Festival of the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom

The Disney Blog reports that the Festival of the Lion King show at Camp Minnie Mickey may be moving or closing due to the new Avatar Land. 

The Festival Of The Lion King show has been the subject of relocation rumors practically since it opened in Camp Minnie Mickey instead of Africa, where it would seem to make more thematic sense. Elevation balloons were recently spotted over that section of the park. And while no ground has been broken, it was confirmed those balloons were some early planning for Avatar-land. With Avatar-land inching closer to reality, it looks like Camp Minnie Mickey is the likely candidate for Avatar.

 The report goes on to say that it isn't known if the show is moving to another location or closing.  There's no evidence of a new theater being built elsewhere in the park.  The current theater might be relocated, or the show might be changed or shut down.

The Little Mermaid Celebrates Its One Year Anniversary On Broadway

The Little Mermaid musical celebrates its one-year anniversary on Broadway today. It officially opened last year on January 10.

THE LITTLE MERMAID was the #1 selling new Broadway musical of 2008, grossing over $60 million to date. Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal raved, "I expect it to run from here to eternity and back again. I'd see it again in a heartbeat." The Philadelphia Inquirer declared the show "a triumph of stagecraft." The Chicago Tribune hailed THE LITTLE MERMAID a "tidal wave of stellar performances!"

Still, it got not-so-glowing to awful review from many other theater critics. It remains to be seen how well it stacks up with the other Disney musicals, especially The Lion King.

Zz.

Rediscovering the Disney Magic

This is a fun trip report, but unlike any other. It was written by someone (a mom) who, at first, no longer had any interest in going to a Disney theme park.

Moving to Orange County got us closer to Disneyland, but by the time I graduated from Saddleback High School, the D-land thrill was gone for me. What tore it was senior grad night when we were locked into the park until 5 a.m. Gads! There were probably fewer places to sleep in Disneyland than there were for make-out sessions. I spurned the park like a boyfriend that had outlived his shiny promise.

Anytime talk of a trip came up from my own kids, I'd start figuring out who but me could take them. Grandma Jaci came through most times. Last year, husband Joe and his fake knee took daughter Hannah and her friend Kristen to the Pirates of The Caribbean "At World's End" premiere. I was only mildly curious about the celebrities. I was more intrigued that they got to skip all the ride lines due to his handicap (the freaking ride lines, come on!).

Still, this has a happy ending. Well, sort of if you ignore the lost cell phone (which was found the next day) and kids starting to become grouchy at the end of the day. She even liked California Adventure!

Hoo boy, is Disney spot on with California Adventures or what? Pshaw to anybody that thinks a fake California doesn't have merit. Soarin' Over California almost made me cry it was so super cool! Never mind that the ticket taker wouldn't let us cut the line. Our Fastpass was no sweat and my disbelief was totally suspended. That ride alone made the price of admission worthwhile.

Good for her!

:)

Zz.

Animal Kingdom Turns 10

Laughing Place has an amazing collection of reports, pictures, and videos from yesterday's celebration of Animal Kingdom's 10th Anniversary celebration. It certainly looks like a very festive event. Wish I could have been there.

Zz.

What You Get For Your Money: Walt Disney World

So, did everyone get to see the premier of the Samantha Brown's Disney Favorites? What did you think of it? Did it appear rather "choppy" as it jumped around from WDW to DL? Yeah, we all thought so.

In any case, without much fanfare, there was another premier of another show about Disney. It was on the Fine Living Network. The show was called "What you get for your Money: Walt Disney World". It followed 3 families having their vacation at WDW with the same price point of $1600. 2 of the families were staying at the Value resorts (one at All Star Music, the other at Pop Century), while the other couple with no kids were staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge with a Savanna view room (just like what we did on this past trip).

I'm guessing that the $1600 price point was chosen because the WDW commercial on TV has used this as being "possible" for a family of 4 (it has also been a selling point on their websites). The show didn't have anything earth-shattering or anything unexpected. Still, there were brief appearance by Jim McPhee, the vice president of Epcot, and my favorite Disney executive, thanks to his friendly involvement with the Celebration 25 team last October. I don't see him appearing on TV that much, so it was nice to him in this special.

There are 3 more airings of the special:

. April 17, 2008 5:00 PM EST
• April 20, 2008 11:00 PM EST
• April 21, 2008 3:00 AM EST

Don't miss it if you can.

Zz.

The Little Mermaid: In Defense of Disney

Well, take that!

Here's an article in Time Magazine that defends the Little Mermaid and criticize the critics, for a change.

Yes, it's a fairy tale, aimed chiefly at children. But would it be rude to ask why Broadway's fairy tales for adults (Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls) can become musical theater classics while the ones directed at kids become critical dartboards? Or to point out that most of the children's theater I've seen in the past few years has had more theatrical verve and originality than most of the serious stuff I've had to sit through on Broadway? Or to wish, just once, that Disney might get a little credit for recruiting some of the most adventurous theater artists in the world to bring new ideas in staging and storytelling to a mass theater audience, kids and adults alike?

So there you go. We just to see it for ourselves, don't we?

Zz.

Disney on Broadway

This Orlando Sentinel article roughly traces the history of Disney on Broadway, or more specifically, the evolution of the Disney Theatrical Group and its success and minor failures on Broadway. The highlight,of course, was, and still is, the Lion King.

The challenge right now obviously is The Little Mermaid, especially in light of the tepid critical reviews that it has gotten. Would the audience ignore the critics again the way it did for Beauty and the Beast?

We shall see. Still, whether you like Michael Eisner or not, you have to hand it to him for pushing Disney in this direction.

Zz.

For 'Poppins,' Disney Has Done Its Chicago "Homework"

I mentioned earlier about the musical stage version of Mary Poppins on Broadway recouping money for its investors. An additional piece of information out of that news piece was the announcement that Chicago will be the first city for the touring version of Mary Poppins. It seems that there's a bit of history with regards to Disney's touring company and Chicago.

As long-time observers of the downtown theater scene here know, Disney made a 1999 deal that kept the tour of "The Lion King" out of Chicago for years. At the request of Toronto presenters, Disney agreed to give the Canadian city the territory that included Chicago. Since "The Lion King" was by far the hottest show of that era, the agreement infuriated the local theater-going public. In this newspaper, then-theater critic Richard Christiansen called the deal "a great big bonehead miscalculation."

"Lion King" didn't finally arrive here for three more years. That's not a miscalculation anybody—least of all Schumacher’s savvy Disney—would make anymore.

I certainly hope not. It was quite strange, really, with that "Lion King" debacle, because the city has proven with the long-running Beauty and the Best at the Chicago theater that it can give Disney a big hit. So it wasn't as if the city is an unchartered water. So I guess that was the part that was the "... great big bonehead miscalculation". :)

Zz.