This will be the last review for a while, the April A to Z Challenge starts in just a few days and I'll be extraordinarily busy with that. This review will also be a bit smaller because I don't have many photographs of the show and it's really self explanatory anyway.
The Hall of Presidents, located in the Liberty Square section of the Magic Kingdom, is an unlikely favorite of mine.
I'm not a particularly patriotic person by nature and I'm not political in any way, but I am a history buff and I do tend to gravitate toward historic things like a duck to water (although I do prefer British medieval history to American). If I ever do go back to college one day, I say that History is my ideal major. The Hall of Presidents isn't necessarily a history lesson per-se, it's really about introducing the Presidents to an audience. The opening film reveals a bit of our struggle to become an independent nation and there are numerous historical items scattered about the queue along with copies of famous historical paintings, so you don't go completely without learning (or remembering) something. I spent a bit more time in the queue than normal last trip and got a few pictures including a bit of architecture/lighting (shock):
Martha Washington may have been a plus girl, but she was really short! Even in a pedestal stand that was a good foot off the floor, her dress barely came to my chest level!
Ida McKinley's dress was absolutely gorgeous (and she literally weighed about 80 lbs considering the waist of this thing):
No one really ever looks around the queue at anything...kind of sad really:
Right now, the show is introduced by Morgan Freeman, but that usually changes with the President who is in office. With every new president (since Carter I believe), a new audioanimatronic figure is created for that president and the show changes. They say that one of the President's first duties in office is to record his Hall of Presidents speech.
I love how these shadows appear during the Declaration of Independence:
Even to this day, with the almost ancient technology, it never surprises me when someone in the audience gasps when Lincoln stands up and starts talking or when someone assumes in an actor in costume (although I do have a harder time with that one because he obviously looks like a robot):
Once the curtain raises and we see all the Presidents moving around, some even squirming in their seats (the Imagineers spend numerous hours studying facts about the pre-TV Presidents so that they would understand how they would move around in this situation), it's really hard to know where to look sometimes because there is so much going on!
Then Obama does his thing:
A final look at everyone:
As an added bonus, I found a good quality video on YouTube of the show, so if you're feeling a bit patriotic (or historic as I prefer to say), here you go!
The American Adventure show at Epcot really is a lot more patriotic (and historic), but I think it's the music or something because I've been known to fall asleep in there more than once. It's also almost an hour long whereas The Hall of Presidents is about 20 minutes. I also find it weird to take pictures in The American Adventure for some reason (it is allowed, just no flash), so I have absolutely none from the show and only a few from the queue, most of which are from the museum. Shows like The Hall of Presidents (or The American Adventure) are a good break in your day from the heat (or rain) and you just might learn something in the process!
The Hall of Presidents, located in the Liberty Square section of the Magic Kingdom, is an unlikely favorite of mine.
I'm not a particularly patriotic person by nature and I'm not political in any way, but I am a history buff and I do tend to gravitate toward historic things like a duck to water (although I do prefer British medieval history to American). If I ever do go back to college one day, I say that History is my ideal major. The Hall of Presidents isn't necessarily a history lesson per-se, it's really about introducing the Presidents to an audience. The opening film reveals a bit of our struggle to become an independent nation and there are numerous historical items scattered about the queue along with copies of famous historical paintings, so you don't go completely without learning (or remembering) something. I spent a bit more time in the queue than normal last trip and got a few pictures including a bit of architecture/lighting (shock):
Martha Washington may have been a plus girl, but she was really short! Even in a pedestal stand that was a good foot off the floor, her dress barely came to my chest level!
Ida McKinley's dress was absolutely gorgeous (and she literally weighed about 80 lbs considering the waist of this thing):
No one really ever looks around the queue at anything...kind of sad really:
Right now, the show is introduced by Morgan Freeman, but that usually changes with the President who is in office. With every new president (since Carter I believe), a new audioanimatronic figure is created for that president and the show changes. They say that one of the President's first duties in office is to record his Hall of Presidents speech.
I love how these shadows appear during the Declaration of Independence:
Even to this day, with the almost ancient technology, it never surprises me when someone in the audience gasps when Lincoln stands up and starts talking or when someone assumes in an actor in costume (although I do have a harder time with that one because he obviously looks like a robot):
Once the curtain raises and we see all the Presidents moving around, some even squirming in their seats (the Imagineers spend numerous hours studying facts about the pre-TV Presidents so that they would understand how they would move around in this situation), it's really hard to know where to look sometimes because there is so much going on!
Then Obama does his thing:
A final look at everyone:
As an added bonus, I found a good quality video on YouTube of the show, so if you're feeling a bit patriotic (or historic as I prefer to say), here you go!
The American Adventure show at Epcot really is a lot more patriotic (and historic), but I think it's the music or something because I've been known to fall asleep in there more than once. It's also almost an hour long whereas The Hall of Presidents is about 20 minutes. I also find it weird to take pictures in The American Adventure for some reason (it is allowed, just no flash), so I have absolutely none from the show and only a few from the queue, most of which are from the museum. Shows like The Hall of Presidents (or The American Adventure) are a good break in your day from the heat (or rain) and you just might learn something in the process!
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