First look at Encanto ride pitched for Disneyland expansion

The world’s first Encanto ride set to debut at Walt Disney World in Florida offers a glimpse of what the future could hold for the Disneyland resort over the next couple decades under a reimagined long-term vision for the Anaheim theme park resort district.

An Encanto-themed land was pitched as a possible project for a proposed theme park expansion in the DisneylandForward plan approved by the city of Anaheim.

A Casita Madrigal attraction will be part of the new Tropical Americas themed land debuting at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 2027.

ALSO SEE: First look at Frozen ride pitched for Disneyland expansion

Work on the 11-acre Tropical Americas land dubbed Pueblo Esperanza began in January.

The new Encanto attraction promises to take riders on a journey through the Casita Madrigal family home as they follow Antonio’s story on the day after he receives his magical gift.

ALSO SEE: Look inside Peter Pan’s Never Land pitched for Disneyland expansion

Antonio — who has the ability to communicate with animals — will take riders on an adventure starting in his bedroom that has been magically transformed into a rainforest. Along the way, riders will bump into members of the Madrigal family who each have their own magical gifts.

A scale model of the Casita Madrigal created by Walt Disney Imagineering for the new attraction offers nods to the home’s vibrant life-like personality — complete with fluttering shutters and a magical candle.

ALSO SEE: Look inside Tangled land pitched for Disneyland expansion

Concept art of the attraction shows riders passing by a rainforest scene filled with snakes, toucans, hummingbirds, coatimundis, capybaras, tapirs and a jaguar surrounded by members of the Madrigal family.

Disney’s 2021 “Encanto” musical comedy film tells the story of the Madrigals, a Colombian family with supernatural powers who live in a magical house in the charmed and hidden mountain town of Encanto. Mischievous 15-year-old heroine Mirabel Madrigal is the only ordinary member of her multigenerational family without a magical gift such as the ability to talk to animals, make plants grow or control the weather.

ALSO SEE: What will Disneyland build first in theme park expansion?

Encanto has popped up at Disney California Adventure as part of the Viva Navidad seasonal celebration and as the centerpiece of a projection show on the It’s a Small World facade featuring the animated film’s hit song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”

The new Encanto dark ride will be one of three attractions in the Tropical Americas themed land.

The Dinosaur attraction in the Dinoland U.S.A. themed land at Florida’s Animal Kingdom will be transformed into an Indiana Jones experience that takes riders on an adventure in search of a mythical creature deep inside a Mayan temple.

ALSO SEE: Look inside Zootopia land pitched for Disneyland expansion

The Dinosaur motion-base dark ride uses the same ride system as the Indiana Jones Adventure attraction at Disneyland.

A carousel filled with animals from Disney stories will be the third ride in the Tropical Americas themed land.

The themed land set along the equator in the Western Hemisphere — evoking Central America and the northern part of South America – will also feature a quick-service restaurant housed in a hacienda.

ALSO SEE: First look at Avatar themed land proposed for Disneyland

An Encanto-themed land was among the possible projects floated in the DisneylandForward expansion plan that updated a 1990s Anaheim city plan to allow for a mix of theme park, hotel, retail, dining and entertainment on the eastern and western edges of the Disneyland resort.

In April, Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro told the Hollywood Reporter the Encanto franchise was among the “endless stream of stories” that could be told at the Disneyland resort.

ALSO SEE: Disneyland buys $124 million parade warehouse in Anaheim

“We will have enough room to build the equivalent of another Disneyland Park. And so then you start to think about, ‘Well what can we do here?’” D’Amaro told THR. “We haven’t told anything, any stories on Wakanda. We haven’t told any stories on Frozen, although it’s a 10-year old franchise. You think about franchises like Coco and Encanto. We almost have an endless stream of stories that we can tell.”

Disneyland has already announced plans for a Coco boat ride at Disney California Adventure. The Coco attraction will take riders on a musical journey through Santa Cecilia and under the Marigold Bridge to the Land of the Dead along with Miguel, Hector and other characters from the 2017 Pixar film.

DisneylandForward dangled 10 themed lands based on Tangled, Avatar, Frozen, Peter Pan, Zootopia, Coco, Toy Story, Black Panther, Tron and Encanto as potential expansion projects in Anaheim.