Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - Animal Kingdom Music and Zootopia: Better Zoogether with Host Josh

Episode Date: July 12, 2026

Hello Travelers! This week join host Producer Josh at Disney's Animal Kingdom for a walkabout to enjoy some of the musical ambience, live music, and attraction music the park has to offer. You'll hear Kora Tinga Tinga accompanied by one of the Tam Tam Drummers and guests before heading to the Tree of Life Theatre to experience the Zootopia: Better Zoogether attraction.  We are listener supported - contribute to the Dole Whip Fund via Google or Apple Pay. Thanks! Walkabout the World is now on TikTok! Come follow our visual companion to the audio podcast at Walkabout.the.world.pod on TikTok And of course, visit us on Instagram and at walkabouttheworld.com - find links to all the things - attraction episodes, Insta accounts of all the hosts, and even how to buy your own Walkabout shirt!

Well, hey, travelers, welcome back to Walk About the World. Your weekly walk-and-talk with a friend around the parks and resorts of Walt Disney World and Disneyland. We're here at Disney's Animal Kingdom today. What are we going to do the usual? We make it up as we go. There's no plan, especially at Animal Kingdom. You walk around until you see something there. Here's something cool.

That is what we do here. Each week we record live in the parks. Provide you with a new auditory experience with every episode. All of your favorite sounds. Music. Honestly, that's why I'm here today. Animal Kingdom is the hottest park, no doubt. So why am I here at the hottest park by choice?

Sometimes you just got to hear the music at Animal Kingdom, you know? You just get a hankering for that awesome soundtrack. And the live music, too. So we'll see as we're walking around if we can find any of the live entertainment. I'm definitely here to see my, our good pal, Kora Tinga, listen to his Kora Tinga music. Always, always a pleasure. But other than that, no plan. We'll see what happens as we were walking around.

and dodging the heat, finding all the shade, any AC we can possibly get. So we'll let the shade and the AC guide us. How's that? The music and the AC shall guide us today. So let's start out here. We're at the entrance plaza to Disney's Animal Kingdom. One of the only places where you can still see the original intent of the park with the three

mascots, I guess you could say? I don't know. There's, of course, the symbol, the elephant. And to the left is a dragon head. And to the right is a dinosaur. With those beautiful phrases, the artwork, the sculptures along the top of the on the overheads of the entrance plaza, ticketing offices,

with wonderful friezer, mural of animals from the, the past, the present, and from our imaginations. Let me take a few close-ups to those. I believe it's the same on all three entranceways, but I'm sitting in the shade over closest to the one on the right-hand side, which has a dinosaur on us, so I'll take some pictures for you. While you continue to listen to the music of the entrance plaza at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

All right, let's head inside. All right, the age old question, do we go left or right? To Discovery Island through the oasis. Well, I was going to go and read the plaque for you, but there's literally someone sitting on the plaque, not realizing what it is. Oh, looks like there's a line here over to the right for a meet and greet.

Can we stick around and see who it's for? Or do we keep going? We'll stick around, and if it's too long through the magic of editing, magic of editing will keep walking oh it's Donald and Daisy and their safari outfits cute all right walking into the oasis it's about 10 degrees cooler which is great there's a little breeze Babarusa to our right that's the pig with the big um tusks coming out of his face hi piggy barbarausa translates to the Pig deer, a reference to the antler-shaped tusks of the male.

Asian pig is an adept swimmer moving from island to island in its native range. Bye Piggy. You could go straight into Discovery Island, but no, we must go left through the waterfalls. Check out any other animal sightings. Like the rhinoceros iguana. Diving and dabbling ducks. A beautiful waterfall. Very reminiscent of the jungle cruise.

You'd have no idea you were in a netherous. Florida at a theme park just looking at that around the bend we'll come to the suspension bridge into the cave cross the bridge in the cave and ta-da into Discovery Island you can't quite see the tree yet but then you come around this rock and boom there it is a great reveal that's why I like to go that way we're gonna find a spot Right over here in front of the tree, set you down for a little bit just to enjoy some of the tunes right between Island Mercantile and Discovery Trading Company Where there's a little bit of shade and some great speakers

All right, let's keep going in front of Island Mercantile. They have a bunch of Rob Katz's work Outside for sale. It's pretty fun You see a lot of his work at the Arts Festival at the Eye Farts. He is signing today, that's why. That makes sense. All of his animal-beamed arch. These cute little manatees, lo-mangos,

the dog and the bats, bears, otters, parrots, raccoons, you name it. Sleeping Hippo. They're all very, very Disney-esque. Big cute eyes, colorful. Into the AC in the shop. The first thing you see is Bluey. Bluey has invaded Animal Kingdom. He's everywhere. He booted Rafiki from his job.

She. Bluey's a she, right? Yes. All your usual Animal Kingdom merch, I don't see really anything new. Back out into the heat. Last time we were over by the otters, they were... quite lively and chatty. Let's see if they're making any noises today. Otters at home, we can tell a lot about our environment from otters and their habitat.

Known as indicator species, a healthy and growing otter home, or Holt, is a sign that the surrounding ecosystem is healthy too. Looks like this sign is sponsored by Otterbox. I can't hear them, but I can see them. They're over in the back, swimming.

Let's go down to the underwater viewing, see if we can see any down here. We're just out of sight. Can't quite see him. So I'll head to back up the steps. Directly in front of us is Pete Safari. We're gonna head to the right toward Africa. Big crowd coming this way from Africa. Bye.

Starbucks to the left Creature Comforts. Tara treats in the ice cream dough brownie ice cream sandwich to our right. Hmm. Tempting. Haven't had it yet. I'll come back. Not too late because I'm sure they'll go fast.

All right, going over the bridge into Harambe. Jahraamba in search for some music. I did not see the Tam-Tam drummers or Boi-Dica on the app as playing today, which is strange. I don't know if that's a crowd thing or... There's definitely nobody on the stage, but we will make our way around. to the market where we will find Kora Tinga and we'll listen to him. So enjoy the sounds walking through a very busy Harambe village. Right straight ahead, about an hour wait, wood carvings to the right with an artisan carvings

little wooden animals. We're going to go in the store because Moray Sea. You need a pith helmet or a safari vest. This is your shop. Also little planters. Little animal planters with some bamboo, other various little plants. Oh hey, this hippo looks familiar. Missouri sweets.

Lots of sweet treats. Exit the sweet shop. We are at the other side of Rambay and the market side. So we're gonna... Oh, we are just in time. Come here, put in the between your leg like this. Yeah, hold it. That was just awesome.

That's the first time that I've seen the two of them together, meaning playing the Cora with the drums, and that was just what I needed. That was awesome. And they have a bunch of smaller drums, and they invite the kids to come up and play. kids to come up and play with them. Super special.

This is one of my favorite areas of the park. Really is. So now we are headed into Asia. We went to the path less traveled, a.k.a. the path more shady. Off the path in the caravan road to the left, featuring Cateigori, shaved ice.

Mr. Kamals to the right. We all know what Mr. Kamals serves, chicken dumplings, and everyone's shaving. seasoned fries. I was hoping that the sitar player would be doing a set. But no dice. Like I said, they are not listed as performing today, as evidenced by the empty stage. Passing by Russell and Doug statues in front of the bird show. He has just met. He has just met. us but he loves us. We don't have live sitar music but maybe we can at least get some of the

canned music for you. There's a photopass person out here taking pictures of a really nice view of the tree and then you have this really cool boat and a nice view of the bridge that goes back over to Discovery Island. Often missed because you walk right by. Take a picture of that so you can see how cool it looks. This park really is. Just gorgeous. Area also has one of my favorite signs. Very scientific. Next to the Big Banyan tree is a sign that says Big Banyan Tree.

We are going to take a right at the drink walla, go over the bridge I just mentioned, back into Discovery Island. And since I am in search of A.C., even though I don't think it's the best, Many might agree with me. It's still a cute show. And we have not yet recorded it. So we're going to go watch Zootopia Better Zookether. It's a nice breeze today, despite how hot it is. Which usually doesn't happen in Animal Kingdom.

I was surprised. It's actually bearable. Big crowd coming out of Zootopia. We're going to go around to the front and hop in line. The best thing about the queue is you get to see the tree and parts of the tree up close.

So let's go check out the queue and then we'll go to the show. Stand by. It says 15 minutes. The gathering spot, Meet and Greet, now has Utopia characters

instead of what used to be Russell and Doug. And there's a a wall in front of us that says change is good. So that was commentary on what I was just talking about, I guess. Favorite, favorite sign on the wall has a little silhouette of Doug, or, um, little silhouette of Kevin. And it just says squawk. All righty, here's a beautiful, another beautiful vista of the tree of life. Imelon, go say about your sisters. And you get to walk under it, you really get a sense of scale and how

massive this tree really is, and how much it covers. So when you are here, take advantage of the shady pathways and go look at the tree. Admire the artistry. There's 300 something individually carved animals. There's a chimpanzee we're walking by. There's a dinosaur, a T-Rex. As we go under tunnel. tunnel inside the tree. Out the other way. There's even some hiding as a big, like a squid

on the wall. It's very cool. And then you have a baby elephant with his trunk out into the tail of another baby elephant train. So it looks to be an armored dinosaur, like an enclosaur, a pelican. A balloon. Above us, a beetle inside the cave, another cave. Now we get to a little opening with posters, kind of explaining what the show is all about. Thousands of years ago, natural forces rule our world. The world was divided into vicious predators and meek prey. But over time we evolved and moved beyond our ancient wild waves.

Our ancestors joined together in harmony and declared that anyone can be anything. And on this one, I got to point out, there's little fox and a bear and a beaver, and they're all construction. Little mice and they're all construction animals building the tree, building something on the tree. But one of those little mice might look awfully familiar with a little mustache and earring. There's a little Joe Rodey mouse. And then the last one says, Happy Zoo Gather Day.

On Zoo Gather Day, we unite to celebrate the special connection, shared among all living things. The only thing that's missing in the queue, I think is some nice light music playing or something. But hey, we got the crows. What more do you need? There's a ladybug in the tree. There's a heron.

Oh, that's kind of cool. I don't know that I've ever noticed that one. Winding our way around into the lobby. There's a little kangaroo. Now I start to feel the AC blowing in. blowing out, I guess. blowing out, I guess, as we enter the tree lobby. Orange carrot colored glasses.

Zootheather Day Live with Heidi Howler. A little tiny rodent entrance with a teeny tiny little trash can and entrance doors. Adorable. Bored with a whole bunch of great Easter eggs. Disney Button, that's the Utopia Conservation Fund. It's totally legit BBDs, little Marshmaid, Engato, Floatsin' Poor, Moolan, the Emperor's New Hoves, and Niauna too. Which one? Mom.

Hey, try counting your spots. Nick, I think we may be looking at criminal sabotage. Yep, no F's ands or butts. Except that button. Detections pops and wild investigating. There you go. Zootopia better zoo-gather. Didn't realize it was a water attraction, but it certainly is. There's also some things, I don't know if you could hear, but when we got into the theater,

one of the sprayers in the seats was already hissing as if it was broken the whole time. So there are some things that are needing to be fixed already in the theater but not a bad show not a great show but there's AC and that was nice and water Vibagaya not playing either today so at least we got some music today didn't necessarily get all the music that I wanted but really enjoyed what Kora Tinga Tinga had to offer. Hopefully you did too. So I'm going to wrap it up.

Thanks for being with us today, Travelers. Again, if you haven't already, give us a follow over on Instagram, TikTok, and see what our photos and videos. You can interact with the hosts. Give us feedback. Give us suggestions for new shows that you want to hear. We love hearing from you. And I hope you enjoyed your time with me today.

And you like to end our time with the hope and promise that there is a great big beautiful tomorrow out there. And we'll see you in one of those tomorrows in future episode of Walk About the World. So I think now I'm going to go get me that sweet frozen treat. Cookie dough brownie ice cream sandwich before they're all gone. It looks like there's a long line. So we'll see you later.