Special Exhibit
The Ever Improving Jungle Cruise
On January 12, 1954, Walt sent a letter to a gentleman named Robert Day. He wrote: “I am returning herewith an elephant head which I hope you find is in good condition. It was really a tremendous help to us in the sculpturing of our full-scale pachyderm. We have the mechanism worked out now with the ears moving and the plaster shop is busy making the skins . . . ”
This was typical of the attention Walt, personally, paid to the Jungle Cruise attraction, one of the original attractions in Disneyland – and possibly the most ambitious. It required building a river in the middle of Anaheim, California and the cultivation of a remarkable assemblage of plants, including so-called “character” trees, that were particularly interesting to look at.
Initially, Walt had anticipated using live animals for his river. But cooler heads prevailed, pointing out that the creatures would have to be fed (and of course, care would have to be taken that none of them decided to eat another one for a mid-afternoon snack). More important, on hot days, they might sneak off for a little nap in shadier portions of the attraction. That would mean that the quality of the ride would vary -- some people would see monkeys and elephants galore, while the next day, others would see a lot of water and plants, but little else.
So, Walt turned to mechanical animals. And that wasn’t the easiest trick in the world, either. According to “The Man Behind the Magic,” -- “Crocodiles coated with mud ground to a stop. The giraffe, chewing on a leaf kept getting his mouth stuck. The animals were powered with water pressure – Walt was afraid that some child might electrocute himself if electricity were used – so they were irregular in their movements. If too many people in Anaheim took a bath on Sunday night, the water pressure dropped and the elephants looked like somebody had given them a sleeping pill. (The animals were later animated with electricity.)
Finally, the attraction – and all of Disneyland – opened. The Jungle Cruise was a hit. It was unlike anything Walt’s Guests had ever seen before and was one of the most popular attractions in the new Park.
So, what did Walt do? Within a few years, he started thinking about how to spiff it up and make it better. “I want to add more animals,” he said. “I want to get more animation in the animals. I want to really fix (some). My monkeys have gone to pot and I want to get new monkeys . . . And I want to get some more little tricks.” Thus began a series of improvements to the attraction that began in 1962, were continued in 1964 and even went on after Walt’s death in 1976 and in the mid-1990s. The first big series of changes altered the very nature of the ride.
In the earliest days, the Jungle Cruise attempted to be a sincere – if fun – simulation of a boat trip through exotic ports of call. But now Walt thought the attraction needed to be even lighter and funnier. The spiel was changed to include an endless array of jokes and puns like the following (which may not be part of the current spiel, but is nonetheless illustrative): “Those of you who have just entered the Jungle Cruise are probably resigned to the fact that, being at the end of the line, you have a long wait. Well, we aim to please here at the world-famous Jungle Cruise. So, on the count of three, I want everyone to turn around. One ... two ... three. There! Those at the back of the line are now at the front. Doesn't that make you feel better?”
He asked master animator and imaginer Marc Davis to take the lead. Recalled Davis, “We put in this elephant pool and I went down to see it with Walt. I said ‘You know, Walt, there’s going to be too much to see at any one time here.’ He said, ‘Marc, that’s great. That means the next time they come they’ll see things they didn’t see before.’”
Among the other additions made in the early 1960s were the African veldt region and the so-called “trapped safari,” in which a rhinoceros is thrusting its horn upward toward several men who are unhappily trapped in a tree by the creature. It’s a simple idea -- really just a single gag. But it was the kind of thing that Walt believed worked really well. Said Davis, “Walt liked things that read,” by which he meant that Walt appreciated things that told a straightforward strong story. “The safari pole would be a good example of that. It read and people laughed. When it was done, it was a big gut laugh.”
Naturally, all of these changes required the contributions of a cadre of talented men and women, but according to Marc Davis, “Everybody contributed something to Disneyland, but Disneyland was really Walt Disney. ‘Snow White’ was Walt’s picture and Disneyland in Anaheim was Walt’s Park.”
