A stage show based around “Finding Nemo” will be coming to Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World in 2022 — just not the same musical that ran from 2007 to March 2020.
“Finding Nemo — The Musical” hasn’t been performed since Disney World’s initial COVID-19 shutdown. A day after performers took to social media to say the show has been permanently closed — with those reports then picked up by WDW News Today and Blog Mickey — Disney announced that a different version of the show would debut in 2022.
“Although our Disney Live Entertainment team is still in the early stages of development for the show, the musical retelling of this underwater tale of family, friendship and kindness will feature new story material, as well as fan favorite songs such as ‘In the Big Blue World’ and ‘Go with the Flow,’” Shawn Slater, senior communications manager for Disney Live Entertainment, wrote on the official Disney Parks Blog.
On Twitter, WDW News Today initially defended its earlier report, noting that even Disney called a “new,” “updated,” and “reimagined” show in its blog post.
It did. This isn’t that show.
— WDW News Today (@WDWNT) September 14, 2021
Hours later, the oft-criticized news site apologized for the original Sept. 13 story:
We apologize that our original story for Finding Nemo: The Musical was not completely accurate. The facts are that the cast was told “their” show is no more while the old show is being disassembled, and a NEW show with a new cast is coming.
— WDW News Today (@WDWNT) September 14, 2021
The original “Finding Nemo — The Musical” was a 40-minute show held in the Theater of the Wild at Animal Kingdom. It featured multiple live performers and large puppets retelling the story of the 2003 Pixar film, with new music composed by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez of “Frozen” fame.
The fact that it hadn’t returned wasn’t surprising, as under Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s COVID-19 leadership, multiple stage productions at Disney World have been kept in mothballs, such as “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular” at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Others, including “Festival of the Lion King” at Animal Kingdom, have returned in modified form.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated after its original publication to reflect that WDW News Today had since apologized for inaccuracies in its original Sept. 13 story.