View source for Tarzan: Call of the Jungle

{{Infobox attraction
| name = Tarzan: Call of the Jungle
| park = [[Shanghai Disneyland]]
| land = [[Adventure Isle]]
| type = Live acrobatic stage show
| opened = June 16, 2016
| closed = August 6, 2019
| status = Closed
}}

'''Tarzan: Call of the Jungle''' was a live acrobatic stage show at the Storyhouse Stage in [[Adventure Isle]] at [[Shanghai Disneyland]], the Disney park at [[Shanghai Disney Resort]] in Pudong, Shanghai, China. An original production based on Disney's 1999 animated film ''Tarzan'', it retold the story of the boy raised by apes through Phil Collins's songs, Chinese acrobatics and large-scale staging, with no spoken dialogue. It opened with the park on June 16, 2016, and gave its final performance on August 6, 2019; it is permanently closed, and remains closed as of November 2026.<ref name="wiki">{{cite web |title=Shanghai Disneyland |website=Wikipedia |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Disneyland |access-date=2026-11-15}}</ref><ref name="laughing">{{cite web |title=Extinct Attractions – Tarzan: Call of the Jungle |website=Laughing Place |url=https://www.laughingplace.com/w/blogs/disney-extinct-attractions/2022/07/21/extinct-attractions-tarzan-call-of-the-jungle/ |access-date=2026-11-15}}</ref>

== History ==

Adventure Isle, Shanghai's counterpart to Adventureland, needed a headline show, and Disney built one around ''Tarzan'' — a film then seventeen years old and not a major property in China, but a natural fit for a jungle land. The Storyhouse Stage itself was dressed as a storehouse for expedition supplies, placing the theatre inside Adventure Isle's story of explorers and a lost world. The production shared DNA with earlier Tarzan stage shows, ''Tarzan Rocks!'' at Disney's Animal Kingdom and ''Tarzan: The Encounter'' at Disneyland Paris, but was staged as a new, original production for Shanghai.<ref name="laughing" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Tarzan: The Encounter |website=Disney Wiki |url=https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Tarzan:_The_Encounter |access-date=2026-11-15}}</ref>

The show's run was not without incident. On December 22, 2016, a performer playing Jane Porter fell approximately four to five metres during a performance; the show was stopped, the audience was asked to leave, and the performer was reported to be without life-threatening injuries.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tarzan: The Encounter |website=Disney Wiki |url=https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Tarzan:_The_Encounter |access-date=2026-11-15}}</ref>

No reason for the closure was publicly given. The final performance was on August 6, 2019, after a run of just over three years, and nothing immediately replaced it — the Storyhouse Stage stood without a resident production for several years.<ref name="laughing" /><ref>{{cite web |title=2019 |website=Disney Wiki |url=https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/2019 |access-date=2026-11-15}}</ref> The venue returned to use much later with a different, limited-time production, ''The Adventure of Rhythm'', which played the Storyhouse Stage from June 3 to October 7, 2024, and returned briefly for the 2025 Spring Festival — a successor use of the theatre, not a revival of Tarzan.<ref>{{cite web |title=Shanghai Disney Resort to Debut New Live Stage Show this Summer at Shanghai Disneyland's Storyhouse Stage |website=Shanghai Disney Resort |url=https://shcorporate.shanghaidisneyresort.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Press-Release-Shanghai-Disney-Resort-to-Debut-New-Live-Stage-Show-this-Summer-at-Shanghai-Disneylands-Storyhouse-Stage.pdf |access-date=2026-11-15}}</ref>

== The show ==

The performance began with animation from the film, rendered in black and white, playing across giant curtains around the stage. The curtains then rose on an elaborate set with moving scenery and a company of roughly twenty-five performers, and the story was carried visually — the songs from the film were performed in Mandarin, and there was no dialogue to follow.<ref name="laughing" /> Shanghai Disneyland's own description at the time called it an uplifting, eye-popping musical built on Phil Collins's iconic score, with powerful staging, visual effects and breathtaking acrobatic stunts.<ref>{{cite web |title=Best Shanghai Disneyland Attractions & Ride Guide |website=Disney Tourist Blog |url=https://www.disneytouristblog.com/best-shanghai-disneyland-attractions-ride-guide/ |access-date=2026-11-15}}</ref>

The animal characters were costumed in a humanoid style comparable to the Broadway production of ''The Lion King'', keeping the animals' colours and character while leaving performers free to move — essential, because the show's reputation rested on its acrobatics. Reviewers compared it more to a Cirque du Soleil production or a rock concert than to a conventional Disney stage show: high rope work, flips, jump-rope routines performed on other performers' backs, and at one point a stilt walker launched into the air by catapult. It was, in short, a fusion of theatrics, Chinese acrobatics and concert energy built around Tarzan, Jane, Terk and their friends.<ref name="laughing" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Tarzan: The Encounter |website=Disney Wiki |url=https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Tarzan:_The_Encounter |access-date=2026-11-15}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Adventure Isle]]
* [[Roaring Rapids]]
* [[Camp Discovery]]
* [[Shanghai Disneyland]]
* [[List of Shanghai Disneyland attractions]]
* [[List of defunct Disney attractions]]

== References ==
<references />

[[Category:Entertainment]]
[[Category:Defunct attractions]]
[[Category:Shanghai Disneyland]]
[[Category:Adventure Isle]]
[[Category:2016 establishments in China]]
[[Category:2019 disestablishments in China]]