Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room is an attraction located in
Disneyland
Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envision ...
at the
Disneyland Resort
The Disneyland Resort, commonly known as Disneyland, is an entertainment resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division and is home to two theme parks (D ...
and in
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom Park, previously known as Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom (1971–1994) and The Magic Kingdom (1994–2017), is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, Florida. Owned and operated by The ...
at
Walt Disney World
The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...
, and previously in
Tokyo Disneyland
(local nickname ''TDL'') is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to ...
at
Tokyo Disney Resort
The (local nickname ''TDR'') is a theme park and vacation resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, just east of Tokyo. The resort is fully owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company under a licence from The Walt Disney Company, who const ...
. First opened on June 23, 1963 at the Disneyland Resort, the attraction is a pseudo-Polynesian musical Audio-Animatronic show drawing from American
tiki culture
Tiki culture is an American-originated art, music, and entertainment movement inspired by Polynesian, Melanesian and Micronesian cultures. Inspired by Oceanian art, influential cultures to Tiki culture include Australasia, Melanesia, Micrones ...
.
The Floridian version of this attraction, which was identical but with a different pre-show, was known as Tropical Serenade until 1998, when it was replaced with an updated version of the attraction called
The Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management)
''The Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management)'' was an attraction located in the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. It was an updated version of Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, which was previously known in the Florida ...
, featuring ''
Aladdin''s
Iago
Iago () is a fictional character in Shakespeare's ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Iago is the play's main antagonist, and Othello's standard-bearer. He is the husband of Emilia, who is in turn the attendant of Othello's wife Desdemona. Iago ha ...
and ''
The Lion King
''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance ...
''s
Zazu. That version operated until 2011, when it was damaged by a fire, which led to Disney reintroducing an edited version of the original Walt Disney attraction to replace it. The Japanese version of this attraction operated until 1999, when it was first redeveloped into a nightclub-style version of the show called The Enchanted Tiki Room Presents: Get the Fever!, before it was redeveloped again as
The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents Aloha e Komo Mai!, a partially ''
Lilo & Stitch
''Lilo & Stitch'' is a 2002 American animated science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 42nd Disney animated feature film, it was written and directed by Chris Sande ...
''-themed version of the attraction.
History
The attraction opened June 23, 1963, and was the first to feature
Audio-Animatronics
Audio-Animatronics (also known as simply Animatronics, and sometimes shortened to AAs) is the registered trademark for a form of robotics animation created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks, and subse ...
technology, a
WED Enterprises patented invention.
[ The attraction was sponsored by ]United Airlines
United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois. for its first 12 years; in 1976, sponsorship passed over to Hawaii's Dole Food Company
Dole plc (previously named Dole Food Company, Standard Fruit Company) is an Irish agricultural multinational corporation headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company is among the world's largest producers of fruit and vegetables, operating wit ...
, which remains the sponsor to the present day. Dole also provides the unique Dole Whip
Dole Whip (also known as Dole Soft Serve) is a soft serve dairy-free frozen dessert created by Dole Food Company in 1984. The original pineapple flavor is the best known, but eight additional fruit flavors are sold: cherry, mango, lemon, watermelo ...
soft-serve frozen dessert sold at a snack bar near the entrance.
The show was originally going to be a restaurant featuring Audio-Animatronics birds serenading guests as they dined.[ The "magic fountain" at the room's center was originally planned as a coffee station (there is still a storage compartment in its base). The restaurant would have shared its kitchen with the now-defunct ]Tahitian Terrace
The Tahitian Terrace was a Polynesian themed restaurant at Disneyland. The restaurant opened in June 1962, located just inside the Adventureland gates. It was Disneyland's first dinner theater, with entertainment provided by ''the Polynesian Revue ...
in Adventureland and the Plaza Pavilion restaurant at the corner of Main Street, U.S.A.
Main Street, U.S.A. is the first "themed land" inside the main entrance of the many theme parks operated or licensed by The Walt Disney Company around the world. Main Street, U.S.A. is themed to resemble American small towns during the early 20t ...
, since all three are actually part of the same building. Because ownership of the attraction was separate from the rest of the park, a nominal admission charge of $0.75 was levied. Because computers generate significant heat (particularly in their earliest forms) and played a central role in the attraction, the Tiki Room was also Disneyland's first fully air-conditioned building.[
It houses a Hawaiian-themed musical show "hosted" by four lifelike macaws whose plumage matches the flags of their implied countries of origin. "José" is red, white, and green and speaks with a Mexican accent voiced by ]Wally Boag
Wallace Vincent Boag (September 13, 1920 – June 3, 2011) was an American performer known for his starring role in Disney's long-running stage show the '' Golden Horseshoe Revue''.
Biography
Boag was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1920 to Evelyn ...
. "Michael" is white and green with an Irish brogue voiced by Fulton Burley
Fulton Burley (June 12, 1922 – May 7, 2007) was a Canadian performer, most widely known for his work in Disneyland. Born in Toronto, Ontario, and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Fulton came to the United States in 1943 after a telephone a ...
. "Pierre" is blue, white, and red and has a French accent voiced by Ernie Newton. Red, black and white "Fritz" has a German accent provided by Thurl Ravenscroft
Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft (; February 6, 1914May 22, 2005) was an American actor and bass singer. He was known as one of the booming voices behind Kellogg's Frosted Flakes animated spokesman Tony the Tiger for more than five decades. He was also ...
. Controversy over the use of nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
-associated white rather than gold/yellow has led counter-antisemitic groups to press for a change in Fritz's color, a change of the character to a representative of another nation, or a wholesale abandonment of the national-representative theme of flag-based color schemes and stereotyped accents.[
The main birds have changed colors over the years. In 1965, the four host birds had almost identical plumage of white, green, yellow and blue. The four macaws and the other birds are plumed with real feathers, with the exception of chest plumage. The chests are covered in custom-woven cashmere which allows the figures to "breathe" in a lifelike manner. The choice came quite by accident; in a planning meeting, Harriet Burns noticed a cashmere sweater that ]Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
was wearing which moved at the elbows exactly the way the engineers envisioned.[
]
Description
The presentation features a "cast" of over 150 talking, singing and dancing birds, flowers, the aforementioned magic fountain, tiki
In Māori mythology, Tiki is the first man created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne. He found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond; she seduced him and he became the father of Hine-kau-ataata. By extension, a tiki is a large or small wooden, ...
drummers and tiki totem poles
Totem poles ( hai, gyáaʼaang) are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually m ...
that perform the attraction's signature tunes, "The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room "The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room" is the official song for Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, an attraction at the Disneyland theme park. It was written in 1963 by Disney staff songwriters, The Sherman Brothers: Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman, and rec ...
" by the Sherman Brothers[ and "Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing". The finale has every Audio-Animatronics figure performing a rousing version of " Hawaiian War Chant". The exit music diverges from the quasi-tropical theme: namely, an arrangement of "]Heigh-Ho
"Heigh-Ho" is a song from Walt Disney's 1937 animated film ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', written by Frank Churchill (music) and Larry Morey (lyrics). It is sung by the group of Seven Dwarfs as they work at a mine with diamonds and rubi ...
" from ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...
'' with lyrics thanking guests for watching the show and hurrying them to the exit.
So innovative was the technology by 1963 standards that an Audio-Animatronics talking " barker" bird (Juan, cousin of José) once located near the walkway to beckon visitors inside, drew enormous crowds of visitors trying to catch a glimpse of it. While waiting outside in a lanai area for the show to start, visitors are serenaded by Hawaiian music which at one time included that of Martin Denny
Martin Denny (April 10, 1911 – March 2, 2005) was an American pianist and composer best known as the "father of exotica." In a long career that saw him performing up to 3 weeks prior to his death, he toured the world popularizing his brand of l ...
and Bud Tutmarc.
Polynesian gods
Polynesian is the adjectival form of Polynesia. It may refer to:
* Polynesians, an ethnic group
* Polynesian culture, the culture of the indigenous peoples of Polynesia
* Polynesian mythology, the oral traditions of the people of Polynesia
* Poly ...
are represented as well around the perimeter of the lanai, each with a rhyming legend to tell via Audio-Animatronics. Some of the gods depicted are Hina Kuluua, goddess of rain; Rongo
In Māori mythology, Rongo or Rongo-mā-Tāne (also Rongo-hīrea, Rongo-marae-roa, and Rongo-marae-roa-a-Rangi) is a major god (''atua'') of cultivated plants, especially kumara (spelled ''kūmara'' in Māori), a vital crop. Other crops cult ...
, god of agriculture; Maui, who roped the playful sun; and Tangaroa
Tangaroa (Takaroa in the South Island) is the great of the sea, lakes, rivers, and creatures that live within them, especially fish, in Māori mythology. As Tangaroa-whakamau-tai he exercises control over the tides. He is sometimes depicted a ...
, father of all gods and goddesses. A brief documentary of the history of the pineapple is presented as well. The story, filmed in the early 1960s and updated at the end with a Macromedia Flash Macromedia Flash may refer to:
*Adobe Animate, a multimedia authoring and computer animation program formerly known as ''Macromedia Flash''
*Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform ...
presentation of a parade of Dole products, is shown on a screen on the rear of the roof of the Dole snack bar at the entrance to the lanai. In the main show, one chorus of "Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing" has José crooning like Bing Crosby, Fritz scat-singing in a gravelly voice like that of Louis Armstrong, and Pierre singing like Maurice Chevalier. After this, the birds cue a sing-along from the audience, and then a whistle-along, set to a wild can-can setting of the tune.
By the mid-1990s, the Enchanted Tiki Room audio system was dramatically enhanced. Subwoofers were placed in the back rows. Modern mid-range speakers and high-range tweeters were placed throughout the room. For the first time, every instrument played in the 1963 recording could be heard clearly. Soon after, the attraction received another alteration: Nearly four minutes of the original 17-minute show were removed: a verse of "The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room", a whistling verse of "Let's All Sing Like The Birdies Sing", and the "Barcarolle" number from Offenbach's opera ''Tales of Hoffmann
''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died in ...
.'' Additional minor cuts and trims were made to voice parts to make the edits seamless.
Another renovation came to the show in the following decade: The Enchanted Tiki Room reopened in March 2005 after a seven-month refurbishment, commissioned by new Disneyland management as part of its effort to restore the park for its 50th birthday. Prior to this renovation, feathers regularly fell from the Audio-Animatronics birds, the building's thatched roof was breaking away in broad daylight, and the Audio-Animatronic figures' movements were noisy and slow. Afterward, the original show and storyline remained, but were now enhanced with a digitally remastered audio track, a new sound system indoors and out, and completely new Audio-Animatronics figures that looked the same as the previous ones, but had a completely different internal apparatus. Updates in technology allowed Walt Disney Imagineering
Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., commonly referred to as Imagineering, is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney theme parks and attra ...
, the descendants of WED Enterprises, to create a show to satisfy 21st century expectations while retaining its classic look.
A few changes were made to the show itself after its refurbishment: In the pre-show in the lanai, rhythmic drums are heard near each god indicating who was going to tell their story next, and the order of the gods was changed. In the main show, the untitled instrumental interlude was cut and the four MC birds' dialogue was abridged.
The original Tiki Room was controlled by a large roomful of floor-to-ceiling computers that operated the birds with data on magnetic tapes, located beneath the floor of the show room. Footage of the original control room[ is available on the 1965 10th anniversary special featuring Walt Disney and "Miss Disneyland 1965", "The Tencennial Special".
]
Walt Disney World
A virtually identical copy of the show, called Tropical Serenade, was installed at Walt Disney World
The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...
's Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom Park, previously known as Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom (1971–1994) and The Magic Kingdom (1994–2017), is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, Florida. Owned and operated by The ...
when that park opened in 1971. Although accompanied by a new pre-show, the main show was the same. Tropical Serenade was eventually renamed The Enchanted Tiki Birds in 1993 and replaced in 1998 with The Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management)
''The Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management)'' was an attraction located in the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. It was an updated version of Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, which was previously known in the Florida ...
, featuring Iago from '' Aladdin'' and Zazu from ''The Lion King
''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance ...
''. The attraction was met with mixed reception from guests, and considered the most panned update to an existing attraction in Disney history.
On January 12, 2011, a small fire broke out in the attraction's attic, severely damaging the Iago audio-animatronic figure. It was announced at Disney's D23 Destination D: Walt Disney World 40th Anniversary Conference that the attraction had been refurbished and returned to the original show format.[
The attraction reopened on August 15, 2011 as Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, a slightly edited version of Disneyland's original show.][
]
Tokyo Disneyland
The attraction was once a clone of the original attraction until it closed for refurbishments in 1999, when it became ''The Enchanted Tiki Room: Now Playing "Get the Fever!"'', where the attraction was re-themed as a madcap Las Vegas-style nightclub show in the middle of the jungle. In January 2008, it closed again and reopened on July 25, 2008, as The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents Aloha e Komo Mai!, featuring Stitch from ''Lilo & Stitch
''Lilo & Stitch'' is a 2002 American animated science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 42nd Disney animated feature film, it was written and directed by Chris Sande ...
''. This version is the only Enchanted Tiki Room without the attraction's classic theme song.
Original show soundtrack
On the original sound recording of the Enchanted Tiki Room for Disneyland, most of the background birds were created by Purv Pullen (aka Dr. Horatio Q. Birdbath). Pullen was a comedy talent best known for his time with Spike Jones and his City Slickers
Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911 – May 1, 1965) was an American musician and bandleader specializing in spoof arrangements of popular songs and classical music. Ballads receiving the Jones treatment were punctuated with gun ...
.[
A D23 article published for the 50th Anniversary of the attraction in 2013 also cites contributions to the voices of the background birds from ]Clarence Nash
Clarence Charles "Ducky" Nash (December 7, 1904 – February 20, 1985) was an American voice actor. He was best known as the original voice of the Disney cartoon character Donald Duck. He was born in the rural community of Watonga, Oklahoma, and ...
, Maurice Marcelino, and Marion Darlington. Nash voiced Pierre's impression of Donald Duck in the Tokyo version of the attraction, which replaced the character's impression of Maurice Chavalier in the American iterations. The chanting of the tikis in the "Hawaiian War Chant" and the voices of Maui, Ngendi, Koro and Rongo in the waiting area were provided by Hawaiian musician Ernest Tavares. Ginny Tyler
Merrie Virginia Eggers (née Erlandson; August 8, 1925 – July 13, 2012), known professionally as Ginny Tyler, was an American voice actress who performed on dozens of cartoons and animated films from 1957 to 1993. In 2006, she was named a Disn ...
voiced Pele and Tangaroa-Ru and Anne Essex voiced Hina.
Wally Boag is also credited as providing the voice for José the parrot. Longtime Disney collaborator Thurl Ravenscroft gave a 1996 ''Disneyland Inside Out'' interview to J. D. Roth
James David Weinroth (born April 20, 1968), known professionally as J.D. Roth, is an American television producer, actor, voice actor, game show host, and television personality.
Roth is the co-creator of the reality show ''The Biggest Loser'' ...
, in which he pointed out all of the various voices he performed across Disneyland, including Fritz the bass-voiced German parrot.
Facts and figures
* Grand opening: June 23, 1963
* Designer: WED Enterprises
* Sponsor: Dole Foods
* Original show length: 17:23
* Current show length: 12:33
** Pre-show: 3:58
* Show Type: Theater presentation with Audio-Animatronics
According to the book ''Disneyland Detective'' by Kendra Trahan, the "cast list" breaks down as follows:
:* 54 singing orchid
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...
s
:* 4 totem pole
Totem poles ( hai, gyáaʼaang) are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually ...
s
:* 12 tiki drummers
:* 24 singing masks
:* 7 birds of paradise
The birds-of-paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species are found in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. The family has 44 species in 17 genera. The members of ...
(the plant variety)
:* 8 macaws
:* 12 toucan
Toucans (, ) are members of the Neotropical near passerine bird family Ramphastidae. The Ramphastidae are most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five g ...
s
:* 9 forktail
The forktails are small insectivorous birds in the genus ''Enicurus''. They were formerly in the thrush family, Turdidae, but are more often now treated as part of the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. Their name derives from their lo ...
s
:* 6 cockatoo
A cockatoo is any of the 21 parrot species belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea (true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up the orde ...
s
:* 20 assorted tropical birds
See also
* 2011 in amusement parks
This is a list of events and openings related to amusement parks that occurred in 2011. These various lists are not exhaustive.
Amusement parks
Opening
* Legoland Florida - October 15, replaced the former Cypress Gardens
* Rainbow MagicLand - Ma ...
* List of Disneyland attractions
Disneyland is a theme park, conceived by Walt Disney, within the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. As of March 2017, Disneyland has 53 attractions with 49 rides (The term "attractions" is used by Disney as a catch-all term for rides, sho ...
* List of Magic Kingdom attractions
The Magic Kingdom is a theme park located at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Below is a list of the current attractions found therein, arranged by "land" and with brief descriptions.
Main Street, U.S.A.
Current attractions
* Main Str ...
* List of Tokyo Disneyland attractions
Tokyo Disneyland is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. Here are the list of attractions below.
World Bazaar
* Omnibus
* Penny Arcade
Former Attractions
* The Disney Gallery
* Main Street Cinema
Adventurel ...
Notes
References
External links
Disneyland attraction
(official website)
Magic Kingdom
(official website)
{{Authority control
Amusement park attractions introduced in 1963
Amusement park attractions introduced in 1971
Amusement park attractions introduced in 1983
Amusement park attractions that closed in 1999
Amusement park attractions introduced in 2011
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts attractions
Disneyland
Magic Kingdom
Adventureland (Disney)
Audio-Animatronic attractions
United Airlines
Tiki culture
1963 establishments in California
1971 establishments in Florida
1983 establishments in Japan
1999 disestablishments in Japan