Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends Falls Flat
For the first time, my family and I watched the Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends show at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom this past weekend. My triplets are nearly three years old now, and it seemed like the perfect time to take them to a show where they could see forest animals close up. Unfortunately, we left the show with the consensus among us that it was boring.
The story starts with Pocahontas singing the theme song from the Pocahontas movie, “Colors of the Wind” and falls flat after that. Pocahontas discovers the forest is in danger and refers to various forest creatures as she talks about the impending danger with Grandmother Willow. An animatronic tree comes to life onstage to represent the Grandmother Willow character from the movie.
Warning: A small child behind us was so frightened by Grandmother Willow that he began crying hysterically. I had to agree with the child that the tree and the voice of the character were unsettling.
Next, a variety of animals take turns running across the back of the stage or poking their heads out of a hole in a pretend tree. The animals are not very exciting (e.g., ducks, an opossum, a raccoon, and a skunk) and make such brief appearances on stage that the children watching don’t even get a chance to enjoy them. The most exciting part of the show occurs when Pocahontas carries a snake across the front row of the audience. The first four rows of the center section of the theater are reserved for children under 10 giving them a great view of the snake, but the premium seats don’t enhance the quick glimpses of the animals appearing on stage.
Bottom-line, I would not recommend this show to families except those with children who truly love Pocahontas. There are much better opportunities to see animals close up at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I expected this performance to be similar to the reptile show from Walt Disney World’s now closed Discovery Island including an opportunity to be educated about the interesting animals in the show, audience interaction and great close up views of the animals. With those expectations, it’s not surprising I was so disappointed with Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends.
3 Comments
Hi Susan – what a great website!! My husband and I were JUST talking about Walt Disney World, today.
Last year, around this time, I flew to Florida for a week to participate in a meeting that my company held at the Board Walk Hotel – at Disney World. We brought our then, 18 month old triplets, with us – - but didn’t bring them in to the park. Today we were discussing when would be the “optimal” time to take our kids to Florida, so everyone gets the most out of the experience – - and we’re thinking that when they’re around 7, it will be perfect. Until then – we’re going to save our $$ and visit the still fun, but much less spectacular Disney Land in LA!!
You are more than welcome to add our site to your blogroll. I hope you were able to get some good info on beach wagons. We love our Phantom (former company name – Bobby Built), although, we’ll probably be ordering the carrier for the back of our car to hold it, because it’s SO large, it can be very difficult to transport.
Take care!!
Thank you, Jen! Your site has been added to my blogroll. It’s great to have a triplet mom’s blog represented!
My husband and I are definitely thinking of buying the Phantom beach wagon. We’re also thinking about getting the carrier for the back of our minivan. Now we just have to decide between the 45″ and 48″ wagon. Oh, the unique things we have to think about as parents of triplets!
I just had a comment about your review. I am a cast member and currently work at Grandmother Willow’s grove and I just wanted to tell you somethings. Grandmother Willow and the little tree Sprig are not animatronic. They are puppets, and I guess it would be easy to think they are animatronic because they move so well. The puppeteers are very talented. Grandmother Willows voice is the same as the movie, it would have been really weird to change that because it “sounds scary” Another thing about the animals is that if you acually see what it takes to train one of them you would be so surprised. It really makes you appreciate them and what the trainers do. Anything onstage can spook them. They are also nocturnal so not only are the trained to do a behavior but they are also trained to stay awake. No one knows excally what they will do when come out on stage. Its a big deal that they even come out because they are not forced to do anything. There is a training session daily at 12:55 and I would encourage you to see that even if you dont want to see the show. About Pocahontas, that song is one of the hardest to sing in all the Disney shows. She is exposed to all kinds of weather and its hard to make something “perfect” when she sings that over 4 times a day. I hope that this gave a bit more insight into what goes on in the background and why it might not have been as great as you expected. But when its a live animal show, I think peoples expectations should be lowered a bit. These are wild animals. I hope this just encourages you to see the show again perhaps in a different light
thank you! 