Animal Spirit Guides

The Animal Spirit Guides are characters from the now-defunct Disney's Animal Kingdom attraction, Rivers of Light.
==History==
===Background===
Throughout the attraction, the Animal Spirit Guides show an affiliation with the shamans Aditya and Aseema and acolytes Ketu and Ambu. Each of these spiritual creatures represent a different element throughout the show. Prior to their appearance as lantern floats, their shadows can be seen on the canopy in the back side of the attraction just before the show begins. During the show, the animal spirit guides can be seen depicted as lantern floats during the Parade of the Animal Spirits and aside from them in which throughout it, the shamans Aditya and Aseema use them to explore different realms of the Animal Spirits. While seen mostly as floats as well as in the background, they are also used by the shamans and acolytes respectively as shadow puppets in reminescence to Balinese shadow puppetry.
===Animal Spirits===
Below is a table which lists the Animal Spirit Guides and what elements they represent as well as the sailboats they are used at in shadow puppet form.
Spirit 	Element	Used at
Tiger 	Fire 	Fire Lantern Sailboat
Elephant 	Earth 	Fire Lantern Sailboat
Great Horned Owl	Wind 	Water Lantern Sailboat
Sea Turtle 	Water 	Water Lantern Sailboat
===Development History===
The animal spirits were created and designed by Michael Curry in which while developing the Rivers of Light attraction, the floats of the Animal Spirit Guides were created to show reminescence to ancient lantern festivals which happened about many years ago so the production team did research to search the best possible form.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L51_VUrNRIo
While the live performers were removed as of September 2018 due to budget costs, the Animal Parade Floats remained in the attraction as well as keeping the animated projections featuring the animal spirits throughout the show.
==Role in the attraction==
After the prologue narration ends, the floats of the animal spirit guides are featured throughout the show moving across the lagoon and changing colors to the music in which amongst them are the sculptures of a tiger, an elephant, an owl family, and a sea turtle which move throughout the show. The spirits then leave their lanterns to bring in the arrival of the Temple Lotus in which the spirits of the tiger, elephant, owl, and turtle leave their lanterns to explore the different realms. Shaman Aseema summons the great horned owl and sea turtle spirits while conducting the lotuses just as the figures of the turtle and owls dance happily amongst them while the storytellers provide percussion
Later, Aditya uses his horn to summon the tiger spirit who leaps across the lotuses and journeys across the realm of various spiritual animals to put the animals together in harmony. After this, Aseema summons the owl spirit to explore the snowy region of Alaska while Aditya observes the tundra animals reunited with each other in harmony. With all the other animal spirit guides reunited with each other in harmony, the tiger, elephant, owl, and turtle spirits return to their lanterns just before the show ends with a finale reprise of "We Are One".
==References==
==External links==
*Info about the Animal Spirit Guides found here.
Category:Theme park characters
Category:Tigers
Category:Elephants
Category:Owls
Category:Turtles
Category:Disney characters