Ride / Kitchen Kabaret

Veggie, veggie, fruit, fruit!

Kitchen Kabaret was an animatronic show featured in Epcot's The Land pavilion from the park's opening day in 1982 until it was replaced with Food Rocks in 1994. Food Rocks lasted ten years before closing in 2004 to make way for the queue line for Soarin'. This page covers both Kitchen Kabaret and Food Rocks.

Kitchen Kabaret is presented as a cabaret hosted by a housewife, Bonnie Appetit, who introduces various acts, each performed by a different band of animate food items: A jazzy ragtime number by the Kitchen Krackpots (various condiment jars); a 1930s costume extravaganza-esque musical number sung by a quartet of dairy products; a parody of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" starring a bugle-playing slice of bread; a Vaudeville act by a grumpy piece of ham and an egg that can’t stop cracking bad jokes; and finally "Veggie Veggie Fruit Fruit", by far the attraction's most popular song and a Latin-style number performed by, well, fruits and vegetables. It was "modernized" into Food Rocks, a show that featured parodies of then-contemporary rock songs with the Framing Device of a benefits concert for good nutrition.

---

EPCOT Center Presents… The Show That Has the Whole Town Troping!

Kitchen Kabaret

• Added Alliterative Appeal: Found in a few forms: The title of the ‘traction (Kitchen Kabaret), multiple musical groups’ monikers (Kitchen Krackpots, Colander Combo, Fiesta Fruit, and depending on your definition of alliteration the Cereal Sisters), and some of the singing food’s sobriquets (Ronnie Rice and Connie Corn).
• A Dog Named "Dog": Miss Cheese, Miss Yogurt, and Miss Ice Cream, although it’s possible they all have a Species Surname instead.
• All There in the Manual: The individual names of the Cereal Sisters.
• Anthropomorphic Food: Makes up the entire cast except for the hostess, Bonnie Appetit.
• A Weighty Aesop: Good nutrition is important, folks!
• Hurricane of Puns: Some of the acts, notably “Boogie Woogie Bakery Boy” and Hamm & Eggz’s performance.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Celebrity caricatures show up a few times: Miss Cheese sings like Mae West, while her fellow Star Of The Milky Way Miss Ice Cream acts like a homogenized Eartha Kitt. There’s also The Cereal Sisters.
• Punny Name: Bonnie Appetit ("Bon Appetit"), Mr. Dairy Goodz ("Very Good"), and Mairzy Oats (a reference to the “Kids eat oats and mares eat oats” poem). On the band level, “Stars Of The Milky Way” is a double one, because not only are the performers dairy products (and thus “milky”), they're also caricatures of movie stars.
• Reprise Medley: The "Kabaret Finale" sees every character returning to give a brief reprise of their song.
• Retraux: Most of the show’s music is styled like something from the first half of the 20th century: Bonnie sings the blues; the Kitchen Krackpots play a ragtime tune; Mr. Dairy Goodz acts like a 1930s crooner, holds an old-fashioned microphone, and introduces his Stars in what resembles an old “costume extravaganza”; the Cereal Sisters sing a parody of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”; and Hamm and Eggz perform a Vaudeville act.
• Song Parody: “Boogie Woogie Bakery Boy”, of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”.
• So Unfunny, It's Funny: Intended Audience Reaction to Mr. Eggz’s jokes.
• Species Surname: All over the place: Ronnie Rice, Connie Corn, and Mairzy Oats in the Cereal Sisters, Mr. Hamm and Mr. Eggz, and Mr. Broccoli of the Colander Combo.
• Token Human: Bonnie Appetit is a normal housewife, while the rest of the cast is composed of Anthropomorphic Food.
• Vaudeville Hook: Mr. Hamm worries aloud that Mr. Eggz’s bad jokes will cause them to be on the receiving end of this, though the hook never actually appears.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: Not as apparent as most instances, but Mr. Dairy Goodz and Mr. Eggz both have a "z" where an "s" should go. The attraction's name also has "k"s in the place of "c"s.

Food Rocks

An All-Star Musical Benefit for Good Nutrition Presented by Nestlé

• Achilles' Power Cord: The Excess are defeated when Fūd Wrapper unplugs their electric guitars.
• Animate Inanimate Object: Putting aside all of the Anthropomorphic Food (see below), you have the U-Tensils (cooking implements) and Fūd Wrapper (a “Nutritional Facts” label).
• Anthropomorphic Food: Just like its predecessor, Food Rocks has these making up a large proportion of the cast, this time mostly in the form of food-based caricatures of popular musicians (see No Celebrities Were Harmed below).
• A Weighty Aesop: You betcha! This one is actually a bit more nuanced than Kitchen Kabaret's, saying that enjoying "unhealthy" food is fine as long as you do it in moderation.
• Bohemian Parody: "We'll Make It Count in the Kitchen" is one of the rock section. It opens the show and is reprised at its end.
• Diegetic Musical: In-universe, you’re attending a benefit concert for good nutrition, so the songs have good reason to be there. Still doesn’t explain their (lack of) length though.
• Harmless Villain: The Excess don’t really do anything more “evil” than crashing a concert and just being jerks in general. Oh, and not caring about good nutrition.
• I Am the Noun: Well, “we are the noun”, but the villainous candy bars have named themselves “The Excess”.
• Informed Species: Even ignoring her human features, The Sole Of Rock N’ Roll looks nothing like an actual sole fish.
• Leitmotif: The Excess are accompanied by an electric guitar riff that they’re implied to be playing themselves.
• Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number: The ending song, “Choose Before You Chew”, features nearly everyone. The Excess are naturally not there since they're the villains of the show, but Neil Moussaka and Chubby Cheddar are also absent (the real-life explanation is that there isn't enough room for them on the stage).
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: All over the place. You’ve got The Peach Boys, The Refrigerator Police, Pita Gabriel, Fūd Wrapper, Richard the pineapple, Neil Moussaka, Chubby Cheddar (Chubby Checker), and the Get-To-The-Point Sisters (the Pointer Sisters).
  • The Sole Of Rock N’ Roll is actually a special case of this: She was originally conceived as a Tina Turner parody named “Tina Tuna”, before being reimagined into the “Cher-accuda”. Since Disney couldn’t get Cher to voice her, she became just “The Sole Of Rock N’ Roll”.
• Non-Indicative Name: Only one of the “Peach Boys” is actually a peach.
• Non-Mammalian Hair: The Sole Of Rock N’ Roll has a full head of curly black hair, despite being a fish (and despite the attraction otherwise being very good about avoiding this).
• Nutritional Nightmare: The Excess, a trio of heavy metal-playing candy bars and the villains of the attraction.
• Parody Assistance: Tone Loc, Neil Sedaka, Little Richard, Chubby Checker, and the Pointer Sisters all happily voiced the food versions of themselves for the show. The creators originally wanted Tina Turner to appear too (see No Celebrities Were Harmed), but both she and Cher (her replacement) turned the idea down, thus averting the trope.
• Small Taxonomy Pools: The Sole Of Rock N’ Roll is (supposedly, see Informed Species above) a sole fish, which you don’t see much of.
• Song Parody: Every song in the attraction, with the exception of “We Love Junk”.
• Villain Song: "We Love Junk", the Excess’s anthem to ignoring good nutrition and the closest thing to heavy metal you’ll ever hear in a Disney attraction.