OK you asked for it... here is a fairly detailed description of the Under the Sea Show in the Mermaid Lagoon Theater.

The show is a condensed (about 15 minutes) version of The Little Mermaid, with about 4 songs. It's a theater in the round and if you think Cirque Du Solei crossed with the Broadway Lion King you'd not be far off. Ariel performs the entire show on a trapeze. If you're into watching the nut-and-bolts of a stage show, check out the huge rig on the ceiling that controls it and the rest of the "swimmers". The songs are the originals, in English and lip-synced, but the dialog is in Japanese (also lip-synced). All the rest of the characters, Sebastian, Flounder, the two creepy eels etc are performed in Bunraku Puppetry style, with the puppeteers mouthing the words along with their incredibly kinetic puppets. The theater comes alive when Ursula makes her appearance. She's really scary and there was eruption of screaming terrified toddlers at that point. We were sitting in back and for some reason a CM led one mother and panicky kid right behind us instead of out. The crying behind us was a bit distracting. They were finally led out 5 minutes later. Ursula is made up of a huge head puppet, taking up most of one wall, and of tentacles operated by suspended puppeteers. They hang down almost low enough to touch. It gets pretty loud at this point which makes it all the scarier if yer a wee one. I really can't recommend the show for the under 4 set. The shows ends with Ariel beating the witch and everyone (but Ursula) breaking out into a festive rendition of Under The Sea. Return to the

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