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Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

THE LEGEND OF THE LION KING

By Jim Korkis

Disney’s animated feature The Lion King (1994) was so hugely popular that there were seven different adaptations of the story for different Disney theme parks.

The Lion King Celebration was a parade at Disneyland from 1994-1997 with six floats and dancers dressed in animal costumes. Four of the floats in that parade were later moved to Walt Disney World to be included in the Festival of the Lion King show in Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Camp Minnie-Mickey that lasted from 1998 – 2014. It then re-opened (with some changes) in the new Harambe Theater in 2014.

A variation of this show opened in Hong Kong Disneyland in 2005 that instead of being a celebration with Simba and his friends, as it was at Walt Disney World, is a re-telling of Simba’s life by Rafiki. Disneyland Paris had The Legend of the Lion King show with human actors from 2004 -2007 in Discoveryland. That park also debuted The Lion King: Rhythms of the Pride Lands in 2019 in Frontierland.

Also in 2019, Disney California Adventure opened The Tale of the Lion King where a narrator leads a troupe of performers called the “Storytellers of the Pride Lands.”

For the Magic Kingdom, The Legend of the Lion King sponsored by Kodak premiered July 8, 1994 and lasted until February 23, 2002, when it was ousted from its theater in Fantasyland and replaced by Mickey’s PhilharMagic that opened in October 2003.

This Walt Disney World show was unique in its approach to the story of The Lion King, since it used huge, over-sized puppets that Disney dubbed “humanimals”, a human puppeteers trained by people who had worked with Jim Henson and who operated animal puppets from a cramped pit space under the stage.

Ten puppeteers did the show three times per hour and it included a pre-show with a live costumed Rafiki warming up the audience. Rafiki also appeared in the show itself, with narration to help the transition between scenes.

The Mufasa figure measured seven feet long from the tip of the tail to the top of the head, and was perched upon an eighteen foot tall Pride Rock. During the course of the show, Simba grows from a two and a half foot cub to a seven foot full grown lion. In one scene it took five puppeteers to do the movements for just that one large figure.

The stage itself was 125 feet wide, making it larger than the seating area that could hold five hundred guests. That extra width was needed for the set pieces that would move in to the viewing area from every direction, and depicted the rocky Pride lands of Africa, deep jungle, a moonlit watering hole, and the Serengeti grasslands. At the back of the stage was a huge oval screen where clips from the animated film were shown at appropriate times during the show.

“It’s hard to believe they are not live performers in costume,” said show director Fran Soeder who had also directed DHS’s Voyage of the Little Mermaid and The Hunchback of Notre Dame that also utilized puppets. “It’s like watching an animation ‘cel’ from the film come to life. Humanimals provide an exciting new way to translate an animated feature into a Disney stage show.

“Every element of this show seems to live and breathe, including Africa, where the story takes place. Each and every part of this show interacts with the others, making the aduience feel they are in the heart of the film.”

The show included the beloved songs from the film on a pre-recorded track including Circle of Life, I Can’t Wait to Be King, Be Prepared, Can You Feel the Love Tonight and Hakuna Matata. The cast included Mufassa, Simba, Nala, Scar, Zazu, Pumba, Timon and the hyenas Shenzi, Banzai and Ed.

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Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: FEBRUARY 8 TO FEBRUARY 16, 2020

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

For more on February, 2020 at Disney World see this.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/8-2/16/20

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-10p 2/8, 9a-9p 2/9 through 2/13, 9a-10p 2/14, 9a-11p 2/15, and 9a-10p 2/16

Epcot will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 8a-8p every day

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 9a-8p every day

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/8-2/16/20

• Saturday 2/8 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 2/9 Morning: none Evening: Hollywood Studios
• Monday 2/10 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Tuesday 2/11 Morning: none Evening: Epcot
• Wednesday 2/12 Morning: none Evening: Magic Kingdom
• Thursday 2/13 Morning: Epcot Evening: none
• Friday 2/14 Morning: Magic Kingdom Evening: none
• Saturday 2/15 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 2/16 Morning: none Evening: Hollywood Studios

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/8-2/16/20

Magic Kingdom: Afternoon parade: 3p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/8-2/16/20

Happily Ever After  at Magic Kingdom: 8p every day

Epcot Forever at Epcot: 9p every day

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p every day

Star Wars Show and Fireworks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p every day

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 6:45 and 8p 2/8; 7 and 8.15p 2/9 through 2/16

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/8-2/16/20

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

YOUR PERSONAL DISNEY LIBRARY (25)

By Jim Korkis

• Design Just for Fun by Bob Gurr 
• Bob Gurr Legendary Imagineer by Bob Gurr 

I’ve known Bob Gurr for years, and he even wrote the foreword for my book The Unofficial Disneyland 1955 Companion, but that friendship does not influence my saying that both of his books are valuable additions to your Disney library.

They give insight into the process of Imagineering as well as never-before revealed stories about some of the incidents and people who worked on building Disneyland and Walt Disney World. He is justifiably proud of what he has done but does not brag or overstate his accomplishments, which is refreshing.

Imagineer Gurr designed and built most, if not all, the major ride vehicles at Disneyland and later at Walt Disney World including the Autopia cars, Monorail, Doombuggy, Submarine, Main Street “antique” cars and more. He is a no-nonsense, opinionated Disney Legend, and his honesty comes across in his books, where he doesn’t hesitate to tell it like it is, rather than putting a positive “Disney spin” on the story.

Design Just for Fun is a hardcover book with just over two hundred pages that came in two editions (red cover that was autographed and blue cover that was not, but both contain the exact same content) for a limited edition of only one thousand copies and was released in 2012. It quickly went out of print and Bob insists he will never reprint it because it was a limited edition. Trying to obtain a copy today can cost a couple hundred dollars.

The book is a compilation (revised and expanded) of columns he originally wrote for the Laughing Place website that have since been removed from there. Roughly two-thirds of the book covers his work at Disney from 1954 until he left in 1981 and formed GurrDesign, Inc. with the other third looking at his subsequent work, including the creation of the original King Kong for Universal Studios Hollywood.

The chapters are short since they started as a simple column. There are 65 of them, meaning that they generally run about two or three pages and are filled with many black-and-white as well as color photos that you probably never previously saw anywhere else. The concentration is not on his life but the jobs he did. It is anecdotal and sometimes technical but always fascinating. The foreword is by Marty Sklar.

Bob Gurr Legendary Imagineer: Life and Times – Disney and Beyond is a softcover that runs just less than two hundred pages and was released in 2019. There are thirty-two chapters and again each is short. Unfortunately, there are no photos or illustrations at all other than the cover. Bob intended this to be a “companion” to his previous book so doesn’t rehash that information.

Like the first book, the content here is “chatty” and reveals a little more personal information. He doesn’t limit himself to Disney but talks about his love of aviation and auto racing, and his philosophy of living among other things so only about a dozen chapters focus just on Disney.

If you are a real fanatic, you can try tracking down Bob Gurr’s first book, How To Draw Cars of Tomorrow (by “Henry Gurr”) was published in 1952 followed up with Automobile Design: The Complete Styling Book (by “R.H. Gurr”) in 1955.

These books were written before his involvement with Disney, and focus on car design and technique. Why the “other” names? Over the decades Bob has gone by Robert Henry Gurr, Henry Gurr, R.H. Gurr, Bob Gurr, and even Gurrini (“Italian sports cars were the big thing. My sports car sketches in 1952 carried the identity – Stabilimenti Gurrini, as in Stabilimenti Ferrari.”). Walt Disney called him “Bobby”.

You won’t find this information in his books. This is something extra for readers of this website. In addition, there is also a DVD documentary sometimes available Bob Gurr: Turning Dreams into Reality.

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Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: FEBRUARY 1 TO FEBRUARY 9, 2020

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

For more on February, 2020 at Disney World see this.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/1-2/9/20

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-10p 2/1, 9a-9p 2/2 and 2/3, 9a-8p 2/4 through 2/6, 9a-9p 2/7, 9a-10p 2/8, and 9a-9p 2/9

Epcot will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 7a-8p 2/1 through 2/3, and 8a-8p 2/4 through 2/9

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 9a-8p every day

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/1-2/9/20

• Saturday 2/1 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 2/2 Morning: none Evening: Hollywood Studios
• Monday 2/3 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Tuesday 2/4 Morning: none Evening: Epcot
• Wednesday 2/5 Morning: none Evening: Magic Kingdom
• Thursday 2/6 Morning: Epcot Evening: none
• Friday 2/7 Morning: Magic Kingdom Evening: none
• Saturday 2/8 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 2/9 Morning: none Evening: Hollywood Studios

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/1-2/9/20

Magic Kingdom: Afternoon parade: 3p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/1-2/9/20

Happily Ever After  at Magic Kingdom: 8p every day

Epcot Forever at Epcot: 9p every day

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p every day

Star Wars Show and Fireworks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p every day

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 6:45 and 8p 2/1 through 2/8; 7 and 8.15p 2/9

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/1-2/9/20

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

NEW FASTPASS+ TIERS FEBRUARY 19TH AT DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

As of February 19th, FastPass+ availability and tiering will change at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and may shortly change again with the opening of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway on March 4th.

At the moment, on February 19th, Tier 1 will include Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Slinky Dog Dash. I expect the Runaway Railway to join Tier 1 at or shortly after its opening. Guest may pre-book, per day, only one of these two/three rides.

Tier 2 FastPass+ includes twelve more attractions, of which the highest priorities are Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Toy Story Mania, and Tower of Terror. The next highest priorities will be Star Tours, the Frozen Sing Along, and for those who care to ride it, Alien Swirling Saucers. Guests may pre-book per day two or three of these twelve Tier 2 rides (two if they’ve booked a Tier 1).

Meanwhile, the other new ride at the Studios, Rise of the Resistance, does not have either FastPass+ or standby-line availability. Guests in the park have the opportunity to sign up for a “Boarding Group” via the My Disney Experience App as soon as the park hits its official opening time.

UPDATED TOURING PLANS AND FASTPASS+ FOR DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Below are some thought on how to adapt the two Hollywood Studios days in my itinerary. I will continue to revise these as Tiers or other stuff changes.

The basic strategy is, if you can

• To book a Tier 1 for each of the two days in the itinerary
• To each day arrive an hour before opening, and
• To see any Tier 1s you were unable to book right at park opening.

This will work when there are only two Tier 1 rides available, even if you can’t pre-book either, and will also work when there are three Tier 1s, so long as you can pre-book at least one of them.

If you can, on Day One book Smuggler’s Run as your Tier 1, and Toy Story Mania (early in the morning) and Star Tours as your Tier 2s.

Then, when you are let into the park, which will be before official open, head towards a Tier 1 you could not book (if any), and if you’ve been able to book both or none, head towards Toy Story Land. Look for cast members on the way to Toy Story Land with iPads, have the app open to the “Book a Touring Group” options, and at park open walk towards the cast member while trying to get a Boarding Group for Rise of the Resistance on the app. If you have trouble, get help from the cast member you’ve so wisely stalked.

See Slinky Dog, ride Alien Swirling Saucers, see Toy Story Mania using your FastPass+, then plan the rest of the day based on your Boarding Group, your Tier 1 return, and the fact that you will wish to return in the evening for either Fantasmic or the Star Wars evening fireworks and projection show (you’ll see the other on Day two). If you have pre-booked Slinky Dog Dash for Day Two, you can either keep that or swap it out for another Tier 2 ride on Day Two, depending on how much you enjoyed it.

You do Rise of the Resistance on Day One so that if there are any problems with the ride (or you want to re-ride it) you can do it on Day Two. You book Smugglers Run as your Tier 1 for Day 1 so that when you are trying to connect for your Boarding Group, you are in a possibly less congested area of the park than you would be if you were near Galaxy’s Edge.

For Day Two, pre-book another Tier One if you can, and as your Tier 2s book Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, framed around the hour of your Tier 1.

As on Day 1, arrive well before opening, enter the park as soon as you are allowed to, and when the park officially opens book your Ride of the Resistance Boarding Group while heading to any Tier 1s you don’t yet have booked, you want to repeat from yesterday.

If all the Tier 1s you need are covered from either your first day in the Studios or FastPass+ today, then you could at open instead head to Rock ‘n’ Roller, then, if waits aren’t too long, Tower of Terror. This will let you if you wish swap your Tier 2 FastPass+ for these for other Tier 2 shows that you may have missed on Day One, such as the Frozen Sing Along, Beauty and the Beast, or Indiana Jones.

The rest of Day Two, work to see what you’ve missed in around your FastPass+, and return in the evening for whatever evening show you did not see on Day 1.

(For a one day itinerary, see this post from Josh.

IF THERE ARE THREE TIER 1 RIDES AND YOU CAN’T PRE-BOOK ANY

See two of them at park open, one each day, and get in line for the third a minute or two before park close. Depending on show and park schedules, this may force you to miss one of the evening shows.

IF MICKEY AND MINNIE’S RUNAWAY RAILWAY DOES NOT OFFER FASTPASS+

As a dedicated Bayesian forecaster, I expect Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway to open with Tier 1 FastPass+. If instead its opens with Boarding Groups, sign up for a boarding group for it first thing on Day 2. If it opens with standby access only, then see it either first thing either day, or get in line for it a few minutes before park close.

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Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

TRADER SAM’S GROG GROTTO

By Jim Korkis

Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto opened in Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort in April 2015 as part of the rehab of that resort. The new bar was the work of former Imagineer Brandon Kleyla, now a member of Universal Creative, who was also responsible for Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar that opened at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim in May 2011.

The character of Trader Sam is a cannibal salesman prominently located near the end of the iconic Jungle Cruise attraction since Disneyland opened in 1955. He is the “head salesman” of the jungle, trying to get ahead by offering two of his shrunken heads for “one of yours” because “his business is shrinking”.

Kleyla worked at Disneyland as a skipper on the Jungle Cruise in 2005-2006 during its 50th anniversary and his memories helped inspire both Trader Sam tiki bars, although Kleyla prefers that they be called “explorer’s bars” because they incorporate so many different Disney adventure elements like the mythology of Indiana Jones and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

As Kleyla told me when I interviewed him in 2019, “Anaheim Trader Sam is the true Trader Sam. This came up several times when we started working on the Florida Trader Sam’s. At one point it came up to remove the Marc Davis Sam from the Jungle Cruise attraction and replace him with Anaheim Sam, which I think the majority of us opposed.

“So I simply came up with the fact that the Florida Sam is Anaheim Sam’s cousin, and he runs the east coast. Simple and we get the best of both. And I concreted that idea by creating a black and white photo of the two of them standing together and posted it on the wall.

“Sam’s expertise in head-shrinking potions grew into an interest in mixology. Bitten by the bartending bug (just one of thousands he’s been bitten by), Sam sailed the Seven Seas. Countless tropical locales were explored for mystical ingredients to mix into his delectable libations.

“Along the way, he picked up many of trinkets and artifacts that you see around here. In the tiki bar business, it’s a jungle out there. But once Trader Sam began serving his exotic elixirs to his guests, the word really spread!”

The Enchanted Tiki Bar in Anaheim is set during the time period of 1930-1950 while the Grog Grotto reflects 1950-1970. It includes more elements of the extinct Magic Kingdom 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction because that was an iconic Walt Disney World ride.

Kleyla said, “I just wanted the bars to be a dash of Adventureland, two dashes of Jungle Cruise, a sprinkling of Indiana Jones, and a little Enchanted Tiki Room icing on top. One of my biggest concerns was that we had to make sure people knew that this wasn’t The Adventurers Club, even though there are interactive elements.

“I grew up in Florida and was always too young to get into the Adventurers Club.  So I actually never got to go in ever!  I was there for the night it was closing and didn’t get in so I did not get a chance to experience The Adventurers Club.

“That being said, I certainly did my homework, talked to some of the original cast, and watched plenty of videos. Certainly there are references to the Club in both locations but we tried hard to differentiate ourselves.

“When it came to salvage the Club, most of the stuff was in such bad shape from just being in there so long, that you really couldn’t get much more use out of it. That and the fact that people were stealing things right off the walls before the club closed.   A lot of the stuff from the Club actually got picked over and taken to Mystic Manor in Hong Kong.”

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Thanks, Jim! Here’s the review of Trader Sam’s from our book:

And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!