Below is a video tribute to Food Rocks that includes the full original show from multiple angles.
Sources: Wikipedia, Yesterland, MartinsVids
Backtrack is a series that takes a look back at attractions of yesteryear and brings them back for a modern audience. Today, we are talking about an underrated classic audio animatronic show located inside The Land Pavilion at Epcot Center (now simply Epcot). That show was Food Rocks and it was a wonderful show. In 1994, Food Rocks replaced Kitchen Cabaret, an opening day attraction that was a parody musical review talking about the basic food groups. Rather than the softer and less recognizable sound of the previous attraction, Food Rocks parodied 80s rock hits from artists like The Police, Queen & Peter Gabriel. Your host for Food Rocks was Fudd Wrapper, a nutritional facts wrapper who also rapped about nutrition. He was voiced by Tone Loc and did a parody of his own hit "Funky Cold Medina" for the show. The show was billed as a benefit concert for good nutrition and featured quite a lineup of food music superstars including The Utensils, Pita Gabriel, The Peach Boys, The Refrigerator Police and The Get-The-Point Sisters. Each of the songs were excellent parody versions that focused on nutritional facts. The show even featured an original song for their villain metal group The Excess to sing entitled "Give Us Junk". Food Rocks had a strong 9 year run. In 2003, Food Rocks performed it's final show in order to make way for a hit new attraction coming from Disney's California Adventure. Soarin' officially opened on May 5th, 2005. The actual ride building for Soarin' began construction behind The Land before Food Rocks even closed. The space that was occupied by Food Rocks was used to connect the ride's queue with the actual theaters for the ride. Soarin' has proven to be one of Epcot's most popular attractions, but as a kid of the 90s, I'll never forget my first exposure to some of the 80s best bands by listening to their parodies in Food Rocks. Below is a video tribute to Food Rocks that includes the full original show from multiple angles. Written by Chris Coburn
Sources: Wikipedia, Yesterland, MartinsVids
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When Walt Disney World opened in 1971, it was a very different place than what we know now. It consisted of a single park (Magic Kingdom) and two hotels (Contemporary and Polynesian Village). In Magic Kingdom, one of the most popular rides was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride in Fantasyland, an attraction that became my personal favorite as a kid in the 90s. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was based on the book The Wind in the Willows and the animated short film based upon the book. It followed J. Thaddeus Toad and his madcap mania for motorcars. In the attraction, guests boarded a turn of the century motorcar and drove into Toad Hall, driving around the mansion and causing all kinds of trouble. After driving through Toad Hall, you went into town. The ride featured two tracks and each one went to different locations within Toad Hall as well as in town. One track led you to a local pub while the other led you to court. The finale of the ride had you driving onto train tracks. You hear a train coming and see a bright light ahead of you. You hear a loud crash and then wind up in Hell with demons and The Devil himself. By today's standards, this ride seems very politically incorrect, especially for a Fantasyland ride aimed at children. I suppose that's true, but nobody really complained back in the day. It was a classic attraction brought over from Disneyland and made better by having two separate paths instead of one like the California version. In 1997, it was rumored that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was closing to make way for a new attraction based on Winnie the Pooh, a much more recognized set of characters. A massive internet protest (fairly new in the late 90s) called Save Mr. Toad was formed and they continued to fight the good fight for almost a year. In August 1998, Disney confirmed that Toad would be closing to make way for Winnie the Pooh. Even though Disney did close the attraction, the devotion of those protesters helped inspire Disney to make several references to Toad in the Magic Kingdom. Inside The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh during the shaking house scene, there is a portrait on the left side of Toad handing a deed to Owl. At The Haunted Mansion, there is a memorial to Toad in the Pet Cemetery. Lastly, in Town Square Theater, there is a letter to Mickey from J. Thaddeus Toad in the queue to meet Mickey. My fondest memory of the ride was my final time on it in 1998. I heard it was closing and so I knew we had to ride. My family and I got to the town roundabout scene when the ride stopped. We were stuck for about 20 minutes, which seemed like a lot longer as a kid. While we were stopped, we chatted with a family riding on the other track and took pictures of each other. Finally, the ride resumed moving. When our car emerged from the depths of Hell, we were greeted by a seemingly thunderous applause. I thought it was for us, but realistically it was for the ride moving again. Looking back, it wasn't that special, but none the less, I'll never forget that moment. Disney's River Country was by and large one of the first true "water parks" to have opened to the masses. Sure, there had been public pool sites that offered small attractions, slides, and the works; but River Country truly helped to revolutionize the "water park" concept. It also proceeded Disney's bigger and arguably more popular water parks Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. However, it's fair to say that River Country's roughly 25 year tenure wasn't necessarily the smoothest. Historically speaking, it's one of just two Disney theme parks to have ever been permanently closed to guests (The other being the ill-fated Discovery Island, also at Walt Disney World).
Before we get to the controversy that would surround River Country only several years after its 1976 grand opening, let's discuss what the park was exactly. River Country was an outdoorsy, wilderness themed water park located close to where the old Discovery Island initially was. Attraction highlights included the large lake, which was sand-bottomed, named "Bay Cove", and "White River Rapids", a water slide that measured 330 feet in length. The park utilized a unique water filtering system that would filter water in from Bay Lake, which River Country rested right off the shore of. This system helped Disney utilize Bay Lake to its advantage to keep water flowing through it's water park. This system, however, would be the cause for River Country's earliest and, possibly most controversial, incident. Despite the filter existing to keep the water clean and healthy for swimming guests, this would not prove to be the case for the accident occurring to a small 11-year old boy only 4 years after the opening of the park in 1980. As the story goes, a rare yet deadly amoeba invaded the small child while he was swimming in the River Country water on vacation. The child died after the amoeba entered from the water through his nose, and subsequently made it's way to his brain. Fortunately for Disney and for River Country, it was proved not to be the fault of the Walt Disney Company as this had been the fourth random occurrence of the same type of amoeba taking someones life in the state of Florida. Not only that, but the filtering system proved that Disney was always attempting to control what entered its water system. Even still, this was the first and earliest strikes for Disney's first water park. Some argue this as being factual. That this incident had nothing to do with River Country's closure over 20 years later. This is entirely possible, but by the 1990's, Disney had banned anyone from swimming in Bay Lake outside of River Country. The amoeba accident was probably in the back of Disney's minds, but most would argue that River Country was simply doomed by it's competition. Typhoon Lagoon would open in 1989, and Blizzard Beach in 1995. Both of these would be massive improvements on not only River Country, but the water park concept in general. Not only that but they're both signifcantly larger than the "ole' swimming hole". Naturally, one could suspect that the theme park attendance drops caused as a result of the events of 9/11 negatively impacted River Country as well. River Country would close several months after September 11th due, presumably, to a lack in attendance. The Disney theme parks suffered greatly after the incident. In fact, income dropped so much for the parks that Disney was unable to fund the finishing of the Pop Century Resort that year as well. The other half of the Pop Century Resort, in fact, would lie dormant for years before becoming The Art of Animation Resort years later (More on that in a later installment, though). River Country would close its doors on November 2nd, 2001, and Disney would officially announce it's permanent closure in January of 2005. Written by Kyle Thibodeau One of the reoccurring articles you'll find here on "The Park Hoppers" Featured Articles page is BackTrack. Here on BackTrack, we showcase the past of theme parks. This could be anything from an old ride or show, to even old theme park's themselves that are no longer operating. BackTrack will highlight some of the best aspects of theme park history in each and every article. For the very first edition, we bring you an article on an often forgotten attraction from Magic Kingdom past.
October 1st , 1971. A day that will forever live in theme park lure. This, of course, was the opening of the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. And with the opening of the Magic Kingdom marked a slew of opening day attractions. Haunted Mansion and Hall of Presidents were there in Liberty Square on the first day of operation. Adventureland opened with The Jungle Cruise and The Swiss Family Treehouse. Meanwhile, Fantasyland introduced guests to Snow White's Adventures; Mr. Toad's Wild Ride; and, as often as it is forgotten by many, Mickey Mouse Revue. Mickey Mouse Revue was a small animatronic driven stage show located in the show building that now houses Mickey's PhilharMagic. Featuring 81 animatronic Disney related characters, the show was essentially a greatest hits compilation of famous Disney songs, new and old. Mickey Mouse appears as the conductor of the large animatronic band, similar to the role he still plays in Mickey's PhilharMagic, though the current show is a mostly 3-D experience. The show would start off with a brief pre-show hosted by Mickey himself, before guests would be ushered into the main theater room. The show would begin form there, starting with an appearance by conductor Mickey himself before ushering in The Three Little Pigs, The Three Little Pigs represent an older and more obscure part of Disney animated history, having first made their debut in a 1933 Silly Symphony cartoon by the same name. They would sing a small rendition of "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf", before disappearing to reveal Snow White kneeling in the woods with her woodland critters. Snow White sings a rendition of the beloved classic "I'm Wishing", before the Seven Dwarfs appear and inject their silliness into the show with the cherished and beloved "The Silly Song". The stage would then transition to a set featuring an animatronic Alice from Alice in Wonderland, along with the giant flowers as depicted in the film. "All in the Golden Afternoon" would be the song to represent this segment, before The Three Caballeros took over, headed by Donald Duck, Jose, and Panchito The three would erupt in their classic hit named after them from the 1944 animated film also of the same name, wielding sombreros, stringed guitars, and maracas. The light would then fade off of them of reveal The Fairy Godmother from Cinderella as she breaks out in "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo". She would sway around with her wand in animatronic form, before ended her last note and having the curtain drawn over her to reveal the silhouettes of both Cinderella and Prince Charming themselves as they recite the famous "So This is Love" much as in the classic film. All is calm as the audience watches their silhouettes doing their classic dance together. The calmness wouldn't last long though, as Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and the rest of the Disney cast (including Pluto and Donald's nephews) would blast off into a loud and boisterous cover of "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", much to the excitement of everyone watching. This would serve as the grand finale of sorts, as following this number, Mickey would reappear as conductor, and a slow rendition of "The Mickey Mouse Club" song would be heard over a happy Mickey thanking guests for coming to the show. Guests would then be thanked and asked to leave the theater to the outside. Mickey Mouse Revue was surprisingly one of the few attractions overseen by Walt before his inevitable 1966 passing. In an interview in early 1962, Walt was discussing a show utilizing many of the Disney characters that would run using very similar technology to his soon to be revealed Enchanted Tiki Room. It would prove an immediate smash hit among the younger audiences in it's near decade of operation. The attraction, however, would meet its demise in the fall of 1980. It would find itself ending up in Tokyo Disneyland in April of 1983, where it would last several decades before closing in 2009 in Tokyo for their version of Mickey's PhilharMagic. In Orlando, the building would lie dormant for nearly 7 years, before finally housing the Magic Journeys 3-D show that had previously been in the Imagination pavilion over at Epcot. As history would have it, Magic Journeys would eventually be replaced by another show, The Legend of the Lion King, in 1994. Based off the animated smash hit The Lion King, the show would use musical numbers and life-sized puppets to retell the story of the film. Interestingly enough, this show would use one of the first versions of a costume that could move it's mouth along with a pre-recorded spiel. The actor playing Rafiki would mouth a spiel by the character as if he were actually talking to the audience in the show's pre show. You can now find this technology resort wide, particularly in the show's seen from the stage in front of Cinderella's Castle. The Legend of the Lion King would last until 2003, where it was replaced by the current and, largely loved, Mickey's PhilarMagic: a 3-D show starring Donald Duck as he journeys through several popular Disney animated movies and encountering a slew of memorable Disney characters, including Peter Pan, Ariel, and Simba. Interestingly enough, the show has quite a few things in common with the original Mickey Mouse Revue. Both attractions star a Mickey Mouse conductor attempting to conduct an orchestra, both heavily rely on the use of Disney animated characters, and both also utilize the beloved Disney soundtracks from several respective films. It's safe to say that the more things may change, the more they stay the same. Written by Kyle Thibodeau That wraps up the very first edition of BackTrack. If you enjoyed this piece, please leave a comment in the comment section below. Consequently, if there's any attraction you wish to see showcased in a future edition of BackTrack, please contact one of us here at "The Park Hoppers". |
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