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Jungle Cruise, formally named Jungle River Cruise, is a riverboat amusement ride located in the Adventureland themed section at various Disney theme parks worldwide. The attraction is a simulated riverboat cruise that travels along a waterway using a concealed guidance system through areas with Asian, African, and South American themes. Park guests board replica steam launches from a 1930s British explorers' lodge, and Audio-Animatronic jungle animals are displayed throughout the ride. A live Disney cast member acts as a tour guide and boat skipper that loosely follows a rehearsed script, providing passengers with a comedic narrative.
The first installation of the ride was featured at Disneyland for its grand opening in 1955. A variety of changes were made over the years, including enhanced audio effects, updates to the storyline, and the removal of culturally-sensitive material. The installation at Hong Kong Disneyland features a significantly different storyline from the other parks and provides guests with three different language options, each with its own line queue. Following years of planning and delays, a film adaptation of the ride was released in the United States on July 30, 2021.
Inspiration and design
A project was planned by Disney to incorporate a jungle-themed ride into the list of attractions featured at Disneyland's grand opening in 1955. Sources of inspiration include a 1955 documentary called The African Lion from the True Life Adventures film series, as well as the 1951 adventure film The African Queen. Disney Imagineer Harper Goff referenced The African Queen frequently in his ideas and drew inspiration from the steamer depicted in the film for the ride vehicle design.
Bill Evans was the Imagineer responsible for landscaping Disneyland and most of Walt Disney World. During development of Jungle Cruise, he was given the difficult task of creating a realistic jungle on a limited budget. In addition to importing actual tropical plants, he incorporated "character plants" which have an exotic appearance despite not being exotic. He used a well-known trick of uprooting local orange trees and replanting them upside-down, growing vines on the exposed roots.
The ride's water clarity, known as turbidity, is controlled in a manner that obscures the boat's guidance system and other undesirable items like perches and mechanized platforms of the bathing Audio-Animatronic elephants and hippos. The waterway was originally dyed brown but was later changed to other colors: first to a green hue and later to a bluish-green. When water returns to the attraction, it travels through a 37" diameter underground pipe before it can be utilized again. The waterway depth is approximately 5 feet (1.5 m) and circulates southward from the northern end of Frontierland's Rivers of America to Fantasyland. The path of the ride takes riders past Frontierland's entrance and into Adventureland, where it drifts alongside the Tiki Room, before re-entering Jungle Cruise near the ride's exit. The 1,920-foot (590 m) waterway was later shortened and re-routed in 1994.
Although Goff and Evans can be credited with the creation and initial design of the ride, animator Marc Davis – recognized for his work on venerable attractions such as The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean – added his own style in later versions. The "Indian Elephant Bathing Pool" and "Rhinoceros Chasing Explorers up a Pole" were among his contributions.
Disneyland
The attraction was in the opening day roster of the park, and has remained open and largely unchanged in theme and story since then. The original plan was to use real animals, but these plans were abandoned once Disney realized that the animals would likely sleep during the day. Aside from alterations and maintenance changes, four completely new show scenes have been added to date. In 1994 the river channel was rerouted to make way for the queue buildings and entrance courtyard of the Indiana Jones Adventure.
While the ride's comedic spiel is filled with intentionally bad puns by the skipper, the original intent of the ride was to provide a realistic, believable voyage through the world's jungles. The original spiel was similar to the narration of a nature documentary.
Attraction summary
The queue and station are themed as the headquarters and boathouse of the Jungle Navigation Company, a river trading company located in a British colony (as shown by the Union Jack flying above the boathouse) circa 1938. The queuing area is cluttered with appropriate props, such as pinned insects, an old radio on top of a bookshelf, an old typewriter, and a chessboard with miniature animals and decorated shotgun shells replacing the pieces. The extended queue winds upstairs and then downstairs again. Big band music from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s plays overhead, punctuated by jungle-themed news bulletins, helping to reinforce the setting and threading together the show scenes and boat.
Once aboard the boats, guests are introduced to their skipper and they head into the jungle, allegedly never to return. The first rivers simulated are the Irrawaddy and Mekong rivers, representing tropical Southeast Asia. The boats sail through a dense rainforest inhabited by large butterflies and a pair of toucans, before passing by the Temple of the Forbidden Eye and a shrine of a cobra beholding a crystal ball. Passengers then glide precariously under the first of a pair of stone arches severely damaged by an earthquake centuries ago. These are part of the ruins of an ancient Cambodian city where a crumbling temple is one of the few things which have managed to avoid tumbling into the river. Here passengers see an Indochinese tiger, giant spiders, king cobras and mugger crocodiles. Passing a statue of a bowing elephant, the boats pass under the second arch and enter the Sacred Indian Elephant Bathing Pool. Here a large herd of Indian elephants frolic and squirt water at the passing vessels.
The theme moves to the rivers of Africa, and riders see a family of baboons, and a safari camp that has been overrun by gorillas. The boats narrowly avoid the dramatic waterfall, Schweitzer Falls (which riders are told is named after Dr. Albert Falls), and turn down Africa's Nile river where they pass between two African elephants, and large termite mounds. A tableau of the African Veldt follows, showing giraffes, wildebeest, zebras, vultures and gazelles; then a pride of lions feasting on a zebra beneath a rocky outcropping. Beyond the lion's den, an angry black rhinoceros has chased a safari party up a tree, much to the amusement of spotted hyenas. The skipper then pilots the boat into the Congo river spotting the wreckage of a boat that has sank while also disturbing a pod of hippos that signal their intent to attack the boat.[12]
Drums and chanting are heard as the boats enter through the Congo to spot another boat being taken over by chimpanzeess as they raid the boat of its supplies and accessories. The boats then pass by more chimpanzees who have raided the box of butterflies.
The boats now pass behind Schweitzer Falls (referred to as "the Backside of Water", which they call "the Eighth Wonder of the World") to enter the Amazon River. Skeletal animal remains and warning signs featuring pictures of dagger-toothed fish forewarn the next show scene, where the boats encounter a swarm of leaping piranha. The guests then pass a couple of water buffalo and a boa constrictor. The boats then finally pass by a former lost and found stand which has been transformed by Trader Sam to become Trader Sam's Gift Shop.
Major changes
Throughout the history of the attraction, Jungle Cruise has undergone many technical changes, as well as some story and content adaptations.
In March 2001, ride skippers were "disarmed" of their pistols and no longer fired shots at animals during the ride. The skippers were rearmed in October 2004. In 2010, with the environment having undergone fifty-five years of growth and care, Disneyland's man-made jungle was declared to be "real" thanks to its own self-sustaining ecosystem.
In 2013, the Jungle Cruise was first themed for the holiday season, becoming the "Jingle Cruise". This overlay included new decorations on the boathouse, Christmas lights on the boats, and a holiday-themed script, but few changes to the jungle itself. In 2014, the "Jingle Cruise" overlay returned, but with significant changes. Unlike the previous year, the boats and boathouse had few decorations, but the show scenes became themed. The script was rewritten to reflect a story of lost holiday supplies in the jungle. 2015's holiday overlay continued in the vein of 2014's, but added a new scene with giant snowmen.
In January 2016, the Disneyland attraction underwent a four-month refurbishment and reopened in May. This included a new dock designed to stabilize the boats while loading and unloading, as well as some mechanical animal repairs, replacement of the on-ride audio systems, and tree replacement.
In January 2021, Disney announced one of the most major refurbishments of the attraction. In response to increasing scrutiny of Disney attractions, the attraction's final scene of tribal people would be removed in the spirit of removing "negative depictions of native people". These scenes would then be replaced in both the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom versions of the ride. Despite previous reports that the attraction would now include or reference content from the 2021 film adaptation, these new refurbishments will only include the removal of "imperialist" and "racist" content. The updated storyline emphasizes the re-imagined Trapped Safari characters consisting of Felix Pechman XIII, the unlucky skipper; Siobhan "Puffy" Murphy, an Irish ornithologist; Leonard Moss, a Black Canadian botanist; Kon Chunosuke, a Japanese entomologist in the Society of Explorers and Adventurers; and Rosa Sota Dominguez, a Latina artist, with the remains of their boat and supplies being taken over by a group of chimpanzees.
Boats
There are 12 vehicles, with a maximum of 8 in operation at any given time. The boats in 1955 were painted as clean, idealized replicas, but have since been given a more realistic theming reflecting the grunge and wear of actual watercraft due to the addition of Indiana Jones Adventure and its ruggedness.
Names in use:
Amazon Belle (Renamed "Jingle Belle" during Christmas)
Congo Queen (Renamed "Congo Caroler" then "Candy Cane Queen" during Christmas)
Ganges Gal (Renamed "Ganges Garland" then "Gingerbread Gal" during Christmas)
Hondo Hattie (Renamed "Hondo Hollie" then "Hanukkah Hattie" during Christmas)
Irrawaddy Woman (Renamed "Irrawaddy Snowwoman" during Christmas)
Kissimmee Kate (Renamed "Yule Kissimmee" then "Kissimmee Under the Mistetoe" during Christmas)
Nile Princess (Wheelchair equipped) (Renamed "Nile Nutcracker" then "Noel Princess" during Christmas)
Orinoco Adventuress (Renamed "Orinoco Ornament" then "Navidad Adventuress" during Christmas)
Suwannee Lady (Renamed "Suwannee Sleigh" then "Sugar Plum Lady" during Christmas)
Ucayali Una (Wheelchair equipped) (Renamed "Ucayali Eggnog" then "Evergreen Una" during Christmas)
Yangtze Lotus (Renamed "Yuletide Lotus" during Christmas)
Zambezi Miss (Renamed "Peppermint Miss" during Christmas)
In popular culture
In a Disney Sing Along Songs video volume called Disneyland Fun, the Jungle Cruise ride makes an appearance during "Following the Leader", a song from the 1953 Disney film Peter Pan.
Jungle Cruise was parodied as Timon and Pumbaa's Virtual Safari on The Lion King Special Edition DVD (as their Nighttime Safari Boat Tour). A similar bonus feature called Baloo’s Virtual Swingin’ Jungle Cruise is featured on the 40th anniversary special edition DVD of the 1967 animated Disney film, The Jungle Book.
The Maverick Theater in Fullerton, California, once hosted a reoccurring stand-up comedy show called the "Skipper Stand Up Show" featuring Jungle Cruise skippers.
"Weird Al" Yankovic wrote and recorded a song titled "Skipper Dan" about a failed actor who ended up as a guide on the Jungle Cruise. The song is included on his 2009 digital Internet Leaks EP and his 2011 album, Alpocalypse.
The cruise boat and the "River Expedition Company" boathouse were incorporated into an original painting and limited edition print offering by artist Randy Souders titled "Jungle Cruise", created for the 1999 Official Disneyana Convention at Disneyland.
Soundtrack
A studio recorded soundtrack of the Jungle Cruise was released in 1968 by Disneyland Records included as the B side of the album Walt Disney Presents The Enchanted Tiki Room and the Adventurous Jungle Cruise (ST-3966). The Jungle Cruise attraction has always featured narration by a live Disney Cast Member; for the release the narration was provided by Thurl Ravenscroft. This soundtrack was also used in Disneyland television features as early as 1964.
(Wikipedia)