WDW Trip Report: Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom By Night

The past few years have seen Disney's Animal Kingdom become quite lively after the sun goes down.  The park used to go to bed with the resident animals, and sights like the Tree of Life lit up were rare treats.  Now, Animal Kingdom is a full-day park, in anticipation of Screw-The-Haters-I-Think-It-Looks-Rad-As-Fudge Pandora Landora.



One of the highlights of touring Animal Kingdom in the evening is being able to ride the safari at dusk.  A few of the animals had already gone to their sleeping quarters, especially some of the more charismatic megafauna (this isn't the time to ride if you want to see elephants).  But we got to see many animals we hadn't seen before, like one of the last Black Rhinos in the world...



...the hyenas...



...a Thompson's Gazelle and an Eland calf...



...and the lions out in the open like they rule the place.



But the most exciting change to Animal Kingdom was thankfully already (finally, after many many delays) open by the time of our trip.  This giant lotus raft is the centerpiece of Rivers of Light, which finally gives Animal Kingdom a nighttime "finale" of its very own.

Now, Rivers of Light has gotten some mixed reviews.  I really liked it for what it is.  It's as if the Electric Water Pageant, Epcot's Fountain of Nations, the aurora scene from "Brother Bear", the good parts of Fantasmic (if you're wondering, yes, we still have a really long "Pocahontas" interlude), and your Yoga instructor's favorite Pintrest boards all got together and made an awesome baby... somehow.  It's short, though.  Like, really short.  And it is very much best seen from the middle of the stadium, where the mist screen projections actually focus properly.



See, we were way off to the side in the "Moon" section of the stadium, nearest the Finding Nemo theater.  We felt like we were out in the boondocks in a way I never felt with Illuminations or Fantasmic.  It was hard to tell at times whether the show still had bugs to iron out or if it was just us.

There's certainly plenty to see wherever you're sitting, thankfully.  We did like the prologue to the show a lot, with the floating fountains moving around and projections of dancing animal shadows on the opposite shore.  The latter might have been my favorite effect in the whole show.



These beautiful boats, representing the moon and sun, housed live performers dancing along to the music.  I'm told the ambitious Tapestry of Dreams parade in Epcot, which I never got to see, was rather similar in tone.



The lotuses change into colorful dancing fountains...



...and giant animal floats sail in to join the party.  As you can see in my inept night-time photography.



Finally, the river erupts into a grand celebration with the festive elements of water, fire, and light.

Fore some reason, this feels familiar.  Ah well.

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That wasn't the only nighttime party we experienced during this trip.  Our visit coincided with a Disney Vacation Club exclusive after-hours event at the Magic Kingdom.  It was nearly identical in practice to the special holiday parties, with free (and free-ish) food and drink, popular (and not) attractions running, and even special fireworks.  It was all to remind us DVC members that we are just better than other Disney guests.

Yeah, the whole thing made me a touch uncomfortable.



But being in a nearly-empty Magic Kingdom all lit up at night?  I'm not kidding, it was one of the most truly magical times I've ever been there.  The crowds earlier that same day at MK were at what I can only describe as "Hell is other people" level with a side order of sweltering heat.  Just not fun at all.  After-hours, I was able to really take everything in and appreciate the beauty of the new central hub gardens and all.

Now I staked out a spot here for the fireworks expecting maybe some cheesy pop music and a few leftovers from Wishes.  Oh, how happy I was to be wrong:






Cheesy pop music, yes.  (The soundtrack was all bland pop covers of Disney songs, which... euw.  But they did play "Eye 2 Eye" from "A Goofy Movie" and it brought the house down.)  Cheesy fireworks hell no!  This was a full-on elaborate production using pyrotechnics and effects I've never seen before.  If this is what the successor to Wishes might look like, tomorrow looks grand.

Next week: Drawings of animals!

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Art of the Day!

Another little impressionistic Epcot landscape. I love the flowers around the lagoon!

Further Trip Reportery: I Was on a Boat.

And I have seen the near-legendary Walt Disney / Salvador Dali insane crossover film "Destino" under the most convoluted circumstances imaginable.
Our story begins on board the Norwegian Spirit. As you recall from last week's post, she brought me and my family to Bermuda and back. The journey took two days coming and two and a half days going.
Having never cruised before, I enjoyed it a great deal and would highly recommend it. This is the first trip in a while where I can honestly say I feel brand new. It really changed me, and it made me want to go on more adventures once I got home.
This is largely because there's such an offbeat variety of things to do on the ship. Each night, we got a schedule from the Cruise Director of the next days events. They would include everything from musical reviews to wine tastings to Karaoke contests to Wii tournaments. Picking and choosing among the events is usually coupled with the thought-provoking fact that you will probably only know the other people who attend for a week, giving you that bravery of anonymity. Just to cover what I did:
* - I kicked all kids of ass at a Pictionary tournament that, sadly, had no prizes other than bragging rights. But they did serve Bellinis. I poked mine.
* - I swam in an Aquaswim pool. Because it was there. Because I love "GATTACA". Because I was on a ship in the middle of the cold north Atlantic at the time and I wanted to say I did.
* - I fell in love with Yellow Birds. I drank one out of a pineapple because I couldn't leave the subtropical Atlantic without saying I did.
* - I did a lot of things, mostly with my cousins and sister, that were awesome and very unlike me. Trying to describe them would be like trying to explain why that one party you went to was so amazing.
* - And, as stated above, I saw "Destino" under remarkably convoluted circumstances. Namely, the ship hosted a semi-daily art auction and they happened to be screening it, as they had an exclusive deal with Disney to show the film and sell prints of the artwork afterwards.
It is worth noting that there was free champagne at this auction.
The film is short, but it is amazing. It reminded me of the sequences from "Fantasia 2000" (which this was originally meant to be a part of), but it also reminded me a great deal of the more surreal sequences in the Anthology Films. Just consider for a moment the logistical complications of making Dali's artwork move and you have an idea of just how incredible the film is. Rumor has it that eventually we'll get a DVD release.
Eventually.
"Fantasia 2010" would be nice at this point too. I'm just sayin' is all.

"The Mind's Eye"

Thought I'd post something to make up for several recent posts which, taken together, could easily be misinterpreted as "Trish doesn't like CGI?!"
I seem to remember that there were several "Minds Eye" video compilations of early CGI shorts when I was a kid. There was no overarching story, just a thin excuse for CGI animators to experiment and have fun. The results were often very trippy and strangely beautiful. This short is one of my favorites and I was very pleased to finally find it again. Last time I saw it was at a defunct Museum of Science exhibit on special effects:




I also seem to remember that this same exhibit featured an animated music video for an old-school rap song with the chorus, "You know what time it is? You know what time it is, you know what time it is!" YouTube has failed me... sort of. You can hear the song beginning at around the three minute, ten second mark in this highly annoying and bizarre video clip. I'm usually the person who gets to say, "oh, the name of that barely-remembered movie/book/whatever was 'XYZ'", so it's frustrating when I can't remember something. It's times like these I wish the Ask the AV Club feature over at The Onion was still around. Where the heck did it go?