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Disney Parks to Majorly Update Jungle Cruise Attraction
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If you’ve ever been on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland or Magic Kingdom, you’re probably familiar with the jokes. To board the beloved boat ride is to enjoy and endure a bevy of river related puns and dad jokes. Those bits have only changed in small increments since the Jungle Cruise first set sail. The skipper piloting the boat through the rivers of the world makes all the difference with their attitude and delivery. Silly as the ride can be, it has an outdated approach when it comes to the portrayal of Indigenous people. But that’s about to change. Disney announced Monday that major updates are coming to the classic attraction at Disneyland and Magic Kingdom.
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Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise has set sail in the park’s Adventureland area consistently since 1955, and it stands today as one of the remaining opening day attractions overseen by Walt Disney himself.
But culture often moves faster than decades-old mechanical hippos.
On Monday, the Walt Disney Co. announced that it’s embarking on what many view as a long-overdue course correction for the Jungle Cruise. Numerous changes will make the attraction feel more inclusive and less racially insensitive in its depiction of other cultures.
The move follows updates to other older attractions such as Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean, all done to remove now-outdated tableaus that can be cringe-inducing at best and racist at worst. The company had already announced that Splash Mountain, originally inspired by the critters in the racist film “Song of the South,” would receive a makeover themed to “The Princess and the Frog,” the movie that featured D
The Jungle Cruise, as one of Disneyland s opening day attractions envisioned by the park s patriarch, is likely to be viewed with a more protective lens by the company s vast fan base. Yet the ride has also been one under near-constant evolution since its inception. Its early influence was taken from Disney s own nature documentaries and the 1951 film
The African Queen, a favourite of early Disneyland designer Harper Goff. Its initial conception as The Jungle Rivers of the World leaned slightly more educational than today s more humour-driven take. The ride s unsavoury tribal depictions, largely inspired by images from Papua New Guinea, were added in the years after its opening. These vignettes of the Jungle Cruise essentially depict indigenous people as either tourist attraction, attackers or cannibals.
UpdatedThu, Feb 18, 2021 at 7:38 am PT
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In a tradition that began six decades ago, the Imagineers are making some long-awaited changes to the famed attraction. (Disneyland Resort Photo)
ANAHEIM, CA There is no shortage of Disney magic in the plans for revamping The Jungle Cruise. The sit-down boat ride is getting a brand gnu update, courtesy of the Disneyland Resort Imagineers.
It s just another thing changing at Disneyland Resort amid the coronavirus closure. Just under one year ago, Disneyland shut their main gates due to the coronavirus pandemic. Though the park has had to lay off employees, and the city of Anaheim has suffered the loss of the largest tourism draw in the county, the minds at Disney continue to modernize and refresh the park.