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

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
Everyone rejoices
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a++ reply!
 

thehowiet

Wilson King of Prussia
So some thoughts.....

... I'm not usually one to watch YouTube videos of current shows but the odds of me ever seeing this show are somewhere around NEVER so I gave it a whirl....

I understand its a temporary show, a stopgap until ROL is fixed/finished/actually going. So my expectations were pretty low.... and they didn't even meet those.

It didn't make me want to see The Jungle Book, rather it made me want to avoid seeing it. There didn't seem to be any sort of plot, story, or basic narrative whatsoever. Its like they were trying to do a DAK-lite version of Fantasmic.... and failed miserably.

The short version? It didn't even make Disney show standards. It was much like the lumberjacks - a complete and utter train wreck that had no business being shown in a Disney park.

Thanks for the video, Steve.

I saw the 10:30 show last night and your synopsis is a pretty concise and accurate summary of my thoughts. A lot of people sitting near me had looks of confusion on their faces throughout most of the show. I thought it was very disjointed and appeared to suffer from the book report treatment WDI did with the Little Mermaid dark ride. We probably should have just split after our nighttime safari, which was awesome by the way.
 

GhostHost1000

Premium Member
I saw the 10:30 show last night and your synopsis is a pretty concise and accurate summary of my thoughts. A lot of people sitting near me had looks of confusion on their faces throughout most of the show. I thought it was very disjointed and appeared to suffer from the book report treatment WDI did with the Little Mermaid dark ride. We probably should have just split after our nighttime safari, which was awesome by the way.
I have a fastpass for this weekend and I'm seriously debating giving it up
 

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
Good stuff on GPS there! Yeah, GPS just seems to be not something as dependable as you want for boat guidance. Could anyone imagine "Jungle Cruise" doing that? Who knows? Maybe that's not at all what Disney is really doing. It's even plausible that it's just a reason to buy more time to fix other elements of the show too. Thanks for that input!


As you say it's quite true that we have no idea what Disney is doing although I feel it's extremely likely that they chose GPS as the positioning element as if they wanted to replicate the show elsewhere all they would need to do is change the waypoints which was a great choice on the show programming side less so on the physics
 

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
Technically they dont.
Didn't Disney keep firing the old imaginers and experienced managers and only leave those of yesmen with a PhD in cost cutting?

That is the problem in a nutshell right there and most of those guys are at UNI Creative. Which is one reason why UNI can build stuff fast. While at Disney the imagineers are in large part recent college grads learning how to do this for the first time
 

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
I saw the 10:30 show last night and your synopsis is a pretty concise and accurate summary of my thoughts. A lot of people sitting near me had looks of confusion on their faces throughout most of the show. I thought it was very disjointed and appeared to suffer from the book report treatment WDI did with the Little Mermaid dark ride. We probably should have just split after our nighttime safari, which was awesome by the way.

A friend at that very same show blew up my phone commenting on it and that spurred me looking at it.
 

ford91exploder

Resident Curmudgeon
I know the rain in Orlando usually happens in the afternoon not the evening, but with rain happening almost every day in Orlando, it seems like this is going to happen often. I can't believe the rain refund policy is "I hope you can come back later".

Welcome to Todays Disney. We've got your money and we ain't giving it back even if we don't perform
 

doctornick

Well-Known Member
So, I haven't seen it live, but having watched the videos, my impression is this:
1. They would have been better off calling the show simply "Alive with Magic" and described it as something like "An Indian dance and musical celebration inspired by The Jungle Book". I think they are selling it too much as being based on The Jungle Book which is going to lead to confusion/disappointment.
2. The quality of the show is not enough to warrant the dining plans and FP+ -- as others have pointed out, it's setting it up for disappointing the crowd. No reason they couldn't have this show running but simply have it as one of the nighttime offerings but not have any dining plan or FP+. It's closer to the likes Epcot streetmosphere or Harambe Dance Parti than Fantasmic! and should be treated as such.

To me, it seems like a nice addition but overhyped and oversold. I think it's good that they put something in the theater in the absence of RoL being ready and it's good they extended the hours of the park and added other experiences. If people don't find the offerings that enjoyable then they can simply not go to DAK at night and they are no worse off than they were a week ago, but I'm glad Disney added the option of more stuff for those who want to do them.

As I've said elsewhere though, you could easily convert this to a day time show to utilize the theater more once RoL is running at night. Cut down the run time to more like 15-20 minutes and schedule it a few times a day and advertise it more like streetmosphere and it would be a fine addition to the roster of stuff in the park.
 

dhslxop

Well-Known Member
A couple of questions:

1. From the few photos & videos I've seen, it looks like there are lights on behind the projections (I think they're lighting the trees?). Would turning those lights off help be able to see the projections clearer? I know that it wouldn't help the fact that the fountains don't meet in the middle, but could it help the image?

2. For those of you who have had to walk through Finding Nemo the Musical to queue for the show, what was on the stage? Was it just dark, or could you see backstage, or just the show logo? Also - would the fact that they are using the theatre as a walkway basically take away their ability to perform later shows during the AK extended hours?
 

Much-Pixie-Dust

Well-Known Member
I wonder if anyone is still buying packages/ if many people have cancelled dining packages.
Cancelled dining package as we are paying out-of-pocket, so the dinner ressie with show would be costing us about $30 more than just eating breakfast at TH. We did pick up a fp for the show on the same night.
 

po1998

Well-Known Member
A couple of questions:

2. For those of you who have had to walk through Finding Nemo the Musical to queue for the show, what was on the stage? Was it just dark, or could you see backstage, or just the show logo? Also - would the fact that they are using the theatre as a walkway basically take away their ability to perform later shows during the AK extended hours?
What? The queue runs through the theater? LOL What a cluster****.
 

Clyde Birdbrain

Unknown Member
For those of you who have had to walk through Finding Nemo the Musical to queue for the show, what was on the stage? Was it just dark, or could you see backstage, or just the show logo? Also - would the fact that they are using the theatre as a walkway basically take away their ability to perform later shows during the AK extended hours?

We walked from the exit of the Finding Nemo theater to the entrance, so through the regular seating area where you normally walk to see the show. There was nothing going on on the stage. They basically used the theater as a staging area for us waiting in line for Jungle Book so that they could keep the normal walkway outside open.
 

GhostHost1000

Premium Member
Strongly considering switching back to my dinosaur FP.....but i also have this little dead hope inside of me that RoL might open. I doubt it but hey, we can dream right? ;)

My thinking was this show isn't worth locking in my 3rd FP for the day. If I move it to around 12 at nemo or lion king I can free up my afternoon or evening to booking other attractions that may be available then
 

Cliff

Well-Known Member
Anybody notice if Disney Research is out there questioning people and gathering reaction data about the show? From the looks of it and seeing the people here, this thing might be a giant flop. If this show might need stay for a few months, I wonder if Disney will think there is still time to plus it in some way.

My idea? Bring OFF KILTER to AK for the summer and put them on those barges every night. That would be worth driving up there to see! ;-)
 

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