“KiteTails” Previews With Difficulties; Downed Jet Ski and a Simba “Nosedive”
Animal Kingdom’s new “daytime spectacular”, KiteTails makes it official premier on October 1 as part of the World’s Most Magical Celebration, but MickeyBlog was there for show previews today when the show was cut short due to technical difficulties.
Artist Concept: Disney
After its debut this whimsical new show will run several times a day, entertaining guests with elaborate kites of all kinds as they soar thru the skies over the Discovery River.
Photo Credit: Disney
KiteTails seating is provided at the Discovery River Theater near DinoLand USA. This is the former viewing location for Rivers of Light, Animal Kingdom’s nighttime spectacular that has yet to return.
Pre-Show
We took our seats in the theater on this beautiful Florida morning and got ready for the show!
The pre-show began with dancing Flounder and Sebastian kites manned by cast members in front the audience seating.
Next up, Crush and Squirt and friends! 
These gorgeous, three-dimensional, box style puppets on beautiful poles were manned by cast members who made them dance and swim around the audience. The turtles’ faces and arms flowed in the wind while their tails billowed behind them like they were swimming in the air!
A large flying version of Mr. Ray, the spotted eagle ray from Finding Nemo soared across the audience and introduced the show as a band appeared on a barge on the water.
This happy band of Cast Members crossed the River right before the show.
The First (and last) Scene
Lion King inspired music began as dancing kite puppets featuring exotic birds and spinning zebras danced across the audience.
Cast members posed to allow us some photos!
A huge Zazu windcatcher ballon soared across the river, followed by a young Simba.
But it was easy to see that Simba was having difficulties. You can see his face was somewhat collapsed. 
As Timon and Pumba made their entrance, Simba took a “nose” dive and was grounded in the designated landing area to the right.
Technical Difficulties
It was obvious that there were technical difficulties,but things continued to go south. As backup ran to Simba’s aid, a jet ski that was manning one of the large props stalled near the crowd and smoke started to come off the engine.
Soon the entire vehicle tipped sideways and bewildered cast members could be seen in the water.
It only took a minute before the fateful announcement came,
Greetings everyone. Due to unforeseen circumstances, this performance of Disney KiteTails has been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
So with that, our preview ended abruptly. But have no fear, there’s another show coming up soon! We maintained our seats at the theater and waited it out.
Round 2
During the second run of the show we saw an entirely different KiteTails! The show began with some elaborate dancing jungle plants.
Soon the “Bare Necessities” song came on and a giant Baloo came dancing and swirling across the river!
Next we heard “Colonel Hathi’s March” as elephant kite puppets marched their way in front of the crowd followed by a handful of colorful swinging monkeys!
King Louie took to the sky to “I Wanna Be Like You” surrounded by some other flying jungle animals.
Though it was short, this was the end of the show. It isn’t clear if the show is intended to be several different shorter iterations throughout the day of if this second round was abbreviated due to Simba’s earlier difficulties, but things certainly went smoother this time!
Overall
One thing is for sure – while this production isn’t massive or technologically impressive, it is really no small feat for Disney cast members. Keeping flying things flying takes a ton of focus and effort and bringing the all the choreography together is a real undertaking. With the elements always a factor, the show feels like a bit of a tenuous endeavor on Disney’s part. But we here at MickeyBlog always have faith in Disney’s abilities so we will wait and see if KiteTails can live up to its full potential!
In general, this show is no replacement for Rivers of Light, but it was never intended to be. KiteTails is a short show that will entertain kids and give families a few minutes to rest their feet and enjoy a simple pleasure in the middle of the day. We can’t complain too much about that!
If you missed the live stream of the ill-fated performance or the successful one you can catch them both below!
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