Jungle Cruise 1950's
Today's slide scans are the photo equivalent to a bowl full of soggy cereal. But sometimes I'll eat soggy cereal! I'm not proud.
If this first one was a little sharper, it might have been ready for prime time, but it's just a little fuzzy. Still, it's not a total loss; I envy those folks on the boat, about to vanish into the endless rain forest. All those leaves absorb a lot of sound, so all you hear is the thrum of the engine, and the various shrieks, hoots, and squawks of the animals.
Speaking of animals, here's a crummy photo of the bull elephant's mother in-law, surrounded by flowers.
13 comments:
Soggy cereal and fuzzy pictures are ok with me, Major. The first scan gets my vote, even with that really, really green river.
Thanks, Major, and happy Sunday everyone!
A CCR reference- +1 for Sue!
I just had Cheerios and they were a little soggy at the end. But I ate 'em!
It's a law of the jungle to have a head in the picture on the Jungle Cruise. There still fun.
Thanks Major,
dz
Wow! These are....uh.....huh....well...
Ok, I got nothin'. Sorry.
They're, not there
Lou and Sue, what about eggs with runny yolks? Yuck! Do not want. I’ve always wondered why the jungle river has changed from a plausible pea-green color to a Ty-D-Bol blue-green hue. So artificial!
dzacher, I don’t even get the CCR reference, so I guess I have to turn in my “Biggest CCR Fan” badge. Fortunately I am still the biggest “Captain and Tenniel” fan.
stu29573, the important thing is that you tried.
dzacher, well, I was going to laugh and jump around and be really annoying while I corrected you, but you’ve taken all my fun away. Way to go.
I love the bare branch gnarly tree in the first pic. Also, the green murky water is AWESOME! Thanks, Major.
Frankly, I've never understood the appeal of non-soggy cereal. If I pour a bunch of milk over something, dammit, I expect it to do its job and get soggy. Every time I hear a cereal ad boasting about how it "stays crispy in milk," there's one more cereal I cross off my list of decent cereals. It's cereal, dammit, not a bleeping flotation device.
Muskrat Susie, Muskrat Sam
Do the Jungle Cruise in Disneyland
And they shimmy
On their Jungle Cruise dinghy
And they whirl and they twirl and they tango
Singing in Jungle Cruise sango
Floating like the heavens above
Looks like Jungle Cruise love
Very clever, Sue! 1 bazillion creativity points! Now I have to deduct 2 bazillion points because I have that tune stuck in my head. Sorry. I don't make the rules.
Stu, you can blame the Major. He started it.
Ken, I was looking at those trees, too. I was wondering how they could be that big and growing at that angle. I seem to remember hearing or reading that some of the trees in the Jungle Cruise were dead. Am I remembering that correctly? It seems kind of dangerous to position large dead trees at that angle, over the path that the boats would be following.
Sue, love the lyrics you came up with, to Muskrat Love! I remember when that song was new and played on the radio quite frequently!
Wow, that’s green water. Very much on point.
@Tokyo, I read somewhere that many original trees for the JC were salvaged from freeway route demolition and boxed up for transplanting. I think I have heard the same rumors you did about some dead trees used for stage setting. Some of those might be mortality of transplants too, not entirely intentional.
At some point in the early years, there was a big makeover of the JC, maybe related to NOS. I think the Major posted the aerial photos showing a regular forest boxed up and moved offstage behind the POC & HM while work went on. This may have been when the stream connection to the River was culverted and the Plantation House removed. Maybe someone out there knows.
The dead trees might have been removed then and replaced with the concrete ones used in the Angkor temple etc. I think the Rainforest Tunnel at the beginning is now really a steel armature covered with real and false vines, but it might have started with dead branches.
I know the JC has experienced a number of fairly major revisions over the years, yet it feels relatively unchanged. Especially to infrequent visitors like me. There’s something about the format that blends changes into the fabric in ways that don’t damage the narrative. I think the thematic revisions related to Indiana Jones are very successful and have improved the ride dramatically over the initial version.
Thanks for the good pics, Major. I have been on the cruise many many times and never got any photos much better than these. D Zacher has the key to JC photos.
JG
K. Martinez, I assume that the tree with the bare branches eventually was lush and green. Maybe it was winter??
Melissa, it depends on the cereal, but as a rule I like it to be a combination of crunchy and not too crunchy. I haven’t had Cap’n Crunch for years, but remember that it used to leave my mouth raw. I have a friend who becomes physically ill at the thought of eating anything soggy!
Lou and Sue, whoa! You and Melissa need to team up! Great job.
stu29573, just think of the great song, “Love Will Keep Us Together”. Even if it’s stuck in your head, so what?
Lou and Sue, I am an instigator! Didn’t you get the memo?
TokyoMagic!, I think there was a famous story about one dead walnut tree being planted upside down, other than that I am not aware of other dead trees in the Jungle Cruise.
JG, yes, the construction for the freeways was a good source for many trees for the park. It’s funny how opportunities like that sometimes just lined up for Walt. When he was building his studio in the early days, there was a Depression, and he could get incredible, trained artists to work on his cartoons. I have the feeling that many of them never planned on working in animation, but it was all that was available to them. Lucky for all of us now! I don’t remember the photo of the boxed-up trees you mentioned, but then again, I don’t remember a LOT of things. I’m very glad you enjoyed these!
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