Disney developing film based on Enchanted Tiki Room, hubris
As the recent movie deals for Haunted Mansion and “just pretty much everything in the park” suggest, Disney is boldly overturning every cushion in its Disney World and Disneyland attractions looking for more of that loose Pirates Of The Caribbean change. Now the L.A. Times reports that Ahmet Zappa (son of Frank) has written a script based on its long-running Enchanted Tiki Room attraction—one of the first animatronic attractions in the park, and one of the last to not be replaced by a 3D movie. As the LAT acknowledges, “there’s not much known mythology behind the Tiki Room,” but such things don't matter when it comes to corporate synergy, as Zappa’s script isn’t so much a straight adaptation of the attraction, but rather “an action-adventure that mixes in Polynesian mythology.” You know, such as the legend of the great trickster Maui-tikitiki-a-Taranga, who used the jawbone of his ancestor to build an air-conditioned room where his people and their offspring could be mildly amused for 20 minutes.