When I visit a Disney Park there are a few things that are mandatory to-do’s while I am there, but one of the most important is Walt Disney’s The Enchanted Tiki Room. There is something about experiencing an attraction that is so classic and iconic like this that just makes you feel like Walt himself is there. It is almost an empowering and uplifting feeling that something like The Enchanted Tiki Room can last as long as it has with the way the younger generations are gearing more and more toward newer technology. Of course I am a part of one of the generations that grew up in this “digital age,” but honoring The Enchanted Tiki Room and the Imagineers with their audio-animatronics is a key in my experience. That said, I don’t visit José, Michael, Pierre, and Fritz just because they are integral part of the Walt Disney family – I visit them because I think they are the greatest. It may have started with a Mouse, but it expanded into a ton of birds who can tempt the Hawaiian gods and teach anyone to sing. I don’t know how anyone can not love the concept of how audio-animatronics evolved, let alone the fact that there are four amazingly life-like (especially for the time) macaw hosts with histories and backgrounds of their own. Now we just need to see a little bit more of the barker bird and we are set – of course there is a replica at The Walt Disney Family Museum, but they did have one of the originals on display at DLR a few years back that I got to see… and freak out about!
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A. N. Stetzl 