What to look for in ‘Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom’ on Disney+

Taking a behind-the-scenes tour at Walt Disney World always provides insight and great memories, but you are never allowed to take photos or videos. The new “Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom,” premiering Sept. 25 on Disney+ gives you all the memories you need, providing hours of behind-the-scenes stories of not only the animals but also the people who care for them.

Produced by National Geographic, the same people who have taken us behind the scenes of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, and Zoo Tampa, this new eight-part series provides an in-depth look at the 5,000-plus animals on Disney property. The show focuses not only on Disney’s Animal Kingdom but also on Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge and The Seas with Nemo & Friends at Epcot.

“The underlying core of the show is to demonstrate the part that you don’t see – the care. And when we say care it’s sort of it manifests itself in a couple of ways,” Joe Rohde, Portfolio Creative Executive at Walt Disney Imagineering and the person responsible for the design of Animal Kingdom said at a recent press event. “The show is actually a show about emotions about the emotional investment of the people in the lives of these animals that come together at this moment.”

One of the interactions that takes place in the first episode is the animal care team trying to do something unusual. Give a giraffe a pedicure.  The team attempts to give Kenya a “nail” trim voluntarily. But there is something the animal keepers quickly learn. “Giraffes do things at their own pace. You can try, but you can’t really make a giraffe do anything,” Dr. Dan Fredholm, one of the veterinarians at the park said.

“So that fact that we spent weeks upon weeks working with her to get to participate, for me to be able to trim her hooves, sometimes with a lot of sitting around and not much happening was just a reinforcer to me of what we’re all willing to do in order to make the lives of these animals fantastic,” he said.

The series, narrated by Josh Gad, also shows no matter how long the animal keepers work with the animals, the keepers still get surprised at what the animals do. Such as when Gino, the silverback gorilla caught Rachel Daneault, an Animal Manager, off guard.

“We were training one day, and he’s very intelligent,  and I asked him to give me a behavior, and he started making up his own behaviors, and that’s actually a sign of higher intelligence. So I was blown away,” Daneault said.

A few authors heard about the incident through the grapevine and contacted Daneault. And, “I think stuff like that happens here every day,” she said.

The show not only looks at the animals but the design of Disney’s Animal Kingdom itself. Again in the first episode, Rohde and Disney Imagineers develop a palm tree that illuminates the elephants during the park’s night safari.

Rhode explains when designing the park and areas around animals, it’s important to make sure you are doing so with the animals in mind. “We must create a place where an animal feels at home,” he said. “Then the next question we have to ask ourselves is, if all of that is true, what is the way in which we can interact with and see and experience this place that doesn’t interfere with” the animals, he said.

But if you just think that the series is just going to show “business as usual” you will be wrong. There is a lot of drama and comedy you’ll see, including:

• African elephant Mac, — the park’s biggest resident — has a routine checkup that reveals a mouthful of mystery.
• A lump is found on alpha lioness Kinsey, which requires urgent medical attention, but transporting the 300-pound cat to the Veterinary Treatment Room poses a challenge.
• Watch for the first time in the park’s history, Hartmann’s mountain zebras arrive on the savanna.
• Love is in the air as aardvarks Willie and Peanut go on a blind date that could ultimately produce the park’s first-ever aardvark babies.
• To stop the lady mandrills of the Harambe Wildlife Reserve from infighting, Linus, a hunky new monkey who puts the “man” in mandrill and manages to charm the all-female squad.
• Lou, an 1,800-pound rescued manatee, has a potentially infected tail, so keepers must use a crane to lift him out of the aquarium to transport him to the Veterinary Treatment Room for a high-def CT scan.
• Animal care experts Erin and Elizabeth must get creative to help African elephant Nadirah face her fear and cross a bridge that connects two parts of the elephant habitat.

Providing a look into how the animals live is important for the entire Disney staff. “I would love viewers to recognize the amazing care that takes place … but also to understand why we do this and that’s because we are passionate in protecting wildlife and wild spaces,” Dr. Mark Penning , VP of Animals, Science and Environment at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, said. “If we can inspire people to think about nature and to take care of the nature in their backyard, I will consider this a big success.”

MAGIC OF DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM

Series Premieres: Sept. 25 on Disney+
Number of episodes: 8
When Episodes Are Available: New episodes stream every Friday