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Pumbaa, Baloo, others have it rough at ‘KiteTails’: fans love the chaos, not the story

The newest experience at Disney’s Animal Kingdom has us really feeling bad for some of our favorite characters. It’s also making it really hard to keep a straight face sometimes.

The new performance features huge three-dimensional kites, and “kite trains” designed to look like characters from Disney’s The Jungle Book and The Lion King, Cast members on jet skis and boats responsible for handling the large kites, and ground performers managing smaller kites.

Disney touts the new KiteTails experience as one at which “hearts and imaginations will soar,” and describes the kites as “elaborate, three-dimensional and incredible.” Disney’s website also promotes the show, calling it a “high-flying performance” during which “magic takes flight.”

Disney KiteTails

But, as you can see from the plethora of TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter posts online, some of which are shared here, KiteTails might do well to call itself “KiteFails,” at least until Disney can figure out a better way to handle these adorable (and undoubtedly expensive) aerial windcatchers. Let us show you why.

This “KiteFail” happened on October 3. It just wasn’t Baloo’s day. The poor thing started out doing just fine, and he ended up smashing into a tree.

 

One TikTokker caught Baloo’s demise on video. Poor thing.

@thetragickingdom

Whoops! #waltdisneyworld50 #disney #disneyparks #Disneyland #kitetails #harmonious #Distok #disneyworld #waltdisneyworld #animalkingdom #enchanted

♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod

It wasn’t Pumbaa’s day either. This poor guy slammed right into the stands. We’ve learned that the kites are meant to land in the stands, but slamming into them upside-down is not quite the idea.

Pumbaa just had to join Simba during this show. Which would be sweet. Except the poor dears had a rendezvous on their heads.

Some fans aren’t laughing, though. Instead, they are outraged at what they consider Disney’s “diminished offerings.” This comment came from a family who’s had enough. They supposedly canceled their February trip because of KiteTails.

Some Guests love the show, simply because of the hilarity of the huge kites crashing. You never know when and how it will happen. You just know it will happen.

These Disney fans say they had the “best seat in the house,” but not for the reasons you might think.

@wrightdownmainstreet

Best seats in the house! #wrightdownmainstreet #disneyparks #disneytiktok #wdw

♬ original sound – wrightdownmainstreet

It’s not that no one loves the show. But many admit that they love it for the chaos and crashes, which means they most likely will miss the story of KiteTails.

On social media comments so far, we’ve seen Animal Kingdom’s new show compared to a “dumpster fire,” and those who hate it blame the sad offering on the fact that Imagineer Joe Rohde has taken a step back. There are even hashtags such as #kitefails and #halfbakedidea being used.

Those are pretty massive kites to be crashing into everything around them. What do you think? Is it hilarious or embarrassing?

About Becky Burkett

Becky's from the Lone Star State and has been writing since she was 10 and encountered her first Disney Park when she was 11. It was love at first Main Street Electrical Parade. Joy is blank lined journals, 0.7 mm pens, and all things Walt, Woody and Buzz, PIXAR, Imagineering, Sleeping Beauty (make it blue!), Disney Parks history and EPCOT. At Disney World, you'll find her croonin' with the birdies at the Enchanted Tiki Room or hangin' with Woody and the gang at Toy Story Land. If you can dream, you really can do it!