Mouse Extra

As I am sure you already know, the Hollywood Reporter revealed last month that the first steps towards converting the Jungle Cruise into a major motion picture have already been taken. There are almost no details to speak about, but the concept alone seems risky.

There are so many ways this can go. Would it be slap-stick? The ride certainly has a slap-stick quality to it, but Disney’s recent attempts at turning rides into comedies certainly have been met with lukewarm responses, see the Haunted Mansion and Country Bear Jamboree films. Will it be slightly more intense, like Pirates? I guess it could be, but the moving down this road really separates film from ride, not that I think that is a bad thing.

The reason the Pirates films have worked is that the story is well written, and the ride is only really used as a launching point to get an immediate connection with potential film-goers. The same needs to be done with the Jungle Cruise if it is to work. Can we really have a 20 something captain of a canopy boat cracking bad jokes for 2 hours? Will going to all the rivers mentioned in the attraction really work for a movie storyline? Do we really need to hear the “back side of water” joke again in order to find the film worthy of us Disney addicts?

by Dave

The answer to all these questions is no. What we need is a great, fun movie and not an attempt to turn a ride into a film. Considering the attraction has been so popular for so many years, it is easy to see the temptation to turn cliché. The ride offers great scenery, and some funny ideas to build on, just like Pirates did, but the challenge is to move away from that and not try to balloon this campy old ride into a movie.