Good news for fans of Walt Disney World’s best rated show, “Festival of the Lion King.” The Harambe Theatre looks nearly completed in its home in the Africa section of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. When the theater opens in June, the story of The Lion King will once again be celebrated by the immensely talented cast and crew. But first, the cast and crew has to get used to their new home. Disney has provided this video showing their first look at their new theater, both onstage and backstage.
We just learned that Festival of The Lion King will return to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in June 2014 in the newly built Harambe Theatre. Below is some video from the end of April looking at the construction of the theater. The video is taken from the bridge to Asia and then from Africa by the Dawa Bar.
A few big announcement at the presentation formerly known as What’s New, What’s Next, now called “Around Our World.” Among the recap of recent changes at the resort including DCL, DVC, and Adventures by Disney, a sprinkling of new news was released. First news from… Read More »Walt Disney World Resort – What’s New Announcements
Director James Cameron recently participated in an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. There wasn’t any news broken about building the world of Pandora at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, but he did mention it in response to a question: thewineburglar asked: I am beyond excited to… Read More »James Cameron Talks about Pandora and Avatarland at Disney World on Reddit
April is Earth Month, and Disney has a long history of protecting the environment and finding ways to connect families with nature. From Animal Kingdom to conserving resources to reducing environmental impact from everyday business practices, Disney prides itself on its conservation values. In celebration… Read More »Disney Celebrates Earth Month with “Bears”
Festival of The Lion King is the number one rated show by guests of Walt Disney World. So when Disney decided to build Avatar, they had to move the show to a new location. That location is in Africa, makes sense, and will be in… Read More »Festival of The Lion King Theater Construction Update
Disney’s Animal Kingdom was originally envisioned as a full day park. Designers had included a large section of the park devoted to imaginary animals of the beastly kingdom. This land would have giant coasters, flying beasts, family friendly attractions, and really allow the Imagineers imaginations to go wild with the possibilities. Sadly, the budget for that area was cut and left to the dustbin of history.
But Disney has always known it would need to add to DAK eventually. If you look at the details for Avatarland, we are getting something close to the original idea for a land of fantasy creatures (just without the giant coaster, which ended up at Islands of Adventure when some Imagineers let go by Disney took their ideas to Universal). Just not the fantasy creatures you were expecting.
What’s clear is that DAK needs to expand its offerings into the night and that Pandora: The Worlds of Avatar (or whatever the name is these days) can be a big part of that. Just look at that concept art above. The potential of bio-luminescence is amazing. I don’t think Imagineers would release that art if they didn’t know they could pull it off. I urge fans who still have questions about Disney’s decision to partner with James Cameron and his Avatar movies to give Disney’s team a chance to add something amazing to DAK.
Normally at this time of year, I write a retrospective piece looking back at the year in Disney, but for personal reasons, I’ve decided now is the time to look forward, not back. Instead of recollections, I’m writing prescriptions.These are the things I believe will help Walt Disney World continue to compete for the hearts and wallets of their fans while fending off challenges from other entertainment options both near (Universal Orlando) and far (changing TV viewing habits at home, for instance)
I’ll try and limit myself to one or two recommendations each and something that can at least get started in 2014. I don’t intend each prescription to solve every woe, but it will at least make a significant difference in one or two major problem areas.
Magic Kingdom
The oldest theme park in Central Florida is showing its age more and more and suffers from serious stagnation in both attractions and entertainment (translation: a serious capacity issue). There is something they can do quickly to make a dent. As part of an overall project to update Tomorrowland, I prescribe for the park an indoor air-conditioned high-capacity theater capable of hosting shows similar to the Hyperion Theater at California Adventure. With multiple shows a day, this adds a lot of capacity, gives guests a place to cool off in the heat and humidity, and allows for a showcase for Disney’s latest animated musicals (Rapunzel Stage show anyone?). This is also something that could be accomplished quickly and with minimal in park disruption by setting the theater outside the berm. Additional revenue can be raised by hosting events in the space, something the Magic Kingdom is currently lacking.
EPCOT
This park has the highest capacity of all four parks. It has two wonderful festivals and an enjoyable Christmas overlay. These are wonderful for what they do to attract guests. However, the mission and vision of EPCOT has been ignored for too long, and many areas of the park are in serious need of rejuvenation. Let’s tackle the two sections of the park separately.Read More »Dr. John’s 2014 Prescriptions for Walt Disney World
Early Saturday morning here in Orlando, but mid-day Japan time at the first D23 expo in that country, Disney revealed big news with the first concept art for the new AVATAR land coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 2017. Today they’ve released the video James Cameron and Walt Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde filmed for the D23 announcement.
It highlights the creative work underway on the AVATAR-inspired land coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The promise the new AVATAR-inspired land will be a transformational experience that you’ll remember for the rest of your life. Sounds pretty good to me, what do you think?
Make sure you watch through. At the 3:00 mark there’s a preview of the ‘Soarin’ over Pandora’ attraction in pre-viz mode and then some wow moment bio-luminescence technology.
A few interesting frame caps from the video are below with my comments:
