Located in the Wonders of Life Pavilion, Cranium Command has to be one of the cutest, most underrated attractions at Disneyworld. The pre-show starts out with an animated film where “General Knowledge”, a drill seargant, is recruiting pilots to operate brains. Yes, you read that right. Brains. Buzzy, the class goof up, finds himself assigned to the volatile brain of a twelve year old boy.
You then move inside the theatre. The theatre is set up to represent the inside of a brain. A large animated Buzzy sits at the control center. There are two screens representing eyes, so you get to “see” what the twelve year old sees. Added to that, Buzzy gets messages on separate screens from different parts of the body, such as the stomach and the heart. If all this sounds confusing, it isn’t: it’s just difficult to explain.
The show covers a day in the life of a twelve year old boy, and Buzzy’s attempts to balance all the body systems from his “cockpit” in the brain. I found the whole show hilarious, as did my children. Some jokes went over their heads, but they understood enough of it to love it and want to see it again.
The casting is pure genius: The stomach is played by George Wendt (Norm, from Cheers), Bobcat Goldthwait sputters as the adrenal gland, Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon “pump” the heart, Charles Grodin logically controls the left brain, and Jon Lovitz plays the right brain. Disney managed to recruit an amazing cast of characters for this attraction.
The show is whimsical, educational, and split your sides funny. What else could anyone ask for in entertainment?