At the opening of Disneyland, the crowning achievement on the attraction roster was the Jungle River Cruise, the centerpiece of the new park's lushly beautiful Adventureland. By any measure. Walt Disney was justifiably proud of his newly christened Imagineers for this calm yet thrilling ride through the exotic and dangerous waters of the world. This beautiful piece of concept art depicts headhunter country. It's now a taboo subject, but back then, this brought some thrill along with the fear factor.
There was nothing like it! Groundbreaking in its theme and execution, Disneyland visitors immediately got in line for the attraction and have never stopped. With all its changes and tweaks, the Jungle Cruise is a long time favorite with corny jokes from skippers with just the right playful, irreverent attitude. Tokyo Disneyland may be flashing about plans to remove it at their park, but what a mistake that would be!
The significance of the attraction goes far beyond opening day and its continued popularity. You could make a strong case that this attraction had the most to do with then CEO Michael Eisner giving his blessing to build Disney's Animal Kingdom. Sure, Michael's competitive nature was also driven by Busch Gardens' success down in Tampa, but I believe it was also the public's love of the attraction- and Joe Rohde's clever tiger in the boardroom stunt- that tipped the scales in favor of a brand new wild animal kingdom.
Today, the newer Jungle Cruise inspired park is not the out of the box success the suits hoped it would be. Yet. Long story short, the team working on the Encanto and Indiana Jones / Tropical Americas project had better make it a huge success- or more heads are gonna roll.
(Art copyright the Walt Disney Company.)
