News Flights of Wonder closing and replaced by 'UP! A Great Bird Adventure'

Kman101

Kman101

Well-Known Member
disneygeek90 said:
I really enjoyed the show to begin with, and honestly find the Dug and Russell addition less tacky and cheesy than Joe, just more "Disney", so I don't have a problem with it. I show up for the birds, not the hosts of the show.
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I always dislike the loss of an actor in a show but Joe was 90s Disney cheese. It worked for the time. I don't mind Russell and Dug.
 
BoarderPhreak

BoarderPhreak

Well-Known Member
I've never even seen FoW... Something about it kind of reminded me too much of the bird show over at Cypress Gardens back in the day. Not to mention I've owned a lot of birds over the years, from parakeets to cockatiels. Not sure I want to watch a bird show. 😜
 
disneygeek90

disneygeek90

Well-Known Member
BoarderPhreak said:
I've never even seen FoW... Something about it kind of reminded me too much of the bird show over at Cypress Gardens back in the day. Not to mention I've owned a lot of birds over the years, from parakeets to cockatiels. Not sure I want to watch a bird show. 😜
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There are many birds in the show that are not your average pet bird. I would recommend checking it out.
 
mikejs78

mikejs78

Premium Member
Biff215 said:
Completely agree, and I was thinking the same thing until I realized Dumbo and Aladdin have it at MK, the park that actually has an abundance of attractions. But shows like this make zero sense for FP+.
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They make perfect sense to me. They serve a very valuable purpose in reducing pressure for FastPasses for other attractions.
 
Clyde Birdbrain

Clyde Birdbrain

Unknown Member
I loved Flights of Wonder and have seen it between 30 and 40 times. Here is what I did and didn't like about UP! A Great Bird Adventure:

What I liked:
  • Theming on the outside and inside looks great! Ever since they upgraded the roof of the theater they left the front unfinished, so it wasn't hard to improve on that, but I think it looks beautiful and fits perfectly in the rest of Asia.
  • The posters of Russell and Dug on the outside are nice. I like the painted Asian movie poster style they went with. I think these will draw more people in that may otherwise walk by.
  • There are several new perches at the back of the theater that birds fly to. Macaws used to make an appearance in the show and just fly over, now they fly around the theater and there are many more.
  • I like the beginning with the birds changing the channel on the radio. That was cute.
  • Some of the birds from the old show are still there, like Frasier and Miles. The old show used to have a bit of variety between shows, which made it fun and surprising each time. I assume that they will do the same with this show, so we may see some other familiar birds make appearances. A lot of the dialogue is now pre-recorded, so it will be harder to mix things up, but some of the things that Russell and Dug say is intentionally left vague. Russell refers to a "beautiful bird" or "a really cool bird" instead of calling it a "toucan", so they can still switch those birds out.
  • The audience interaction is good. The old show had a kid throw up a grape, the crow getting the dollar bill, and two adults with cameras come on stage. Now they had people at the end of each row get up to make a 'forest' and had Miles fly through. That was neat. And two people came on stage and had a toucan hop over their arms. No interaction with any children, which I thought was surprising as the show is more targeted at kids now. It would be nice if they mix things up. Miles has a lot of experience catching grapes, so they could still have him do that.
  • The old bird handlers are still there. In the old show they would always have one bird expert do the entire show, but now others came out to do small bits. I think that was nice.

What I didn't like:
  • There is no longer a small stage in front of the entrance where a bird handler would typically stand with an owl or other bird to answer questions from people waiting to get inside. The small stage is gone and there are now lots of ropes for the standby and Fastpass queue.
  • I don't think it makes much sense to add characters like Russell and Dug to a live bird show and I would have preferred if they hadn't. I cannot imagine that the bird experts working on the show like this in any way. Birds are unpredictable and so much can go wrong with all this pre-recorded audio. But ... I understand that this may draw more people and especially children into the show, which is good. Having said that, Russell and Dug are in it waaaay too much. They keep coming back after each segment and there is no purpose to it. Nothing the two characters say moves the show forward. I hope they cut some of that out and spend more time with the birds. In the beginning Russell leaves to get his camera and I would have liked it so much better if he had stayed away the rest of the show to come back in the end with his camera to find out that he missed everything. That would have been a typical Russell thing to do.
  • With every word Russell said he moved his head up and down vigorously and his hat would flop along. This was really distracting and annoying.
  • The old show had a much better message. Yes, it was a bit silly that Guano Joe was afraid of birds, but throughout the show he learned (along with the audience) how amazing birds are, that birds have a tough life and in the end he feeds Frasier and finds 'Hope' ... Namaste! Guana Joe progressed through the show as someone who would hide from birds behind a tree to getting an appreciation for the animals. Even if you don't like Guano Joe, you have to admit that is a much better story than Russell saying some random stuff and Dug running after chickens. There is just no story to the new show, except for Russell going on a "Bird Adventure". I thought the old show was much more clever in that way, with the audience being the tour group and Joe losing his flag to the crow. There is nothing like that now.
  • I find that the old show was much more about conservation than the new show. In the old show the bird expert would give many more facts about birds and bird conservation than we get in the new show. In fact, as they took out many of the scientific bird facts, the new Indian host keeps bringing up things about folklore and ancient mythology in India and South America. I really didn't like this. Here's a quote from the new show: Bird expert: "Did you guys know that toucans are magical birds?" Indian host: "That's right, the indigenous people of South America say that the toucan can send messages between the living and spirits. They're even immortalized in the night sky in the constellation Tucana" ... are you kidding me?! As Dug was running around the stage chasing chickens the guy even made some food-related chicken jokes, which I thought were really inappropriate.
Ugh, I could go on but this is getting too long. I don't like the new show very much. I agree that after 20 years of Guano Joe it was time to change the show, but this is much worse.
 
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djkidkaz

djkidkaz

Well-Known Member
Magic Feather said:
Just you wait, Tricera- Top Spin is next... (not really, but the fact that AlSwSa is getting it is blatantly absurd).
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I actually wish TricerTop spin would get FP. With it being one of the few rides my young son can do it usually has a decent wait. He isn’t gonna be patient to stand in line for 35 minutes and if Dumbo at MK has it why not this? I was thinking it’s due to it only having one spinner but Magic Carpets in Adventureland only has one and does have FP. With a park as short on FP options as DAK you would think they would add it just to increase options.
 
MrConbon

MrConbon

Well-Known Member
Just saw the show. Horrendous. Really cringe the whole time.

None of the birds were cooperating so it was really painful to have to watch the trainers try to get the birds to go where they want. Then the trainers didn’t have their lines memorized so Doug and Duseel would just blurt our random statements that doesn’t make sense in context of the conversation. SKIP IT
 
DisneyDebRob

DisneyDebRob

Well-Known Member
Well, for the most part over the last day or so people here that have seen it don’t think it’s bad. I’m glad to hear it. After reading all the negativity from all that haven’t seen it and the testing of the show, I was worried. Like all things, give it time and see it for yourself. Looking forward to it now.
 

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