The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under new Management

Walt Disney through his entire career was known for reshaping the world of entertainment through new and inovating technology. One of the best examples is of the 3 dementional camera first used in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Another is in 1964 when his still young but emensly popular Disneyland theme park wowed the world again with the world's first fully audio animatronic attraction, "The Enchanted Tiki Room." the Magic Kingdom edition of this attraction arrived around the same time as the Magic Kingdom in Orlando opened in 1971. Magic Kingdom's is at least over 30 years old and Disneyland's is at least 40. It was showing it's age, and was appearing to be awfully dated. While the Dinsyeland one remained unchanged, (You can't change that, it's THE Tiki room. The one Walt supervised himself and one of the last attractions he supervised.) But the one in the Magic Kingdom, well, that's not so historical. It's pretty much just a copy. So, if any version could be changed, the best iea would be to use MK's version and thus those crazy Imagineers did it again with...



As you can see, a couple of known characters have been added.



Located in the Magic Kingdom's senic Adventureland, Zazu and Iago are the new owners of the Tiki Room and they have plans for it. Before you are allowed in however, you are treated to a pre-show.



These two birds appear from behind a small waterfall. they bicker at each other. Aprantly, THEY were the ones who got the Tiki room sold to Iago and Zazu. The one on the right sounds suspicously like the voice of Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story *Aspecially since he calls the bird a "Hockey Puck" and the one on the left sounds alot like the sleezy starship captain on Futurama.



They continue to bicker over dumb things, even after the chamber is closed and the Waterfall returns. then we go in.



The hallway to the Tiki Room is done up with a jungle decor that would make the GI Joe Adventure team feel right at home.



Tghe crowd takes their seats, and the show begins. So far it's pretty much the same. Same birds, same introduction, even the same song at first.



But soon there's trouble in paradise. As they sing the classic Tiki room song, a familar voice is heard. Down comes another perch and on it sits Iago,


and boy did he let himself GO! I saw this show for myself and got a perfect view of Iago's ass and let me tell you, it was ALOT OF PARROT ASS! Anyway, enough about his big back side, Iago comes down shouting at them that they're not "hip" enough for today's crowd and need to get "with it" or their audience with disappear.



Down comes the second owner, Zazu of The Lion King reveals himself to warn Iago not to tamper with the Enchanted Tiki Room, and that the Tiki gods won't like it. Even with the orignal birds on Zazu's side, Iago ignores this and with an extra spotlight on him, he begins his own version of the Genie's "Friend like me" song telling them about how they need to update themselves and get with it. Zazu tries to warn him again abuout how bad an idea this is, but Iafo won't have it. He tells them "If I have to hear about those tiki tacky gods one more time..." suddenly, the lights darken, clouds from the window from...



and there came, the tiki goddess.



I'm gonna take a guess here and say that's Kali, Goddess of destruction. She's not too pleased with Iago's ideas, and with a wave of her hand, Iago is gone in a puff of smoke. The lights get darker, Iago AND Kali vanish, and there is only silence.



Zazu decides to let the tiki god have their say with Iago and continue the show. He introduces "the one, the only, the Tiki gods" and the carvings on the walls begin to sing. As they sing, even the plants in the room get in on it.



And behold, from anothre part of the room, reutns Iago and obviously...



The Tiki gods definetly had "their say" Iago has decided that they've got a hit show on thier hands (well, wings) and decide to PARTAY!



Girl birds come and start singing, Zazu starts singing, and in the end, one of the original birds performs a magic trick. He "makes you all disapear" as the original ended. As the crowd leaves, Iago makes cracks and observations. Such as people moving too slowly.

There you have it. The Tiki Room updated. Is it better? Well, that's best for you to decide. It's definetly different and funny. Many complain that the show is "un-Disney." Personally, I feel there's only one person who can truly decide what's truly "un-disney" and he's sadly been dead since 1966 so the Imagineers have to do it for themselves and considering what they COULD'VE done, this is a very enjoyable show. Besides, can't Disney drop character for ten minutes and make fun of themselves? Everyone ELSE makes fun of them.

Do I ahve any problems with it? Just two.

1. THYE LET IAGO SING AGAIN! Oh Disney, when are you going to learn?

2.There's no original music. Walttook the trouble of having it's own music written for the attraction, here it's just parodies of already existing songs which in my opinion seemed kind of cheap.

If you would really like to see this show but are unable to get to Disney World, fear not, for you can enjoy a video of this attraction courtesy of RU42.



While you're at it, check out his other work. He's really good at this stuff.
http://tinyurl.com/6shvw
http://www.youtube.com/user/ru42

Now, i'm gonna go to the hall of Presidents and take a nap