The Enchanted Tiki Room - Description and History
The Enchanted Tiki Room contains Walt Disney's first Audio-Animatronic
performers, a rowdy, rousing cast of 225 all-talking, all-singing,
all-whistling birds, flowers, masks, drummers, and tiki poles.
Once Walt had solved the problem of animating three-demensional figures, he
thought of putting a Chinese restaurant in Adventureland where a audio-animatronic Confucius-like character would amuse the diners by spouting Oriental words of wisdom. This expanded into a more elaborate idea of
staging a dinner show featuring a cast of performing birds. Finally the
notion of a restaurant was dropped, as it proved to not be practical for Disneyland. What was left was a 17-minute revue with an Audio-
Animatronics cast. The Enchanted Tiki Room, "overflowing with the color and
spirit of the islands," opened in 1963.
Four avian emcees -- Jose, Micheal, Pierre, and Fritz -- lead a company of
animated orchids, bird-of-paradise flowers, parrots, macaws, toucans,
cockatoos, carved wooden tiki poles, tiki drummers, and masks. This musical show includes the songs wonderful music of the famous Sherman brothers, Richard and Robert. Musical numbers include
"The Hawaiian War Chant," "Let's All Sing (Like the Birdies Sing)," "Aloha to
You," and, of course, the show's theme song, "In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room" plus others.