Jungle Cruise Re-Imagining

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
With live interaction and scripts they could even do a riff off the GMR, 2 different show modes, switch off skippers halfway through the ride Show A and Show B... I mean it could be done...and would add an element of surprise as far as which show sequence you would be seeing... The Temple could be handles like the Indiana Jones Temple of Mara too.. Digital mapping and more than one scenario... So it feels different...
This is assuming that people are looking for (or would welcome) more "action" in this particular ride. But I think the popularity of the Jungle Cruise rests on its humour, corniness, and outmoded technology. Others may feel differently, but I would be very disappointed to see them reconceive the ride along the lines you suggest.
 

MickeyLuv'r

Well-Known Member
it can be a ride with thrilling effects...not thrill ride as in coaster... I think they were trying to do that on the Hong Kong version with the fire and water effects....successful or not there was an effort. And "thrill" doesn't have to mean scare...it could be dazzling, beautiful or awe inspiring.. It got stale and they added jokes instead of updating and revamping the visuals... Now with the removal of a bunch of the sets, they have to opportunity to add more engaging and fantastic upgrades... Put the boat in the action. not passing the action...
The beauty of the jokes though is that each ride-through has the potential to be new/unique/updated, and those updates cost a minimal amount of money.

(Now that didn't help Living with the Land CM's form being replaced by a recording).

I agree JC could be remade with exciting effects, and it could be amazing. Where I'm less confident is removing the humor aspect, and more-or-less- humor is only humor if it is constantly updated. Jokes tend to quickly go stale.
 

MickeyLuv'r

Well-Known Member
The major hurdle I can see to this is given the nature of the jungle cruise, the story and narrative of the skippers is what is the unique feature of the ride that you can exploit. Everything else is really handicapped. Take the animals for example? How do you reinvigorate the JC featuring pretend animals, when you have the AK and Safari ride now which didn’t exist when JC first opened? Any comparison between fake animals and live animals is going result in a “snooze” rating for the fakes.

As to animatronics the JC is rather unique in that it is basically geared as a dark water ride...but outdoors. This means all the newer features of your best dark water rides, the use of modern animatronics mixed with screen visuals, are subject to the rain and elements. Your never going to be able to recreate the WOW factor of the Navi River or say PotC in China in an outdoor setting.

The one unique feature of jungle cruise that no other ride has is 100% character interaction with a live person. The skipper brings to the ride something that should be leveraged to make the ride unique. Different skippers with slightly different roles/“scripts”/take on the ride help promote repeat ridability, with each trip being a bit different. It is this feature that I think the JC experience has to be built around. Anything else and the ride becomes a second best , it’s ok but X ride does this better.
Have you been on Universal's Kong? He doesn't walk around, but his eyes and breathing are rather impressive.

There are multiple ways animatronic animals could potentially be better than live ones. For one thing, all the safari animals live their entire lives in cages. Wild lions hunt. Do the safari lions ever get to hunt? (not that WDW would allow lions to hunt, I more mean- fewer real animals would have to live in cages for human entertainment.)

Real animals also sleep and hide in dens, or display their backsides. Animatronic Kong faces the audience every time, and growls right one queue. Hearing a real lion roar is pretty rare.

We don't mind seeing animatronic humans on Spaceship Earth. Now that's a ride that could use live actors! Let's hire real Bill Gates to work in SE all day waving at passerby. Alas though....WDW had a ride with live actors over in Hollywood Studios. They replaced it with animatronic rodents. I suppose we are getting animatronic animals, after all.

It would be appalling to see humans treated the way we treat zoo animals. Or maybe Jungle Cruise just needs animatronic Baloo, or Kala and Kerchak?

Oh wait, AK retired their Tarzan Rocks show some time ago.

Okay, nevermind.....
 

Phil12

Well-Known Member
Looks like a fun summer movie. But please, Disney, in the name of all that is good and pure and holy, do not turn the park ride into a quest for some pink glowing tree, complete with Dwayne Johnson animatronic.
A Dwayne Johnson skipper on each boat would be better. They need to dress each skipper on every boat in a muscle suit with a Dwayne Johnson mask and an electronic filter on the boat public address system to sound like Dwayne Johnson.
1622144741411.png
 

doctornick

Well-Known Member
I know ride capacity is an issue - hey Disney why don't you take a hint and actually built more stuff to do in the world's busiest theme park - but it just seems ridiculous to continue to operate the ride in its present disjointed state. Just shut it down and get the scenes in ASAP and then reopen it.
 

owlsandcoffee

Well-Known Member
Thanks!

The weird thing is, those "natives" are actually a really damn accurate representation of the indigenous people of New Guinea. Marc Davis was kind of obsessed with them and did a great job of presenting their culture and art in the ride.

Of course that opens up a whole conversation about appropriation or whatever else but it's clear that Marc was just trying to do their culture justice and share it with the world. Sadly it seems Disney would rather erase it and replace it with funny monkeys than make any attempt to actually educate people. I'm sure the new scenes will be nice, and funny, and make the ride more accessible for people of color, etc. But we're losing probably the most regularly seen representation of New Guinean people's art.
 

tcool123

Well-Known Member
Thanks!

The weird thing is, those "natives" are actually a really damn accurate representation of the indigenous people of New Guinea. Marc Davis was kind of obsessed with them and did a great job of presenting their culture and art in the ride.

Of course that opens up a whole conversation about appropriation or whatever else but it's clear that Marc was just trying to do their culture justice and share it with the world. Sadly it seems Disney would rather erase it and replace it with funny monkeys than make any attempt to actually educate people. I'm sure the new scenes will be nice, and funny, and make the ride more accessible for people of color, etc. But we're losing probably the most regularly seen representation of New Guinean people's art.
Wouldn’t that add to the issue? I was under the impression this was supposed to be an African tribe since we were in the Congo river, and as such wouldnt not only weaken the impact of the culture since New Guinea is in the Pacific implying that all non Western civilizations are a like? Just my thoughts if I’m wrong about it being the Congo then I take it back but they should have really make that stick out more.
 

_caleb

Well-Known Member
Thanks!

The weird thing is, those "natives" are actually a really damn accurate representation of the indigenous people of New Guinea. Marc Davis was kind of obsessed with them and did a great job of presenting their culture and art in the ride.

Of course that opens up a whole conversation about appropriation or whatever else but it's clear that Marc was just trying to do their culture justice and share it with the world. Sadly it seems Disney would rather erase it and replace it with funny monkeys than make any attempt to actually educate people. I'm sure the new scenes will be nice, and funny, and make the ride more accessible for people of color, etc. But we're losing probably the most regularly seen representation of New Guinean people's art.
What? There are like 60 different people groups in Papua New Guinea. And the scene is in the African/Congo River section of the ride. accuracy was clearly not a priority.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom