Interim show 'The Jungle Book: Alive with Magic' confirmed to debut ahead of Rivers of Light

[Jones14]

I saw the show tonight, and my only complaints were that it was too long and that the projections on the main screen were hard to see at times. The tree projections, dancers on the furthest out floats, and the live singers were the best parts. It's essentially the child of Famtasmic and Festival of the Lion King, and I mean that in a good way. I understand the complaining, but having seen the show live (which most who are moaning seem to have not), I think many are exaggerating the less than stellar bits. Overall, it's a good show, and it's clear that a lot of hard work went into it.

 

[Disneyson]

I'm intending to withhold judgment on the show until seeing it live tomorrow, but does anyone know if the Made With Magic products glow with the show?

 

[makesmewonder]

So this limited Jungle book show is now supposed to be the peak of the DAK nightime experience this summer ? Well... I'm so disappointed. Hope ROL can be ready as soon as possible to keep the guests in the park. And, yeah, Disney, it was definitively and great idea to shut-down DINOSAUR mid-summer. Maybe they thought "Don't worry, all guests will be in the theater for the show, that's not a big deal to close the second/third major ride of the park" .

I still have hope we'll be able to see ROL maybe in July/August...

 

[cjkeating]

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...-magic-celebration-at-disneys-animal-kingdom/

That promotion pic though....

Even that has a gap between the projection screen...

 

[GhostHost1000]

Even that has a gap between the projection screen...

Yeah but the fake photoshopped photo of the projection itself is superb . It's magic

 

[JohnD]

Just watched the show (okay skimmed through it). I agree that the performers gave their all. Also is it me or as the show progressed, it seems tech de-emphasized the water screens as they were lit less. Yes, the gap was glaring. I can only assume they had plenty of dress rehearsals after the park closed at 5 and surely they didn't have the problem with the water screen then. But opening night is what counts and unfortunately it was a dud. Hope they improve it to something at least passable.

 

[Disney6166]

And that's the problem y'all are having. You all expected this to be a water show, with, I guess, lots of fountains and projections and stuff like that. And it's not. It's completely different.

The whole point of why we aren't seeing RoL is that IT'S NOT WORKING!! So of course this show wasn't going to have many fountains. The fountains are on the lotus flowers, which aren't working. For the little amount resources they had to work with, they put together some nice barges and stages and got a lot of good performers.

But I can see it... you guys thought "oooh but I want more water stuff, and all they did was dance to fill up time." The problem is that you had RoL or WoC pictured, and so when this wasn't even a similar ceoncept or style as those, you thought it was bad. You came in with not neccessarily too high expectations, but the wrong expectations. This isn't a bad show at all, it's just a very different show (that focuses on Indian cultural singing and dancing), and if you all couldn't get past that, that's your loss.

The average guest will not have those wrong expectations, and so I imagine they'll like this.

Disclaimer: I was and am in no way involved in the show.

Egg,
The problem we are having is that Disney was the one displaying all this great new technology. They had all the videos showing how great it was going to be. They had Imaginears touting what a great job they did. There were 4 videos on the Disney Parks Blogs showing how this was going to transform the park into an all day park. It was typical Disney over hype and typical under performance. It was going to be the best thing since sliced bread. Disney hyped this show up so much, now we are extremely disappointed with what the outcome became. They promised all these poor Guests that this was going to the Summer of Fun, and now this attraction won't be available until the Fall if were lucky.

 

[Disney6166]

After 18 years of waiting for the park to open late for everyone, maybe - just maybe - it would have been better to wait one more.

If marketing would allow it. Of course.

Marni,
You summoned it up perfectly. Walt would never stand for less than perfection, and Iger should strive for the same.

 

[Disney6166]

All I hear is a bunch of folks complaining who weren't there and the others typical complainers... Great show I'll see it again

I was there and it was ok. Nothing to ever see again. Wife and I were ready to leave about the 5 minute mark.

 

[marni1971]

All I hear is a bunch of folks complaining who weren't there and the others typical complainers... Great show I'll see it again

Read the online reviews from those who saw it and know what they're talking about then.

 

[Clyde Birdbrain]

We were at AK last night and attended the 9pm Jungle Book show. A lot has been said about the show, but I wanted to comment about our experience with the seating procedure for stand-by guests, which was totally bizarre. See the picture below.

The normal stand-by line for the show is the blue line in DinoLand. We got in line at A at around 7:45pm and at that point Cast Members were already telling us that seating was not guaranteed for the 9pm show. At point B they were temporarily blocking off the path at times to let groups of people (maybe 30 or 40 at a time) walk across to C. At around 8:15pm we got to point B. When it was time for us to start walking again we were expecting to just walk across, but a cast member raised her hand and told us to follow her to the right. Everyone was confused as she led our group through the Finding Nemo theater. We came out of the entrance and were told to wait in the Finding Nemo waiting area at D.

Here we waited for about 15 minutes until another cast member came and told us to follow her. I expected us to cross the path into the seating area there, but no ... we were led across the bridge all the way to E. When we got there there were only a few rows left.

On our two walks following cast members from B to D and from D to E they had blocked off these areas to other guests (approximately at the pink dotted lines on my map), but there were still a few people walking around who could have easily snuck into our group to get into the show without waiting. This does not seem like a very good permanent solution, but I am not sure what else they can do when there are seats left in the FastPass section with still hundreds of stand-by guests waiting in DinoLand.

 

[JohnD]

Marni,
You summoned it up perfectly. Walt would never stand for less than perfection, and Iger should strive for the same.

No excuses for the show but I remember reading that opening day at DL was a bust. Let's hope they improve it soon . . . and quickly.

 

[MonkeyHead]

No excuses for the show but I remember reading that opening day at DL was a bust. Let's hope they improve it soon . . . and quickly.

Gosh, if only they had sixty years of prior experience to help them.

 

[FoodRockz]

We were at AK last night and attended the 9pm Jungle Book show. A lot has been said about the show, but I wanted to comment about our experience with the seating procedure for stand-by guests, which was totally bizarre. See the picture below.

View attachment 143893

The normal stand-by line for the show is the blue line in DinoLand. We got in line at A at around 7:45pm and at that point Cast Members were already telling us that seating was not guaranteed for the 9pm show. At point B they were temporarily blocking off the path at times to let groups of people (maybe 30 or 40 at a time) walk across to C. At around 8:15pm we got to point B. When it was time for us to start walking again we were expecting to just walk across, but a cast member raised her hand and told us to follow her to the right. Everyone was confused as she led our group through the Finding Nemo theater. We came out of the entrance and were told to wait in the Finding Nemo waiting area at D.

Here we waited for about 15 minutes until another cast member came and told us to follow her. I expected us to cross the path into the seating area there, but no ... we were led across the bridge all the way to E. When we got there there were only a few rows left.

On our two walks following cast members from B to D and from D to E they had blocked off these areas to other guests (approximately at the pink dotted lines on my map), but there were still a few people walking around who could have easily snuck into our group to get into the show without waiting. This does not seem like a very good permanent solution, but I am not sure what else they can do when there are seats left in the FastPass section with still hundreds of stand-by guests waiting in DinoLand.

I appreciate your thoroughness, and for displaying what a logistics nightmare this is...

 

[JohnD]

Gosh, if only they had sixty years of prior experience to help them.

If you were around in 1955, you would be saying, "Gosh, if only they had 20 years in the studios to help them." I guess Walt should have just thrown in the towel. He couldn't live up to his own standards set by Snow White. But he pushed through and got it right.

 

[Baloo62]

We were at AK last night and attended the 9pm Jungle Book show. A lot has been said about the show, but I wanted to comment about our experience with the seating procedure for stand-by guests, which was totally bizarre. See the picture below.

View attachment 143893

Thank you for such a well-presented post and great visual. That's THE most convoluted thing I've ever heard of.

 

[Rider]

Marni,
You summoned it up perfectly. Walt would never stand for less than perfection, and Iger should strive for the same.

Hahahahaha... this is a joke, right? Disneyland was total rush job and a joke on opening day. It almost failed in its first year.


Anyway, I didn't see the full show last night but I did watch from the path next to the Asia side (by the old Everest fastpass). I won't give a full review because I didn't see the whole thing but I wanted to mention I think there are a few issues with the water curtains. First, as mentioned by others, is that even a little breeze will ruin the larger center one making it harder to see what is happening. However this issue is magnified by the fact that this show just took scenes from the movie and is playing them on the water screens. Since the film was not designed to be played in such a format it doesn't work very well. Hopefully that won't be an issue when RoL has projections that were designed to be played in that format.

Also they are projecting lights on the trees behind the curtain (in the BBQ area) during the show. While the designs can look cool they are turned on at the same time as the projections. Because there isn't black background it makes the projection even harder to see.

 

[Cliff]

Looking at the rear large water screen, they have two jets spraying water from both sides of the shore. It seems to be a pretty far distance at a pretty high altitude and it looks like it's just too ambitious and too much area for two nozzles to cover evenly. The water (mist) density just thins out too much to bounce a good image off of. What they need is a more even and consistent "screen" density.

I wonder if they could install a new nozzle in the water pointing up right at the center of where the left and right jets meet. Maybe this jet could "fan" upward in a semi-circle (like Fantasmic nozzles) and fill in weak areas. Yes, that "screen" is large as Hell but there has to be a way that they can get it evened out. I'm not sure if I have ever seen Disney project into an actual "arc" of falling water like this. I dunno, it just seems to create a "surface" too arbitrary. Also, stacking their projectors will double up on the light intensity but will raise the cost of the show. The industrial lamps each one uses have very limited operating hours and are expensive to maintain. And of course, mechanical changes like this would certainly take plenty of time to install.

I'm hoping Disney has the World of Color tech guys flying over from Cali to work on this. If not, they should. The WoC group has the experience and does it pretty darn good.

Lastly, before I get flamed, I suppose some are right, it's not fair to "really" judge any Disney show on just a video. You really do need to see it with your own eyes first. I do agree.

CLIFFLIX

 

[Baloo62]

As for the dancers, they are all the same dancers you see at Festival of the Lion King...

For the record, I consider Festival of the Lion King to be THE best entertainment in the entire Disney arsenal. Since it first began, it has remained my favorite must-do in all of WDW. Guaranteed smiles and chill bumps every time. The only time I've missed it was when they were on hiatus between theaters. I can't praise it enough. How sad, though, that these talented performers were assigned to be involved with this over-hyped snooze fest. It is completely beneath them. I surely don't hold them responsible, though - they didn't direct or script this hot mess.

 

[Clyde Birdbrain]

The Jungle Book scenes displayed on the water were extremely hard to make out, but there were times when abstract images were shown and I found that those worked quite well, despite the wind and the gap in the middle. There was a part with peacock feathers displayed on the water and that looked pretty cool. In Fantasmic the simpler images of Pinocchio and other Disney characters that we know so well are easily recognizable even on a window day, but these detailed and dark CGI scenes from The Jungle Book don't work at all on this medium. I think that is the main issue.