After fate struck down the wretched "Under New Management" version earlier this year, Disney's wisely brought the Disneyland version of the show to the Magic Kingdom, allowing Florida visitors to enjoy the abbreviated version of Walt's original Audio Animatronic show that California visitors have been enjoying for years.
The central fountain's still missing from the Magic Kingdom's tiki room, meaning that the show opening today isn't exactly a duplicate of the version playing at Disneyland. For fans of the Magic Kingdom's first version of the Tiki Room show, "Tropical Serenade," this version also lacks the Offenbach number, the lull in the show that prompted thousands of visitors to flee the theater over the years.
The Magic Kingdom's Enhanted Tiki Room now plays at a tight 10 minutes, with the Sherman Brothers' "The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room" kicking off the show, followed by "Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing," the luau, the storm and the finale.
Your hosts are the same quartet of ethic stereotypes - Jose, Pierre, Michael and Fritz - spouting the same tired one-liners from the 1963 script. Few under age 50 will catch the vocal references to Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong ad Maurice Chevalier as the birdmobile perfoms.
But who cares? This version of Enchanted Tiki Room restores the earnest charm of Disney showmanship to this corner of Adventureland, replacing the attempt at Universal-like sarcasm that Disney dreadfully failed to pull off in "Under New Management."
Let's all sing like the birdies sing? Sure.
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Are there any sly references to them, like two chicken dinners? :)
Also, what about the preshow?
Don't get me wrong, I still would still prefer to have the original show at WDW over the Under New Management Version. Under New Management was an honest attempt to make the show more relevant in a place where the historical context is not present. Unfortunately, the inclusion of Iago in the show made it too sarcastic. I also found the musical choices a bit jarring, but thats a matter of personal preference.
If I were handed the task of redesigning The WDW Tiki room, I would take a different approch. I would keep the general format of the show (4 birds hosting a sort of variety show in a Polnesion setting), but I would update jokes to be more current. I would keep the Tiki room opening number, but the rest of the numbers would be more current selections (while still avoiding rock or rap). Of course, doing this well would be much more difficult than it sounds.
All in all, Im just glad they didn't dicide to board the thing up and forget about it. Lets face it, The WDW Tiki Room has not drawn crowds for a long time, and it would be very tempting just to give up on it to save money.
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HOO and RAY