Experience the Jungle Cruise: Exciting, spreadable, and problematic
The infamous Jungle Cruise ride first opened in 1955 during Disneyland’s grand opening. Despite being nearly 70 years old, this attraction has managed to remain relevant, so how has it done so despite its controversial history?
Since its initial launch, the ride has opened in further locations such as Magic Kingdom in Florida, Tokyo Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland, spreading it not only across the country, but the globe. Though there are various locations around the world, the ride itself remains mostly consistent despite which resort it is in. During this ride, visitors are immersed in an exotic world; that is what would be considered an “exotic world” in terms of the white gaze. Tourists enter an actual boat, where they embark on “treacherous rivers” for approximately 10 minutes. On this guided tour of “remote rivers”, riders engage with “leaping tigers”, “curious gorillas”, “hungry lions” and bathing elephants where visitors are encouraged to “take pictures” (Disneyland). Visitors’ senses are completely immersed: the touch of the boat, the smells of the forest, the sounds of the animals, the sights of the water and nature.
Furthermore, fans of the ride can bring back physical merchandise such as Jungle Cruise t-shirts, backpacks, water bottles, magnets, toys, and even cookie jars. This encourages riders to take their experience outside of this world, expressing their love for the ride through paratexts such as apparel.
That being said, physical locations and items are by no means the only actions Disney has taken to keep this ride popular and in the minds of the public. Jungle Cruise has several forms of transmedia to engage the public and ensure the Jungle Cruise unfolds across multiple mediums.
In 1968, Disney launched a studio recorded soundtrack of Jungle Cruise. This soundtrack was the B side of Walt Disney Presents the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Adventurous Jungle Cruise. This soundtrack featured the music from the waiting area, background music, the musical score, and more from the attraction. It was a way to bring the ride home, so that the experience of the Jungle Cruise and Tiki Room could be extended beyond the park. Continuing, in 2021, “Jungle Cruise” the film, featuring stars such as Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Paul Giamatti, and more, was released. This movie was a live action adventure, based on the rides storyline of exploring the “wild” jungle. It brought the ride into existence through the screen, now allowing it to exist physically, musically, and digitally. Surprisingly, it seems that the rides merchandise has not been updated to incorporate features of the film. All in all though, Disney has still done an extremely powerful job keeping Jungle Cruise relevant
This all together made the Jungle Ride not only extremely spreadable, but easily spreadable and allows visitors to deeply utilize “fan time”. There is a continuous cycle the attraction can live in: visitors can physically experience the ride, have a soundtrack they can play to relive memories while at home, and also digitally experience the “ride”. This is a clear use of fan time because visitors can “extend” their experience of this temporal ride through a variety of mediums. Furthermore, they can emotionally invest mediums so that the ride has an impact on their lives over a stretched period of time.
That being said, revamps, fun promotion, and transmedia used for this ride does not erase its problematic history. Disney has shifted the Jungle Cruise to focus more on the nature aspects of the ride such as the animals and dangerous rivers, but it has not always been this way. Prior to becoming more “culturally sensitive”, it had a reputation of depicting Indigenous persons in a racist light. The original attraction featured “primal” headhunting tribesmen, waving spears to thrill tourists. These primitive characters would carry shrunken heads, were referred to as cannibals, and would play out chasing white actors dressed as explorers on the banks of the river. The native body was dehumanized and made to be seen as savage to please the Eurocentric gaze and for Disney’s profit.
Over recent years, Disney has removed most of these racist stereotypes, getting rid of the headhunting tribes, the shrunken heads, and replaced many of the insensitive scenes that included Indigenous persons with animals. For example, instead of having a white explorer being chased by a native person, they now have a diverse group of explorers being chased by animals. Furthermore, they have used this surface level removal of their problematic history to their own promotional advantage, flaunting the fact they made these changes for social currency. For example, with the beginning of these renovations, Chairperson of Disney Robert Iger tweeted that these changes reflect Disney’s “commitment to” “the values and rich diversity of our world”.
Though, it is hard to say that simply replacing stereotypes is the solution. The scenes being depicted in the ride are still heavily tied to the racist messages that Disney was previously pushing. It is more of a white-washed version of inclusion: do not have the overt racist stereotype, but do not do anything to actually push the boundaries of being completely inclusive. It is safe, it is acceptable. I personally argue that it still is a problematic ride, using colored bodies to play out roles that were once heavily racist. Furthermore, Disney hired Dwayne Johnson, a man of color, to “diversify” the film adaptation of the ride and gain extreme marketing points, yet did nothing else to incorporate his face more into the experience of the revamped ride. In some ways, Disney gained more from using him than he gained. It is yet another example of “Disney [highlighting] characters of color through advertising”, but then relegating “them to the margins in the actual productions” (Leon-boys and Chávez, 2386). All in all, while the new ride is nowhere near perfect, it is an improvement and for now will ensure that it will live on in the Disney universe.
