Mouse Extra

It is easy to miss the Flights of Wonder while you are running as fast as you can from Expedition Everest to Kilimanjaro Safaris to hit your FastPass time.  But do yourself a favor.  After you are done experiencing the Animal Kingdom’s e-tickets, make your way back to Asia for this amazing and hilarious show.

Flights of Wonder is a 25 minute show that features dozens of birds from all over the world doing things that will amaze you and often make you smile.  The show actually begins outside the theater where a handler is holding a Eurasian Eagle Owl named Bayo.  Now all Bayo does is sit quietly on his handlers arm while the handler speaks in detail about this stunningly beautiful creature and takes questions from the audience.  But even this small Q-and-A session explains the power of live animals and why Walt Disney loved them so much.  During this whole session everyone, especially the little ones, have their eyes glued to Bayo and are absolutely fascinated with him.

When show time arrives the audience heads into the well-themed Caravan Stage Theater for the show.  Flights of Wonder is not a typical Disney show.  There are no singing characters or Broadway-style dancers.  There is just a host, some comic relief from an actor-comedian named Joe who is playing a tour guide, and a whole mess of birds.  The birds perform an array of amazing stunts, but they are mostly examples of their natural behavior and not learned tricks.  They swoop down across the audience, snatch grapes out of the air, and generally amaze the audience.

Of course, it is hard not to enjoy a singing parrot named, I believe, Groucho.  Groucho apparently has a rather extensive repertoire of favorites he sings for the audience, so you can never be quite sure what he will belt out during your show.  Needless to say, I don’t think Groucho next job is going to be at the Festival of the Lion King, but hey, he tries hard and always gets a deserving round of applause.

As Disney’s Animal Kingdom continues to grow, most of the attention of fans will probably be focused on new attractions.  Racing across the park to ride the new rides or see the new shows might cause you to miss some of the park’s best and most astounding offerings.  The Animal Kingdom is best experienced by seeing the big draws and then taking your time to enjoy the animals and what the park is really all about.  There is no better example of this than Flights of Wonder.  Don’t miss it.

For those of you that are unaware, Disney has announced the closing of one of the original attractions of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. According to the Orlando Sentinel,  , the last show will be September 27th. This is not a terribly compelling show for sure. It was one of those attractions that after seeing it once, you never went back. For those who have never seen it, it was a small theater where Pocohontas appeared with Grandmother Willow and several live animals. The whole thing was environmentally educational and small children were able to sit up front for a better view.

Disney has not announced a replacement. The demise of this attraction has been rumored for some time. One rumor placed an animal actors show at this location. Another rumor placed a show around Merlin and a dragon here. As many of you are aware, Camp Minnie Mickey was initially a temporary land with the Beastly Kingdomme eventually occupying this spot. This closure almost assuredly is not a sign of the coming of the Beastly Kingdomme. In all likelihood, the area will remain a low-key stage show.

I have a soft spot for animals, I must admit.  So when I see stories come out of Disney’s Animal Kingdom like this one, I just can’t help but post it.  I mean, the picture alone is worthy of making it on the website.

Yes, that’s a beautiful new 300-plus pound bouncing baby boy, welcomed into the world welcomed into the world just this past weekend.  The mother’s name is Moyo, and I guess she hasn’t decided yet what to name her new son.

This is really what makes the Animal Kingdom such a great place.  To see the effort it takes to raise this elephant from birth to adulthood is just incredible.  As I have said before, Disney should really bring guests closer to these animals.  I think it would truly enhance the experience.

It is time for me to vent a bit.  There was only one thing in my recent 10 day trip to Walt Disney World that truly made me mad.  It happened last Monday when we all planned on going to the Animal Kingdom for “rope drop”.

The night before, I saw in my hotel that the Animal Kingdom was going to have an early Extra Magic Hour the next day.  So in response, we decided to go to that park and take advantage of the extra time to get on the “e-tickets” that tend to get crowded very quickly over there.  So I got my entire family out of bed before 7am, and they were not all thrilled about that to say the least, and headed over to the park.

We got there a few minutes after 8am, and as we walked towards the gate and through the bag check I noticed a significant line at the turnstile.  It seemed strange to me to even have a line, but what was even stranger was that as we got closer I noticed it wasn’t moving at all.  What could be happening?  There was a good crowd of people so we clearly weren’t the only ones coming for Extra Magic Hours.

Soon I realized the park was not yet open.  What was going on here?  It was only maybe five minutes after 8am.  All these people could not be here this early unless they also knew about the Extra Magic Hours.  I looked around for a cast member and noticed a man swamped with people and questions.  I made my way over and eavesdropped on his conversation with other guests.

He was apologizing and telling his angry customers that management had no idea it was supposed to be and Extra Magic Hour this morning.   Their schedules didn’t say this, and he didn’t know what to tell us.  All he could say was that management knew now of the problem and expectations.  SO I assumed they were scrambling to open as soon as possible.

But the hour crept by and crowds grew larger and larger.  At about 8:40 we were let threw the turnstiles only to wait the remaining twenty minutes in front of the Tree of Life.  Instead of an Extra Magic Hour of small lines and low crowds, we faced a completely packed park filled with ornery guests.  Disney did nothing to rectify the situation or even offer and apology of some sorts.  Only that one poor cast member swamped with angry resort guests ever offered a simple “sorry”.

What could they have done?  Perhaps nothing, but why did this happen?  How could such a terrible mistake be made?  Has this ever happened to you?

Many hardcore disney fans, myself included, always get a little disappointed when we see that dragon head at the entrance to the Animal Kingdom. For those of you who don’t know (and I am sure there are not many of you reading this that don’t), there was to be a land in the Animal Kingdom themed to mythical animals, like dragons and unicorns. It was to be built where Camp Minnie-Mickey currently sits. The Camp was supposed to be merely a temporary land until Asia was completed and construction of the Beastly Kingdomme could begin in earnest.  It seems the Disney execs felt another land was needed for the opening of the park to help with the anticipated heavy crowds so they threw together the idea of Camp Minnie Mickey on the fly.

But the Beastly Kingdomme was to be truly amazing. Here’s an early release from Disney as to what the land was to be:

“Beastly Kingdom is the realm of make believe animals, animals that don’t really exist, out of legends, out of fairy tales, out of storybooks. Like our legends and fair tales about imaginary animals, this land is divided into realms of good and realms of evil.

The evil side is dominated by DRAGON’S TOWER, a burned, wrecked castle inhabited by a greedy, fire breathing dragon. He hordes a fabulous treasure in his tower chamber. The castle is also inhabited by bats who speak to us from their upside down perches. The bats have a plan. They enlist our help trying to rob the dragon and fly us off on a wild chase. At last, we meet the fire-breathing dragon himself and barely escape un-barbecued.

The good side of this land is ruled by QUEST OF THE UNICORN. An adventure which sends us through a maze of medieval mythological creatures to seek the hidden grotto where the unicorn lives. There is also FANTASIA GARDENS. A gentle musical boat ride through the animals from Disney’s animated classic, “Fantasia.” Both the crocodiles and hippos from ” Dance of the Hours” and the Pegasus, fauns and centaurs from Beethoven’s “Pastoral” are found here.”

Other details have been rumored from its original concepts. It is thought that the bridge leading to the area was to be guarded by a troll underneath. There was to be a Mother Goose shop. Perhaps coolest of all, there was to be an outdoor eatery surrounding a small pond. Every so often faint bagpipes would be heard and the loch ness monster would surface from the center of the water.

Unfortunately, Disney execs wanted to make sure that Dinoland was there for the opening and before the Beastly Kingdomme could be built, the funds for it were pulled. But is it gone forever?

Maybe maybe not. The Beastly Kingdom seems to have taken over for Westcot as the project that could be announced at any moment. A few things seems to favor its possible construction. The park itself suffers from the stigma as a “half day” park. Whether or not its true, the park certainly suffers from a low number of single day ticket purchases. Disney continues to tinker with ways to increase these one day visitors. By increasing the number of attractions, the operating hours of the park could be increased going a long way to ending that stigma. Some dragons and unicorns could help.

The next question would then be the content of the area. Under current management philosophy, that seems unlikely. One rumor (which I wrote about awhile back) was the area was actually going to be redesigned into a Narnia land. I suppose if Prince Caspian becomes a hit that would be a possibility. Still, rumors are swirling in Tinseltown that Disney wants out of the Narnia business.

In this day of synergy and over pixarization, the original plans are a real breath of fresh air. Hopefully, Disney realizes this. Of course, the $300 million plus price tag for a Beastly Kingdomme as originally designed seems daunting. But who knows, Disney is ponying up over a billion to fix the California Adventure mess. And if the Wizarding World of Harry Potter starts to effect Disney attendance, they will do something. And then maybe we will get our dragon and unicorn after all.

 Today’s column is from Mike, contributing writer to Mouse Extra

Today we have our final installment of our tribute to Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s 10th anniversary by looking at the park’s wildest stars.  COntributing writer Mike takes to the high Himalayas to research one of the world’s most elusive animals.

Species: Yeti
Habitat: Mountains/Valleys of Nepal & Tibet
Status: Presumed Endangered
DAK Location: Expedition: Everest

The Yeti, often referred to in folklore and stories as the abominable snowman, can be found in the mountainous valleys of Nepal and Tibet. The animal’s name comes from a tibetan word, yeh-teh, meaning “rock bear.” Despite the name, the yeti is not related to the bear but is instead a primate. In fact, it is the largest primate, outweighing a male silverback by 50%. Also, unlike other primates except man, it walks upright.

We know very little about this elusive creature as it lives in one of the most remote, least populated regions of the planet. It was years before the first westerner actually saw one. Simliar to the mountain gorilla and okapi of the Congo, western science presumed the creature to be myth even though the local populace was well aware of its existence. One of the first westerners to see evidence of the animal was Lt. Col. Charles Howard-Bay in a trek to the region sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society. He saw only the tracks of the yeti. As thrill seekers from abroad continued to visit the area’s impressive mountains, more tracks were spotted. In 1953, Sir Edmond Hillary spotted footprints while climbing Everest. Shortly thereafter, another trip sponsored by the RGS actually spotted the creature at about 15,000 feet. The imposing mountains continue to draw climbers and visitors, but encounters still are rare.

The reasons for the rarity of these encounters stems from fact that the creature is rare in number and lives exclsuively in a remote area. The population is limited by the amount of food in its local habitat. As is typical in many primates, the creatures have large canines for demonstration purposes. They are mostly vegetarians but will occassionally eat carrion or small animals. To date, there have been no substaniated attacks on humans although there have been reports of the creature destroying property.

The primates generally live in the dense valley vegetation. When visual encounters do occur, the creature is usually attempting to cross mountain passages to get to the next valley. Still, the animal is often not seen. One defense mechanism of the creature is to crouch down and remain perfectly still. To snow leopards and mountain climbers, the yeti will look exactly like a large rock in the distance. There are many local tales of people walking along a mountain pass only to see a “boulder” leap up and run away.

As one would suspect, the yeti plays a key role in the mythology of the region. In some local cultures, the yeti is believed to be the ghost of someone who has recently died. Other cultures see the yeti as a demon who guards the mountains from trespassers. This, of course, contradicts recent studies showing the creature to be a vegetarian. For the longest time, the gorilla suffered from this misconception, as well. Confrontations between man and yeti have been very rare. As people continue to travel to the area, these will invariably increase. In all likelihood, there is nothing to fear from the animals despite their reputation as demonic protectors of the Himalayans, even though they seem to have a strange dislike for trains…