Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise is one of its most iconic attractions. It was there on that July day in 1955 when the park opened, and it’s still there today. Many might be of the opinion that barring the occasional refurbishment and update the Jungle Cruise has received, the ride is largely the same as it was when it first opened, but that’s not actually true. While the basic concept, of floating down the exotic rivers of the world has remained unchanged, the tone of the Jungle Cruise is very different now than it was at the beginning.
Today, people know Jungle Cruise as the funny ride where Cast Member Skippers fire puns and one-liners off at guests one after the other. They might not all be winners, some are groan-worthy, but jokes and the Jungle Cruise have been inseparable for decades. That said, they weren’t always part of the ride. The Jungle Cruise was originally presented as a serious ride with the presentation closer to that of a documentary than a Disney cartoon.
Disneyland’s True Life Adventureland
Jungle Cruise is often celebrated by fans, alongside the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, as one of the most popular Disneyland rides that have a story and concept that are entirely original, not based on a Disney movie. But in the case of Jungle Cruise, that’s not entirely accurate, as there is a Disney movie, in fact, an entire series of Disney movies, that inspired Jungle Cruise and all of Adventureland.
While lesser known today, one of Walt Disney’s first forays into live-action filmmaking was through a series of short and long-form documentary films known as the True Life Adventures. These films combine wildlife photography with some sort of fictionalized story that allowed Disney to bring his unique form of storytelling to the natural world. These were incredibly successful, netting Walt Disney nearly half of the 26 Oscars he won in his life.
This was where the entire concept behind Disneyland’s Adventureland was born, and it was what Jungle Cruise was supposed to recreate. Walt originally wanted the Jungle Cruise to be full of actual animals, not animatronics, before it was determined that animal sleep schedules and general welfare would not be conducive to the confines of an attraction (Disney would need the massive scale of Walt Disney World in order to create Disney’s Animal Kingdom and make this particular dream of Walt’s come true.)
So while the animals would not be real, the presentation was originally designed to be just that. Skippers were originally designed to educate the riders as much as to entertain them. There was the occasional joke and the presentation wasn’t entirely stiff, but humor wasn’t the focus.
Imagineer Marc Davis Brings Humor To The Jungle Cruise
The Jungle Cruise was a big hit when the park opened in 1955. For a theme park that wouldn’t open a roller coaster for four years, it was the E-ticket attraction before the park actually had E-ticket attractions. However, the story goes that Walt Disney overheard guests saying that they had no interest in re-riding Jungle Cruise because they’d done it before. The attraction would see incremental improvements throughout the 1950s, but it was a major overhaul in the early 1960s that had the most to do with the Jungle Cruise becoming the attraction it is today.
Marc Davis would be the man put in charge of designing the overhaul, and with it, we would see the first scenes of a distinctly comedic bent on Jungle Cruise. Walt reportedly wanted to add humor to the ride, which is specifically why Davis was chosen.
Davis was part of the Imagineering team that had been working on the nearby New Orleans Square attractions around the same period. Davis is credited as being one of the key people behind the decision to add humor to the Haunted Mansion, and he also designed several of the more lighthearted moments in Pirates of the Caribbean.
A new scene showing elephants in a bathing pool would be added in 1962. A sequence where a rhinoceros has chased several people up a tree would follow in 1963. These added a much-needed bit of humor, in Davis’ opinion, to the Jungle Cruise.
There was never a moment when the Jungle Cruise narration transitioned overnight from serious to funny. That change appears to have happened gradually over time, seemingly due to the Cast Members themselves changing up the spiel. Having said that, the fact that the Jungle Cruise narration needed to be more humorous due to the funnier parts of the ride certainly appears to have influenced the Skippers into fashioning more jokes.
The Modern Jungle Cruise
Jungle Cruise Cast Members aren't generally seen as "performers" in the way that those singing and dancing on stage are, but for a few minutes at a time, the spotlight is certainly on them. The Skippers' comedy has become so well known that's an oft-repeated myth that Steve Martin got his start in comedy performing as a Skipper. It's not actually true, as Martin worked in the magic shop.
Today, there are so many jokes that it’s impossible to hear them all in one trip, giving Jungle Cruise much of the re-rideability that Walt Disney wanted. Skippers are basically given a list of jokes they can use, but have the freedom within that list to say what they want, so each ride is something a little different.
The Jungle Cruise has continued to see regular updates, with the most recent Jungle Cruise refurbishment removing some of the attraction elements that haven't aged as well as others since the 1950s and '60s. We can expect changes to the ride to continue over time, but the attraction's focus as one of the more humorous parts of Disneyland seems all but assured to continue.
The jokes on Jungle Cruise are intentionally terrible, which, for many, makes them even funnier. Still, not everybody appreciates the humor. Emily Blunt apparently didn't love having to hear Dwayne Johnson deliver endless puns on the set of the Jungle Cruise movie. For others, however, the jokes are what keeps them coming back.
