Behind the Attraction (2021) s01e01 Episode Script
Jungle Cruise
ANNOUNCER 1: Remain seated, please.
(in Spanish)
Please remain seated.
(lively music)
(elephants trumpeting)
MAN 1: The love of liberty.
(moans)
(screaming)
NARRATOR:
The desert of Southern California.
A harsh, barren expanse of dryness
with nothing more
than the moisture of oranges,
-(creaking)
-which are actually quite juicy.
But in the 1950s,
here in the brutal California sun,
an idea trickled out of the sand.
An idea that quickly turned
into a torrent,
which quickly turned
into a flowing tropical river.
MAN 2: We'll leave the last
outpost of civilization,
push off into the upper reaches
of the Amazon.
NARRATOR: And the Jungle Cruise
has been putting these tropical waters
for nearly 70 years,
recreating the majesty of elephants,
hippos, crocodiles, giraffes,
piranhas, lions, rhinos, apes,
exotic plants, boulders, and
rocks?
(laughs)
-All right.
-NARRATOR: Yep, there he is.
Saving the world with Emily Blunt
in a movie
inspired by one of the most
enduring attractions at Disneyland.
I am not afraid.
NARRATOR: And why would you be?
Disney's Jungle Cruise
is revered for its team of skippers
who deliver razor-sharp witticisms
I'd like to point out
some plant life to you.
NARRATOR: and highbrow humor
Feel free to take as many photos
as you like.
They all got their trunks on
NARRATOR: or otherwise known as
Dad jokes.
I love a good pun.
We're in denial.
NARRATOR: But most of all,
the Jungle Cruise is classic,
vintage Disneyland at its best.
But before we climb aboard to find out
how on earth a humid tropical ecosystem
ended up in Southern California
MAN 3: Yes, a visit by boat to remote,
adventurous regions of the world.
NARRATOR: and other Disney Parks
around the world
(fire crackles)
we need to go back to the dry desert
of the early 1950s
where a chap named Walter Elias Disney
was gaining a bit of a reputation
as an animal man.
Hi, Minnie!
NARRATOR: Not so much
the cute, animated kind.
No. Cute, little bunny.
We're talking about animals
with real killer instincts,
ones that don't ever wear
either jackets or pants.
That's right, our story begins
with Walt's love of animals
in all shapes and sizes.
And this fascination grew
when he ran a successful cartoon studio
and was striving for animation perfection.
We knew that to retain
the charm of these creatures,
our animated drawings must fully capture
the natural movements
and attitudes of living animals.
WALT: So, we've studied motion pictures
of wild animals
living in their natural state.
And, in time, we added many reels
of wildlife scenes to our Bambi research.
NARRATOR: And in doing this,
Walt not only discovered
how to build better Bambis,
he also, like a creature of the wild,
wasn't one to waste scraps,
especially scraps of good footage.
One thing has always led to another here
and Bambi was no exception.
The wildlife scenes in this research
yielded an unexpected dividend.
NARRATOR: That being many forms
of potential wildlife documentaries.
It was all about enjoying the grandeur,
and appreciating nature and real animals.
NARRATOR: Which is when Walt realized
that he could quite easily become
A live action movie producer. And so,
he makes his first True-Life Adventure.
NARRATOR: Using this location footage,
Walt was able to make
a documentary featurette.
-Signed, sealed
-(barks)
It's a story about Seal Island.
NARRATOR: and delivered.
It becomes eligible for the Academy Award,
wins best short documentary,
and that was the start
of 13 True-Life Adventures,
8 of which won Academy Awards.
NARRATOR: Yes, it's true.
Walt had more tuxedos
than a colony of penguins.
They're always dressed so formally.
And with that,
Walt Disney's reputation was sealed,
as not just an Oscar-winning
animated filmmaker,
but as a legitimate
wildlife documentarian.
(dings)
But Walt was looking
to break the seal-ing
No, that one doesn't work.
with another True-Life Adventure
he'd been working on at home
Parenthood.
It all started from a daddy
with two daughters
-(bicycle bell dings)
-wondering where he could take them
where he could have a little fun
with them too.
There's a very famous story about him
going to Griffith Park
and having his Daddy's Day
with the daughters.
Walt was sitting on the bench,
feeding nuts to the squirrels
and watching his girls ride the carousel.
I felt that
there should be something built,
some kind of, uh,
an amusement enterprise built
where the parents and the children
could have fun together.
NARRATOR: And we all know
what this idea turned out to be.
WALT: That's it. Right here.
Disneyland.
NARRATOR: And from the very first sketch
of Disneyland,
to almost every single one since,
Walt's incredible vision for the park
contained an exotic, jungle-laden river
that twisted and turned across the map.
The reason why he created Jungle Cruise
was because he wanted to create
an experience for people
who weren't able to travel the globe
at that time,
and bring other parts of the world
to the people.
-Yes.
-He loved this idea
of almost like a travelogue of all these,
you know, exotic waterways of the world
that he could take his guests through
and show them something really good.
NARRATOR: And keep in mind,
international travel to exotic
destinations wasn't so easy back then.
Very few people went to Africa.
Very few people even saw
what hippos were like in the water.
NARRATOR: Uh, graceful, obviously?
However, up until 1954,
there was nothing but big talk
coming out of Walt Disney's mouth
because, at this point,
all Walt had was a basic premise
for an exotic boat ride,
just one year to construct Disneyland,
and a very dry location to do it in.
We get an average rainfall
of 12 to 14 inches, and that's a desert.
NARRATOR: But the Walt Disney Company
was overflowing with talent.
So, Walt turned to one guy
who had a particular talent with wetness.
If you look at Harper Goff's designs
for Walt,
the Nautilus
for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,
he was a very prolific designer.
Harper was one of the first Imagineers.
He created the earliest concepts
for what would become known
as the Jungle Cruise.
NARRATOR:
But Harper didn't draw inspiration
from the depths of the ocean
I've seen The African Queen
and I liked it.
NARRATOR: He saw a lot of potential
in a movie about a crusty skipper
with questionable hygiene
putting along the Ulanga River
in East Africa
with its inherent sights, dangers,
and bathing opportunities along the way.
So, The African Queen was a good place
to start.
Emphasis on start
because before they could get here,
they had to physically start here
or maybe there.
Well, they needed to work it out fast,
so Walt assembled his team
and shared the details
of his vision for Jungle Cruise.
BILL: Walt, he'd take you
on that cruise verbally,
and he'd really get into it.
Then his artist would try to visualize
what they heard him say,
and we'd mold this down into
where it came out as a drawing on paper.
NARRATOR: And what they ended up with
was a sprawling cruise
that not only floated down
the rivers of Eastern Africa
but, you know,
all the jungles of the world.
We have things from the South Pacific,
we have things from Africa,
we have things
from many different parts of the world.
NARRATOR: All a world away from Anaheim,
but not for long
because when construction began
for Disneyland
The bulldozer shows up,
ready to dig the trench for the river.
NARRATOR: To direct the bulldozers poised
to carve a jungle river
in the bone-dry dirt,
Harper Goff used the precision
of 1950s technology.
Harper Goff picks up a stick
and he traces the entire outline
of one bank of the river,
and then when he's completed,
he goes about 10, 15 feet
to the other side
and does the other bank of the river,
and has the bulldozer
start digging up from there.
NARRATOR: And the legacy
of Harper Goff's powerful stick
Not actual stick.
can still be seen today.
And, of course, the Jungle Cruise was,
you know, obviously a big job,
because we're bringing a jungle
into a farmland.
NARRATOR:
An overwhelming task, to be sure.
So, for this worldly challenge,
Walt scoured the lengths and breadths
of his backyard, actually,
where he found
the landscape architect Bill Evans
who had helped Walt landscape a man-sized
toy train set for his own house.
Uh, don't worry. It's on a loop.
He'll be back.
And now, it was full steam ahead
on a much bigger project.
DAVID: Bill Evans, who was
our landscape architect, of course,
his job was to fill Disneyland in
with as much landscape as possible.
This was kind of an on-the-job training.
BILL: A lot of these things
hadn't been done before.
NARRATOR: Spinning their wheels,
there was no time to waste.
Jungle Cruise was the first attraction
that they really started to break
-NARRATOR: The seal?
-(seal barks)
-ground for.
-Right, sure.
KEVIN: They started with
the Jungle Cruise a little bit earlier
to get an extra growing season in
for all the trees.
MICHAEL: Great effort was made
to make sure
that the area around Adventureland
was planted early and densely
so that you'd have this backdrop
for the Adventureland stories
that we wanted to tell.
But trees take time. I mean,
it's something you can't fake or force.
NARRATOR: But, of course,
they weren't starting completely
from scratch.
PAULA: They wanted to save as much
of the original trees as they could
because the more that they saved,
the more they didn't have to go out
and buy and bring in.
NARRATOR:
In a flurry of colorful conservation
TIM: They had tagged
the trees to save green,
and the ones to bulldoze red.
NARRATOR: But, of course
The bulldoze operator was color-blind.
And he indiscriminately went through
and bulldozed everything.
NARRATOR: Well, in his defense,
it's all in black and white, so
But, one way or another,
Bill desperately needed trees.
He would go around
the different neighborhoods of Anaheim
and in California,
buying people's trees,
buying their exotic plants,
just to bring them in.
NARRATOR: And one of those trees
even became a minor celebrity
known as the Dominguez Palm.
The palm tree was given to my grandparents
as a wedding gift.
NARRATOR: So, when Walt
bought the property for Disneyland,
he knew the tree had sentimental roots.
Walt promised them
that we'd take good care of it,
and we brought it from over where it was
out in the parking lot
and planted it here.
RON: It was in the Jungle Cruise
attraction, and they moved it.
It got moved a second time on expansion
and placed in the queue line.
(tranquil music)
RON: I can stand back in Adventureland
and see it.
Yeah, it's a big tree.
NARRATOR: Well, that's one down or up?
But, as for the rest,
Bill was desperate so he began scouring
the newly constructed freeway systems
of Southern California.
They were planning to run Interstate 5
right past where, you know,
the plot that they picked.
NARRATOR: Bill would even stoop
to roadkill of sorts.
The freeways,
which were penetrating the suburbs
around the Los Angeles area,
uh, made possible the salvage
of a lot of trees
that we could not otherwise have found.
BILL: And we literally snatched them
from the jaws of the bulldozer.
We got there the day before
they were to be demolished.
Box them out,
haul them down to Disneyland.
Now, I could tell you
tree after tree, you know,
this was Santa Monica Freeway,
that was at Pomona Freeway.
NARRATOR: But making one jungle
out of the building scraps
of the urban jungle,
well, even that wasn't enough.
Bill would travel all over
jungles of the world
to collect seeds
to plant this incredible jungle.
NARRATOR:
And the most exotic tree of them all,
famous for its rare,
sweet fruit and luscious nectar.
Yep, oranges.
Some of the orange trees that were saved
ended up in the Jungle Cruise.
And they were planted upside down
because the roots look like
some kind of exotic tree,
and they provided some
of the shrubbery for the Jungle Cruise.
NARRATOR: Of course,
the shrubbery was merely the backdrop
to an exotic animal-filled river
yet to be filled.
Here's a guy driving a Rambler
station wagon around a ditch
and says,
"This is gonna be the Jungle Cruise."
Hey, how's it going?
"And you're gonna have the lions
jumping out over here."
(lion roars)
"And if you look over
at that pile of dirt,
that's gonna be a bunch of hyenas."
NARRATOR: With a bit of imagination,
you might say
"Wow, that's really cool," you know?
NARRATOR:
But as for the actual lions and hyenas,
where would they come from?
The I-5 South, like the trees did?
Chances were slim.
Walt did originally wanna have
real animals in the Jungle Cruise.
NARRATOR:
Well, that's an exciting prospect.
VANESSA: It was quickly discovered that
(goat bleats)
that would lead to
a not-very-exciting trip for our guests.
NARRATOR: Because, despite
what you may have heard,
the lion doesn't always sleep at night.
Animals like to sleep a lot
during the day.
KEVIN: How do you get them to stay outside
so people can see them?
NARRATOR: It's a question
that really only had one solution.
They realized that they needed
to make artificial animals,
and that would be the way that you could
have hippos in front of you all the time.
NARRATOR: Making enough hippos
and artificial animals
to fill a jungle and river?
Well, that had never been done before.
They were inventing this technology
from the ground up,
minus the actual ground.
However, Walt did have a bit of a leg up,
eight legs in fact.
Our work with three-dimensional
characters started
when we needed a giant squid
for our feature picture,
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.
NARRATOR:
Hitting the screens in late 1954,
the movie was a cinematic triumph.
So, once again, out came the tuxedos
and Walt won two more Oscars in 1955.
The timing of which
worked out pretty well for Walt
and the now-unemployed
Oscar-winning special effects crew.
BRUCE: All the special effects folks
that had been doing
the mechanical effects for motion pictures
were recruited to create live animals
for the Jungle Cruise.
NARRATOR:
But cutting-edge technology in 1955
was a little bit different
than it is today.
WALT: Many new plastic materials
came to our aid
in the creation of the jungle beasts.
LANNY: The first robots in the parks
compared to the Animatronics
that we have in the parks now
are very primitive.
NARRATOR: Well, they were making primates,
but still.
Well, they were definitely mechanical,
and you could see the joints
of their faces and jaws.
NARRATOR: And here's why.
Animatronics were hydraulic.
A hydraulic means that
they had oil in them under high pressure
that moved the joints
and that sort of thing.
NARRATOR:
And, like many high-pressure situations,
sometimes, it helps to hide behind a bush.
And rhinoceroses could be
the rhinoceri, I guess it is,
could be behind the brush,
and the giraffe could
even though he doesn't have his legs,
he could be eating
the tip-tops of the trees.
WALT:
Towering above them all, the giraffe.
And it's pretty hard to tell him
from our mechanical version.
NARRATOR: Depending on which angle
you're seeing him from, of course.
But not every animal
could lurk in the shrubs.
The most sophisticated animation
that was in there were the hippos.
We knew that the animals couldn't walk.
'Cause we They were
had to be attached to something.
NARRATOR: So, to work that out,
these moviemakers went back to the studio.
WALT: On the tank stage we had built
for the submarine
in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,
our monorail system went underwater.
NARRATOR:
And to keep the whole illusion intact,
the water is actually dyed
a lovely shade of murky green
to hide the assortment of mechanics,
because those adorable,
authentic ears don't wiggle themselves.
But any shortcomings the wild beasts
had in looks
were more than made up for
by the way they sounded,
as Walt Disney himself found out.
(trumpets)
Walt Disney had spent so much time
with the park, he'd like to sleep there.
JOHN: And the first time he tried it,
no one could find the switch
-to turn off all the jungle noises.
-(monkey gibbers)
And he complained about
that he couldn't sleep.
He had to get up and stay up all night
because it was just as bad
as being in a real jungle.
NARRATOR: This map is a reminder
of just how well
the Jungle Cruise is hidden,
because here is Walt's apartment,
and here's the Jungle Cruise,
right when you walk in the park
and directly behind a sleeping Walt.
(elephant trumpets)
NARRATOR: It's also worth noting
that Walt's apartment
is above the firehouse, so
Anyway, Walt would soon rest easy
because opening day at Disneyland
was fast approaching.
Just a matter of days away
from the formal opening of Disneyland,
we want to bring you up to date
on what's been happening
and let you share with us the joys
and anxieties of our race against time.
NARRATOR: The jungle
had been growing for a year,
so all the plants were coming along.
The river was partially filled,
and the boats were going on their tracks.
And, of course, Walt Disney
was on the maiden test voyage.
It was like the world's biggest toy
for the world's biggest kid.
KEVIN: And the Jungle Cruise was just like
a really cool action figure set
you can go play inside.
NARRATOR: Hmm. Nice waterfall.
But, wait a minute,
where are all the animals?
They're still installing
the electromechanical animals
that are over there.
TODD: And so, he knows
that this is down to the wire.
The big concern on July 17th
is that it looks good for the TV audience.
NARRATOR:
And this TV audience was important
because the whole success of the park
hinged on making a very good
first impression.
So, with millions and millions
of people watching
The pressure
has got to be unbelievable on him.
NARRATOR: Because, don't forget,
Walt wasn't just building a jungle river
in an officially classified desert,
he was also building a castle,
flying elephants,
pretend flying pirate ships,
a working steamboat,
little cars that drive about,
all in a year.
So, understandably
Everybody is telling you,
"What in the hell are you thinking?"
NARRATOR: This, of course.
And when the drawbridge
finally came down on July 17th, 1955,
these broadcasting pioneers with their
Twenty-nine cameras, dozens of crews.
-NARRATOR: and one
-REPORTER 1: Ronnie Reagan.
NARRATOR: saved the best for last.
Well, Walt, it seems to me
we've been everywhere, haven't we?
Well, I hope so. I don't know.
Say, haven't we missed something?
Seems like it.
A whole land?
Adventureland.
Oh, that's my favorite.
Let's go over there.
And we are now at the beginning
of a true-life adventure
NARRATOR: That's right,
a true-life adventure.
Maybe the greatest one of all.
RONALD: Now, we're all loaded up,
I believe. Thank you, Captain.
You can take her off.
We're ready for a ride
down the tropical waterways of the world.
Now, you just can't believe it, folks.
The colors are so unbelievable.
The banks are lined with rare trees
and exotic foliage
flown here from the far corners
of the earth.
NARRATOR: And the banks of the I-5 south.
But it worked, big-time!
The live TV broadcast
of Disneyland's grand opening on ABC
attracted an audience
of about 90 million people.
TIM: It was the largest live TV spectacle
up to that point.
That's pretty remarkable,
considering the overall population
of the United States was only 170 million.
Those audiences are people
just like them, the spectators are them.
PAULA:
They're seeing themselves being there.
That's what that opening broadcast does,
is it puts you in the place
where you want to be.
(children cheer)
NARRATOR: And that opening day broadcast
at Disneyland,
as awkward as it was
showed that Walt Disney had created
something absolutely incredible.
And, after just one crazy year of work,
an exotic river now flowed through
the arid Anaheim landscape,
and Walt could finally get
a good night's sleep.
(animals roaring)
NARRATOR: And get ready for day two.
In the coming weeks,
Disneyland was the hottest ticket in town.
And word had spread
about the exotic Jungle Cruise.
And, like the documentary series
it drew inspiration from,
the Jungle Cruise was filled
with exotic animals and interesting facts,
as told by non-robotic human skippers
who navigated the waters
of the Jungle Cruise,
as well doing their spiel
to about 30 excited guests per boat.
Steady, folks.
Watch those ripples up ahead.
NARRATOR: Well, for the skippers, they
were more on the lookout for the boss,
because Walt would often come aboard
and rock the boat.
Walt went on to the Jungle Cruise,
the skipper was kind of nervous, very
because he had Walt Disney in his boat.
Oh, hi, Walt.
He took the boat at a record pace.
KEVIN: He flew through the jungle,
full throttle, for the entire thing.
And he called me over and he said,
"Dick, what's the trip time?"
And he knew, in those days,
it was seven and a half minutes.
DICK: And he said,
"Well, I just got a four-minute trip."
Hope you all enjoyed it.
He said, "How would you feel
if you went to the movies
and they cut the center reel out
of the picture?"
DICK: He said, "Dick," he said,
"we've got to establish a terrific show,
a consistent show,
regardless of how long the line is."
And then, from there, the managers put in
little alarm clocks into all the boats,
so the skippers had to have their spiel
timed to a certain point.
And so, everybody learned
and got accustomed to it.
Next time Walt went on the Jungle Cruise,
he had a normal length cruise
and he got off and didn't say a word.
Which is a compliment
in the world of Walt Disney.
You know, that's how you get his approval.
NARRATOR: Nowadays, the skippers
just use landmarks to time their ride.
And the steering is entirely controlled
by an underwater track,
which explains
the one-handed precision moves, of course.
(chuckles)
A little close.
NARRATOR: So, let's stop it here,
because anyone who's been
on the Jungle Cruise in the last 30 years
would probably remember things
a bit differently.
The Jungle Cruise we know today is not
the Jungle Cruise that we opened with.
JEANETTE: Walt actually wanted
Jungle Cruise to be more serious.
NARRATOR: Well, of course.
Walt's True-Life Adventures
weren't funny at all.
(grunting)
NARRATOR: But they did pop in
a few thrills here and there.
MAN 4: Watch out for that big python.
On the right-hand side,
watch, we're approaching them now,
those giant alligators.
Now, watch your hands, please.
Watch the hand Oh.
NARRATOR:
Considering the abundance of wetness,
the Jungle Cruise was dry
and informational
WALT: This is one animal
that has no vocal cords.
NARRATOR: educational
WALT: And now we're on the Mekong River
of Cochinchina.
NARRATOR: and absolutely humorless.
In this tropical rainforest,
every tree has a corsage.
It's a misconception
that there was no humor
in the early days of the Jungle Cruise.
We have a copy of the very first script,
and there's a joke in there.
WALT: If you keep watching that far bank,
you can say that you had
a nodding acquaintance with a giraffe.
(crickets chirping)
(clears throat)
It's not a very good joke,
but there's a joke.
NARRATOR: And someone who had to say
such not-very-good jokes was Ron Dominguez
who ended up not only having
his grandparents' tree planted,
but this local kid got a job too.
You had a basic script and then, you know,
sometimes, would throw your own stuff in.
WALT:
No one is invited to this family's dinner.
Now, you look back,
it was probably pretty darn corny.
(chuckles)
NARRATOR: After five years or so
of Disneyland's operation,
rumor has it Walt overheard
a mother deciding to skip the Cruise
because she had done it before.
That moment inspired
Walt's new philosophy.
As long as there is imagination
left in the world,
Disneyland will never be complete.
NARRATOR:
So, to confirm his sneaking suspicions,
Walt turned to his chief gag man,
the one who in large part was responsible
for why so many of Walt's movies
were hilarious and adorable.
And even though
he was an animation legend,
Marc Davis spotted one big problem
with the Jungle Cruise.
"Well, it's not funny."
And he's like, "What?"
He's all, "There's no humor."
NARRATOR:
Well, a nodding acquaintance with humor.
But in any case, it was a problem.
According to Marc, he felt that Disneyland
needed to be a place
Where people would come in and look
at something and actually laugh out loud.
There wasn't really anything
of that nature there.
NARRATOR: So, with Walt's
humorless hunch confirmed,
Marc Davis made a career pivot
from legendary animator
to Jungle Cruise fixer-upper.
In the early '60s, Marc Davis came in
and brought in the gags
that are really synonymous
with what the attraction has now become.
DAVE: He brought the humor
to everything that he did.
He brought the character,
and, frankly, he brought the basis
of the storytelling
that we are still using to this day
with the hyenas and the apes.
Marc Davis came up
with some artwork concepts
to add not only some humor
to the attraction,
but to add some realism to the animals
that were featured
throughout the Jungle Cruise.
Trying to create some things
that people understood,
trying to do something
that people related to,
and something
that they could possibly react to.
NARRATOR: Metaphorically, at least,
Marc Davis completely drained
the river of that dryness
and refilled the river to the brink
with dozens of new scenes and animals.
And, thanks to advances
in Audio-Animatronics technology,
Marc was able to unleash
a torrent of new ideas.
The elephant trunk, before, they had
just gone up and down or sideways.
And Marc wanted them
to be able to go in a circle.
So, that way, we had to do
a whole new prototype
and come up with a whole new plans
of how to do that.
NARRATOR:
The solution was using a special tube,
which was flexible, durable,
and, above all, water-resistant.
Sometimes referred to as a hose.
And these are the challenges that we were,
you know,
just daily challenges
that we were faced with.
NARRATOR: In a creative stampede,
the elephants were trucked in
from Imagineering HQ.
And, luckily,
they had plenty of trunk space.
(car horn beeps)
NARRATOR: Marc had designed
so many elephants,
he began to worry what Walt might think.
"Well, there's one thing
you're probably not gonna like, Walt."
I said, "That is that nobody
can go through here
and see all these elephants at one time."
NARRATOR: And, like an elephant,
Walt had an idea he'd never forget.
MARC: He said, "God, that's great.
So, the next time they come through,
they'll see something
they didn't the second time."
NARRATOR:
So, the first time, they might see
-WALT: Little squirt.
-NARRATOR: And the second time
WALT: And big squirt.
(water splashes)
DAVE: Walt used to tell Marc Davis,
"It's a cocktail party."
Right? These guys are gonna be talking,
and whether you get the dialogue or not,
it's not important.
But you know what?
Guests are wanna go on it again and again
to discover more and more
as they go on it.
NARRATOR: Marc's talent for adding comedy
to serious attractions
was ahead of its time.
However, some of those gags
were based on stereotypes
that are now recognized as inappropriate.
Walt Disney asked me to do
some ideas for the train to see
that would kind of advertise, uh
the jungle river ride.
NARRATOR: Well, being the poster boy
of good ideas
He said, "Oh, god, no.
Hell, that's too good.
We've gotta put it inside the ride."
MARC: It's kind of gratifying
to go through there with a crowd
and people still laugh
after all this length of time.
WALT: The laughing hyenas, at last,
have something to laugh at.
(hyenas laughing)
NARRATOR: Well, thanks to Marc Davis,
now, everybody did.
My history with Jungle Cruise
goes way back when I was just,
you know, a little punk kid
who had a big Afro.
And we lived in Florida,
and so we had this opportunity
to go to Disney.
And I remember riding the Jungle Cruise,
and it's exciting
and it's tantalizing in a way,
and you don't know
what's around the corner.
And you're transported
into this other world.
NARRATOR:
A world where primates are armed,
because the only thing funnier
than a gorilla with a gun
is a skipper with a
Pun.
NARRATOR: And being one of the fathers
of modern Imagineering,
it only makes sense that Marc Davis
would make a lot of
Dad jokes that everybody knows
and loathes.
Careful, folks. Ginger snaps.
I love a good pun.
She's one tough cookie, let me tell you.
I love getting on Jungle Cruise.
I know it's a crummy joke,
but I'm gonna milk it
for all it's worth, okay?
It's what brings in the dough,
even though it is stale.
The skippers, they make me laugh.
They are great storytellers.
CARMEN: It's the magic
of the Jungle Cruise experience.
All right, we can go ahead
and put some people in the boat now.
And in that boat is going to be a witty
and charming skipper.
JASON: And they're gonna take you
on an amazing journey.
It's gonna take three weeks of your time.
It's gonna be so entertaining,
it's gonna feel like ten minutes though.
NARRATOR: Well, as the years went by,
it felt like decades, because it was.
And just like the very nature
of the animals
that inhabited the original attraction,
the Jungle Cruise had evolved
into a different kind of experience.
Jungle Cruise became, now,
a very popular attraction
because of the jokes.
But you want it now
for the Jungle Cruise skippers
and the great delivery that they have
more than you do to see
the wildlife that surrounds you.
NARRATOR: But don't worry.
A lot of the same information
from the original is still there.
That's Schweitzer Falls.
Schweitzer Falls was named
after a very famous man,
a very famous explorer and scientist,
Dr. Albert Falls.
-(people laugh)
-A very important man around here.
NARRATOR: But, just to be clear,
there's no ad-libbing on deck.
FLOR: Oh, no! It looks like
a bunch of gorillas
have taken over the safari camp.
Don't make any noises
that sound like a banana.
They find it appealing.
FLOR: All right, let's split.
NARRATOR: When it comes to the script,
all the skippers are in the same boat.
You'll get a copy of the spiel scripts,
and that's kind of like a menu.
NARRATOR: Ooh. Delicious puns.
But instead of appetizers, main course,
it's like, rainforest, elephant pool,
hippo pool, trap safari.
NARRATOR: Sleeping zebras.
FLOR: He looks dead tired. Dead tired.
Lions are enjoying
their favorite meal today,
zebra on the rocks.
And you get to kind of pick and choose
which ones you like,
so every skipper
gets to have the same jokes,
but also,
it's a little bit of a different vibe
with how they deliver the jokes
and which ones exactly it is
that they pick.
You know, I think that rhinoceros there
is trying to his point across.
FLOR: They always manage
to get their point across.
My style? I would say
I have a pretty, like, high-energy,
sarcastic Jungle Cruise spiel.
Tigers are known to jump over 20 feet.
But not to worry, we're only 15 feet away
so they'll jump right over us.
NARRATOR: Something else
that might go over your head
is this clever little timing check
for the other skippers on the river.
(gunfires)
NARRATOR: Because here, at the hippo pool,
is their cue to fire their pistol upwards.
-(gunfire)
-NARRATOR: Because, you know,
conservation of mechanical hippos
is a real thing after all.
What other job is there here that you get
to stand in a boat with 45 other guests
and just say jokes?
FLOR: The second most feared animal
of the jungle,
-it's the African bull elephant.
-(elephant trumpets)
And if you were wondering
what the number one most feared animal
of the jungle is, folks,
take a look right over here,
it's his mother-in-law.
NARRATOR: But there's one joke
that towers above all the others.
So perfectly crafted, it's become legend.
You've read about it in the papers,
you've seen it in the movies,
put your hands together for the one,
the only, amazing
The back side of water!
NARRATOR: So, that's
The back side of water. See that?
Yeah, don't try that at home.
You'll hit your head on the faucet.
The back side of water, Schweitzer Falls.
DWAYNE: When I first heard it,
I remember thinking,
"I think I should get this,
but I don't understand it."
It doesn't make any sense.
The back side of water
makes no sense whatsoever.
However, it makes all the sense
in the world.
NARRATOR: It's a joke that,
if you tell it right, never falls flat.
Just make sure you tell it!
If you don't do the "back side of water"
joke, guests will tell you
that you forgot to do
the "back side of water" joke.
Like, "How dare you?"
NARRATOR:
As well as aggravating superfans,
the falls actually serve
a practical purpose.
That being the mixing station for the dye
that turns the water jungle green.
You know, every jungle has them.
But anyway,
from whichever side you see it,
the waterfall marks the moment
where the Jungle Cruise
heads toward the dock.
But not without a final wink
to the original cruise.
FLOR:
Oh, look, it's my good friend, Trader Sam!
Hey, Trader Sam! What's up?
How's it going?
The great story behind Trader Sam
is, of course,
that started in the Jungle Cruise in 1955.
Trader Sam is kind of
like a friend of the skippers.
He kind of hangs out on the river's edge
and he also collects things
that he takes back
to his Enchanted Tiki Bar
and his Grog Grotto.
NARRATOR:
Which is but a stone's throw away.
Now, speaking of rocks
Oh, sorry, not those ones.
The actual The Rock.
I have had a chance
to skipper many Jungle Cruise boats
over the years, in multiple parks.
NARRATOR: Whoa. Hopefully not like this.
And you're probably thinking,
"Wow, I don't remember
ever seeing you there, Rock."
NARRATOR: Ha! He's absolutely right.
Of course, you didn't,
because it all happened in my mind.
NARRATOR: And it was the imagination
inside that muscular,
Mickey Mouse-loving mind
that would eventually propel him to star
in Disney's movie version
of the Jungle Cruise.
-Welcome to the adventure of a lifetime.
-Oh.
CANDICE: It's really interesting
to see that they're in costumes
that are actually inspired
by The African Queen.
Mind takin' the tiller, miss?
-Huh?
-Come on.
NARRATOR: And it's not just a nodding nod
to The African Queen.
Just look at those hats.
So, it's nice to see that tie in
to our heritage here at this attraction
with the film that inspired us.
NARRATOR: But mostly, of course,
it was the Jungle Cruise itself
that inspired it,
filled with action and comedy
-I got it. I don't got it.
-Try No
NARRATOR: The movie really does
have a lot in common
with the attraction,
and a lot not in common.
-The back side of water!
-NARRATOR: Exactly!
You won't be hearing
Dwayne Johnson saying
The back side of water.
NARRATOR:
Actually, yeah, it works when he does it.
The eighth wonder of the world.
(laughs)
NARRATOR: A world that's now rich
with Jungle Cruises,
beginning when the river burst
its American banks
into Tokyo Disneyland in 1983,
where it was the first cruise
to run in a clockwise direction.
Then there's Hong Kong,
a humid and semitropical destination
in its own right.
And this version is quite different.
Guests get caught up in the middle
of an epic battle
between the gods of fire and water,
and being on the back side of that
is more of a relief than a laugh.
And even though
this worldwide network of rivers
might not be physically connected,
there is a shared history
and kinship among the skippers.
They sent me to Tokyo when I was a skipper
to meet with other Jungle Cruise skippers
from around the world.
KEVIN: They brought some
from Disney World
They brought some
from Hong Kong Disneyland
and we all connected immediately,
there was an immediate kinship.
NARRATOR: But the bond
these skippers share
isn't just about the gags,
although many say Kevin was the best
on the river in his day.
No! Bad elephant! Bad squirt.
Let's get out of here before he reloads.
He's reloaded.
Everyone, get down! Duck! Duck! Goose.
I have a lot of friends who've gone
who've left the Jungle Cruise
only to go back
because it's like therapy for them.
KEVIN: It's a way for them
to forget everything else, go out there,
and just tell jokes and have a good time.
I mean, I would, in a heartbeat,
jump into a boat and do a spiel,
and then put on some shorts.
NARRATOR: Hopefully not in that order.
In many ways, the Jungle Cruise
is more than just an attraction.
It represents the long-running history
of the Disney Parks themselves.
We'll always have
a Sleeping Beauty Castle,
and we'll always have Jungle Cruise.
They're mainstays
that will always stay intact.
NARRATOR:
As an original opening day attraction,
it was carved from the desert
and created literally out of thin, dry air
by Harper Goff and his stick,
Bill Evans with his salvaged trees,
and with the help of Marc Davis,
it grew into the thick, luscious,
beloved attraction that it is today.
MARC: I had a talk with Walt.
I said, "You know,
there's two ways I could do this.
An expensive way and an inexpensive way."
And he says,
"I think when you do something,
and you do it well enough,
the public's gonna pay you back for it."
NARRATOR: With close to a billion guests
visiting just Disneyland alone,
it's fair to say
The public appreciate and accept
what I've done all these years.
That is a great reward.
INTERVIEWER: I'm sure it is.
It seems unlikely,
but if you had it to do over again,
would you do any part of it differently?
(laughs)
I don't know.
I hope I don't have to do it over again.
JEANETTE: You think about what Walt's
original vision was for Jungle Cruise,
Walt wanted guests
to have a real adventure
like the adventures they saw
on their television
when they were watching
True-Life Adventures.
NARRATOR: And this was truly realized
when Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park
opened in Florida in 1998.
JEANETTE:
I think Walt would have been very proud
because he would have said,
"Yes, right! This is exactly it.
Real animals where guests
can get on the vehicle
and believe they are in Africa."
WALT: Most everyone has been impressed by
and curious about the realism
of Adventureland.
The lifelike animals,
the authentic tropical settings.
JEANETTE: That is what Disney, I think,
would have been proud of.
And so Jungle Cruise started it,
and we're actually delivering it
in full force
with a full, built-out vision
at Animal Kingdom today.
NARRATOR: But the Jungle Cruise
is much more than just a stepping stone
in the legacy of Disney's
immersive experiences.
This truly classic attraction
isn't just about the skippers,
or the jokes, or even the animals,
but the incredible creative determination
of the original skipper
who, above all the odds,
set sail on an adventure
that's not even close
to pulling in to the dock.
WALT: We're back to civilization,
and it's been a real pleasure
to take this trip with you.
Thank you, everyone.
Hope to ride with you again sometime.
NARRATOR: But, for now,
it's time for us to disembark.
Have a great day, folks.
Take care, and always remember
Oh, wait, I forgot.
(crickets chirping)
(light music)
(in Spanish)
Please remain seated.
(lively music)
(elephants trumpeting)
MAN 1: The love of liberty.
(moans)
(screaming)
NARRATOR:
The desert of Southern California.
A harsh, barren expanse of dryness
with nothing more
than the moisture of oranges,
-(creaking)
-which are actually quite juicy.
But in the 1950s,
here in the brutal California sun,
an idea trickled out of the sand.
An idea that quickly turned
into a torrent,
which quickly turned
into a flowing tropical river.
MAN 2: We'll leave the last
outpost of civilization,
push off into the upper reaches
of the Amazon.
NARRATOR: And the Jungle Cruise
has been putting these tropical waters
for nearly 70 years,
recreating the majesty of elephants,
hippos, crocodiles, giraffes,
piranhas, lions, rhinos, apes,
exotic plants, boulders, and
rocks?
(laughs)
-All right.
-NARRATOR: Yep, there he is.
Saving the world with Emily Blunt
in a movie
inspired by one of the most
enduring attractions at Disneyland.
I am not afraid.
NARRATOR: And why would you be?
Disney's Jungle Cruise
is revered for its team of skippers
who deliver razor-sharp witticisms
I'd like to point out
some plant life to you.
NARRATOR: and highbrow humor
Feel free to take as many photos
as you like.
They all got their trunks on
NARRATOR: or otherwise known as
Dad jokes.
I love a good pun.
We're in denial.
NARRATOR: But most of all,
the Jungle Cruise is classic,
vintage Disneyland at its best.
But before we climb aboard to find out
how on earth a humid tropical ecosystem
ended up in Southern California
MAN 3: Yes, a visit by boat to remote,
adventurous regions of the world.
NARRATOR: and other Disney Parks
around the world
(fire crackles)
we need to go back to the dry desert
of the early 1950s
where a chap named Walter Elias Disney
was gaining a bit of a reputation
as an animal man.
Hi, Minnie!
NARRATOR: Not so much
the cute, animated kind.
No. Cute, little bunny.
We're talking about animals
with real killer instincts,
ones that don't ever wear
either jackets or pants.
That's right, our story begins
with Walt's love of animals
in all shapes and sizes.
And this fascination grew
when he ran a successful cartoon studio
and was striving for animation perfection.
We knew that to retain
the charm of these creatures,
our animated drawings must fully capture
the natural movements
and attitudes of living animals.
WALT: So, we've studied motion pictures
of wild animals
living in their natural state.
And, in time, we added many reels
of wildlife scenes to our Bambi research.
NARRATOR: And in doing this,
Walt not only discovered
how to build better Bambis,
he also, like a creature of the wild,
wasn't one to waste scraps,
especially scraps of good footage.
One thing has always led to another here
and Bambi was no exception.
The wildlife scenes in this research
yielded an unexpected dividend.
NARRATOR: That being many forms
of potential wildlife documentaries.
It was all about enjoying the grandeur,
and appreciating nature and real animals.
NARRATOR: Which is when Walt realized
that he could quite easily become
A live action movie producer. And so,
he makes his first True-Life Adventure.
NARRATOR: Using this location footage,
Walt was able to make
a documentary featurette.
-Signed, sealed
-(barks)
It's a story about Seal Island.
NARRATOR: and delivered.
It becomes eligible for the Academy Award,
wins best short documentary,
and that was the start
of 13 True-Life Adventures,
8 of which won Academy Awards.
NARRATOR: Yes, it's true.
Walt had more tuxedos
than a colony of penguins.
They're always dressed so formally.
And with that,
Walt Disney's reputation was sealed,
as not just an Oscar-winning
animated filmmaker,
but as a legitimate
wildlife documentarian.
(dings)
But Walt was looking
to break the seal-ing
No, that one doesn't work.
with another True-Life Adventure
he'd been working on at home
Parenthood.
It all started from a daddy
with two daughters
-(bicycle bell dings)
-wondering where he could take them
where he could have a little fun
with them too.
There's a very famous story about him
going to Griffith Park
and having his Daddy's Day
with the daughters.
Walt was sitting on the bench,
feeding nuts to the squirrels
and watching his girls ride the carousel.
I felt that
there should be something built,
some kind of, uh,
an amusement enterprise built
where the parents and the children
could have fun together.
NARRATOR: And we all know
what this idea turned out to be.
WALT: That's it. Right here.
Disneyland.
NARRATOR: And from the very first sketch
of Disneyland,
to almost every single one since,
Walt's incredible vision for the park
contained an exotic, jungle-laden river
that twisted and turned across the map.
The reason why he created Jungle Cruise
was because he wanted to create
an experience for people
who weren't able to travel the globe
at that time,
and bring other parts of the world
to the people.
-Yes.
-He loved this idea
of almost like a travelogue of all these,
you know, exotic waterways of the world
that he could take his guests through
and show them something really good.
NARRATOR: And keep in mind,
international travel to exotic
destinations wasn't so easy back then.
Very few people went to Africa.
Very few people even saw
what hippos were like in the water.
NARRATOR: Uh, graceful, obviously?
However, up until 1954,
there was nothing but big talk
coming out of Walt Disney's mouth
because, at this point,
all Walt had was a basic premise
for an exotic boat ride,
just one year to construct Disneyland,
and a very dry location to do it in.
We get an average rainfall
of 12 to 14 inches, and that's a desert.
NARRATOR: But the Walt Disney Company
was overflowing with talent.
So, Walt turned to one guy
who had a particular talent with wetness.
If you look at Harper Goff's designs
for Walt,
the Nautilus
for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,
he was a very prolific designer.
Harper was one of the first Imagineers.
He created the earliest concepts
for what would become known
as the Jungle Cruise.
NARRATOR:
But Harper didn't draw inspiration
from the depths of the ocean
I've seen The African Queen
and I liked it.
NARRATOR: He saw a lot of potential
in a movie about a crusty skipper
with questionable hygiene
putting along the Ulanga River
in East Africa
with its inherent sights, dangers,
and bathing opportunities along the way.
So, The African Queen was a good place
to start.
Emphasis on start
because before they could get here,
they had to physically start here
or maybe there.
Well, they needed to work it out fast,
so Walt assembled his team
and shared the details
of his vision for Jungle Cruise.
BILL: Walt, he'd take you
on that cruise verbally,
and he'd really get into it.
Then his artist would try to visualize
what they heard him say,
and we'd mold this down into
where it came out as a drawing on paper.
NARRATOR: And what they ended up with
was a sprawling cruise
that not only floated down
the rivers of Eastern Africa
but, you know,
all the jungles of the world.
We have things from the South Pacific,
we have things from Africa,
we have things
from many different parts of the world.
NARRATOR: All a world away from Anaheim,
but not for long
because when construction began
for Disneyland
The bulldozer shows up,
ready to dig the trench for the river.
NARRATOR: To direct the bulldozers poised
to carve a jungle river
in the bone-dry dirt,
Harper Goff used the precision
of 1950s technology.
Harper Goff picks up a stick
and he traces the entire outline
of one bank of the river,
and then when he's completed,
he goes about 10, 15 feet
to the other side
and does the other bank of the river,
and has the bulldozer
start digging up from there.
NARRATOR: And the legacy
of Harper Goff's powerful stick
Not actual stick.
can still be seen today.
And, of course, the Jungle Cruise was,
you know, obviously a big job,
because we're bringing a jungle
into a farmland.
NARRATOR:
An overwhelming task, to be sure.
So, for this worldly challenge,
Walt scoured the lengths and breadths
of his backyard, actually,
where he found
the landscape architect Bill Evans
who had helped Walt landscape a man-sized
toy train set for his own house.
Uh, don't worry. It's on a loop.
He'll be back.
And now, it was full steam ahead
on a much bigger project.
DAVID: Bill Evans, who was
our landscape architect, of course,
his job was to fill Disneyland in
with as much landscape as possible.
This was kind of an on-the-job training.
BILL: A lot of these things
hadn't been done before.
NARRATOR: Spinning their wheels,
there was no time to waste.
Jungle Cruise was the first attraction
that they really started to break
-NARRATOR: The seal?
-(seal barks)
-ground for.
-Right, sure.
KEVIN: They started with
the Jungle Cruise a little bit earlier
to get an extra growing season in
for all the trees.
MICHAEL: Great effort was made
to make sure
that the area around Adventureland
was planted early and densely
so that you'd have this backdrop
for the Adventureland stories
that we wanted to tell.
But trees take time. I mean,
it's something you can't fake or force.
NARRATOR: But, of course,
they weren't starting completely
from scratch.
PAULA: They wanted to save as much
of the original trees as they could
because the more that they saved,
the more they didn't have to go out
and buy and bring in.
NARRATOR:
In a flurry of colorful conservation
TIM: They had tagged
the trees to save green,
and the ones to bulldoze red.
NARRATOR: But, of course
The bulldoze operator was color-blind.
And he indiscriminately went through
and bulldozed everything.
NARRATOR: Well, in his defense,
it's all in black and white, so
But, one way or another,
Bill desperately needed trees.
He would go around
the different neighborhoods of Anaheim
and in California,
buying people's trees,
buying their exotic plants,
just to bring them in.
NARRATOR: And one of those trees
even became a minor celebrity
known as the Dominguez Palm.
The palm tree was given to my grandparents
as a wedding gift.
NARRATOR: So, when Walt
bought the property for Disneyland,
he knew the tree had sentimental roots.
Walt promised them
that we'd take good care of it,
and we brought it from over where it was
out in the parking lot
and planted it here.
RON: It was in the Jungle Cruise
attraction, and they moved it.
It got moved a second time on expansion
and placed in the queue line.
(tranquil music)
RON: I can stand back in Adventureland
and see it.
Yeah, it's a big tree.
NARRATOR: Well, that's one down or up?
But, as for the rest,
Bill was desperate so he began scouring
the newly constructed freeway systems
of Southern California.
They were planning to run Interstate 5
right past where, you know,
the plot that they picked.
NARRATOR: Bill would even stoop
to roadkill of sorts.
The freeways,
which were penetrating the suburbs
around the Los Angeles area,
uh, made possible the salvage
of a lot of trees
that we could not otherwise have found.
BILL: And we literally snatched them
from the jaws of the bulldozer.
We got there the day before
they were to be demolished.
Box them out,
haul them down to Disneyland.
Now, I could tell you
tree after tree, you know,
this was Santa Monica Freeway,
that was at Pomona Freeway.
NARRATOR: But making one jungle
out of the building scraps
of the urban jungle,
well, even that wasn't enough.
Bill would travel all over
jungles of the world
to collect seeds
to plant this incredible jungle.
NARRATOR:
And the most exotic tree of them all,
famous for its rare,
sweet fruit and luscious nectar.
Yep, oranges.
Some of the orange trees that were saved
ended up in the Jungle Cruise.
And they were planted upside down
because the roots look like
some kind of exotic tree,
and they provided some
of the shrubbery for the Jungle Cruise.
NARRATOR: Of course,
the shrubbery was merely the backdrop
to an exotic animal-filled river
yet to be filled.
Here's a guy driving a Rambler
station wagon around a ditch
and says,
"This is gonna be the Jungle Cruise."
Hey, how's it going?
"And you're gonna have the lions
jumping out over here."
(lion roars)
"And if you look over
at that pile of dirt,
that's gonna be a bunch of hyenas."
NARRATOR: With a bit of imagination,
you might say
"Wow, that's really cool," you know?
NARRATOR:
But as for the actual lions and hyenas,
where would they come from?
The I-5 South, like the trees did?
Chances were slim.
Walt did originally wanna have
real animals in the Jungle Cruise.
NARRATOR:
Well, that's an exciting prospect.
VANESSA: It was quickly discovered that
(goat bleats)
that would lead to
a not-very-exciting trip for our guests.
NARRATOR: Because, despite
what you may have heard,
the lion doesn't always sleep at night.
Animals like to sleep a lot
during the day.
KEVIN: How do you get them to stay outside
so people can see them?
NARRATOR: It's a question
that really only had one solution.
They realized that they needed
to make artificial animals,
and that would be the way that you could
have hippos in front of you all the time.
NARRATOR: Making enough hippos
and artificial animals
to fill a jungle and river?
Well, that had never been done before.
They were inventing this technology
from the ground up,
minus the actual ground.
However, Walt did have a bit of a leg up,
eight legs in fact.
Our work with three-dimensional
characters started
when we needed a giant squid
for our feature picture,
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.
NARRATOR:
Hitting the screens in late 1954,
the movie was a cinematic triumph.
So, once again, out came the tuxedos
and Walt won two more Oscars in 1955.
The timing of which
worked out pretty well for Walt
and the now-unemployed
Oscar-winning special effects crew.
BRUCE: All the special effects folks
that had been doing
the mechanical effects for motion pictures
were recruited to create live animals
for the Jungle Cruise.
NARRATOR:
But cutting-edge technology in 1955
was a little bit different
than it is today.
WALT: Many new plastic materials
came to our aid
in the creation of the jungle beasts.
LANNY: The first robots in the parks
compared to the Animatronics
that we have in the parks now
are very primitive.
NARRATOR: Well, they were making primates,
but still.
Well, they were definitely mechanical,
and you could see the joints
of their faces and jaws.
NARRATOR: And here's why.
Animatronics were hydraulic.
A hydraulic means that
they had oil in them under high pressure
that moved the joints
and that sort of thing.
NARRATOR:
And, like many high-pressure situations,
sometimes, it helps to hide behind a bush.
And rhinoceroses could be
the rhinoceri, I guess it is,
could be behind the brush,
and the giraffe could
even though he doesn't have his legs,
he could be eating
the tip-tops of the trees.
WALT:
Towering above them all, the giraffe.
And it's pretty hard to tell him
from our mechanical version.
NARRATOR: Depending on which angle
you're seeing him from, of course.
But not every animal
could lurk in the shrubs.
The most sophisticated animation
that was in there were the hippos.
We knew that the animals couldn't walk.
'Cause we They were
had to be attached to something.
NARRATOR: So, to work that out,
these moviemakers went back to the studio.
WALT: On the tank stage we had built
for the submarine
in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,
our monorail system went underwater.
NARRATOR:
And to keep the whole illusion intact,
the water is actually dyed
a lovely shade of murky green
to hide the assortment of mechanics,
because those adorable,
authentic ears don't wiggle themselves.
But any shortcomings the wild beasts
had in looks
were more than made up for
by the way they sounded,
as Walt Disney himself found out.
(trumpets)
Walt Disney had spent so much time
with the park, he'd like to sleep there.
JOHN: And the first time he tried it,
no one could find the switch
-to turn off all the jungle noises.
-(monkey gibbers)
And he complained about
that he couldn't sleep.
He had to get up and stay up all night
because it was just as bad
as being in a real jungle.
NARRATOR: This map is a reminder
of just how well
the Jungle Cruise is hidden,
because here is Walt's apartment,
and here's the Jungle Cruise,
right when you walk in the park
and directly behind a sleeping Walt.
(elephant trumpets)
NARRATOR: It's also worth noting
that Walt's apartment
is above the firehouse, so
Anyway, Walt would soon rest easy
because opening day at Disneyland
was fast approaching.
Just a matter of days away
from the formal opening of Disneyland,
we want to bring you up to date
on what's been happening
and let you share with us the joys
and anxieties of our race against time.
NARRATOR: The jungle
had been growing for a year,
so all the plants were coming along.
The river was partially filled,
and the boats were going on their tracks.
And, of course, Walt Disney
was on the maiden test voyage.
It was like the world's biggest toy
for the world's biggest kid.
KEVIN: And the Jungle Cruise was just like
a really cool action figure set
you can go play inside.
NARRATOR: Hmm. Nice waterfall.
But, wait a minute,
where are all the animals?
They're still installing
the electromechanical animals
that are over there.
TODD: And so, he knows
that this is down to the wire.
The big concern on July 17th
is that it looks good for the TV audience.
NARRATOR:
And this TV audience was important
because the whole success of the park
hinged on making a very good
first impression.
So, with millions and millions
of people watching
The pressure
has got to be unbelievable on him.
NARRATOR: Because, don't forget,
Walt wasn't just building a jungle river
in an officially classified desert,
he was also building a castle,
flying elephants,
pretend flying pirate ships,
a working steamboat,
little cars that drive about,
all in a year.
So, understandably
Everybody is telling you,
"What in the hell are you thinking?"
NARRATOR: This, of course.
And when the drawbridge
finally came down on July 17th, 1955,
these broadcasting pioneers with their
Twenty-nine cameras, dozens of crews.
-NARRATOR: and one
-REPORTER 1: Ronnie Reagan.
NARRATOR: saved the best for last.
Well, Walt, it seems to me
we've been everywhere, haven't we?
Well, I hope so. I don't know.
Say, haven't we missed something?
Seems like it.
A whole land?
Adventureland.
Oh, that's my favorite.
Let's go over there.
And we are now at the beginning
of a true-life adventure
NARRATOR: That's right,
a true-life adventure.
Maybe the greatest one of all.
RONALD: Now, we're all loaded up,
I believe. Thank you, Captain.
You can take her off.
We're ready for a ride
down the tropical waterways of the world.
Now, you just can't believe it, folks.
The colors are so unbelievable.
The banks are lined with rare trees
and exotic foliage
flown here from the far corners
of the earth.
NARRATOR: And the banks of the I-5 south.
But it worked, big-time!
The live TV broadcast
of Disneyland's grand opening on ABC
attracted an audience
of about 90 million people.
TIM: It was the largest live TV spectacle
up to that point.
That's pretty remarkable,
considering the overall population
of the United States was only 170 million.
Those audiences are people
just like them, the spectators are them.
PAULA:
They're seeing themselves being there.
That's what that opening broadcast does,
is it puts you in the place
where you want to be.
(children cheer)
NARRATOR: And that opening day broadcast
at Disneyland,
as awkward as it was
showed that Walt Disney had created
something absolutely incredible.
And, after just one crazy year of work,
an exotic river now flowed through
the arid Anaheim landscape,
and Walt could finally get
a good night's sleep.
(animals roaring)
NARRATOR: And get ready for day two.
In the coming weeks,
Disneyland was the hottest ticket in town.
And word had spread
about the exotic Jungle Cruise.
And, like the documentary series
it drew inspiration from,
the Jungle Cruise was filled
with exotic animals and interesting facts,
as told by non-robotic human skippers
who navigated the waters
of the Jungle Cruise,
as well doing their spiel
to about 30 excited guests per boat.
Steady, folks.
Watch those ripples up ahead.
NARRATOR: Well, for the skippers, they
were more on the lookout for the boss,
because Walt would often come aboard
and rock the boat.
Walt went on to the Jungle Cruise,
the skipper was kind of nervous, very
because he had Walt Disney in his boat.
Oh, hi, Walt.
He took the boat at a record pace.
KEVIN: He flew through the jungle,
full throttle, for the entire thing.
And he called me over and he said,
"Dick, what's the trip time?"
And he knew, in those days,
it was seven and a half minutes.
DICK: And he said,
"Well, I just got a four-minute trip."
Hope you all enjoyed it.
He said, "How would you feel
if you went to the movies
and they cut the center reel out
of the picture?"
DICK: He said, "Dick," he said,
"we've got to establish a terrific show,
a consistent show,
regardless of how long the line is."
And then, from there, the managers put in
little alarm clocks into all the boats,
so the skippers had to have their spiel
timed to a certain point.
And so, everybody learned
and got accustomed to it.
Next time Walt went on the Jungle Cruise,
he had a normal length cruise
and he got off and didn't say a word.
Which is a compliment
in the world of Walt Disney.
You know, that's how you get his approval.
NARRATOR: Nowadays, the skippers
just use landmarks to time their ride.
And the steering is entirely controlled
by an underwater track,
which explains
the one-handed precision moves, of course.
(chuckles)
A little close.
NARRATOR: So, let's stop it here,
because anyone who's been
on the Jungle Cruise in the last 30 years
would probably remember things
a bit differently.
The Jungle Cruise we know today is not
the Jungle Cruise that we opened with.
JEANETTE: Walt actually wanted
Jungle Cruise to be more serious.
NARRATOR: Well, of course.
Walt's True-Life Adventures
weren't funny at all.
(grunting)
NARRATOR: But they did pop in
a few thrills here and there.
MAN 4: Watch out for that big python.
On the right-hand side,
watch, we're approaching them now,
those giant alligators.
Now, watch your hands, please.
Watch the hand Oh.
NARRATOR:
Considering the abundance of wetness,
the Jungle Cruise was dry
and informational
WALT: This is one animal
that has no vocal cords.
NARRATOR: educational
WALT: And now we're on the Mekong River
of Cochinchina.
NARRATOR: and absolutely humorless.
In this tropical rainforest,
every tree has a corsage.
It's a misconception
that there was no humor
in the early days of the Jungle Cruise.
We have a copy of the very first script,
and there's a joke in there.
WALT: If you keep watching that far bank,
you can say that you had
a nodding acquaintance with a giraffe.
(crickets chirping)
(clears throat)
It's not a very good joke,
but there's a joke.
NARRATOR: And someone who had to say
such not-very-good jokes was Ron Dominguez
who ended up not only having
his grandparents' tree planted,
but this local kid got a job too.
You had a basic script and then, you know,
sometimes, would throw your own stuff in.
WALT:
No one is invited to this family's dinner.
Now, you look back,
it was probably pretty darn corny.
(chuckles)
NARRATOR: After five years or so
of Disneyland's operation,
rumor has it Walt overheard
a mother deciding to skip the Cruise
because she had done it before.
That moment inspired
Walt's new philosophy.
As long as there is imagination
left in the world,
Disneyland will never be complete.
NARRATOR:
So, to confirm his sneaking suspicions,
Walt turned to his chief gag man,
the one who in large part was responsible
for why so many of Walt's movies
were hilarious and adorable.
And even though
he was an animation legend,
Marc Davis spotted one big problem
with the Jungle Cruise.
"Well, it's not funny."
And he's like, "What?"
He's all, "There's no humor."
NARRATOR:
Well, a nodding acquaintance with humor.
But in any case, it was a problem.
According to Marc, he felt that Disneyland
needed to be a place
Where people would come in and look
at something and actually laugh out loud.
There wasn't really anything
of that nature there.
NARRATOR: So, with Walt's
humorless hunch confirmed,
Marc Davis made a career pivot
from legendary animator
to Jungle Cruise fixer-upper.
In the early '60s, Marc Davis came in
and brought in the gags
that are really synonymous
with what the attraction has now become.
DAVE: He brought the humor
to everything that he did.
He brought the character,
and, frankly, he brought the basis
of the storytelling
that we are still using to this day
with the hyenas and the apes.
Marc Davis came up
with some artwork concepts
to add not only some humor
to the attraction,
but to add some realism to the animals
that were featured
throughout the Jungle Cruise.
Trying to create some things
that people understood,
trying to do something
that people related to,
and something
that they could possibly react to.
NARRATOR: Metaphorically, at least,
Marc Davis completely drained
the river of that dryness
and refilled the river to the brink
with dozens of new scenes and animals.
And, thanks to advances
in Audio-Animatronics technology,
Marc was able to unleash
a torrent of new ideas.
The elephant trunk, before, they had
just gone up and down or sideways.
And Marc wanted them
to be able to go in a circle.
So, that way, we had to do
a whole new prototype
and come up with a whole new plans
of how to do that.
NARRATOR:
The solution was using a special tube,
which was flexible, durable,
and, above all, water-resistant.
Sometimes referred to as a hose.
And these are the challenges that we were,
you know,
just daily challenges
that we were faced with.
NARRATOR: In a creative stampede,
the elephants were trucked in
from Imagineering HQ.
And, luckily,
they had plenty of trunk space.
(car horn beeps)
NARRATOR: Marc had designed
so many elephants,
he began to worry what Walt might think.
"Well, there's one thing
you're probably not gonna like, Walt."
I said, "That is that nobody
can go through here
and see all these elephants at one time."
NARRATOR: And, like an elephant,
Walt had an idea he'd never forget.
MARC: He said, "God, that's great.
So, the next time they come through,
they'll see something
they didn't the second time."
NARRATOR:
So, the first time, they might see
-WALT: Little squirt.
-NARRATOR: And the second time
WALT: And big squirt.
(water splashes)
DAVE: Walt used to tell Marc Davis,
"It's a cocktail party."
Right? These guys are gonna be talking,
and whether you get the dialogue or not,
it's not important.
But you know what?
Guests are wanna go on it again and again
to discover more and more
as they go on it.
NARRATOR: Marc's talent for adding comedy
to serious attractions
was ahead of its time.
However, some of those gags
were based on stereotypes
that are now recognized as inappropriate.
Walt Disney asked me to do
some ideas for the train to see
that would kind of advertise, uh
the jungle river ride.
NARRATOR: Well, being the poster boy
of good ideas
He said, "Oh, god, no.
Hell, that's too good.
We've gotta put it inside the ride."
MARC: It's kind of gratifying
to go through there with a crowd
and people still laugh
after all this length of time.
WALT: The laughing hyenas, at last,
have something to laugh at.
(hyenas laughing)
NARRATOR: Well, thanks to Marc Davis,
now, everybody did.
My history with Jungle Cruise
goes way back when I was just,
you know, a little punk kid
who had a big Afro.
And we lived in Florida,
and so we had this opportunity
to go to Disney.
And I remember riding the Jungle Cruise,
and it's exciting
and it's tantalizing in a way,
and you don't know
what's around the corner.
And you're transported
into this other world.
NARRATOR:
A world where primates are armed,
because the only thing funnier
than a gorilla with a gun
is a skipper with a
Pun.
NARRATOR: And being one of the fathers
of modern Imagineering,
it only makes sense that Marc Davis
would make a lot of
Dad jokes that everybody knows
and loathes.
Careful, folks. Ginger snaps.
I love a good pun.
She's one tough cookie, let me tell you.
I love getting on Jungle Cruise.
I know it's a crummy joke,
but I'm gonna milk it
for all it's worth, okay?
It's what brings in the dough,
even though it is stale.
The skippers, they make me laugh.
They are great storytellers.
CARMEN: It's the magic
of the Jungle Cruise experience.
All right, we can go ahead
and put some people in the boat now.
And in that boat is going to be a witty
and charming skipper.
JASON: And they're gonna take you
on an amazing journey.
It's gonna take three weeks of your time.
It's gonna be so entertaining,
it's gonna feel like ten minutes though.
NARRATOR: Well, as the years went by,
it felt like decades, because it was.
And just like the very nature
of the animals
that inhabited the original attraction,
the Jungle Cruise had evolved
into a different kind of experience.
Jungle Cruise became, now,
a very popular attraction
because of the jokes.
But you want it now
for the Jungle Cruise skippers
and the great delivery that they have
more than you do to see
the wildlife that surrounds you.
NARRATOR: But don't worry.
A lot of the same information
from the original is still there.
That's Schweitzer Falls.
Schweitzer Falls was named
after a very famous man,
a very famous explorer and scientist,
Dr. Albert Falls.
-(people laugh)
-A very important man around here.
NARRATOR: But, just to be clear,
there's no ad-libbing on deck.
FLOR: Oh, no! It looks like
a bunch of gorillas
have taken over the safari camp.
Don't make any noises
that sound like a banana.
They find it appealing.
FLOR: All right, let's split.
NARRATOR: When it comes to the script,
all the skippers are in the same boat.
You'll get a copy of the spiel scripts,
and that's kind of like a menu.
NARRATOR: Ooh. Delicious puns.
But instead of appetizers, main course,
it's like, rainforest, elephant pool,
hippo pool, trap safari.
NARRATOR: Sleeping zebras.
FLOR: He looks dead tired. Dead tired.
Lions are enjoying
their favorite meal today,
zebra on the rocks.
And you get to kind of pick and choose
which ones you like,
so every skipper
gets to have the same jokes,
but also,
it's a little bit of a different vibe
with how they deliver the jokes
and which ones exactly it is
that they pick.
You know, I think that rhinoceros there
is trying to his point across.
FLOR: They always manage
to get their point across.
My style? I would say
I have a pretty, like, high-energy,
sarcastic Jungle Cruise spiel.
Tigers are known to jump over 20 feet.
But not to worry, we're only 15 feet away
so they'll jump right over us.
NARRATOR: Something else
that might go over your head
is this clever little timing check
for the other skippers on the river.
(gunfires)
NARRATOR: Because here, at the hippo pool,
is their cue to fire their pistol upwards.
-(gunfire)
-NARRATOR: Because, you know,
conservation of mechanical hippos
is a real thing after all.
What other job is there here that you get
to stand in a boat with 45 other guests
and just say jokes?
FLOR: The second most feared animal
of the jungle,
-it's the African bull elephant.
-(elephant trumpets)
And if you were wondering
what the number one most feared animal
of the jungle is, folks,
take a look right over here,
it's his mother-in-law.
NARRATOR: But there's one joke
that towers above all the others.
So perfectly crafted, it's become legend.
You've read about it in the papers,
you've seen it in the movies,
put your hands together for the one,
the only, amazing
The back side of water!
NARRATOR: So, that's
The back side of water. See that?
Yeah, don't try that at home.
You'll hit your head on the faucet.
The back side of water, Schweitzer Falls.
DWAYNE: When I first heard it,
I remember thinking,
"I think I should get this,
but I don't understand it."
It doesn't make any sense.
The back side of water
makes no sense whatsoever.
However, it makes all the sense
in the world.
NARRATOR: It's a joke that,
if you tell it right, never falls flat.
Just make sure you tell it!
If you don't do the "back side of water"
joke, guests will tell you
that you forgot to do
the "back side of water" joke.
Like, "How dare you?"
NARRATOR:
As well as aggravating superfans,
the falls actually serve
a practical purpose.
That being the mixing station for the dye
that turns the water jungle green.
You know, every jungle has them.
But anyway,
from whichever side you see it,
the waterfall marks the moment
where the Jungle Cruise
heads toward the dock.
But not without a final wink
to the original cruise.
FLOR:
Oh, look, it's my good friend, Trader Sam!
Hey, Trader Sam! What's up?
How's it going?
The great story behind Trader Sam
is, of course,
that started in the Jungle Cruise in 1955.
Trader Sam is kind of
like a friend of the skippers.
He kind of hangs out on the river's edge
and he also collects things
that he takes back
to his Enchanted Tiki Bar
and his Grog Grotto.
NARRATOR:
Which is but a stone's throw away.
Now, speaking of rocks
Oh, sorry, not those ones.
The actual The Rock.
I have had a chance
to skipper many Jungle Cruise boats
over the years, in multiple parks.
NARRATOR: Whoa. Hopefully not like this.
And you're probably thinking,
"Wow, I don't remember
ever seeing you there, Rock."
NARRATOR: Ha! He's absolutely right.
Of course, you didn't,
because it all happened in my mind.
NARRATOR: And it was the imagination
inside that muscular,
Mickey Mouse-loving mind
that would eventually propel him to star
in Disney's movie version
of the Jungle Cruise.
-Welcome to the adventure of a lifetime.
-Oh.
CANDICE: It's really interesting
to see that they're in costumes
that are actually inspired
by The African Queen.
Mind takin' the tiller, miss?
-Huh?
-Come on.
NARRATOR: And it's not just a nodding nod
to The African Queen.
Just look at those hats.
So, it's nice to see that tie in
to our heritage here at this attraction
with the film that inspired us.
NARRATOR: But mostly, of course,
it was the Jungle Cruise itself
that inspired it,
filled with action and comedy
-I got it. I don't got it.
-Try No
NARRATOR: The movie really does
have a lot in common
with the attraction,
and a lot not in common.
-The back side of water!
-NARRATOR: Exactly!
You won't be hearing
Dwayne Johnson saying
The back side of water.
NARRATOR:
Actually, yeah, it works when he does it.
The eighth wonder of the world.
(laughs)
NARRATOR: A world that's now rich
with Jungle Cruises,
beginning when the river burst
its American banks
into Tokyo Disneyland in 1983,
where it was the first cruise
to run in a clockwise direction.
Then there's Hong Kong,
a humid and semitropical destination
in its own right.
And this version is quite different.
Guests get caught up in the middle
of an epic battle
between the gods of fire and water,
and being on the back side of that
is more of a relief than a laugh.
And even though
this worldwide network of rivers
might not be physically connected,
there is a shared history
and kinship among the skippers.
They sent me to Tokyo when I was a skipper
to meet with other Jungle Cruise skippers
from around the world.
KEVIN: They brought some
from Disney World
They brought some
from Hong Kong Disneyland
and we all connected immediately,
there was an immediate kinship.
NARRATOR: But the bond
these skippers share
isn't just about the gags,
although many say Kevin was the best
on the river in his day.
No! Bad elephant! Bad squirt.
Let's get out of here before he reloads.
He's reloaded.
Everyone, get down! Duck! Duck! Goose.
I have a lot of friends who've gone
who've left the Jungle Cruise
only to go back
because it's like therapy for them.
KEVIN: It's a way for them
to forget everything else, go out there,
and just tell jokes and have a good time.
I mean, I would, in a heartbeat,
jump into a boat and do a spiel,
and then put on some shorts.
NARRATOR: Hopefully not in that order.
In many ways, the Jungle Cruise
is more than just an attraction.
It represents the long-running history
of the Disney Parks themselves.
We'll always have
a Sleeping Beauty Castle,
and we'll always have Jungle Cruise.
They're mainstays
that will always stay intact.
NARRATOR:
As an original opening day attraction,
it was carved from the desert
and created literally out of thin, dry air
by Harper Goff and his stick,
Bill Evans with his salvaged trees,
and with the help of Marc Davis,
it grew into the thick, luscious,
beloved attraction that it is today.
MARC: I had a talk with Walt.
I said, "You know,
there's two ways I could do this.
An expensive way and an inexpensive way."
And he says,
"I think when you do something,
and you do it well enough,
the public's gonna pay you back for it."
NARRATOR: With close to a billion guests
visiting just Disneyland alone,
it's fair to say
The public appreciate and accept
what I've done all these years.
That is a great reward.
INTERVIEWER: I'm sure it is.
It seems unlikely,
but if you had it to do over again,
would you do any part of it differently?
(laughs)
I don't know.
I hope I don't have to do it over again.
JEANETTE: You think about what Walt's
original vision was for Jungle Cruise,
Walt wanted guests
to have a real adventure
like the adventures they saw
on their television
when they were watching
True-Life Adventures.
NARRATOR: And this was truly realized
when Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park
opened in Florida in 1998.
JEANETTE:
I think Walt would have been very proud
because he would have said,
"Yes, right! This is exactly it.
Real animals where guests
can get on the vehicle
and believe they are in Africa."
WALT: Most everyone has been impressed by
and curious about the realism
of Adventureland.
The lifelike animals,
the authentic tropical settings.
JEANETTE: That is what Disney, I think,
would have been proud of.
And so Jungle Cruise started it,
and we're actually delivering it
in full force
with a full, built-out vision
at Animal Kingdom today.
NARRATOR: But the Jungle Cruise
is much more than just a stepping stone
in the legacy of Disney's
immersive experiences.
This truly classic attraction
isn't just about the skippers,
or the jokes, or even the animals,
but the incredible creative determination
of the original skipper
who, above all the odds,
set sail on an adventure
that's not even close
to pulling in to the dock.
WALT: We're back to civilization,
and it's been a real pleasure
to take this trip with you.
Thank you, everyone.
Hope to ride with you again sometime.
NARRATOR: But, for now,
it's time for us to disembark.
Have a great day, folks.
Take care, and always remember
Oh, wait, I forgot.
(crickets chirping)
(light music)