New Details on Animal Kingdom’s Nighttime Spectacular Rivers of Light Are Illuminated
Thanks to the Disney Parks Blog, we now have new details on Rivers of Light, the nighttime spectacular coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World this spring. And it looks really, really cool.
Rivers of Light will take place on Discovery River, between Discovery Island and Expedition Everest (the iconic Tree of Life, now outfitted with pulsing, multicolored lights, serves as the show’s backdrop). In the show, “a pair of mystical hosts come to the river bearing gifts of light. During the show, the hosts set out from the shore on elaborate lantern vessels for a dramatic dance of water and light to summon animal spirits.”
Sounds amazing, right?
But it gets better: Rivers of Light was created due to a partnership between Imagineering, Creative Entertainment, master puppet designer Michael Curry, composer Mark Mancina (who will contribute the score to the upcoming, hotly-anticipated Walt Disney Animation Studios feature Moana) and the filmmakers at Disneynature (who have produced films like Bears, Monkey Kingdom, and Chimpanzee).
“Disney’s Animal Kingdom is built around the rules of nature, and those rules dictate that things are different at night,” Imagineer Joe Rohde explains, in a special video accompanying this new information. In the video, Rohde explains how the Tree of Life will be illuminated, and goes on to describe Rivers of Light as a “fantastically rich explosion of animal life that ultimately rises into the sky and joins the stars.”
It can’t be overstated what a different experience visiting Disney’s Animal Kingdom at night will be, and how Rivers of Light will help in that transformation. Disney’s Animal Kingdom is going from a park that closed before the sun went down, to a place that comes to life at night. It’s very exciting and we can’t wait for spring 2016 to roll around so we can experience it ourselves.
