Sunday, January 17, 2021

Scenes From the Jungle Cruise, August 1966

If I'm sharing so-so photos of the Jungle Cruise, that means it's probably Sunday. Who needs a calendar? Not you! 

I remember the first time I saw "The Lion King"; the film begins with hundreds of animals gathering at Pride Rock to witness introduction of Simba the cub. And my brain being what it is, I immediately thought of the "African Veldt" scene in Disneyland's Jungle Cruise. Only in this case the lions are feasting on one of their pals. No big deal!


There's nothing like a nice swim on a hot day, even elephants know it. The Sacred Bathing Pool needs a slide, and maybe a bar where they can buy overpriced cool drinks. It'll be the most popular place in the jungle!


 

11 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-
A swim-up bar in the jungle-! Now why didn't Marc Davis think of that one-? Nothing ho-hum about this post.

Thanks, Major.

"Lou and Sue" said...

The Sacred Bathing Pool needs a slide, and maybe a bar where they can buy overpriced cool drinks. It'll be the most popular place in the jungle!

Yep, Major, the grown-up elephants could enjoy Grasshoppers, and the little ones would love sippy cups of Green River - with colorful little paper umbrellas included. And plenty of bowls of free peanuts would be set out during Happy Hour.

TokyoMagic! said...

Sue, "plenty of bowls of free peanuts"....HA, HA!

When River Country closed at WDW, they should have moved parts of it to the Sacred Elephant Bathing Pool. Of course, they would have needed to decontaminate it to get rid of all those brain-eating amoebas. Or maybe B.E.A. only crave human brains, and the animatronic elephants would have been safe? I forget some of that stuff they covered in high school biology class.

"Lou and Sue" said...

TM! Between the comment and link you just added to yesterday's post (at the thread's end), and your comment above, I've been laughing for the last several hours.

The Junior Gorillas are all hitting home runs! Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, the first Law of the Jungle: Don't be a zebra on Sunday!
I've always felt a bit let down by the elephants due to no direct trunk water hits on the boats. A bar would probably help with that! Tipsy elephants shooting water everywhere! That's the kind on anarchy the people want!

MRaymond said...

Even as a kid I wondered why all the animals are watching the "sleeping zebra" being devoured. Wouldn't they want to be as far away as possible in case the lions wanted dessert?

"That looks yummy, Nala, what is that? I don't know, Simba, it must be Gnu."
I'll see myself out.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, the only time I’ve experienced a swim-up bar was in Las Vegas (the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino), and even though I am not much of a drinker, I have to admit that it was pretty cool. The Playboy Mansion supposedly had a great one too, but Hef never invited me to come over in my PJs.

Lou and Sue, I know of the grasshoppers (the drinks) - but have never heard of “green river”. Is that another alcohol-free drink that kids could enjoy, like a Shirley Temple? I’ve mentioned it before, but I actually like Shirley Temples (both the drink and the lady)! Due to peanut allergies, I’m afraid they can only serve little bowls of Chex Mix.

TokyoMagic!, every time I see pictures of River Country I think it looks like the perfect swimming hole. Yes, it didn’t have the most extreme water slides, but for just swimming and staying cool, it looked wonderful. The brain-eating amoebas, who saw those coming? What a crazy (and horrific) thing to get just from swimming. As if alligators weren’t bad enough. Like you, I can’t help imagining that the B.A.E. make victims hungry for flesh. All I remember from high school biology is “mitochondria”.

Lou and Sue, ;-)

Stu29573, I guess the zebras were the “red shirts” of the jungle. These days, so many rides like to get guests wet, I wonder if they would actually have at least one elephant’s spray hitting the boat? Maybe they could make it more of a mist so it wouldn’t be quite so disastrous to cameras and hairdos. I do like the idea of the “DRUNK sacred elephant bathing pool”, with elephants reeling around unsteadily!

MRaymond, yeah, that’s a very weird scene. I get that the Imagineers wanted to have as many animals in one tableau as possible, but the fact that they are all standing there like an audience watching a show makes no sense. I guess the animals were supposed to be thinking, “Thank goodness that isn’t ME”. And your pun, while painful, is more than worthy of the Jungle Cruise!

JC Shannon said...

I remember sipping my coffee, and the first thing I thought of was "Thank Heavens we still have one of the original attractions intact. I keep waiting for some genius to add a half submerged X Wing Fighter in the elephant pool. If Walt is haunting the park, I bet he is a frequent visitor of the JC. Major, I heard elephants are rowdy drunks, and can shotgun a six pack at a time using their trunks. They are also notorious for going rhino tipping late at night. Thanks Major.

"Lou and Sue" said...

Major, Green River is a delicious "pop," as we Chicagoans call it. Similar to Mountain Dew, but lime-flavored. It was popular at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour, years ago, in our area - and that was the first place I tasted it. Now, it's back in some of our stores, but I rarely buy it because I try not to drink too much "pop" - though I love it. I found a fun article online, titled "Things You Didn't Know About Green River Soda" - See HERE.

Thanks, Major and everyone, for a fun day on one of my favorite attractions!

Warren Nielsen said...

I used to get Green River at the local soda fountain/bakery in the late 50s. They would squirt the syrup into a glass on fill with carbonated water. That and a big maple bar for a quarter.

I`m thirsty. And in the mood for a maple bar.

W

JG said...

Original Jungle Cruise is the best.

MRaymond, that is funny!

I want to try a Green River now, I love the things I learn here.

Thanks Major and everyone.

JG