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DAK History Lesson: Loin Cloths and Roller Skates

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It’s time for your 3rd Animal Kingdom History Lesson! As a reminder, this is all in preparation for the 15th anniversary of WDW’s baby park on April 22nd. This time around, we are hanging from the vines and discussing the 2nd show to be featured at the Theater in the Wild, “Tarzan ROCKS!”

To put it in one word, this show was BONKERS! Part aerial stunts, part roller skating, part rock musical…mix those into a bowl and you will get “Tarzan ROCKS!” The show took the hit 1999 animated film and flipped it on its head! The show featured multiple acrobatics and dances all paired with a live band and performers singing 5 of the hit songs from the film.

While the music and craziness was going on around them, the love story between Tarzan and Jane was being portrayed on stage simultaneously. It really was a sensory overload, yet in the best way.

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The show ran from 1999 to January of 2006. The show closed to convert the theater into an enclosed venue in anticipation of Finding Nemo the Musical,

I highly recommend you check out the video. It was a really unique show that I would love to see return (unless it would kick out Nemo…because Nemo is fantastic!).

Did you ever get the chance to see Tarzan ROCKS? Would you like to see it return? Do you occasionally “Trash the Camp?” Let me know in the comments below! In our next lesson, I will be explaining DAK’s first parade, the March of the ARTimals! Until next time…It’s Nahtazu!

(Photos courtesy of wdwlive.com and tarzanrocks.com)

4 thoughts on “DAK History Lesson: Loin Cloths and Roller Skates”

  1. It was a great show. I liked the music, so the combination of that with the action going on was quite fun.

  2. This was an outstanding show for many reasons – great music sung by great performers accompanied by a live band. Then look at that Nemo show – mostly forgetable music performed to a click track. No live singers and no live band. No comparison!

  3. Yeah, the Tarzan show was a lot better than the Nemo musical. Finding Nemo — as with all Pixar films — was never intended to be a musical, and it never should have been made into a musical.

    Of course, the Tarzan show was painfully loud the times I saw it. The first time we tried to see it with the kids, we had to leave part-way through, because the kids were having to stick their fingers in their ears and were complaining. When they got a few years older, though, they loved it.

    1. I disagree, I think that Finding Nemo was perfect for a musical transformation. I think Tangled would be even better and don’t know why that stage show hasn’t opened yet.

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