No Worries - Festival of the Lion King Will Make You Feel the Love
Written: Jan 24 '08
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: fantastic show, great individual acts, audience interaction, lovely costumes, evokes the movie without retelling it
Cons: first row now VIPs only, smaller chorus
The Bottom Line: Festival of the Lion King is the best live show at Disney World.
|
|
|
| quasar's Full Review: Festival of the Lion King |
Festival of the Lion King is a live show presented as theater in the round in the Camp Mickey-Minnie section of Disney's Animal Kingdom park.
The show is not a retelling of The Lion King although it features several songs from the movie. Rather, it's a celebration, African style. It features song, dance, acrobatics, and ritualistic performers in a variety of distinct acts.
The theater is split into four sections each named for an African animal (lion, elephant, giraffe, and warthog). The entire theater is used in the show including the aisles between sections so don't expect to move around once the show starts. You may also find it difficult to see everything in every aisle depending on where you sit.
The aisles have giant floats with the four featured animals. The lion float features Simba and the warthog float Pumbaa. They both actively participate in the show but stay put in their respective corners. All four animals are huge animatronic constructs and visually appealing.
The main show features Timon and four African people in native dress and about 20 people in animal costumes. The costumes are not full body costumes meant to look like cartoonish animals, but rather clothing and decorations evocative of specific animals. Zebra, crocodiles, rhinoceros, and antelope are among those represented. There's also a troupe of four "tumble" monkeys who are mischievous and fun and have their own featured act in the show as well as participating in group numbers. The costumes and characters are fantastic; I think this method is much more effective than trying to disguise the humanness of the chorus would have been.
The individual acts are all interesting, showy, and unusual. The tumble monkeys do acrobatics to "Hakuna Matada", a firewalker performs to "Be Prepared", balletic birds perform to "Can You See the Love Tonight?", and the finale features an audience singalong to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" followed by recaps of previous songs and acts.
It really is a fantastic show with fabulous costumes, an interesting set, great dancing, and some wonderful circus acts. Unfortunately, the show isn't quite as good as it was even two years ago. There are fewer chorus dancers now; before it felt like a large village festival where everyone participated and had fun. Now it feels more like a show with performers placed as sparsely as possible while still playing out some action in front of each section.
They've also started reserving the front row of each section as VIP seating. Empty front row seats may be filled by walkins, but they're generally very scarce. VIPs are seated before disabled visitors so be aware that you likely won't get a front row seat even when you have early access or a "front row seating" guest assistance card.
If possible, I recommend sitting in the giraffe section. While a true theater in the round that ostensibly provides good viewing from all angles, some of the characters block part of the special acts in other sections. For example, Timon blocks the tumble monkeys at ground level if you sit in the lion section. You can still enjoy their aerial tricks, but you don't get the full force of their act.
Even so, Festival of the Lion King is by far the best live show at Disney World. It's colorful, bright, lively, busy, features good music, and is sure to put you in a very good mood. Definitely take in a show during your next visit to Animal Kingdom.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.