The Enchanted Tiki Room was the very first AudioAnimatronics attraction ever built.
Walt Disney himself had earlier designed and crafted a small mechanical dancing man puppet theater, but it was too complex to build full-scale.
So, Walt and his Imagineeers came up with the idea of building mechanical BIRDS as they are simpler to design and operate.
Mechanical birds had been built for many generations by European and Asian craftsmen with "clock-work" mechanisms, but the new AudioAnimatronic Disney design was truly "cutting-edge technology" at that time (early 1960's).
Disney's staff wrote a whole musical show around their new bird designs, and the Tiki Room presentation was born.
They set it all up in one of the Disney (movie) Studios and (after adding a lot of additional special effects that rounded-out simple bird-stars) they built the final showcase for the attraction at
Disneyland, set everything up inside it and the show debuted in 1963 (wow!)
The Enchanted Tiki Room was a HUGE success with guests for many years.
And, naturally, when WDW's MK was built, another Tiki Room was included in the plans.
But, as with anything based on "cutting-edge technology"... the Tiki Room was soon upstaged by newer, more complex and amazing animatronic attractions.
The songs chosen for the show were becoming too out-dated ("Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing", even in 1963, was not exactly the "pop anthem of a new generation").
The simple ideas of "birds twittering" and audience "sing-along" songs became "quaint" and SLOW as audiences became more accustomed to bigger "thrills" at other newer attractions.
The Tiki Room inhabitants were playing to fewer and fewer folks in the seats below.
And many times I was witness to a "mass exodus" of folks just getting up mid-show and finding the exit.
So the Imagineers decided it might help matters to "update" the show by adding "name" characters (from recent films) and by making music choices that had an appeal to the audiences that were currently Disney's guests.
And I personally applaud this "new" version of the show.
The writers clearly had a love and respect for the original version (as there many references to it, and actual RECORDINGS from the original still included.)
I will also say that since the new "Under New Management" show began, I have seen far fewer guests get up and "walk out" during the show than I had been seeing for many years prior to the update.
There are some who don't like the new version of the show and want it restored to the original version.
And I do think that old show was like a "peek into the past" (with Walt and his crew), but I think the way it was headed... playing to fewer and fewer guests... it would simply have been REMOVED... and that would have been a far worse crime, IMHO.
I can't WAIT to see the new Tiki Room... 
I'll be at MK on that day, but I didn't know about it until just now? Where did you hear that? I had heard that perhaps JD would be there, so we are excited...since we are from KY! I hope he is there! He has made us all very proud here at home! He is a great CJS! 
