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Greetings from the Magic Kingdom

Happy New Year! Hope all is well with you and yours. I've been eating, sketching and eating some more, along with a healthy dose of Disneyland. Since I don't have access to a scanner for my doodles I have something else.

Of the various attractions and rides (all of which are fine) the Enchanted Tiki Room is one of the few that still brims with the fun and creativity that reminds me of the Disney I associate with my childhood.

Aside from Roger Rabbit, I don't remember watching many of the big Disney feature animations, I remember some in my teens, but as a kid what I loved were all the shorts and specials that were produced for television. All the instructional Goofy shorts from the 50's like "How to Sleep", "How to be a Detective" or "The Art of Skiing" and "Californy er Bust" or the one below "Motor Mania".



There is a sense of the familiar, but with a comedic push to send it over the edge. They have that "it's funny because it's true" quality that I can more easily relate to than a sing songy musical number in one of the many features. Don't get me wrong the features have heart and more than a few genuine moments with some stunning animation to boot. But I was just more taken by Mickey, Donald, Chip and Dale and the other stable of Disney characters that would appear in reruns on TV throughout my childhood.

The Tiki room has some of that comedic fun. Being hosted by 4 precarious Parrots, Jose, Michael, Pierre, and Fritz. All with silly regional accents from their respective homelands. Mexico, Ireland, France and Germany. They have fun exaggerated personalities that let you forget for a moment that they are actually robotic.

The Enchanted Tiki Room displays Walt's first use of Audio Animatronic figures, a wild, and rousing cast of over 250 talking, singing, and dancing birds, flowers, masks drummers, and tiki-poles.
Before you enter you are greeted by the Tiki Gods, Kor, Maui, Pele, Rongo, Tangaroa, and Tangaroa-Ru. They randomly light up and tell you their story.
A fun little preview for whats inside.
For me though the highlight is the opening number "In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room" it truly draws you into the experience and feels as if you have been transported to the same place and time as the island retreat the Tiki room was meant to portray. Tops in my book!!