I Have A Different Take On "Jungle Book:Alive With Magic"

[WEDWDW]

I don't think it will soon be playing to an empty Discovery River Theater as many do.

Is is another Fantasmic!?

No,of course not,and it wasn't intended to be.

I think most Guests will accept it for what it is-a TEMPORARY show put together in 40 days.

I think,if nothing else,the "novelty" of this being the first night time show at DAK will continue to bring in large crowds.

If the show was as bad as many are saying,wouldn't Guests be walking out before it ends-I went both Friday and Saturday and NO ONE left early that I could see.

In contrast the crowds were very responsive-there was much applause and "shouting" throughout the show.

Again,I think most Guests will go in with realistic expectations and be entertained and crowds will remain large until RoL takes over.

I may be proven wrong,but I don't think so

I'll be going back to see it so I'm positive the Theater won't be empty for EVERY remaining show.

 

[AngiTN]

I will say that folks on the Dis, and bloggers in general are way more critical about Disney and everything they do, than the avg guest is. Way, way more critical. So yeah, I agree with you

 

[cgh]

Is it better in person then in the video? I ended up dropping it just because I didn't think the kids would like it.

 

[AngiTN]

Is it better in person then in the video? I ended up dropping it just because I didn't think the kids would like it.

EVERYTHING is better in person than on a video. Every.thing.

 

[yeheyprincex2]

Is it better in person then in the video? I ended up dropping it just because I didn't think the kids would like it.

Do the like other Disney theme park shows? If so I would give it a try, I agree with the poster who said everything is better in person.

 

[cgh]

Well, I have a 2 and 7 year old so we haven't really done the night shows. (past their bedtimes and we'd rather do early in the park) We will do one night late at a park and I think they'd be more engaged with the electrical parade. I might run in with the 7 year old one night. They are character kids as well. They tend to get scared. I do agree it would be more exciting in person probably.

 

[AngiTN]

Well, I have a 2 and 7 year old so we haven't really done the night shows. (past their bedtimes and we'd rather do early in the park) We will do one night late at a park and I think they'd be more engaged with the electrical parade. I might run in with the 7 year old one night. They are character kids as well. They tend to get scared. I do agree it would be more exciting in person probably.

Amazes me how many people skip the nighttime stuff. Kids or no kids (I have a little one myself but Disney means all rules go out the window). It's only like, one of the best things Disney does. If you have never done any and are ready to try, Celebrate the Magic, Wishes and Electric Parade are first and foremost

 

[cgh]

Every family and kid is different. Loud noises scare the kids. We tried the fireworks at DL once and my son was screaming (at 4 I think and we were trying to get him out quickly. For the 2 year old he's very much into characters and character meals. They love parades. Love. (so we organize our time around there. 7 year old loves Tom Sawyer Island so any trip requires an hour over there. One day we'll do more night shows but if they aren't enjoying it its not worth it to me. Plenty to see and do!

 

[HopperFan]

The great majority of people will have read nothing at all about the show and go. I expect the theater to stay full if for nothing else the limited amount of things to do in the park at night.

Unless you are on the aisle getting up and leaving most shows is very difficult. Again without much knowledge to date and there not being much to do, most will stick it out.

 

[Planogirl]

I doubt that most visitors will know that it's temporary and hastily thrown together. I might be off base but I don't think that most research like the people here and on a few other websites.

I do agree that those less knowledgeable people might not be as critical though.

 

[jvattes]

I don't think it will soon be playing to an empty Discovery River Theater as many do.

Is is another Fantasmic!?

No,of course not,and it wasn't intended to be.

I think most Guests will accept it for what it is-a TEMPORARY show put together in 40 days.

I think,if nothing else,the "novelty" of this being the first night time show at DAK will continue to bring in large crowds.

If the show was as bad as many are saying,wouldn't Guests be walking out before it ends-I went both Friday and Saturday and NO ONE left early that I could see.

In contrast the crowds were very responsive-there was much applause and "shouting" throughout the show.

Again,I think most Guests will go in with realistic expectations and be entertained and crowds will remain large until RoL takes over.

I may be proven wrong,but I don't think so

I'll be going back to see it so I'm positive the Theater won't be empty for EVERY remaining show.

I beg to differ.

I know of several GROUPS of people who left before the show was over.

And on yesterday's DIS Unplugged, Kathy Werling who openly admits to loving everything Disney does, left early AND had nothing spectacular to say about it.

It sounds like they did a rush job on this, which is unfortunate. I agree with most of the critics that it would have been better to have done nothing at all than to have put this out. It sounds like a horrible, horrible fail.

 

[CarrieR]

Most guests have no idea this is temporary and rushed.

I don't think it's "get up and leave the theatre" horrible. Even if it were, that's a) difficult to do, given the fact that there are performers in the aisles at times and b) incredibly rude. I've sat through many a show I'd prefer to not sit through just based on the social expectation.

If it hadn't been so sad, it would've been humerous to see the looks of confusion on faces in the crowd. From where I sat, it was nearly impossible to figure out what was going on/follow the "story." But it wasn't walk-out horrible (which to me would entail singers hitting sour notes right & left, dancers crashing into each other due to mixed up steps, etc.)

I DO think word of mouth will spread that between JB show being lackluster, night safari being a dud, and few rides in general, AK at night will get a reputation for being "not worth it."

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I wanted to leave, but we were sitting in the middle of a section and I didn't want to disturb anyone. This show is on par with something I might expect to see in the America Gardens Theater during the day (not speaking of Candlelight Processional). Low production values, good performers. It is definitely not on par with the nighttime spectaculars that Disney is known for. Even the staging didn't make any sense. One barge in back of another with different choreography that really had nothing to do with JB on both barges. There was no focus whatsoever. It really needs a story line apart from the movie scenes shown (and sometimes not showing up) on the water. Disney knows this. Even their rides and water parks have back stories. It was definitely not "alive with magic". Will they fill the theater? Of course. As PP said, people are looking for something to do. Will they go back like many guests do for Wishes, Illuminations and Fantasmic? I will bet, no.

 

[mshanson3121]

Amazes me how many people skip the nighttime stuff. Kids or no kids (I have a little one myself but Disney means all rules go out the window). It's only like, one of the best things Disney does. If you have never done any and are ready to try, Celebrate the Magic, Wishes and Electric Parade are first and foremost

That's easy for you to say. However, not everyone is you. Many children still need regular bedtimes and routines even while on vacation - it's a step to ensure that Disney is a GOOD vacation for that family, instead of screaming meltdowns from over-tired kids whose parents threw all rules out the windows What works for you, won't work for many others.

 

[mshanson3121]

The great majority of people will have read nothing at all about the show and go. I expect the theater to stay full if for nothing else the limited amount of things to do in the park at night.

Unless you are on the aisle getting up and leaving most shows is very difficult. Again without much knowledge to date and there not being much to do, most will stick it out.

This. I wouldn't get up and leave no matter how bad a show is, because I wouldn't want to bother the people around me, and as many have already said - the seating there is horrible, so getting up would basically require forcing everyone in your row to stand up and let you out. So, just because people aren't walking out - doesn't mean they're enjoying it.

 

[mshanson3121]

Every family and kid is different. Loud noises scare the kids. We tried the fireworks at DL once and my son was screaming (at 4 I think and we were trying to get him out quickly. For the 2 year old he's very much into characters and character meals. They love parades. Love. (so we organize our time around there. 7 year old loves Tom Sawyer Island so any trip requires an hour over there. One day we'll do more night shows but if they aren't enjoying it its not worth it to me. Plenty to see and do!

Don't worry about missing the night time stuff! It sounds like the daytime attractions are the most important for them anyways.
I myself, really wasn't impressed with the MSEP, but the kids seemed to enjoy it. That said - I wouldn't make a special trip in at night just to see it. My kids do LOVE fireworks (we just have to use ear plugs and then heavy duty noise canceling headphones over those for my son with SPD), so we do make it a point to see those. But, like you, we also make bedtime a priority on vacation. Whenever/wherever we vacation, the majority of nights they are in bed on time. If we do have a night where we are up late past bedtime, then the next day is an off-day, so they can sleep and rest and regroup. If we did late bedtimes every night the trip would be a disaster.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

I doubt that most visitors will know that it's temporary and hastily thrown together. I might be off base but I don't think that most research like the people here and on a few other websites.

I do agree that those less knowledgeable people might not be as critical though.

True. People who don't do any research won't have the same expectations. But they also won't know it's a temporary show put together in a few months to replace something else. Information that might be temporing the expectations of people on this board.

Then again, Disney keeps flooding my Facebook page with ads for the Jungle Book show that include a fabulous picture of a tiger projected onto a fan of water. Nothing like what I saw in the video.

I beg to differ.

I know of several GROUPS of people who left before the show was over.

And on yesterday's DIS Unplugged, Kathy Werling who openly admits to loving everything Disney does, left early AND had nothing spectacular to say about it.

It sounds like they did a rush job on this, which is unfortunate. I agree with most of the critics that it would have been better to have done nothing at all than to have put this out. It sounds like a horrible, horrible fail.

And that concerns me. Kathy has always been one of the most positive people on the podcast. If she didn't like it, that tells me a lot.

 

[MeridaAnn]

I enjoyed the Jungle Book show. It isn't going to be remembered as a national treasure by any means, but for what it was, I thought it was cute.

I *do* think it basically requires you to have seen the new movie for the scenes to make sense, so I can understand those who found the plot lacking.

But as a chance to sit down, listen to some fun music, and watch some dancing as the park starts to cool off, I definitely enjoyed it.

If I get the chance, I'll even go see it again - I mostly just focused on the "front line" dancers and the water screens, only watched a few sections with the other dancers on the barges, and couldn't see the singers at all. I didn't see this as a downside, since I didn't lose anything by just watching the one group, and it gives me something new to see if I get to rewatch it.

I expect it might be a very different experience based on where you are sitting. I was in the far right (FastPass) section, on the third row and next to the aisle - like I said, great view of the front dancers and the screens (although the projects were almost all fairly dark and blurry, which was a bit disappointing), and I could see the barge dancers through the front line dancers if I looked past them. I think if I'd been back about ten more rows, I could easily have seen all the dancers at once, although you'd still be choosing which set to watch, the choreography was very different for both groups.

The songs were fun and familiar, and the transitions between songs were all quick and smooth enough - I never felt like we'd reached an awkward pause or like we were waiting on something. There was a bit of fire twirling, which was neat, the drum sections were really cool, and the performers really gave it their all through the whole show.

It's probably not a show that will be mourned when it leaves - it's not meant to be. It is temporary. But I was smiling and tapping my foot the whole time and dancing along to "I Wanna Be Like You" on the way out, and I'm really glad I went.

I'm also really glad I saw the new movie *before* seeing the show, because I think that did make a big difference for me.

 

[jknc]

I don't think it will soon be playing to an empty Discovery River Theater as many do.

Is is another Fantasmic!?

No,of course not,and it wasn't intended to be.

I think most Guests will accept it for what it is-a TEMPORARY show put together in 40 days.

I think,if nothing else,the "novelty" of this being the first night time show at DAK will continue to bring in large crowds.

If the show was as bad as many are saying,wouldn't Guests be walking out before it ends-I went both Friday and Saturday and NO ONE left early that I could see.

In contrast the crowds were very responsive-there was much applause and "shouting" throughout the show.

Again,I think most Guests will go in with realistic expectations and be entertained and crowds will remain large until RoL takes over.

I may be proven wrong,but I don't think so

I'll be going back to see it so I'm positive the Theater won't be empty for EVERY remaining show.

I refuse to give Disney a pass on this terrible show.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I watched the whole thing once by myself on my laptop. And then last night, my DH and I watched it together on the big TV in our family room. I wanted him to see it so he could tell me if he wanted me to bother working it into our plans for our summer trip. He was on the fence about skipping it.

The resounding answer from both of us was nope. It is painful to watch, painful. We saw the new Jungle Book movie and liked it and even that wasn't enough. It seems very choppy and disconnected from the movie. The music hurts.

I also think part of the problem is how many people really love the Jungle Book music? I don't know. If it used a more popular set of songs, would be perceived as better? And this is probably against the whole theming of what they are trying to do with this show, but if some characters came out it would be better too lol.

Regardless, no matter what, it's not up to Disney nighttime spectacular quality.