Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Aboard the Jungle Cruise, June 1958

Photos of the Jungle Cruise have a tendency to be... well, sort of boring. At least after you've seen a zillion of them. Oooo, hippos! Lookit the elephants! Headhunters to port! But I do find myself to be drawn to photos like these, with people in the boat to help give a "you are there" experience. Imagine how exciting this ride was for the little boy in the red shirt.


See how those lions are watching over that sleeping Zebra?! The King of the Jungle is even smiling for the camera. For some reason I find it refreshing that a Disney ride actually acknowledges that animals eat each other!

6 comments:

spajadigit said...

You know, I think I like the staging of this version of the "sleeping zebra" tableau better than the current one. This one looks a lot more natural. I understand that they changed it to hide the native uprising, but this is pretty cool.

Chris Jepsen said...

As a friend of mine likes to point out, "The 'Circle of Life' just means that everything gets eaten."

Katella Gate said...

Funny line about "Circle of Life" Chris, thanks for sharing. I'm sure it's made its way into the Jungle Cruise spiel.

I know it's 100% accidental, but these really are excellent photos of the same old lions, and tigers, and bears (and when I say "bears" I mean "zebras"). The dark, fuzzy foreground and canopy really frame the subject matter well.

Nancy said...

nice...we dont often see anything but the item they were actually taking the picture of

Anonymous said...

Don't have to imagine the little boys' excitement, I was a little boy when I first rode it. There's a certain "feel" I still recall and the ride still evokes. So do these pics. Thanks Maj. :)

Anonymous said...

I think these are great photos, Major! It's funny to me how you say these same old shots are boring--but to me they are no more or less so than the same old shot of Tomorrowland or the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship :) I think they're all great (and would request MORE Adventureland, please!)

I also learned something--I never realized the lions used to be staged among the trees. I have to disagree with Spajadigit a bit here--while it doesn't feel as staged, it just seems odd to me to see lions among so many trees--I'm used to seeing documentaries of them in less tropical environments :) What is the native uprising they are hiding?? Downtown Disney?

Brer Dan