Celebrate 30 Years of 'The Lion King' with special experiences at Disney's Animal Kingdom

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Celebrate 30 Years of 'The Lion King' at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Posted: Thursday March 21, 2024 9:15am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney's Animal Kingdom will celebrate 30 years of "The Lion King" from June 10 through September 6, 2024.

Celebrate 30 Years of 'The Lion King' at Disney's Animal Kingdom

At Rafiki's Planet Watch, you can once again meet Timon and Rafiki. Also at Rafiki's Planet Watch, you can visit Animation Experience and learn to draw characters from "The Lion King."

There will be special menu items to snack on, and this limited-time Pumbaa popcorn bucket.

Celebrate 30 Years of 'The Lion King' at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Finally, a new range of merchandise will be on offer.

Celebrate 30 Years of 'The Lion King' at Disney's Animal Kingdom

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brb1006Mar 22, 2024

Back in the 80s and 90s, Disneyland and Walt Disney World used to create special birthday parades for some of Mickey's Friends. Beginning in 1978, the parks created a special daytime birthday parades for Mickey Mouse which was followed up with Donald Duck's 50th Birthday Celebration in 1984 (which extends to Tokyo). Both parks later gained separate anniversary parades for Mickey's 60th Birthday in 1988 with Disneyland creating a temporary birthday float with Mickey on a Birthday cake. The final time the U.S. Disney Parks created a birthday parade was "The World According to Goofy" which celebrated Goofy's 60th Anniversary in 1992. Nowadays, expect a smaller scale birthday celebration like Mickey's 70th and 90th Birthday Celebrations for both parks.

Tony the TiggerMar 22, 2024

People complain when there’s nothing, complain there aren’t enough “little things,” but then when they add little things, they complain they aren’t bigger things. Yes, it does move the needle. If you have locals who are big fans of any of these, they will come out more often. For anyone else, it’s not likely to book many flights, but that’s likely not the goal. They will have a fuller experience.

WorldExplorerMar 22, 2024

No, I got here after that. I remember Scrooge, Launchpad, Timon, Rafiki, Goofy, and Pocahontas all hanging around normally, though. It was the Animal Kingdom 25th anniversary popcorn bucket, back in April.

monorail81Mar 22, 2024

Ok. I thought I was missing something.

threvesterMar 22, 2024

Boy I hope not, the songs in Encanto are nowhere near the quality of Frozens.

threvesterMar 22, 2024

Looks exactly like the one they have been offering the last couple years at AK

monorail81Mar 22, 2024

Haven’t they already released this popcorn bucket before?

drew81Mar 21, 2024

The WDW entertainment quality and quantity of previous years is never returning. They can’t keep FoF parade running half the time.

SirLinkMar 21, 2024

If they wanted something they could of slung the JAMMitors/hire a local band to play on the stage at weekends. Disney also likes its 'data' when the plaid starts asking questions like 'would you like this if it was in a AC controlled building in DHS would you like it even more?' Plus its like they have nothing of note opening next year with Epic Universe opening if Disney's play is entertainment what better way of showing new stuff than replacing Frozen sing-along with a different sing-along show.

MagicHappens1971Mar 21, 2024

If Disney wanted to do that, they would just do it. Not test it out. I personally think this was a simple decision... They built this stage for festival use, there is no festivals this summer. Let's pull down the walls for guests to stare at an empty stage? Instead plug in a popular IP and give it a temporary show to draw people into Epcot.

SirLinkMar 21, 2024

Think of it as a test and learn to maybe kick Frozen sing-along out of DHS and replace it with an Encanto one.

MagicHappens1971Mar 21, 2024

I'm always happy to see added entertainment, but this roster is very lackluster. Hope they actually plan to beef up entertainment soon.

Disneydad1012Mar 21, 2024

Anyone have any insight if this makes sense? Seems really late.

culturenthrillsMar 21, 2024

I’m sorry outside of the drone show(which I guess is to boost food and drinks sales after 9?) and the Encanto show the rest of this is sad. They really think any of this will move the needle. I hope they have some serious entertainment plans for next year like has been rumored.