Finding Nemo: The Musical

We walk past Expedition: Everest – the Standby line wait time is at 40 minutes now – and head across the bridge, back to Theatre in the Wild, where Finding Nemo: the Musical is showing (having replaced Tarzan Rocks).

There’s a line of people in front of the theater. It goes along the walkway and out of sight around a curve in the path. Uh oh. I thought with the crowds down that being here thirty-plus minutes early would be enough.

We walk around the curve and find – the end of the line! There weren’t many more people in it after it went out of sight, so we join them and begin our wait.

Five minutes later the doors open, and the line begins moving towards the far side of the theater. The loading of the rows is very organized, so that we enter through a single door and are directed as a line to the different sections. We end up with seats in the center section, about 3/4 of the way back from the stage. Pretty decent seats.

I take a minute to text Wallaby, letting him know that after Nemo we’re going to get some lunch and then head for Kilimanjaro Safaris.

While we wait, we discuss lunch. I’ve heard good things about Flame Tree Barbecue which we’ve never tried and which is fairly close, but the others like the idea of going back to Pizzafari, which we’ve done on the other two trips. I’m almost resigned to the idea of pizza again, but then I float the idea of my getting a meal at Flame Tree and then joining them at Pizzafari. Everyone seems okay with that.

As the audience is loading, the stage is covered in a blue curtain, with a projected title graphic projected on it. It shimmers as if it is underwater. There are “bubbles” on the arch on both sides of the stage, and – hey! there's Nemo! The cute little clownfish swims (projected) across the bubbles or the curtain every so often. The kids in the crowd love spotting him! They scream in recognition every time it happens.

Finally it’s show time, and what can I say? It is Finding Nemo in musical form. The storyline is the same, but the presentation, using puppets of the characters manipulated by live actors in color-matched costumes, is clever, imaginative, and as touching as the original. The new songs are well-suited to the story, and the sets, bringing the scenes of the movie to life, are really cool.

We notice a few additional touches to the dialogue – such as when one of Dory’s many misrememberings of Nemo’s name is “Tivo”!

In the end – spoiler alert – Nemo is reunited with his dad and all is well. The performers (and puppets) take their bows to a reprise of Crush’s song, “Go With the Flow,” so that’s what we leave the theater humming. What a cool show!

We’re ready for lunch, but until we’re out of the theater and well past the masses exiting with us, we have no choice but to “go with the flow” ourselves. Finally the crowds thin enough that we can step to the side to plan our lunch.