As construction continued, funds for the new park began to dwindle. Eventually it was decided that Animal Kingdom would have to open in three phases. The first phase would consist of The Oasis, Safari Village, Africa, Conservation Station, and an unfinished Asia. Also included in phase one would be either Dinoland USA or Beastly Kingdom. Disney eventually decided to build Dinoland USA, possibly due to the new Dinosaur movie that they were releasing in 2000.
Phase II was planned to be the completion of Asia, along with Phase III being the construction of Beastly Kingdom. Due to the park not being completed on opening day, Camp Minnie Mickey, a place where guests could meet various Disney characters was created as a temporary land. It was essentially a place holder until the Beastly Kingdom land could be built. Besides the lands, the park would feature the Kilimanjaro Safari which would allow guests to see the animals in a natural way, as if they were on safari.
Like the other Disney Parks, Animal Kingdom also has an "icon"-The Tree of Life. The tree of life stands 145 feet tall and is made of mostly steel. Imagineers had a hard time figuring out how to make the tree look authentic, while being able to withstand hurricane winds. On top of all that, the tree would also have to house the 3D attraction It's Tough To Be A Bug! The solution they came up with was actually fairly simple. First they took the structure of an oil rig for the base. 45 secondary branches were then added to the tree followed by 756 tertiary branches and finally 891 end branches. The Tree was then covered with 102,583 man made leaves.