Life Falls From Tiki Room's Tangaroa

I'm a day late for The Enchanted Tiki Room's 50th birthday, but there's no time like the present for celebrating with a tribute to a Disneyland character you don't want to tick off.

Walt Disney's willingness to stretch the boundaries of what the public would accept as popular entertainment was a lot bolder than most people assume. Exhibit A: Tangaroa, Father of All Gods and Goddesses, standing guard at the Tiki Room.

He isn't just a talking tree. He isn't just a talking tree with a unique nose. Voiced by the incomparable Thurl Ravenscroft, he's a male tree who gives birth in front of the waiting crowd!

"Oh, Mystic Powers, hear my call! From my limbs, let new life fall!"

"BOO-YAH!"

He doesn't actually say, "Boo-yah." But he has every right to. This happy blooming has been taking place many times a day, nearly every day for fifty years. That's a lot of offspring, and just one of the many ways in which Disneyland takes guests further off the beaten path of everyday expectations than most people would ever guess.

The Five Best Moments in Adventureland

Just a few paces from Main Street U.S.A, you can find yourself suddenly surrounded by unfamiliar gods, skulls on posts and snakes in barrels. Welcome to Adventureland, home of a fearless archeologist, a man raised by gorillas, an infamous jungle tour company, and one very enchanted roomful of tikis.

If you count the Jungle and all of the Indiana Jones attraction, Adventureland is enormous -- but you'd never guess from the one small, crowded avenue that handles all the foot traffic.

It'd be easy to make a short list of the best attractions in Adventureland, but I'd like to focus on the best moments the land has to offer. Here's a quick list of my five favorite Adventureland moments, starting with #5:

Here they come...

5) The Jungle Cruise piranha attack. I love the whole Jungle Cruise, but the piranha attack near the end is very clever and actually makes people scream...in a good way.