Jungle Book: Alive with Magic - Looking for Reviews

[scrappinginontario]

The 60 day window for booking FP+ reservations for our September trip arrives next Tues. I am challenged with AK.

I was hoping to see Rivers of Light but it does not appear (unless things change) that it will be playing during our trip. There is a possibility that Jungle Book: Alive with Magic may be showing but we don't know about that either as we are going after Sept 5th and that's as far as dates have been released to date.

I would like to hear from people who have attended the Jungle Book: Alive with Magic show. Did you enjoy it? Would you see it again? Would you recommend it to others?

As it stands now AK will be closing at 7:30 the night we're there with a sunset time of around 7:15. That makes it challenging to see both Kilimanjaro Safaris and JB as well as the Tree of Life shows in a short amount of time.

Would you recommend JB? I am tempted to skip JB. Please let me know if you think I'll be missing out.

Thanks!

 

[sticker231]

I was not impressed and would not see it again.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

We liked the JB show and the night safari.
Did not care for Tiffins.

MG

 

[Rivergirl2005]

The 60 day window for booking FP+ reservations for our September trip arrives next Tues. I am challenged with AK.

I was hoping to see Rivers of Light but it does not appear (unless things change) that it will be playing during our trip. There is a possibility that Jungle Book: Alive with Magic may be showing but we don't know about that either as we are going after Sept 5th and that's as far as dates have been released to date.

I would like to hear from people who have attended the Jungle Book: Alive with Magic show. Did you enjoy it? Would you see it again? Would you recommend it to others?

As it stands now AK will be closing at 7:30 the night we're there with a sunset time of around 7:15. That makes it challenging to see both Kilimanjaro Safaris and JB as well as the Tree of Life shows in a short amount of time.

Would you recommend JB? I am tempted to skip JB. Please let me know if you think I'll be missing out.

Thanks!

We just saw it last week and I really enjoyed it. We FP for 2 nights incase of rain. Sit towards the center and towards the back. The music has an India influence and they sing the songs from the movie. I say it's worth because you'll never see it again. If you don't want to fp you can watch the entire show standing on the bridge by Nemo. You won't sit but it has excellent views for the projection. Go in with small expectations and you'll love it

 

[scrappinginontario]

We just saw it last week and I really enjoyed it. We FP for 2 nights incase of rain. Sit towards the center and towards the back. The music has an India influence and they sing the songs from the movie. I say it's worth because you'll never see it again. If you don't want to fp you can watch the entire show standing on the bridge by Nemo. You won't sit but it has excellent views for the projection. Go in with small expectations and you'll love it

You bring up a good point about songs from the movie being in it. My DD is very timid so we have not seen the newest version on the JB, only the animated one. Would this make any difference in your recommendation? Part of me wants to see it regardless of others opinions and yet it seems with the limited AK hours the night we're there I'm going to have to pick and choose what we see as it will be impossible to do it all in the short amount of time between sunset and park closing - less than an hour.

 

[robinb]

I was front and center on one of the 'dance barges" last week and I LOVED it! Then again, I love ethnic dance so it was pretty much a shoe-in for me. The only minus for me is that the dancers were not Indian, although there was a certain charm to the multi-ethnicity of the dancers on our barge . There was a group of Indian girls in front of me and they seemed to enjoy themselves with the non-Indian dance troop .

 

[Rivergirl2005]

You bring up a good point about songs from the movie being in it. My DD is very timid so we have not seen the newest version on the JB, only the animated one. Would this make any difference in your recommendation? Part of me wants to see it regardless of others opinions and yet it seems with the limited AK hours the night we're there I'm going to have to pick and choose what we see as it will be impossible to do it all in the short amount of time between sunset and park closing - less than an hour.

I have a feeling they will extend the hours. They use scenes from the new movie but it's not scary. If you show her the animated one, the older one, she'll recognize the music. Def make sure you schedule a Fp for safari at sunset. Before the sun goes down check it out...or right before it goes down. they do a nice job with the songs and make it fun. Some people were dancing. It's only a 20 min show so it goes by quickly I say go for it but it's your decision in the end. Who knows it could be gone by then.

 

[KeithNotKieth]

I saw the show for the first time this evening. I would honestly go as far as to say that this show can only TAKE AWAY from your nighttime experience at Animal Kingdom.

• The vocalists, musicians, and dancers are all great -- no issues there
• The seating itself will bake your rear end at a crispy 450 degrees and is poorly organized by Kali River Rapids cast members.
• They hit the expected songs: Bare Necessities, Trust In Me, and I Wanna Be Like You, but more in the style of the live action film. There is a huge emphasis on the Law of the Jungle which is a big theme in the live action film.
• The water projections are awful, distracting, and were obstructed or not fully working some of the time.
• The production value is embarrassing. The main vocalists are on a float in the middle, but there is no seating for the dead middle. The musicians are split on the sides of 4 different stage floats while 4-6 dancers occupy the middle of the stage floats. 3 additional dancers are out in the water on further floats doing their own thing entire time.

The show is clearly a "placeholder" and in all fairness wasn't designed for this space. However, the execution and production value is horrible enough to warrant the firing of whoever approved the production. It's very much like leaving a green-screen green in a major blockbuster film and hoping no one will notice. The Tree of Life projection shows and Nighttime Safari are great and well enough to stand on their own for night activities in AK. I wish I hadn't seen the Jungle Book show as it has only made me ashamed. Disney typically nails it out of the park, but this is a miss!

 

[gatormom2tots]

Jungle Book was just meh....it was okay. i wouldn't burn a fp on it. It is my least favorite night time show.

 

[Klayfish]

Agree with the other reviews here. It's OK, but not great. If you've only got one night in MK, then do other things, such as the safari or Tree of Life. Great points already brought up about the poor viewing angles, very odd that the music has a strong Indian influence, but many of the performers are clearly not Indian, the water projections are terrible compared to Fantasmic and it just lacked "pop". My understanding from a CM that I know was that this is just a place holder that was hastily put together. I sure hope so... I love Disney as much as most people here, you could accuse me of being a "Disney apologist", but this show definitely missed the mark. After we saw it, I got an e-mail survey from Disney and I gave them my honest feedback in the ratings. Wonder how much of that feedback Disney is getting.

 

[JeninTexas]

We did the dining package at Tiffins and enjoyed both the restaurant and the show. I think you need to have seen the movie to really get into the show. My kids are still talking about it, although we all agree that it is no Fantasmic or Star Wars fireworks!

 

[katt789]

I've only watched it on youtube, but I absolutely LOVED it. Most of the people who I talk to who live down there also say that they love it as well. It's obviously a different style of show, but I really enjoyed watching it (even if it wasn't in person)

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

We saw it a few days ago. The dancers and music are nice. The projections are terrible, there was no wind so the pictures should have been good. They were not, we couldn't tell what they were trying to show. The pontoon boats pulled up to the barges to get the dancers about 4 minutes before the end of the show, and that was distracting and strange (it distracted from the story of the show). The seating wasn't too hot, so that was a plus. It was difficult to see the main performers from where we were but the others did a decent job. I wouldn't see it again, but I'm glad that I was able to see what it was like for myself. If I had to pick between this and the night safari it would be a tough call, as we didn't have a great night safari either.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Did not care for Tiffins.

I don't even know what thats possible.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I don't even know what thats possible.

Not at all... The decor was done on the cheap, and the food almost inedible.

MG

 

[LSUfan4444]

 

[hezzie]

We did use a FP for this and we wasted a FP. We did not enjoy the show at all for many reasons:

• The theatre was poorly designed:
  • Hot seating after all day in the Florida sun. Not certain what they were made from, but never had this issue at Fantastic
  • Long benches with no space between your knees and the person in front of you
  • In order for one family to exit the row, people either had to step up on their bench or vacate the row to allow the family to get out.
• The pre-show was terrible. They kept encouraging everyone to dance but we were so packed in, nobody could move. There was banter back and forth between the two hosts and it was anything but entertaining.
• The show itself was hard to follow, we could hardly make out what was displayed on the water sprays.

If you are interested in seeing it, I suggest just looking over the wall and watching it from outside the theatre. There are plenty of spots to see it.

We gave up a night of Illuminations to watch this show and I was so disappointed. However, we really liked touring AK in the evening! So much cooler and it's very pretty with the lighting. Everest was great in the dark!!

 

[Claudia1]

I agree with KeithNotKieth and hezzie. It is more of a live vocal show but the venue kills it. The super-bright light that was shining the images on the water spray was right in our eyes and it gave me a headache. Never had that problem with Fantasmic.

A big miss, imho

 

[720L]

The Jungle Book show was bad. I can't believe I'm saying this about a Disney show, but it seemed like someone threw it together in a couple weeks. I wouldn't go to it again, and we do everything at Disney over & over.

 

[Missyrose]

but it seemed like someone threw it together in a couple weeks.

It was thrown together in a couple of weeks once Disney realized RoL was DOA.