Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Photowalking Disney World's Animal Kingdom

Monday morning I met Kelley and Dennis at Animal Kingdom so they could visit the parks during the day. Since I was there anyway, I decided to do a Photowalk and to visit the new "Finding Nemo, The Musical" show.

"Finding Nemo, The Musical" is a different style of show, using puppets of varying sizes that are operated by people in full view of the audience. I've always thought of puppet shows as the kind where the puppeteer is hidden from view and only the puppets are in sight. When the show first started, I thought "Well, this is crap!" but I have to admit after a few minutes of watching it, I was genuinely drawn in and actually enjoying the production. As I told Cindy later, "It was sort of avant-garde and Cirque du Soleil-esque in nature." The skill and talent of the various actors (and I call them actors rather than puppeteers because of their skill and talent) made this so much more than a simple puppet show set to music. Their singing abilities, body language and skill at manipulating their respective puppets are pretty astounding to witness when they are performing and using all of those techniques at once. It's a great show and I recommend it. Get there early if you want a middle (best) seat and of course be prepared to share the show with lots and lots of kids.



Here's on of my favorite pictures from the Photowalk. It is a shot of the Forbidden Mountain, which houses the Expedition Everest ride, as seen from one of the bridges with trees, the river and some structures framing it. The entire "feel", with the slightly washed out look, somewhat abstract sense and framing of the elements, reminds me of the paintings of the late Bob "The Joy of Painting" Ross ("They're happy trees!") who used to be, and probably still is in some markets, a staple of PBS programming when I was growing up. It just really looks more like a painting than a photograph to me. What do you think?



If you're interested, there are 69 other photos of Animal Kingdom and "Finding Nemo, The Musical." Just click on the Flickr badge in the right column and look for the Animal Kingdom set.

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