The Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management)

Animatronics is the Magic Kingdom's bread and butter, no doubt about it. The current trend in theme parks may be towards faster, bigger rides or real gutbusting feats of stupidity like human slingshots but Disney is having none of that. They've worked hard to make their animatronics more life-like than ever and The Enchanted Tiki Room is a good place to see how well the investment has paid off.

The Enchanted Tiki Room is one of the older attractions at the Magic Kingdom, but it's recently been updated (hence the "Under New Management" postscript). In its original incarnation, the Enchanted Tiki Room was a large enclosed hut, full of animatronic birds and wall carvings that came to life. They all sang a little song, and some lights flashed, and it was all very cute.

The new Tiki Room starts off the same as the old. The animatronic parrots click their little beaks and swivel around on their perches, and banter about some tired dialog. Then, the new management arrives. Iago (the parrot from Aladdin) and Zazu (the bird from the Lion King) appear. True to character Iago stirs up trouble and eventually incurs the wrath of the Tiki gods.

The animatronics for Iago and Zazu are incredible when compared to those used for the original parrots. The speed and variety of movement is amazing. That said, this attraction is only slightly amusing, and still consists mostly of the old animatronic birds and carvings which, while very cute, could only hold my attention for a few minutes.

Jungle Cruise

The Jungle Cruise takes you on yet another tour of Disney animatronics, but with a difference: this time, there's an actual real person guiding your tour! That living, breathing person makes a big difference. The tongue-in-cheek delivery of the script makes the ride a lot more exciting and believable. It's not really interactive, but it feels like it. Besides, comedic timing is everything and an animatronic guide just couldn't pull this one off. The animals themselves are really well done, although the animatronics are starting to look a little dated.

Pirates of the Carribean

The Pirates of the Carribean is a classic display of Disney's older animatronics. Boats float you along through an animated celebration of some of history's more colorful plunderers. The details in this one are great, with full scale battles and pillaging scenes. The animatronics show their age though, and I wish Disney's engineers had paid more attention to the soundscape as they were designing. The "psht" of hydraulics just doesn't seem to match up with the flash of cannon fire. One small drop (in the dark) adds a bit of excitement to the otherwise tranquil ride.