First of all, allow me to officially introduce myself. I am MANEATINGWREATH (or MEW, for short), and this post marks the first time I've officially been active in the WDWMagic community in a very, VERY long time. As you can see, I have 190-something posts to my name, my profile picture from several years ago, and a very extensive history with armchair Imagineering. My line of creative work began on Sywtbai.com (formerly Visions Fantastic) back in April of 2008. Ah, the glory days of forums and armchair Imagineering. After many years involved with the highly successful So, You Want to be an Imagineer contest, several "dream resorts" of my own design, and countless "Open Brainstorming" threads (a term I conned), Sywtbai.com unfortunately fell under the wrath of advertising bots and a sudden slump in activity, presumably due to the bots. That being said, I think I'll be doing all of my creative work here from now on. So I'll do my best to make myself at home and hopefully become as much of a creative presence here as I was back on Sywtbai.com. I look forward to working with all of you.
As apparent by the title, this thread is all about making improvements to the Jingle Cruise, a rather oddball overlay in the sense that it...well...I don't think it works. For starters, I'm referring to Disneyland's Jungle Cruise which is normally set in the year 1933 to match nearby Indiana Jones Adventure. Despite the time period, many modern day references are made throughout the Jingle Cruise overlay, including modern Christmas lights and fuzzy sweaters, non-period-appropriate Christmas songs, and so on so forth. While the overlay is tacky in the true nature of the normal ride's jokes, it just needs some tinkering, particularly in regards to the normal ride's time period since you can't just take away the fact that a 1933-era archaeological dig is in plain sight along the waterway. Take Haunted Mansion Holiday for instance. Whilst the bright colors and weird shapes of Nightmare Before Christmas don't seem to mesh well with the realistic tone of the Haunted Mansion at first thought, the results when perfected and fleshed out to its fullest potential actually works quite well. So if the Haunted Mansion can do it, why can't the Jungle Cruise? Here are just a few general ideas to get us started...
1. A freak winter blizzard from Mt. Kilimanjaro has swept over the jungles, turning them into a tropical winter wonderland, a Blizzard Beach-type situation where leaky icebergs, dripping icicles, and blankets of snow melt and clash with the contrasting exotic environment. While all the old gags remain (albeit dressed up), new ones would be incorporated into the story, including...
- The boats dodging dangerously close ice platforms and jagged icicles in place of piranhas.
- A new indoor scene specifically designed for the overlay; a trip through a melting ice cavern utilizing brilliant projection mapping. Probably a temporary replacement for the headhunters.
- A new nighttime version of the ride utilizing special lighting and projection mapping to simulate the Northern Lights and other winter effects.
- "Snowfall."
- Various snowmen "built" by the skippers. This could allow a ton of "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" jokes.
- Schweitzer Falls is now a melting iceberg.
2. This is my least favorite idea, as it is, safe to say, extremely tacky, probably even tackier than the current overlay... Santa, yes, Santa has crashed in the jungle due to awkward reasons...a Jungle Cruise skipper, trying to scare away the hippos accidentally shot a hole in Santa's sleigh just as he was passing by, causing jolly old St. Nick to come crashing down into the wilderness. Thus, Santa, several of his elves, and all nine of his reindeer must embark on a quest through the tropics to patch up the sleigh, collect all of the scattered presents, and return to their normally scheduled Christmas flight.
3. Perhaps the most simple overlay...the Yeti, being transported by boat from Asia has accidentally escaped his containment and run loose into the jungle. Might be a bit too redundant with the Matterhorn down the street.
As apparent by the title, this thread is all about making improvements to the Jingle Cruise, a rather oddball overlay in the sense that it...well...I don't think it works. For starters, I'm referring to Disneyland's Jungle Cruise which is normally set in the year 1933 to match nearby Indiana Jones Adventure. Despite the time period, many modern day references are made throughout the Jingle Cruise overlay, including modern Christmas lights and fuzzy sweaters, non-period-appropriate Christmas songs, and so on so forth. While the overlay is tacky in the true nature of the normal ride's jokes, it just needs some tinkering, particularly in regards to the normal ride's time period since you can't just take away the fact that a 1933-era archaeological dig is in plain sight along the waterway. Take Haunted Mansion Holiday for instance. Whilst the bright colors and weird shapes of Nightmare Before Christmas don't seem to mesh well with the realistic tone of the Haunted Mansion at first thought, the results when perfected and fleshed out to its fullest potential actually works quite well. So if the Haunted Mansion can do it, why can't the Jungle Cruise? Here are just a few general ideas to get us started...
1. A freak winter blizzard from Mt. Kilimanjaro has swept over the jungles, turning them into a tropical winter wonderland, a Blizzard Beach-type situation where leaky icebergs, dripping icicles, and blankets of snow melt and clash with the contrasting exotic environment. While all the old gags remain (albeit dressed up), new ones would be incorporated into the story, including...
- The boats dodging dangerously close ice platforms and jagged icicles in place of piranhas.
- A new indoor scene specifically designed for the overlay; a trip through a melting ice cavern utilizing brilliant projection mapping. Probably a temporary replacement for the headhunters.
- A new nighttime version of the ride utilizing special lighting and projection mapping to simulate the Northern Lights and other winter effects.
- "Snowfall."
- Various snowmen "built" by the skippers. This could allow a ton of "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" jokes.
- Schweitzer Falls is now a melting iceberg.
2. This is my least favorite idea, as it is, safe to say, extremely tacky, probably even tackier than the current overlay... Santa, yes, Santa has crashed in the jungle due to awkward reasons...a Jungle Cruise skipper, trying to scare away the hippos accidentally shot a hole in Santa's sleigh just as he was passing by, causing jolly old St. Nick to come crashing down into the wilderness. Thus, Santa, several of his elves, and all nine of his reindeer must embark on a quest through the tropics to patch up the sleigh, collect all of the scattered presents, and return to their normally scheduled Christmas flight.
3. Perhaps the most simple overlay...the Yeti, being transported by boat from Asia has accidentally escaped his containment and run loose into the jungle. Might be a bit too redundant with the Matterhorn down the street.