The Jungle Book Alive With Magic Ends Its Run at Animal Kingdom

Disney's Animal Kingdom has always been the park at Disney World that people view as a half day park. Disney would seldom leave the park open past dark, and most people didn't think there was enough there to warrant an entire day at the park. This year however, Disney decided to try and change that. They announced earlier in the year that the Safari ride would start to offer nighttime safaris and the Tree of Life would be lit up with lights and scenes much like Celebrate the Magic use to do at the Magic Kingdom. The best surprise Disney had up their sleeve or so they thought was the nighttime show The Rivers of Light. The only problem was that it was not ready to open on time, and its still not ready to open.

That being said Disney was not going to just let the summer go by without any show in a nighttime stadium at Animal Kingdom. The decided to throw together a nighttime show based on The Jungle Book. This show was called The Jungle Book Alive With Magic. While a lot of guests enjoyed the show there were many that didn't think it was worth the wait. The show had a very short run and ended last week. I had the chance to make it out to see the show during its last weekend.

I have to admit I wasn't expecting much given what other people had said. And in the end I wasn't blown away but I didn't think it was a bad show. It had good music, and very talented dancers and singers. The problem I thought with the show was that there was too much going on. You would be trying to watch a scene displayed on water in the background but find that you also wanted to watch the dancers that were in front of you, but oh wait the singers out in the water, but that other float on the water has a different set of dancers..... you get the idea. Too much going on all at the same time.

All in all the show was not a bad show for something that was put together at the last minute because the real attraction wasn't ready to open. And I left feeling happy so I guess that's a win. However after going to the show I found myself wondering something. How is Disney going to manage The Rivers of Light in that space? The stadium wasn't all that big and at least half of it was reserved for fastpass. The lines were insane to get into the stadium whether you had a fastpass or not, making it hard to get around certain areas of the park if you weren't going to the show. Hopefully they can perfect this a little bit before The Rivers of Light Show open.

 I did have a chance to film to the show and you can watch it below if you didn't get a chance to make it out and see it for yourself. Enjoy!

Lights Motors Action Stunt Show, Says Farewell This Weekend

Disney's Hollywood Studios is undergoing a lot of changes. Every time we turn around it seems they are announcing an attraction closing, and promising some new attraction in the hopefully not so distant future. The latest attraction to be closing to make way for a newer and hopefully worth it attraction is Lights Motors Action Stunt Show.

The stunt show itself was a pretty interesting show to see. I personally liked it better before the added part where Lighting McQueen shows up, but that was a very small add in and one that I could see kids would love. I always liked seeing this show because it was very entertaining. It was a good place to go and take a load off and maybe have a snack and be entertained. That being said there were a lot of problems with the show and those problems made it hard for Disney to keep it going, when they could easily put something new there with all the new plans.

This was a great show. It had the entertainment factor that a lot of the newer attractions are missing. Sadly a lot of people overlook the shows and go for the rides. And many times this can pressure theme parks to get rid of shows to place more rides in their parks. Lights Motors Action was a stunt show that involved cars, motorcycles, jet skis, explosions and much more. It gave guests a chance to see some of these stunts in person and get an explanation as to how they are performed. It didn't just have stunts on the vehicle nature but people fell from buildings, got show, caught on fire. It was an entertaining show and always had me leave smiling. 

The show was very expensive. By the nature that it involved cars, motorcycles, fire, explosives and so on it was not a cheap show to put on. And of course you had to have just the right people to perform the show. It was one of the more expensive attraction to upkeep per day in all of Disneyworld. And for a daytime attraction having two shows wasn't a whole lot of performances to keep guests busy. Most of the daytime shows have several shows to make sure that people have

several chances to see it and it takes some of the crowds off of the rides. Most days Lights Motors Action only had two shows.

I know that Disney has a lot in store for Hollywood and I hope its all good, even though I have my concerns. I just hope that they remember people liked a lot of what has closed or is going to close and try to think of different tastes in their new plans. I loved this show and will miss the motorcycles and the cars and the fire. It was a great show. And if you get the chance go make sure that you say goodbye. Lights Motors Action will have its last show this Saturday. But it case you aren't able to make it you can see a full video of the show below.

Universal Studios Orlando Says Goodbye to Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue

The theme parks in Orlando have been busy the past few years and that doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. With new attractions being announced almost monthly it's no surprise that some older ones are being closed down to make way for the new and improved rides and shows. Universal Orlando most recently said goodbye to the Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue. This was one of the only original things left in the park and was a very popular attraction.

Because of the Beetlejuice show's popularity I'm a bit surprised that Universal decided to simply close it and not try to find a way to keep it running. Especially given that Universal has a huge stadium theater that currently houses Fear Factor Live. Which while its not a bad show has never had the attendance that Beetlejuice had, even in more recent times. I'm a little shocked that Universal didn't take the Fear Factor stage and redo it and move Beetlejuice there and then close Fear Factor. It definitely would have been the move that would have made guests happier than simply getting rid of the show altogether.

The Beetlejuice show went through many different revamps during the course of it being open. The most recent redo of the show got rid of the ever annoying Hip and Hop and replaced them with four dancers suppose to be ghosts. I personally preferred them over Hip and Hop. And it also brought in two new characters to the show, Cleo daughter of the Mummy and Fantasia daughter of the Phantom of the Opera. While maybe not my favorite thing that they did with the show it worked alright, the new characters added some more flavor to the show. The biggest problem with the latest revamp of the show was not the recast of the characters but the song choices themselves. I remember the first time that I saw the new show my first response was, "they could have picked better songs". They just weren't as entertaining as any of the previous versions. This led to a of guests not liking and show and I think it's what doomed it to be closed. I firmly believe that if it had not been revamped they would have moved the show, and not closed it.

I always loved the Beetlejuice show and still liked even the latest version, even if not as much as the earlier ones. I hate to see it go and I feel that Universal made a huge mistake in keeping something like Fear Factor over Beetlejuice, unless they have bigger plans on the horizon for that area. However when thinking about Universal they aren't like Disney, who has room to build and grow, Universal has to close current attractions in order to make way for new ones. Which makes it exciting to hear what's coming but also sad to hear what's leaving.

If you missed the Beetlejuice show while it was running below you can watch the last two versions of the show.