New nighttime show 'Rivers of Light' confirmed to be coming to Disney's Animal Kingdom

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Who are "they"? I haven't seen any indication of new entertainment (besides Rivers of Light, of course) by any sort of reputable source. Would love to hear any details.
From the original release:

Tom Staggs said Disney will be "adding all-new entertainment experiences, including a new nighttime spectacular where live music, floating lanterns, water screens and swirling animal imagery all combine to bring a show to Discovery River that will delight our guests and truly cap off their day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The park will introduce more nighttime entertainment as well, including live performers on Discovery Island and a new nighttime version of the Kilimanjaro Safaris."

I assume he is talking about the live performers on Discovery Island.
 

alissafalco

Well-Known Member
I hope so. Although my first thought was that if they can "value engineer" it, they'd paint the leaves and trunk with glow-in-the-dark paint and call it a day.:banghead:
I was thinking that it would just be a projection on the leaves for the show. That seems the cheapest way to go to me.
 

Sabriel

Member
Could be. I would imagine it's harder to project images on the tree than the castle, but if it's a matter of just lighting it up, they would probably do it that way.
 

doctornick

Well-Known Member
From the original release:

Tom Staggs said Disney will be "adding all-new entertainment experiences, including a new nighttime spectacular where live music, floating lanterns, water screens and swirling animal imagery all combine to bring a show to Discovery River that will delight our guests and truly cap off their day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The park will introduce more nighttime entertainment as well, including live performers on Discovery Island and a new nighttime version of the Kilimanjaro Safaris."

I assume he is talking about the live performers on Discovery Island.

OK, good catch. Sounds like the kind of live performances they already have during the day in Africa/Asia, which are nice but not the big draw of a parade. I still think that they need some sort of a larger scale production during daytime hours to keep people there for a full day (which helps merch and especially food/drink sales).
 

doctornick

Well-Known Member
Could be. I would imagine it's harder to project images on the tree than the castle, but if it's a matter of just lighting it up, they would probably do it that way.

You could easily have a light show set to music with where the lights on the tree blink and form patterns corresponding to the melody. Add some smaller projection effects on the trunk of the tree (which I think is possible and not any more odd than ones on the castle) and you could have a nice secondary show before or after Rivers of Light.
 

Fox&Hound

Well-Known Member
Who are "they"? I haven't seen any indication of new entertainment (besides Rivers of Light, of course) by any sort of reputable source. Would love to hear any details.

Are you taking about stuff like "Winged Encounters" (the new macaw show on Discovery Island)? I mean, those kinds of things are good, but are nothing like the large scale entertainment offerings like parades/fireworks and the like.

My opinion is that DAK is really going to suffer after MJJ ends and before Rivers of Light begins -- and that will apparently be for almost 2 years. Without a large scale entertainment event to keep people in the park, a lot of folks are going to go to DAK in the morning and then leave early afternoon -- the parade currently keeps a lot of people hanging around to 4 o'clock or so. If people leave even earlier in the day, you won't get as much food/merch sales, which can't be good for the bottom line for TDO.

I can believe that changes to the route would make a parade impossible, but DAK needs something big during the day. And really needs that in addition to Rivers of Light to make it a "full day park" for most people (even with Pandora).



Or we might see a new paradigm of people coming to DAK in the afternoon and staying to the evening for Rivers of Light. That might help Blizzard Beach's attendance, I guess.

I think I said this too in another post. Without more rides to make people view this as a whole day park (more than the two added for Avatar), I totally see guests coming at late afternoon and staying until the night. Pandora and the night show would dictate that especially with the glowing plant life of avatar. It steal steals people from MK which is always overly crowded at night-which is good- but it still does not change attendance patterns for the day.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
OK, good catch. Sounds like the kind of live performances they already have during the day in Africa/Asia, which are nice but not the big draw of a parade. I still think that they need some sort of a larger scale production during daytime hours to keep people there for a full day (which helps merch and especially food/drink sales).
Hate to say it, but its probably not in the budget. The parade has an operating cost. So does the night show and entertainment. In order to green light the night show they may have given up the day parade. Just speculation, but there is usually a trade off.
 

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
Concerning this project does this also include work on the massive Tree of Life on Discovery Island?

In the artwork in the background, it appears that the tree is glowing. Is that accurate? Are show effects/enhancements being added?
It sounds like originally the show would have had a greater focus on the tree of life, but that is no longer the case.
 

Crazydisneyfanluke

Well-Known Member
Well Steven did say he had 2 projects lined up for wdw. FoF was one so a Wishes replacement sounds like a good idea.
I thought he said he was working on two projects. one including FoF but didn't include what or where the second one he was working on. He is over in Tokyo working on their new castle projection show.
 

WDWLover#1

Well-Known Member
I thought he said he was working on two projects. one including FoF but didn't include what or where the second one he was working on. He is over in Tokyo working on their new castle projection show.
Oh I thought he said wdw greenlit 2 projects. Might be wrong. I'll check.
Edit-Yh did'nt specify. Oh well we'll never know. It could've been winter dreams, once upon a time
 

Kman101

Well-Known Member
I believe I saw that Once Upon a Time at Tokyo has started, or at least is 'soft running'. I've seen a video of it.
 

Rob562

Well-Known Member
OOH!
(off topic) -I just made the correlation, although someone probs brought it up already, that since they are rumored to be doing work to make a new crossway from Africa to Asia, do you think that the current path will be used in seating for RoL?

That's not related to this. (If related to anything, it's probably related to the Lion King move and the new foot traffic that will come to Harambe) The new pathway is pretty much just to ease the insane bottleneck of foot traffic that is the center of Harambe. It doesn't seem to be bypassing much of any of the Africa-Asia path. It'll just allow you, as you walk from Asia toward Africa, to turn right *before* Tamu Tamu Refreshments to get to where the train station is.

Besides, the waterway is very narrow in the Africa-to-Asia stretch. This show seems to be limited to the lake area between EE and Discovery Island (or more specifically, the waterway from the Asia bridge to the Dinoland bridge).

-Rob
 
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doctornick

Well-Known Member
That's not related to this. (If related to anything, it's probably related to the Lion King move and the new foot traffic that will come to Harambe)

Regarding the foot traffic from the new FOTLK theater, does anyone know how it will work? There is a path that goes south (towards the future Pandora area) but apparently that goes under the existing (backstage) bridge to Discovery Island. So, at this point, the south pathway would lead to a deadend of construction for Pandora -- I don't think it would be connected to the former CMM bridge (which will be the bridge for Pandora).

That means that all of the traffic from FOTLK will, for now, dump directly into Harambe. That's going to be a mess at the end of shows.
 

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