Tree of Life Awakenings

Tree of Life Awakenings: show at Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park, Walt Disney World — showtimes, live status, and planning data on MouseHub.

The MouseHub take

Tree of Life Awakenings is a projection show that plays across the trunk of Animal Kingdom's 14-story centerpiece after dark. Fireflies flicker over the bark and stir the animal spirits carved into it, and the carvings become the canvas: a young doe setting out on a journey, a pair of hummingbirds falling for each other, a sly fox handing out gifts in a wintry forest. A new sequence starts roughly every 10 minutes from full dark until the park closes, so there is no showtime to make and no line to join. It has run since May 27, 2016.

Treat it as something you walk into rather than something you schedule. Most guests catch it on the way to the exit, stop on the path for one sequence, and keep moving. There is no seating and no reserved viewing area, so you watch on your feet, on pavement, at the end of a long day. Young kids do well with it, since the colors are bright and nothing in it is loud or frightening. The people who come away flat wanted a nighttime spectacular. Nothing builds to a finale, and when the park closes before dark the projections never run.

At a glance

Best for
Families with young kids who want one more thing worth looking at on the walk toward the buses.
Skip if
You are racing the crowd to the parking lot, or you want a nighttime show with a real finale.
Ride type
Nighttime projection show on the Tree of Life, standing room on the walkways
Intensity
Gentle. Bright projections and music in the dark, with no motion and nothing that startles small kids.

The good

  • The carvings do the acting
    The animation is cut to the shapes already carved into the trunk, so the doe and the fox look like they stepped out of the bark rather than being pasted over it.
  • There is no showtime to catch
    A new sequence starts about every 10 minutes from dark until the park closes. Whenever you wander past, the next one is a few minutes away.
  • Each sequence tells a small story
    Disney's own descriptions name them: a doe on her first journey, two hummingbirds courting, a fox spreading gifts through a winter forest. They are vignettes about balance in nature, not a highlight reel of characters.
  • The tree earns a second look
    More than 300 animals are carved into the 145-foot trunk, and the projections pick out the ones you walked past all day without noticing.
  • Nobody in the party gets left out
    Disney lists no height requirement and guests may remain in a wheelchair or ECV. Watching costs you a few feet of paved walkway and nothing else.
  • The score keeps the mood calm
    Guests describe the music as sweeping rather than loud, which is the right register for the last thing you see before the bus line.

The bad

  • The main path jams up
    The walkways between the entrance and Discovery Island are through routes, and people stop dead in them to watch. Anyone trying to get past ends up shuffling around the edges.
  • Foliage blocks half the angles
    Animal Kingdom is planted thick, and branches sit between you and the trunk from most spots. Finding a clear gap takes a minute of walking.
  • Nothing builds to a finale
    The sequences are short and self-contained, with no closing number and no fireworks. Guests who wait around for a big ending are still waiting when the park closes.
  • An early park close takes it away
    The projections need full dark, so on a night when the park closes before sunset there is no show to see. Long summer evenings are when this bites.
  • You watch it standing on concrete
    There is no seating anywhere in the viewing area. This lands at hour eleven of a park day, which is when most people reach it.

Veteran tips

  • Fold it into the walk out
    Skip the dedicated time block. Leave a spare ten minutes at the end of the night and you will catch a full sequence between the tree and the exit.
  • Check tonight's close before you count on it
    Live showtimes for this one render on this page and in the My Disney Experience app. If the park shuts before dark, plan the evening around something else.
  • Find a gap in the canopy first
    Pick your spot while the tree is still lit normally rather than after a sequence starts. Two steps sideways is often the difference between branches and a clear trunk.
  • Keep to the side of the walkway
    The exit flow does not stop for you. Stand at the edge of the path with the kids on the inside and let the crowd move past.
  • Try the bridge toward Asia
    Guests who want distance from the entrance crowd head for the walkway between Discovery Island and Expedition Everest. Fewer people stop there.
  • Missing the start costs you nothing
    Walk up mid-sequence and the next one begins within about ten minutes. There is no queue to rejoin and no seat to hold.

MouseHub editorial, written from visitor reports and official Disney sources. Last reviewed .

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