t been to the park, or ever heard of it (which is definitely a thing on the West Coast) perhaps this will help people understand what it is. Maybe even convince some skeptics to try it out. If you have been there, it might just be more inside knowledge. So. In the middle of the park is the centerpiece and icon. The Tree of Life. Named for the old fashioned 19th century diagram of interconnected spread of life. Because the park is dedicated to the themes of animals and their relationships to humans,(good and bad) we needed a non-architectural icon...something “natural.” Since nature is everywhere anyway, we also need to signify that this place is exceptional..in some way “magical.” Thus..a strange tree. A tree whose body disappears under patient observation to become nothing but animals. A metaphor for the rewards nature can provide to the careful observer. But since we all know it has been made..it is a work of arty...it also signifies the intent to communicate..to tell a story. In fact, the Tree promises two things. 1. This place is a story place about animals. 2.This place is a designed place full of virtuoso accomplishments. (See Aristotle’s essay on Mimesis.)

A post shared by Joe Rohde (@joerohde) on Mar 23, 2020 at 7:23am PDTMar 23, 2020 at 7:23am PDT

Standing 145 feet tall and with exactly 325 animal carvings covering its massive trunk and branches, the Tree of Life captures the nature of the park, which is, according to Rohde, "the themes of animals and their relationships to humans (good and bad)."

If you walk into Animal Kingdom and never look closely at the tree, you may never notice those meticulous carvings, which, according to a press release on Walt Disney World News, took 13 people and 18 months to create. But those who slow down and take in the natural wonders around them, receive the "rewards nature can provide the careful observer."

As you venture past the Tree of Life and further into the Africa section of Animal Kingdom, you'll encounter Harambe Village

There, you'll find the Kilimanjaro Safaris, Harambe Market, and the Harambe Theatre.

I suppose we should start out land tour with Harambe, Port of East Africa. None of our lands are supposed to be geopolitically real like say, Kenya. Harambe looks a lot like Lamu in Kenya, but not in a replicative way, and there are substantial stylistic departures. It’s more like a smash-up of Lamu-Kenya and Arusha-Tanzania. Both are a kind of mercantile border town, as is Harambe. The word Harambe means “let’s work together or pull together.” Implicitly on behalf of wildlife. What can we read in this environment? Clearly multiple levels of history and conquest, as with Lamu. There’s a Portuguese fort, some remnants of Omani reign, a British Colonial era, and Independence in 1961. Must be a valuable place. The building are old and weathered, but not intended to look neglected, and there’s lots of evidence of reutilization and upcycling...from economic stress? So people are striving here. I mean, the municipal logo is a Maasai shield and an industrial gear with the word”enterprise.” We are going on Safari. We are not going into the wilds of Africa (colonialist concept btw) but into Harambe Wildlife Reserve, a presumptive government entity. We are clients of a commercial entity Kilimanjaro Safaris...I mean, the attraction marquee is just a billboard at the edge of town. Now, here’s why that’s all relevant. In such a palpably commercial place, where people are clearly striving to get ahead, what is the value of elephants vs elephant ivory and rhinos vs rhino horn? This is what wildlife conservation is… A value equation. And the value at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is The intrinsic Value of Nature as supreme and untradeable. However subtle and nuanced, that is conflict, which drives narrative.

A post shared by Joe Rohde (@joerohde) on Mar 28, 2020 at 7:51am PDTMar 28, 2020 at 7:51am PDT

The Imagineering team behind the park traveled to various parts of Africa to gather research for the park's design.

Rohde reveals here that Harambe is a "smash-up" of Lamu, Kenya and Arusha, Tanzania, both of which are mercantile border towns, similar to the fictional Harambe. In fact, the word Harambe means "let's work together or pull together," according to Rohde.

As Rohde wrote in the caption, in Harambe Village you can read "multiple levels of history and conquest" into the environment. "There's a Portuguese fort, some remnants of Omani reign, a British Colonial era, and Independence in 1961," he wrote.

With more than 34 species living in 110 acres of natural habitat, Kilimanjaro Safaris is a must-do for animal lovers

Let us depart on Safari. Hard to avoid...The Safari alone is bigger than the guest circulation area of the park. This may be obvious, but Kilimanjaro Safaris is laid out just like any theme park ride, just on a bigger scale. The ride path curves back and forth not unlike the ride path of Pirates of the Caribbean, and the land rises and falls gently but enough to block the view of how many vehicles are really out there. So there are scenes, just like in a ride. There are real Safaris you can take where it’s just you and your private driver. But the middle class version of Safari in Africa can involve pretty big crowds...and unlike a theme park...nobody manages throughput. There could be upwards of fifty cars surrounding a cheetah and her cubs. So, after our first trip we knew we could beat that kind of crowding just by having a dispatch interval. The vehicles we use are reminiscent of South African vehicles serving the lodges at Krueger National Park. A real Safari is so much more than we can offer, in time and scale. This, like the rest, is a fictional representation. But it’s a pretty good visual approximation.

A post shared by Joe Rohde (@joerohde) on Mar 29, 2020 at 6:09pm PDTMar 29, 2020 at 6:09pm PDT

You might not think of this rugged safari as a ride like the other coasters or dark rides at Disney, but Rohde acknowledges that it is "just like any theme park ride, just on a bigger scale. The ride path curves back and forth [...] and the land rises and falls gently but enough to block the view of how many vehicles are really out there."

Even the ride vehicles and the roads were designed with a purpose. As Rohde notes, the vehicles are reminiscent of the ones used on a real safari in Kruger National Park in northeastern South Africa. And, according to Walt Disney World News, the bumpy roads were intentionally made that way by having the design team roll tires through the concrete, while throwing stones and twigs into it.

If you travel to the Asia section of the park, you'll come across the wet and wild Kali River Rapids

Here’s another Asia detail that I imagine most people don’t notice. In the queue for the Kali River Rapids attraction are murals on the ceiling depicting traditional Buddhist parables in which animals act out moral precepts. These are called the Jataka Tales. The ceiling of this building, indeed the entire building is loosely based on a building on the island of Bali called the Kerta Gosa. It too has a lavish painted ceiling with a very similar carved ornament at the very peak. All the murals that you see in the building are original. They were painted by an old Balinese master painter. When we started the work, I brought him a full set of western watercolor brushes as a gift. He chose to paint all those murals with his traditional tools...Split pieces of bamboo which he cut with a knife and smashed to create a brush.

A post shared by Joe Rohde (@joerohde) on Apr 2, 2020 at 5:36pm PDTApr 2, 2020 at 5:36pm PDT

A fast-paced ride set among a lush, green jungle, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement and miss the smaller details that went into creating this ride, but if you take a moment to look up next time you're inside the queue building, you may notice something new.

As Rohde notes on Instagram, the entire ceiling is covered in murals "depicting traditional Buddhist parables in which animals act our moral precepts," called Jataka Tales. These murals were actually painted by a Balinese master painter, Rohde notes, adding that he bought the painter watercolor brushes as a gift, but he chose to paint with his traditional tools, which were "split pieces of bamboo which he cut with a knife and smashed to create a brush."

Also in the Asia portion of the Animal Kingdom, you'll find the walkthrough attraction, Maharajah Jungle Trek

I’ve posted some of these details before, but I really like them, so I’ll post them again here. There are three distinct mural sequences in the Maharajah Jungle Trek. There are the tiger murals, which if you look closely reveal antique scenes of tiger hunts, making it clear that they’re used to be way more tigers. By the way, some of these shots are from inside the tiger area...when the tigers were not there. The second group in this sequence are the carved stone murals (real stone carved in Bali) representing a little moral tale in which man comes into the forest, cuts down the forest, and disaster follows. In the final frame the animals and the man have reconciled and nature begins to bloom again. The last set of murals are meant to depict the four great kings of Anandapur. The first king with bow and arrow is the hunter who built the hunting lodge. The second king is clearly an effete flower-sniffing luxury-loving type. And if you know your costume history, you can infer from the next image that he loses the kingdom to newcomers, Mughals from what is today Pakistan. The new Mughal ruler restores the ancient temple of the ancestors but gives it a new out skin...the Red Temple. If you look inside the Red Temple you may notice that the architectural style of the interior is much older with no Central Asian influences. The sarcophagus in the center is older still, Neolithic. Akbar the great was famously syncretistic ruler in India… tolerated a lot of religious diversity...We must suppose that this gentleman was of a similar mind. And the last image in the mural sequence depicts an aged ruler who has retired from political life to return to the forest to meditate among the animals. As with many of these details you don’t need to notice them...they exist impart simply to make the place seem more real. But if you were to look, they’re not just decoration. They are content.

A post shared by Joe Rohde (@joerohde) on Apr 4, 2020 at 8:49pm PDTApr 4, 2020 at 8:49pm PDT

Here, you'll spy tigers, gibbons, komodo dragons, and more than 50 species of birds — plus, a set of three murals which tell an important story about the majestic tigers in the exhibit.

If you look closely at the first set of murals, Rohde writes, they "reveal antique scenes of tiger hunts, making it clear that they're used to be way more tigers." The second group, which Rohde points out are made from stone carved in Bali, represent a "moral tale in which man comes into the forest, cuts down the forest, and disaster follows." And the third set "depict the four great kings of Anandapur," the fourth of which is shown as "an aged ruler who has retired from political life to return to the forest to meditate among the animals," Rohde writes.

"As with many of these details you don't need to notice them," Rohde writes, adding that "they exist impart simply to make the place seem more real. But if you were to look, they're not just decoration. They are content."

Expedition Everest is the tallest coaster at Disney and, according to Rohde, the first coaster built to travel backwards onto a different set of tracks

It’s difficult to tell much of a story on a ride. It must be very simple and nonverbal, completely comprehensible as pure experience. That puts a burden on the queue experience to set the scene. Plus we also want to frame the story in our broader set of conservation stories. That requires realism. Conservation is real. The point of our story is a legend that turns real. When the yeti turns out to be real, it needs a real world to be real in. Where’s the real? Well, we assert that there is a real business here, a trekking business. Commerce. We are clients. “welcome Expedition Everest!” The careful observer will see that proprietor Bob is Australian and Norbu is a local. Sociology. Also, Bob runs marketing in the front (left)office… And Norbu actually runs the treks. Sociology. It is clear that they are blissfully ignoring any warnings about a yeti. Commerce. One of my favorite moments in the whole park is Tashi’s Trek and Tongba shop, with its polished metal plates and potbelly stove. Culture. How many people notice that Tashi sleeps here? Economics. He is surrounded by fantastically expensive mountaineering equipment, which he doesn’t own, only sells. Economics. The queue gives you a close-up look at one of the best statues of the yeti, now behind the screen in the mandir. Culture. The compression of this very commercial enterprise with the shrines is a bit artificial but it helps make a point of the contrast and conflict between the three agendas. Conservation, Culture, and Commerce. Most of the messaging in the first part of the queue is implicit. So right before you board we have the yeti museum, Also set up by a local scientist, which restates everything with labels and written text, so that in case you missed any points they are all restated again, with the added emphasis on the possibility of a yeti. Since the legend of the yeti effectively protects these restricted areas, it is a useful Conservation tool. The Q must say these things in order for the ride to work. There is a yeti, he protects the mountain, it’s a haven of biological richness, some people think you shouldn’t go there, you are going. It’s a set up. Act 1.

A post shared by Joe Rohde (@joerohde) on Apr 9, 2020 at 7:17am PDTApr 9, 2020 at 7:17am PDT

It's also arguably one of the best storytelling coasters anywhere.

Rohde acknowledges that it can be "difficult to tell much of a story on a ride. It must be simple and nonverbal, completely comprehensible as a pure experience." Because most rides are over so quickly, "that puts a burden on the queue experience to set the scene," he writes.

If you've ridden Expedition Everest, you'll know that the story is that of a dangerous snow monster living inside the mountain, but if you pay close attention as you walk through the queue, you'll realize there were warnings about this mythical monster all along — and that he may not be as dangerous as he seems.

As Rohde points out in his Instagram caption, "the legend of the yeti effectively protects" the mountain, so the story can actually be seen as a lesson in conservation.

Many of the fossils you can find in DinoLand U.S.A. are from paleontological sites in North America

It's easy to assume that anything you find in a theme park is fake or manufactured, but Rohde says here that "if you see something that looks like a fossil of a prehistoric creature, it is either a real fossil of a prehistoric creature or a replica of a real fossil."

We could go on forever with Asia, but we’re moving to Dinoland, USA. A lot of our Disney’s Animal Kingdom research took us to far away foreign countries… But it also took us to some of the great paleontological sites in North America. Paleontologists like Phil Currie and Bob Bakker were kind enough to instruct us. We are very liberal about the dinosaurs that you encounter in this land, both in geography and chronology, though they are Cretaceous era creatures. Plus much of North America was ocean. In order to get the dinosaurs we wanted we have to imagine a chain of volcanic islands linking prehistoric North and South America sometime in the Cretaceous period. The Cretaceous era is about 80 million years long. Species often last only a few hundred thousand years...so a million or so. So there’s some leeway. However, if you see something that looks like a fossil of a Prehistoric creature, it is either a real fossil of a prehistoric creature or a replica of a real fossil. (The Carnotaurus in the queue line for the ride is a composite. The real Carnotaurus is smaller.) The interesting thing about dinosaurs is that they are created by our imagination as a result of research and speculation. The soft tissue and bone of dinosaurs is replaced by mineral in the process of fossilization… Making them officially “rocks.” We turn them back into dinosaurs by thinking about them. Because of this, there is always debate about their true nature. That debate is embedded in the land in the context of many of the graphics. Now, we haven’t updated those graphics since 1998, but the spirit is still there. Dinoland has a lot of humor and because of that I think we can relax some of the seriousness of some of the other themes and get away with some hijinx. Including the recent population of famous ducks who inhabit the land. Because after all, birds are dinosaurs, ducks are birds, therefore ducks are dinosaurs.

A post shared by Joe Rohde (@joerohde) on Apr 12, 2020 at 9:36pm PDTApr 12, 2020 at 9:36pm PDT

While Rohde notes that he and his team were instructed by paleontologists, he admits that "Dinoland has a lot of humor."

He adds that "because of that I think we can relax some of the seriousness of some of the other themes and get away with some hijinx. Including the recent population of famous ducks who inhabit the land. Because after all, birds are dinosaurs, ducks are birds, therefore ducks are dinosaurs."

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