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‘The African Queen’ at 70: How One Jungle Cruise Influenced Another ‘Jungle Cruise’

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On July 17, 1955, Walt Disney experienced what he and many referred to as “Black Sunday.” Imagine, if you will, a swelteringly hot day in southern California surrounded by 28,000 people with limited access to water, atop asphalt soft enough to get your shoes stuck, and things are malfunctioning all around you. On top of that, people everywhere can see the chaos broadcast on their television screens. This was the opening of Disneyland. Obviously, Disney was able to get past that day rather swimmingly, creating an experience that thrills people of all ages to this day. While a great deal of what one could enjoy on that day in July has been removed and replaced over the last 66 years, one attraction that still survives and thrives to this day is the “Jungle Cruise.” Before you could climb aboard a doom buggy to see some happy haunts or ride a bobsled through the Matterhorn mountain, you could enjoy a riverboat cruise through the jungles of Africa, South America, and Asia led by a skipper making jokes so bad you respect how much you groan.

Disney’s original conception of the attraction was to make a living travelogue, a way to combine the sensibilities of the films made about Latin American countries in conjunction with the United States’ Good Neighbor Policy during World War II like Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros with the nature documentary film series True-Life Adventures that had racked up seven Academy Awards by the opening of the attraction. To help crack the idea with a mere one year away from opening, he enlisted the services of artist Harper Goff , who had already been hard at work conceptualizing the Main Street, U.S.A. section of the park, as well as serving as art director for Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . In an episode of the new series Behind the Attraction on Disney+, Goff says in an archival interview, “I’d seen The African Queen , and I liked it.” The 1951 John Huston adventure film, celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, became the chief inspiration for the timeless attraction, not just in aesthetics but also in simply making it a boat ride, according to Disney Imagineering legend Marty Sklar in the 2008 documentary Disneyland Resort: Imagineering the Magic .

The African Queen , based on the novel by C.S. Forester , stars Katharine Hepburn as British missionary Rose Sayer in East Africa during the early stages of World War I. After the village she lives and preaches in is decimated by German forces, including the murder of her brother ( Robert Morley ), she hitches a dangerous ride down river on the titular steamboat with the unkempt, drunkard skipper Charlie Allnut (an Oscar-winning Humphrey Bogart ) with the hopes of creating a makeshift torpedo to destroy a nearby German ship out for revenge. The two are immediately at odds with each other, as she always has her eyes on the prize while he tries to remain extremely cautious while using humor to pass the time. Despite their differences, they soon fall for each other.

RELATED: Producers John Davis & John Fox on ‘Jungle Cruise,’ Visiting the Secret Disney Vault, and How the Movie Industry Has Changed

The design of the ride vehicles clearly mimic the design of the African Queen boat, a canopied wooden steamship with a big, black boiler to maneuver around plopped in the center. While the African Queen is steered by a tiller in the back, the ships on the Jungle Cruise opt for a steering wheel in the front to better focus on the skipper guiding you. The flagship boat on the attraction is even called the “Congo Queen.” While Bogart’s skipper Allnut may not be throwing out puns a mile a minute, he does find wisecracking or being silly to be popular forms of entertainment. One of the more memorable scenes in the film features the two coming upon a group of hippopotamuses in the river, leading to Allnut charmingly imitating them as they pass by, hence the Jungle Cruise including a scene where your boat comes across its own group of hippos.

Fast forward to 2021, and Disney has released Jungle Cruise , a film based on the eponymous attraction from director Jaume Collet-Serra ( The Shallows ). For a film based on a ride inspired by The African Queen , it only makes sense that the film should draw upon the Oscar-winning film just as much, if not more, than the ride does. Jungle Cruise stars Emily Blunt as British explorer Dr. Lily Houghton in South America during the middle of World War I. After absconding with an arrowhead with directions to a mythic healing tree in the Amazon, she hitches a dangerous ride down river with the mildly unkempt skipper Frank Wolff ( Dwayne Johnson ), who occasionally drinks, with the hopes of finding this tree to cure people around the world. The two are at odds with each other, as she always has her eyes on the prize while he tries to remain extremely cautious while using humor to pass the time. Despite their differences, they soon fall for each other. The African Queen doesn’t feature any undead 16th century jungle monster conquistadors, though.

Johnson’s Frank Wolff character design nearly copies Bogart’s Allnut. Both wear light, striped button down shirts, red kerchiefs around their necks, and, most notably, white caps with black brims. Frank does get a Disney polish compared to Allnut. He is not nearly as wrinkled, disheveled, or dirty, and he certainly doesn’t drink as much, using alcohol consumption as more of an occasional gag than a real problem. Bogart also didn’t have about a thousand pounds of pure muscle on him. Each man has his own reasons for not wanting to endeavor on the more dangerous elements of their respective expeditions, Allnut more for self-preservation instincts and Frank for reasons I don’t want to spoil. The big difference between the two characters is Johnson appropriates the aesthetics of Allnut to disarm you into thinking he isn’t the classical adventure hero (though being the massive and carved Dwayne Johnson somewhat diminishes that effect).

Hepburn’s Rose and Blunt’s Lily, while both being the names of flowers, are far less similar in aesthetics than their male counterparts. Rose dresses more as a proper lady of the period in a skirt and donning a high, frilled collar, whereas Lily dresses in far less traditionally feminine attire like you’d see Katherine Hepburn in a host of other films, earning her the nickname “Pants” from skipper Frank. In personality, the two certainly have much more in common, each with a strong sense of self with a distinct amount of overconfidence. Dr. Lily Houten, being an experienced adventurer herself, justifies that confidence more than Rose, who charges forth with her more outrageous ideas a bit more out of naïve desperation than anything. They also share a heavy amount of skepticism for their skipper companions, unafraid to vocalize that skepticism.

Moments throughout Jungle Cruise certainly echo beyond the character types. A perilous riverboat journey isn’t complete without a scene careening down the rapids. Each film has their own sequence of trying to outrun gunfire from German forces. There are small things like kicking the boat’s steam engine in order to make it work. However, laying out the two films like this almost inevitably does a disservice to Jungle Cruise , making it out to be a Disney ripoff of a beloved Hollywood classic. From the moment Harper Goff mentioned to Walt Disney he thought it would be a good idea to use The African Queen for inspiration for the attraction, a film adaptation of that ride never could be made without seeing the direct lineage. Jungle Cruise draws upon other films too, from Robert Zemckis ’ Romancing the Stone to Disney’s own Pirates of the Caribbean film series. Homage and derivation is nothing new in art. C.S. Forester ’s original The African Queen novel undoubtedly took inspiration from the works of late 19th century adventure writers like Rudyard Kipling ( The Jungle Book ) and Robert Louis Stevenson ( Treasure Island ). It’s up to the audience to determine whether or not those inspirations are rendered in a fresh, exciting way. For an attraction that has run 66 years and still commands often hour-long wait times, the answer is yes. For the film, you can see the film now and judge for yourself.

Jungle Cruise is currently out in the theaters and available for premiere access purchase on Disney+. The African Queen is available to stream on Amazon Prime and the Criterion Channel. An iteration of the Jungle Cruise attraction can be enjoyed at any location where there is a Disney theme park.

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Humphrey Bogart's son addresses the clear parallels between The African Queen and Jungle Cruise

Plus, Stephen Bogart talks the 70th-anniversary big screen return of his father's Oscar-winning film.

Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, Ms. Magazine , The Hollywood Reporter , and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, It Happened One Fight , is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen.

The African Queen is returning to the big screen — in more ways than one.

The classic John Huston film is celebrating its 70th anniversary, and to honor its platinum year, TCM is bringing it back to theaters as part of its Big Screen Classics series with Fathom Events this July.

But in some ways, it's returning in an even more subtle way when Jungle Cruise hits theaters July 30. The original Disneyland ride which inspired the new film took heavy inspiration from the Humphrey Bogart classic, down to the design of the boat. And that continues across to Jungle Cruise, in everything from the costumes Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson wear to the concept of a jungle-river-set adventure.

Stephen Bogart, the only son of the African Queen star and his glamorous other half, Lauren Bacall , doesn't find anything particularly touching about the homage, however. "The Rock is fine," he tells EW. "He's got a great personality. He seems like a very good person. I think he works hard; he cares about it, and I'll go see the movie. It'll be fun. But I never thought of it as a continuation, nor do I think Dwayne Johnson is trying to be Humphrey Bogart, that'd be tough."

"I don't want to disparage [anyone]," he adds when pressed about how the films might stack up next to each other. "But 70 years later, they probably won't be doing a re-release of Jungle Cruise ."

The African Queen remains a stone-cold classic, often cited on lists of the greatest films of all time. It paired screen legends Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn for their only collaboration and won Bogie his sole Oscar. And the making of the film was just as wild and adventurous as the movie itself, shooting on location in Africa, with Bacall along for the ride.

Ahead of the movie's return to theaters July 18 and 21, we talked to Bogart about what the Oscar win meant to his father, what stories he remembers hearing about the chaotic production over the years, and just why Bogie and director John Huston had such a special bond.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: A lot of your parents' work stands the test of time, but why do you think African Queen endures 70 years later?

STEPHEN BOGART: First of all, because it's a great movie. It's interesting; it's well written; it's well-directed; it's well-acted. And you see my father in color for the first time, which I think is important. But I think that the reason that any movie stands the test of time is because it's a great movie. And in order to have a great movie you got to have great writing and you have to have great acting and you have to have great directing, and that's any of the movies that stand the test of time. Any really great movie stands the test of time because it stands alone. And this does too. It's two of the great actors ever.

As part of that, your dad won his Oscar for this. Did you have a sense of what that meant to him? If it was important or meaningful to him in any way?

I think that he probably would not admit it, but it was important. He should have won one before. He did not. I'm almost thinking that he should have won for The Caine Mutiny, close to this, but he was fighting with Brando with On the Waterfront and all that sort of stuff. Finally, they decided to give him an Oscar. And I think it was. If you look at his Oscar speech, it was short.

Most of them were then.

Yes. I think it was important to him to be recognized for his craft. Because he was a great picker of movies. If you could bet on movies, you would want to bet on the movies my father picked to make. Because his filmography is second to none.

Do you think this is the role he most deserved to win for? It sounds like maybe you think it should've been for The Caine Mutiny.

He could've won for any of them. He could've won for Caine Mutiny ; he could've won for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre . He could've won for Casablanca ; he could have won for Desperate Hours .

You were a baby when this movie was being made, but do you remember hearing any stories over the years?

I was 2 years old, so I really don't remember anything. It was just a difficult shoot; it was interesting because you know my father died when I was eight. And so, none of those discussions that you would have with a teenager were really discussed. My father came back; he makes another movie.

Your father and John Huston were an incredible team, including on this film. Why do you think they were so well suited to each other as an actor and director?

They had the same attitude about life. My father recognized the greatness of John Huston and was willing to go to the lengths that John Huston needed to make a movie. He was a great family friend. He gave the eulogy at my father's funeral. I've known Anjelica [Huston] for forever. I just think that my father got John Huston, and my father also was not stupid. He knew when he had hooked onto something that's really good — great writer, great director. And they were going to have fun at those shoots. They were going to work their asses off, but they were going to have fun. That's what's important.

It's pretty well-established that everyone on set got sick during filming, except Huston and your dad. Can you tell me more about that?

They were drinking booze and everybody else was drinking that horrible water. They weren't boiling it, not the way that they would do today. If you look at Naked and Afraid , they wouldn't have that stuff back then, water tablets, and all that. They were just roughing it. It was 1951 in Africa, and nobody knew about that stuff and how careful you had to be. My father and John Huston imbibed the correct way. They didn't get sick.

What do you think was the most trying thing about the shoot — the weather, the water, something else?

It was Africa in 1950. I mean, you can imagine how difficult it would be today. Imagine it then. They were living in tents; they had food they continually brought in from villages. They had to worry about being attacked by animals. It wasn't as if there were a couple of lions in a game preserve. There were lions and piranhas and crocodiles. All this sort of stuff, and it was really wild Africa. And disease. Everything made it so difficult. But that was the adventure too.

Your mom went along for the trip. Do you know why she wanted to go?

Let's see, how would you like to come along with John Huston, Katie Hepburn, and Humphrey Bogart and make a movie in Africa in 1950? Yeah, I'll be doing that. Sure. What are you going to do? Sit at home in L.A. and wait? It's not even a question. Definitely, she went for the adventure. It was an adventurous time, and she was 27 years old.

Do you think facing all of those challenges together brought your parents even closer together?

I doubt it brought them closer together. I mean, they had already worked together, so it wasn't as if being together on a film set was any different. They both thought it was great. It was fun; it was exactly what it should be. And they were pretty darn close anyway.

Do you remember any particular horror stories they told later on?

Well, the fire ants story — my mother, when she walked into the tent, she stepped on it, and there was just a bed of fire ants. And she went running out of the tent. But I never really got any of that. The shoot was just a difficult shoot. People got sick. Food had to be brought in from all over the place. It happened when I was 2 years old and once my father died, my mother didn't really want to talk about that stuff anymore.

What do you think of your dad's chemistry with Katharine Hepburn and how it compares to his many wonderful leading ladies?

He had a chemistry. They were great friends, him and my mother were great friends with Katie and Spencer Tracy. And I remember going over to their house. Katie was my brother Sam's godmother. It was a longtime friendship. My father always admired talent, and Katie was a great, great actress. They were friends forever. They were close.

Do you think them playing off of each other brought anything different or new out in the other?

I'm sure it did. I'm sure when you're playing opposite someone who you respect as an actor, and also someone that you know you can do things that you don't have to work at. Stuff can come across that you don't have to work for, you don't have to push it, it's just there.

I know you only had eight years with him, but which of your father's roles do you think was most like his real-life self and where does this fall on that spectrum?

I don't think that any of his movies are like his real life. He was acting. He was an actor, that's what they do. He was no more a killer than he was in Casablanca and World War II than he was hanging out with Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina , and he certainly wasn't in Mexico looking for gold. That wasn't him. He was acting and that's what so many people don't understand — that he's an actor and he's acting. It's really not like he was in real life.

What is your favorite memory of your father, the one that you feel really defines who he was and what your relationship was with him?

My favorite memory is being on the boat. I don't remember a whole lot. But just being around the boat, being on the Santana. That's the only memory that I have, really.

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A Man, A Woman, A Boat, A River, And World War I — ‘The African Queen’s Influence On ‘Jungle Cruise’

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The African Queen

Up until this weekend, the number of major motion pictures about a man, a woman, and a boat navigating dangerous waters of rivers and lakes in a fierce jungle setting while facing menacing animals and dangerous Germans during World War I amounted to one. That is doubled now by Jungle Cruise , in which characters played by Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt quest through wet and dark in the Amazon in search of something called the Tree of Life, which is apparently completely unrelated to that Terrence Malick movie . (Instead, it sheds healing drops called the Tears of the Moon, not yet a movie title.)

The first, and for a long time the one and only, was the 1951 The African Queen , starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn and directed by John Huston. The source material was a novel by C.S. Forester , a writer who for much of the 20th century was the biggest spinner of sea-faring tales. (He was eventually supplanted by Patrick O’Brian.) Forester invented the noble 19th century naval hero Horatio Hornblower and also wrote The Good Shepherd , the World War II story that was made into the movie Greyhound by Tom Hanks in 2020.

In The African Queen , a socially awkward boat pilot Charlie Allnutt (British in the book; Canadian in the movie, so Bogart wouldn’t have to attempt an accent but could still play a character loyal to the Crown) and socially awkward Christian missionary Rose Sayer (Hepburn) hatch, in the wake of a German invasion that destroyed Rose’s home and more or less killed her brother, an impromptu plan to sink a German warship upriver. Why? They think there’s nothing better to do. The outbreak of World War I has ignited hostilities in the colonial areas. Rose’s missionary, a modest village, was raided so the Germans could round up native Africans and essentially enslave them in their armed forces, to harass (that is, kill) the British forces in the vicinity.

Charlie initially proposes waiting out the war in his beloved boat, which gives the movie its title. (Obviously he’s not anticipating the war lasting as long as it does.) Rose shames him into taking up her patriotic plan, which is to rig the boat’s explosives and ram it, torpedo style, into the gunboat called the Königin Luise. And of course, during their journey the two misfits fall in love.

Missionaries? Colonies? Do we have another “Problematic” on our hands? Not so much. The situation described in both the novel’s scenario and shown in the movie is pretty much historically accurate. Native Africans are only seen in the movie’s opening scenes, the relatively placid village that serves as the British mission. Boatman Charlie is acquainted with Rose and her somewhat pompous brother (Robert Morley) because he’s their mailman. As he motors down river to make his delivery, he’s seen chatting amiably with some native children. His manner is not unlike that of Walter Huston’s, when his character is relaxing in an indigenous Mexican village in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , the 1940s Huston/Bogart classic. By contrast, the native sitting through the hymns Morley plays on the organ in the hut that serves as a church look dutiful but bored. Huston’s directorial eye isn’t condescending. There’s one closeup of a native with some tribal facial scarification. This movie was shot on location and its extras were local; Huston insisted on realistic detail throughout. But there’s no implication that the brother-sister missionaries are superior to their presumed charges.

But once the Germans round the natives up, it’s game over for them as far as the movie is concerned. “They plan to make soldiers of the natives, and take over all of Africa,” Charlie says to Rose, with some incredulity. (About the savagery of the Germans, that is.)

We don’t see any other people, really, save for Charlie and Rose, for another hour or so. By contrast, in Jungle Cruise there’s a bit wherein Dwayne Johnson’s character says, “We’re heading into headhunter company, which is a terrible place to be headed.” Egregious wordplay aside, the insistent othering of indigenous peoples in the Disney project is more, um, problematic than anything the sweet-natured The African Queen , arguably Huston’s least cynical major movie, has to offer.

Huston’s movie also has more authenticity, so to speak. No CGI here. It didn’t even exist in 1951. But even if it had, Huston likely would not have used it. There’s a scene in which Charlie comes out of some river water covered in leeches. Bogart, rather sensibly, suggested that makeup staff festoon him with fake rubber leeches. Nuh-uh, said his longtime buddy Huston. He got a box of the real ones shipped down (the river itself not a wholly reliable source, apparently) and latched them on to the actor. That’s not to say that the movie did not avail itself of what was then state-of-the-art special effects. The flying insects that besiege Rose and Charlie before the leech business is a competent but very evident optical effect, superimposing what looks like microscopic bacterial footage over the actors miming mosquito attack.

Bogart himself copped to this, revealing a secret diet of baked beans, canned asparagus, and Scotch (the mixture of which propelled him to his first and only Oscar win, the 1952 Academy Award for Best Actor). Hepburn was so afflicted that a bucket was kept off-camera during her organ-playing scene. But she got through. Oddly enough, while shooting the 1955 David Lean film Summertime in the distinctly more cosmopolitan locale of Venice, Italy, she sustained an eye infection that was to persist for the rest of her life. This was after, no doubt emboldened by her time on African Queen , she insisted on falling backward into one of Venice’s canals herself rather than leave it to a stunt person.

Veteran critic Glenn Kenny reviews‎ new releases at RogerEbert.com, the New York Times, and, as befits someone of his advanced age, the AARP magazine. He blogs, very occasionally, at Some Came Running and tweets, mostly in jest, at @glenn__kenny . He is the author of the acclaimed 2020 book Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas , published by Hanover Square Press.

Where to stream The African Queen

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In the pantheon of Disney movies based on Disney theme park rides, "Jungle Cruise" is pretty good—leagues better than dreck like "Haunted Mansion," though not quite as satisfying as the original "Pirates of the Caribbean."

The most pleasant surprise is that director Jaume Collet-Serra (" The Shallows ") and a credited team of five, count 'em, writers have largely jettisoned the ride's mid-century American colonial snarkiness and casual racism (a tradition only recently eliminated ). Setting the revamp squarely in the wheelhouse of blockbuster franchise-starters like " Raiders of the Lost Ark ," " Romancing the Stone " and "The Mummy," and pushing the fantastical elements to the point where the story barely seems to be taking place in our universe, it's a knowingly goofy romp, anchored to the banter between its leads, an English feminist and adventurer played by Emily Blunt and a riverboat captain/adventurer played by Dwayne Johnson .

Notably, however, even though the stars' costumes (and a waterfall sequence) evoke the classic "The African Queen"—John Huston's comic romance/action film starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn ; worth looking up if you've never watched it—the sexual chemistry between the two is nonexistent, save for a few fleeting moments, like when Frank picks up the heroine‘s hand-cranked silent film camera and captures affectionate images of her. At times the leads seem more like a brother and sister needling each other than a will they/won’t they bantering couple. Lack of sexual heat is often (strangely) a bug, or perhaps a feature, in films starring Johnson, the four-quadrant blockbuster king (though not on Johnson’s HBO drama "Ballers"). Blunt keeps putting out more than enough flinty looks of interest to sell a romance, but her leading man rarely reflects it back at her. Fortunately, the film's tight construction and prolific action scenes carry it, and Blunt and Johnson do the irresistible force/immovable object dynamic well enough, swapping energies as the story demands.

Blunt's character, Lily Houghton, is a well-pedigreed adventurer who gathers up maps belonging to her legendary father and travels to the Amazon circa 1916 to find the Tears of the Moon, petals from a "Tree of Life"-type of fauna that can heal all infirmities. She and her snooty, pampered brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) hire Frank "Skipper" Wolff (Johnson) to bring them to their destination. The only notable concession to the original theme park ride comes here: Wolff's day job is taking tourists upriver and making cheesy jokes in the spirit of "hosts" on Disney Jungle Cruise rides of yore. On the mission, Johnson immediately settles into a cranky but funny old sourpuss vibe, a la John Wayne or Harrison Ford , and inhabits it amiably enough, even though buoyant, almost childlike optimism comes more naturally to him than world-weary gruffness.

The supporting cast is stacked with overqualified character players. Paul Giamatti plays a gold-toothed, sunburned, cartoonishly “Italian” harbor master who delights at keeping Frank in debt. Edgar Ramirez is creepy and scary as a conquistador whose curse from centuries ago has trapped him in the jungle. Jesse Plemons plays the main baddie, Prince Joachim, who wants to filch the power of the petals for the Kaiser back in Germany (he's Belloq to the stars' Indy and Marion, trying to swipe the Ark). Unsurprisingly, given his track record, Plemons steals the film right out from under its leads.

Collet-Serra keeps the action moving along, pursuing a more classical style than is commonplace in recent live-action Disney product (by which I mean, the blocking and editing have a bit of elegance, and you always know where characters are in relation to each other). The editing errs on the side of briskness to such an extent that affecting, beautiful, or spectacular images never get to linger long enough to become iconic. The CGI is dicey, particularly on the larger jungle animals—was the production rushed, or were the artists just overworked?—and there are moments when everything seems so rubbery/plasticky that you seem to be watching the first film that was actually shot on location at Disney World.

But the staging and execution of the chases and fights compensates. Derivative of films that were themselves highly derivative, "Jungle Cruise" has the look and feel of a paycheck gig for all involved, but everyone seems to be having a great time, including the filmmakers.

In theaters and on Disney+ for a premium charge starting Friday, July 30th.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Jungle Cruise (2021)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of adventure violence.

127 minutes

Dwayne Johnson as Frank Wolff

Emily Blunt as Dr. Lily Houghton

Jack Whitehall as McGregor Houghton

Edgar Ramírez as Aguirre

Jesse Plemons as Prince Joachim

Paul Giamatti as Nilo

Jaume Collet-Serra

Writer (story)

Glenn Ficarra
Josh Goldstein
John Norville

Cinematographer

Flavio Martínez Labiano
Joel Negron
James Newton Howard

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Review: 'Jungle Cruise' is made from spare parts of better movies but kids will love it

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily “millennial Mary Poppins” Blunt knock themselves out in “Jungle Cruise” to keep kids wowed with excitement as everything from headhunters to snapping piranhas go on the attack.

Jungle Cruise

Join Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt for the adventure of a lifetime on Disney's "Jungle Cruise," a rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon.

The movie, now playing in theaters and streaming on Disney+ Premier Access , is based on a Disney theme-park ride that’s been at it since -- wait for it --1955. That was just a few years after Walt Disney himself watched Humphrey Bogart skipper Katharine Hepburn down river in “The African Queen” and felt inspired to build the still-thriving attraction.

“Jungle Cruise” is nowhere near the league of that film classic. It’s a goofball throwaway that just wants to give family audiences a thrill ride down the Amazon, and it begs to be compared with another Disney excursion, “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

And that’s the problem.

“Jungle Cruise” borrows so heavily from “Pirates,” not to mention “The Mummy” and the incomparable “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” that it’s basically a knockoff. Johnson is a musclebound charmer, but small potatoes next to Johnny Depp, who swanned so deliciously through the role of pirate Jack Sparrow that he won an Oscar nomination.

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Acting awards are not in the cards for “Jungle Cruise ,” though that’ll be no big whoop to preteens who manage to circumvent the film’s inexplicable PG-13 rating. Set in 1916, two years into World War I, the movie is built to distract young’uns with all-stops-out special effects.

Johnson plays Frank Wolff, the captain of a ramshackle riverboat who offers the cheapest jungle cruises in Brazil -- plus a nonstop flow of groan-worthy puns.

“I used to work in an orange juice factory, but I got canned,” Wolff says at one point.

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Blunt has it worse. As British scientist Lily Houghton, a female Indiana Jones who shocks society by wearing pants, she is stuck in an exposition dump of an opening scene about why Houghton and her fussy brother, MacGregor (Jack Whitehall), need to chug down the Amazon.

Houghton is in search of flower petals from an ancient tree, called Tears of the Moon, which can only be found after Houghton steals a sacred arrowhead containing a map that will lead her to there. Even a single, falling petal is said to cure any illness or break any curse.

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It’s all just an excuse for director Jaume Collet-Serra, who pitted Blake Lively against an angry shark in “The Shallows,” to lead Wolff and Houghton through a series of rousing perils. Houghton's brother doesn’t do much, though his coming-out to Frank would have raised eyebrows a century ago.

Wolff and Houghton interrupt their budding romance to fight off Joachim (hammed to the hilt by Jesse Plemons), a mad German prince in a submarine, and Aguirre (Edgar Ramirez), a Spanish conquistador who’s been undead for 400 years and looks like it.

Young audiences may go “ewww” at Wolff and Houghton's awkward smooching, but they’ll perk up at their near-death experiences in treacherous rapids and with poison snakes. The real scene-stealer is a photorealistic jaguar named Proxima, who becomes everyone’s favorite pet.

“Jungle Cruise” is made up of spare parts from better movies and at over two-hours in length, it’ll be tough on short attention spans. On the plus side, it is way better than “Haunted Mansion” and “Tomorrowland,” other Disney rides that morphed into movies.

Amazingly, Johnson and Blunt still sell it. He calls her “Pants” and she dubs him “Skippy,” nicknames they both hate. But their natural warmth as performers humanize characters built from flimsy cardboard.

“Jungle Cruise" may be dim, dopey and derivative, but the kids will love it, and like the Metallica song in the film, “nothing else matters.”

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My Dreams of Disney

Exploring Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and beyond!

The African Queen/Jungle Cruise Comparison

The African Queen is a 1951 adventure film adapted from the 1935 novel of the same name by C. S. Forester. The film was directed by John Huston and produced by Sam Spiegel. The screenplay was adapted primarily by James Agee. It was photographed in Technicolor by Jack Cardiff. The film stars Humphrey Bogart (who won the Academy Award for Best Actor – his only Oscar) and Katherine Hepburn.

Set below includes 8 Still Cards like this one

I just picked up an amazing Commemorative DVD Box Set about the movie:

Senitype representing The African Queen (boat) as filmed in the Technicolor Process

You may recognize the style of boat from the above picture? It should remind you of a famous Disney attraction vehicle!

For Disney fans, the most interesting fact about The African Queen film is that it’s reported to have inspired The Jungle Cruise! Actually, there are said to be two sources of inspiration for the attraction, one being the 1955 True-Life Adventure film entitled “The African Lion,” about a pride of lions, and the film The African Queen . Imagineer Harper Goff referenced the African Queen frequently in his ideas; indeed, it appears his designs of the ride vehicles were inspired by the steamer used in the film.

The small steam-boat used in the film to depict the African Queen was built in 1912, in England, for service in Africa. Let’s compare it to its Theme Park counterpart. First, let’s look at the steering:

In the movie, Ms. Hepburn steers the boat from the rear using a tiller, but in the attraction, the Skipper uses a wheel in the front of the boat:

Uniform color seems the same though

At one time the original boat used as The African Queen in the movie was owned by actor Fess Parker, giving us another Disney tie to the movie. In December 2011, plans were announced to restore the boat. Restoration was completed by the following April and the African Queen is apparently now on display as a tourist attraction at Key Largo, Florida. So if true, this would make an awesome side trip for any Disney fan!

One more cool comparison is found in the 5′ long model used for filming in the movie:

Any scene in the movie where the boat is filmed in a long shot, and in danger, it is actually this 5′ model. And if you like to play with toy boats, you can get your fix just outside The Jungle Cruise in Walt Disney World:

So both The African Queen and The Jungle Cruise have little models of the boats made, but admittedly, WDW’s versions are smaller!

The boat in the movie is called ‘African Queen’, but the boats in the Jungle Cruise attractions have a variety of names. In Disneyland, the queue and station are themed as the headquarters and boathouse of a River Expedition Company, located in a (presumably British) colony of the 1930s. And I believe the names presently in use are:

Amazon Belle
Congo Queen (nudge, nudge)
Hondo Hattie
Irrawaddy Woman
Kissimmee Kate (nudge, nudge a.k.a. Katherine Hepburn?)
Nile Princess
Orinoco Adventuress
Suwannee Lady
Ucayali Una (Wheelchair equipped)
Yangtze Lotus
Zambezi Miss

Names decommissioned in 1997:

Magdalena Maiden
Mekong Maiden

At Walt Disney World, the Jungle Cruise is set up as a depression-era British outpost on the Amazon river, operated by the fictional company, The Jungle Navigation Co., and their boats are named as follows:

Amazon Annie
Bomokandi Bertha (Wheelchair lift equipped)
Congo Connie
Ganges Gertie
Irrawaddy Irma
Mongala Millie
Nile Nellie
Orinoco Ida
Rutshuru Ruby
Sankuru Sadie
Senegal Sal
Ucyali Lolly
Wamba Wanda (Wheelchair lift equipped)
Zambesi Zelda

Retired boat

Kwango Kate (nudge, nudge a.k.a. Katherine Hepburn again?)

Keep in mind these lists are as accurate as I could make them. But now, onto the last bit of Jungle Cruise lore: Is there going to be a live-action movie of the attraction? Let’s read a Disney Press Release:

The Walt Disney Studios is excited to be in development with Mandeville Films and writer Roger S.H. Schulman on a feature film based on the Jungle Cruise, one of the most iconic attractions in Disney theme park history. The film will pair up Tim Allen and Tom Hanks in their first live-action project, after their previous collaborations in the Toy Story trilogy.‬ (Original announcement in 2012, source updated in 2014)

Since this original announcement, talk has died down with no new, er… news. If it does go ahead, it likely will take on a much lighter tone than The African Queen film (set in the first World War) opting instead for comedy, more in line with the Jungle Cruise attraction speils and jokes. And with Tim Allen and Tom Hanks on board (pun intended) that seems logical.

Reproduction of book by Hepburn

This great little reproduction (the size of the DVD box) was included in The African Queen Commemorative Box Set and chronicles Ms. Hepburn’s adventures while filming the movie. In a nutshell: It… was… Hell. Actually filmed in Africa, the cast and crew had to deal with disease, injury, and a total lack of comforts and amenities. Let’s hope that if Disney does go ahead with a Jungle Cruise film, it will go better for all involved!

So what do you think: Are there enough similarities to justify a connection between The African Queen and The Jungle Cruise ?

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About Mike Ellis

Mike has been a Disney fan since his first trip to the Magic Kingdom in 1979 when he was 11 years old. Since that first trip, he has seen parks open, lands close, and attractions come and go, but one thing remains the same, his love for Disney is as strong as ever.

His Disney adventures caused him to start My Dreams of Disney because he wanted to document for his family and friends all of the special Disney Memories he has enjoyed with his family, and since that first post in 2010, Mike's hobby has become his passion!

Now a Travel Consultant with Pixie Vacations for over nine years, Mike has helped many of his readers plan and have incredible Disney vacations of their own. Check us out on Facebook and Twitter . Also, connect with us on our Pixie Vacations by Mike Ellis Facebook page to submit a quote request or learn more about all of your possible vacation destinations!

Reader Interactions

February 24, 2014 at 10:47 am

I loved just walking through my memories of that movie. I will be watching it again soon and thinking Jungle Cruise.

February 24, 2014 at 10:56 am

Glad I could jog a few memories for you, Mary!

February 25, 2014 at 7:36 am

Wonderful article – I learned a couple of things! Note that the “Congo Connie” boat may have been named after Connie De Pinna, the costume designer for “African Queen”, but most likely it’s just a coincidence (or connie-incidence).

February 25, 2014 at 9:56 am

Good to hear from you, Bob! Yeah, I’m sure there could be a quite a few connie-incidences! Like the coffee girl’s name was Zelda, the Key Grip was named Gertie Peterson. I may have the makings for a whole new article!

[…] The Jungle Cruise (for a complete list of boat names, click here) […]

[…] at Disney Nouns shares the connection between the film The African Queen and the Jungle […]

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Review: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt are well-matched heroes on a cheesy-fun 'Jungle Cruise'

Dwayne Johnson , take the wheel.

“The Rock” is a pun-tastic skipper steering Emily Blunt ’s adventurous scientist toward action, danger and even some romance along the Amazon in “Jungle Cruise” (★★1/2 out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters and on Disney+ via Premier Access now), a cheesy-fun throwback quest directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (“The Shallows”) and based on the longtime Disney theme-park ride . Like a zanier Bogie and Bacall, Johnson and Blunt cross an “African Queen” vibe with Indiana Jones flair for a period piece that starts like gangbusters but can’t keep from wading into familiar waters.

Set in 1917 during World War I, the movie stars Blunt as Lily Houghton, a British botanist in search of a legendary ancient tree that has petals with amazing healing properties and the potential to change medicine forever. She needs a way to get to it, though, and she heads down to South America where she meets Frank Wolff (Johnson), a financially strapped riverboat captain who gives tourists jungle rides chock full of groan-worthy jokes and the occasional factoid.

Lily and her high-maintenance brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) hire Frank and set sail in his dilapidated vessel to find their treasure, dealing with pesky natives, rocky waterfalls and other various obstacles on the way. They’re not the only ones in hot pursuit: Rich and ruthless German Prince Joachim (a scenery-gnawing Jesse Plemons) commands a submarine to run down the good guys and find the tree first, and he forms an alliance with a crew of cursed conquistadors and their leader, Aguirre (Edgar Ramírez).

Disney has taken some flak for turning their rides into movies over the years, but to give the Mouse House and its sizable lead actor credit, “Jungle Cruise” actually nails the goofball nature of the real-life attraction, albeit with more computer-generated snakes. Johnson’s Frank is the kind of guy you’d want around for a rumble in the jungle, but it’s the actor's unmistakable charm crooning with a guitar or bantering with Blunt that really sells the thing. She’s just as game as Johnson’s capable and earnest foil: Frank and Lily have to punch their way out of a village full of baddies in one of the movie’s best sequences, clearly inspired by the derring-do of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” yet still feeling rousingly fresh.

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That’s not always the case with this “Cruise.” While there’s an interesting twist thrown into the narrative, and MacGregor has what might be the closest thing to a coming-out scene in a major Disney movie, our heroes have to tussle with a bunch of CGI goons that seem like rejects from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, and the climax is fine but leans a little derivative. The film also forces in a reworked version of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” that’s sort of cool, but doesn’t seem to, well, matter.

While those parents who grew up with Indy and “Romancing the Stone” might have seen a lot of this stuff before, it’s right in the wheelhouse for movie-loving youngsters not quite ready to watch Nazis’ faces melt in "Raiders." For those kiddos, Johnson’s big lug and Blunt’s eager explorer offer an enjoyable welcome to the “Jungle.”

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Take a 'Jungle Cruise' with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in first trailer for Disney's new ride-based blockbuster

After five high-stakes voyages alongside the Pirates of the Caribbean , an ordinary Jungle Cruise sounds downright relaxing. But the first trailer for Walt Disney’s upcoming summer blockbuster suggests that audiences are in for a ride that’s even wilder than the theme-park attraction it’s based on. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Jungle Cruise appears to be charting a course for The African Queen by way of The Mummy , with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt standing in for Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn and Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz respectively. (Watch the trailer above.)

Like those adventure-loving odd couples, Johnson and Blunt will apparently spend a lot of their journey together bickering, a dynamic that they demonstrated for Yahoo Entertainment when we caught up with them at D23. In the film, Blunt plays Lily Houghton, a scientist headed into the deepest parts of the Amazon jungle in search of the Tree of Life. In order to get there, she hires Johnson’s riverboat captain, Frank, who boasts about having the “cheapest, but also the most thrilling” jungle cruise on the whole river. Because of the perilous nature of Lily’s journey, though, Frank drives a harder bargain to ferry her and her brother, McGregor (Jack Whitehall), upriver. “$10,000 to bring you there alive — dead is $15,000.” Why the extra 5K bump? “Dead, I’d have to carry you.”

Besides Rose Sayer and Evelyn Carnahan, there’s also a little Sundance Kid mixed into Lily’s DNA. At the end of the trailer, Frank’s little riverboat is about to plunge over a giant waterfall, and his passenger picks that exact moment to reveal an unfortunate secret: “I cannot swim!” Knowing that the fall will definitely kill her, Frank does the only logical thing and raises his rates. “The price just went up.”

Jungle Cruise ’s mixture of action and humor is going over well on Twitter, with many noting the movie’s obvious forebearers.

This aint the African Queen but it looks soooo fun!! O2H! O2H! O2H! The Jungle Cruise Trailer Brings the Disney Ride to Life! - https://t.co/6cFAAJ4ynO https://t.co/MkKlUYsUpM via @comingsoonnet — Demetri Panos (@demetripanos) October 11, 2019

// That “Jungle Cruise” trailer gave me strong “The African Queen” vibes. I knew he was going to say “the backside of water” when I saw him flushing it down. 😂 I’m more excited about it than “Onward” to be honest, but that last part with the cgi villain.. ehh.. not great. — Thomas Summers (@sortedgreen) October 11, 2019

Okay, so it's The Mummy (1999) on a river. https://t.co/Ps7b3G8urZ — Stephen T. (@GoshZilla) October 11, 2019

The characters are so similar to the Mummy, but does look fun. https://t.co/w00wLMiIit — 🎃🕸Michelle Benson🕸🎃 🔜 Scotland Comic Con (@michelleb822) October 11, 2019

RACHEL WEISZ WALKED IN THE MUMMY SO EMILY BLUNT COULD RUN IN THE JUNGLE CRUISE — julie andrews is my religion (@katiethebadger) October 11, 2019

Looks fun. Jungle Cruise meets Indiana Jones. — All ~ Troy (@allabouttroy) October 11, 2019

Also I pointed this out before, but I love the explicit call out to The African Queen (one of the principal inspirations for The Jungle Cruise attraction) via The Rock's outfit pic.twitter.com/ZO7eKjmZVi — Mark Willard (@MarkWillard85) October 11, 2019

Fun fact: The African Queen famously influenced the design of the Jungle Cruise ride . That the movie version is now consciously paying homage to that movie is just the circle of Mouse House life.

Jungle Cruise sails into theaters on July 24, 2020.

Watch: Johnson and Blunt match wits over who’s the biggest scaredy-cat when it comes to theme park rides:

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Jungle cruise: 10 behind the scenes facts about the movie.

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Disney's Jungle Cruise has been ready to release for some time, but fans will finally get the opportunity to enjoy the film in the summer of 2021. A lot went into creating the company's potential next big blockbuster and there are numerous behind-the-scenes stories about how it all came together.

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Whether it's other productions that influenced the movie, or perhaps the way in which talent was brought on board for the project, there's a lot of interesting tidbits as to how Jungle Cruise came about at all. Of course, Disney has a strong legacy to live up to as well, and there's a lot of information out there in regards to how the film compares to the original Disney Parks attraction.

It Features Jokes From The Orignal Jungle CruiseRide

The Jungle Cruise attraction is famous due to the script that the Skippers deliver with all of their charm and charisma. There are some trademark jokes and storylines from the Disney park attraction , and to meet fan's expectations, some of these jokes are present in the film adaptation.

Most notably, the joke that every Jungle Cruise fan waits for is the "backside of water" pun, which is delivered towards the end of almost every journey. Cnet mentions how the trailer reveals that this iconic line will also be included in the film, demonstrating Disney's behind-the-scenes work to honor the iconic ride.

Linked To "Behind The Attraction"

Disney's Behind The Attraction on the Disney+ streaming service goes further in showcasing how the movie and the attraction will be intertwined. And the new documentary show is actually linked to the production of the film, as well.

Not only does it feature some exclusive footage, but the docu-series is also produced by Dwayne Johnson, who is one of the stars of Jungle Cruise. The Disney+ show is therefore being used as both a promotional show and a way for The Rock to showcase the love that went into the production.

It's One Of Disney's Biggest Sets

During the filming of the production, Cinemablend reported that The Rock actually took to social media to reveal the set that Disney had produced for Jungle Cruise. It appears to be one of the biggest that the company has ever created for their shoots, showcasing their attention to detail.

RELATED: 10 Other Disney Rides Besides Jungle Cruise We Want Movie Versions Of

Looking to include as many real-world elements as possible, the set also looks like it's heavily inspired by the original ride itself. This is reassuring to fans who are looking for the authenticity and charm that they are familiar with from the original attraction.

The Original Version

Disney's current Jungle Cruise wasn't the first time that a film went into development with the same name. In 2004, it was first announced that there could be a new project from Mandeville Films based around the ride, and as AWN announced, confirmation that Al Gough and Miles Millar were in talks to write the movie came in 2006.

Later, it would be reported by IGN that the project would be a high priority with a producing team also put in place. However, it wasn't meant to be, with the film seemingly collapsing before a new iteration of the idea was eventually announced by the House of Mouse.

It Includes Disney's Second Gay Live-Action Character

Disney made it very clear that LeFou, the famous villainous henchmen , would be one of their first official gay live-action characters and was featured in Beauty And The Beast . They would later go on to confirm that Jack Whitehall's character in Jungle Cruise would also be gay, marking their second LGBTQ+ inclusion.

According to Advocate.com , the writing team made sure to include a pivotal coming-out scene for the character, but there has also been some backlash around the decision of casting Whitehall. Indiewire mentions that some have suggested that a straight man should not have been placed in the role and that the character plays on stereotypes, rather than portraying an LGBTQ+ character in an authentic manner.

Jaume Collet-Serra's Work

The director chosen for the piece is Jaume Collet-Serra, who usually works within two very distinct genres: thrillers and horror. His filmography is certainly impressive, but it includes an array of features that certainly wouldn't appeal to Disney's family-friendly audience.

RELATED: 10 More Disney Attractions Asides From Jungle Cruise That Would Make Great Movies

However, it's clear from Collet-Serra's work that the director understands how to convey tension and drama on screen. And he clearly impressed Dwayne Johnson though with his passion and work ethic , with the Spanish filmmaker being brought on to work on The Rock's next major project, Black Adam .

Indiana Jones Inspiration

In recent interviews, the cast and crew have revealed that the aesthetic and characters are hugely inspired by Indiana Jones . Now another movie series in the Disney archives, it's hard to argue that many of the best scenes from the franchise have been cemented in cinema history.

Syfy.com also notes that Emily Blunt's character, in particular, is heavily influenced by Harrison Ford's original performance in the series. It's easy to see the many parallels between the two productions though, with both featuring jungle-based adventures, on the search for lost lands and hidden artifacts.

Blunt Ghosted The Rock

During the promotional tour, Dwayne Johnson also revealed to NME how Emily Blunt was brought on board to the project in the first place. Having always been her fan, The Rock reached out to Blunt in the hope of tempting her into the cast. However, the actress ghosted his video messages.

It would take the director to really get Blunt to see his side, and clearly, Johnson won't let his co-star forget about the situation, although it all seems to have been taken in jest. Regardless it was the Indiana Jones comparisons that finally convinced the award-winning star.

Legacy Of Pirates Of The Caribbean

The Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise is really the benchmark for live-action Disney projects. Not only was it influenced by the ride itself , but it also brought the live-action side of the production company to new heights. The impact of that is clear to see on Jungle Cruise.

Johnson and Blunt revealed to Inside the Magic that, alongside Romancing The Stone , Pirates Of The Caribbean was something the crew constantly called back to when looking to find success with Jungle Cruise. It's an important part of the House of Mouse's recent film history, and a lot of lessons can be taken from it, including the reliance on practical sets and props.

Nods To The African Queen

The African Queen is a very important film in the jungle genre and one that, according to EW , originally influenced Walt Disney when creating the Jungle Cruise ride at his parks. But the Oscar-winning production has made its mark on the live-action adaptation, as well.

The Behind The Attraction Disney+ show even made mention that the costumes that both Blunt and Johnson wear in the final film are hugely inspired by The African Queen. The well-respected production, therefore, has its fingerprints all over this modern take.

NEXT: Disney's Revival Era Films, Ranked By Box Office Earnings

Jungle Cruise

Disney Will Remove Jungle Cruise Ride’s Colonialist Depictions of Indigenous Africans

The entertainment conglomerate announced plans to revamp the attraction, which has drawn increased scrutiny in recent months

Livia Gershon

Daily Correspondent

On Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise ride, visitors sail past “ Trader Sam ,” an animatronic salesman who offers to exchange two of his shrunken heads “for one of yours.” Nearby, spear-wielding African “headhunters” plan an ambush—a threat underscored by the piles of human skulls dotting the landscape.

Sixty-six years after the riverboat attraction first debuted, Disney has announced plans to overhaul what critics describe as the ride’s racist depictions of Indigenous peoples.

As Brady MacDonald reports for the Orange County Register , the company’s “Imagineers” will update scenes featuring the shrunken head dealer and a rhinoceros chasing a safari group up a tree. The company will also add a new scene featuring chimpanzees on a wrecked ship.

“As Imagineers, it is our responsibility to ensure experiences we create and stories we share reflect the voices and perspectives of the world around us,” says Disney executive Carmen Smith in a statement .

Per the Los Angeles Times ’ Todd Martens, the first Jungle Cruise appeared at Disneyland when the park opened in Anaheim, California, in 1955. A second iteration served as one of Disney World’s original attractions, welcoming visitors to the Orlando, Florida, theme park in 1971, according to the Orlando Sentinel . Disney describes the ride as “a scenic and comedic boat tour of exotic rivers across Asia, Africa, and South America.”

The Jungle Cruise’s designers incorporated influences including Disney nature documentaries and The African Queen , an Academy Award–winning 1951 movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. As the Los Angeles Times notes, Disneyland only added the spear-waving Africans and Trader Sam in 1957.

Disneyland’s current rhinoceros scene shows the animal chasing a tour group up a tree. A white traveler clings to the top of the trunk, while local guides clamber to safety below. The new version will depict all of the group members as guests of a previous Jungle Cruise tour.

Criticism of the ride ramped up in June after Disney announced major changes to another popular attraction, Splash Mountain . As Nora McGreevy wrote for Smithsonian magazine at the time, the ride was originally based on the 1946 movie Song of the South , which features romanticized, stereotypical depictions of black servants on a plantation in post-Civil War Georgia. The revamped version of the ride eliminates references to the movie, instead drawing on The Princess and the Frog (2009), Disney’s first film featuring a black princess.

Following news of Splash Mountain’s overhaul, many social media users called attention to the continued use of racist stereotypes in other Disney attractions, including the Jungle Cruise, as Jim Vejvoda reported for IGN .

“The Jungle Cruise is legit jaw-dropping in its offensiveness,” wrote comedian and actor Bryan Safi on Twitter in June.

Revised version of the Jungle Cruise's rhinoceros scene

Ryan Minor , a historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara, traces the colonial influences of the Jungle Cruise in an essay for the Enchanted Archives . He notes that the ride mirrors sections of Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novel Heart of Darkness . One of Conrad’s descriptions of Africans reads, “They howled, and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity… the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar.”

Minor writes that this view of Africans as “primitive” stemmed from the European scramble to colonize Africa in the 19th century. Colonizers across the continent and elsewhere used the view of non-white people as “savages” to justify their actions. Since then, books like Tarzan of the Apes and movies like The African Queen have normalized these stereotypes for European and American audiences.

“While we might not even realize it, these stereotypes are deeply [i]ngrained in our cultural imaginations and continue to influence our collective understandings of Africa and the people who live there,” Minor adds.

Disney says the new version of the ride will focus more on the wise-cracking “skipper” character played by human tour guides, who will now have an animated counterpart.

“When we consider making changes to a classic attraction, we focus on ways to ‘plus’ the experience,” says creative executive Chris Beatty in the statement. “The skippers of the Jungle Cruise bring humor to guests of all ages, and we’re excited to be adding to that legacy.”

The changes arrive as Disney prepares for the release of a new movie based on the ride. Starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, Jungle Cruise was originally set to open in 2020 but was postponed to summer 2021 due to the pandemic.

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Livia Gershon | | READ MORE

Livia Gershon is a daily correspondent for Smithsonian. She is also a freelance journalist based in New Hampshire. She has written for JSTOR Daily , the Daily Beast , the Boston Globe , HuffPost and Vice , among others.

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Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt Photographed by Chrisean Rose

How Dwayne Johnson Wooed Emily Blunt for ‘Jungle Cruise’ — and Why She Ghosted Him

As they prepare to release their $200 million-plus Disney tentpole, the newly minted BFFs now lean on each other for career guidance: "I go to him for advice because he lived in the trenches."

By Rebecca Keegan

Rebecca Keegan

Senior Editor, Film

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At about 4 a.m. in the fall of 2017, after a tiring night shoot on Universal’s Skyscraper , Dwayne Johnson , arguably the busiest person in Hollywood, set aside some time to film a video for Emily Blunt . At the time, he was attached to star in Jungle Cruise , which various producers had been trying to get off the ground at Disney since at least 2004, after the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie revealed the moneymaking potential of a theme park ride reimagined as a film franchise.

Johnson, who had been taken with Blunt since The Devil Wears Prada , felt she’d be his ideal sparring partner in the film, which was envisioned as a two-hander. “I had always admired her as an actor, but also when I would watch her on talk shows, she had this personality that was effervescent, that was cool and very, very charming.” So far Blunt was proving impervious to what producer Beau Flynn calls the filmmakers’ “unilateral targeted attack.” Looking to take a break after shooting Mary Poppins Returns and A Quiet Place back-to-back, she had declined to read a script and remained unmoved even after receiving a heartfelt letter from Sean Bailey, the chief of Disney’s live-action studio.

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‘Jungle Cruise’ Review: Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in Disney’s Bumptious Rom-Com Theme-Park Joyride

The two stars have an undeniable plucky chemistry in a fantasy adventure so rollicking it threatens to turn romance into one more special effect.

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In “ Jungle Cruise ,” a Disney adventure that demonstrates how basing a movie on a theme-park ride may now be a more natural occurence than adapting it from a novel, Emily Blunt plays Dr. Lily Houghton, a London researcher-explorer who’s as fearless, in her demure way, as Indiana Jones, and Dwayne Johnson is Frank Wolff, the friendly huckster of a river-boat captain who ferries her down the Amazon at the height of World War I.

He wears a hat just like the one Humphrey Bogart wore in “The African Queen,” and she wears pants — which, of course, were an early adaptation of Katharine Hepburn’s. For anyone old enough, or old-movie-centered enough, to care (which is maybe five percent of this movie’s prospective audience), the banter between these two could be said to evoke Bogart and Hepburn — or, at least, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in “Romancing the Stone.” Frank, a charlatan with a chip on his shoulder, calls Lily “Pants” and tells godawful jokes. She call him “Skippy” and rolls her eyes. And as they go at each other with gusto and bite and a touch of venom, you can sit back and feel, at moments, like you’re at a romantic comedy.

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But it’s like watching a romantic comedy while strapped to a roller-coaster with a VR headset on. “Jungle Cruise” is at once a love story, a made-for-4DX action movie, a “Pirates of the Caribbean”-style fairy tale featuring a ghostly conquistador (Edgar Ramirez) and his pewter-armored henchman with digital snakes slithering through their bodies, and God knows what else. Blunt, appealingly brash, makes mincemeat of Frank the lug but lets you know she likes him anyway, and Johnson knows how to deliver a genial putdown that still stings. They’ve got a chemistry, no doubt about it, but in a funny way the romantic pluck of “Jungle Cruise” plays like one more trick effect. You can practically touch the one-liners as they ping off the screen.

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I enjoyed the movie more than I did the two recent “Jumanji” films, because you can kind of pretend that there’s something at stake, and the director, Jaume Collet-Serra, stages it all with a certain breathless bravura. Leaving the dock in the Brazilian jungle where Frank plays P.T. Barnum to gullible tourists, our heroes set off in his barely seaworthy steamboat, only to have to get out of the way of a torpedo launched by Prince Joachim, a Teutonic megalomaniac played by Jesse Plemons with a smirky flourish. The ship plows right into Frank’s docking station, which blows up real good.

There’s a turbulent sequence in which the boat speeds toward a waterfall, and a funny one that fools us into thinking, for a moment, that the movie is going to exploit the woefully outdated stereotype of a “primitive” tribe of cannibals wearing skull masks. (It’s actually mocking it.) Lily has brought her brother, MacGregor, along for the ride, and he’s a pampered dandy who think it’s not dinner unless you’re wearing a dinner jacket. He’s played by Jack Whitehall, in a pinpoint performance that benefits from not having to repress the implication that the character is gay, though it might have benefited even more if his coming-out speech to Frank didn’t dance around the subject nearly as torturously as the old repression.

“Jungle Cruise” is a movie that implicitly asks: What’s wrong with a little good old-fashioned escapism? The answer is: Absolutely nothing, and “Jungle Cruise” is old-fashioned, expect that it pelts the audience with entertainment in such a lively yet bumptious way that at times you may wish you were wearing protective gear. Lily has in her possession a mystical arrowhead, which everyone wants, because it’s the totem that will lead her to the Tears of the Moon, a legendary tree (it’s like the Fountain of Youth) with magical healing properties. That sounds like a Disney MacGuffin, and is, except what struck me after a while is that the real preoccupation of “Jungle Cruise” isn’t romance, or even adventure, but metamorphosis. Tree vines grow and wrap themselves around historic explorers; a fearsome tiger is revealed to be a pussycat; a key character turns out to be 400 years old; a theme-park ride turns into a love story and then back again. All that remains unchanged is the price of an oversize box of Raisinets.

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, New York, July 26, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 127 MIN.

Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Davis Entertainment Company, Seven Bucks/Flynn Picture Co. production. Producers: John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia. Executive producers: Scott Sheldon, Doug Merrifield.
Crew: Director: Jaume Collet-Serra. Screenplay: Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra, John Requa. Camera: Flavio Labiano. Editor: Joel Negron. Music: James Newton Howard.
With: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti, Veronica Falcón, Dani Rovira, Quim Gutierrez.

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The African Queen

In WWI East Africa, a gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced English missionary to undertake a trip up a treacherous river and use his boat to attack a German... Read all In WWI East Africa, a gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced English missionary to undertake a trip up a treacherous river and use his boat to attack a German gunship. In WWI East Africa, a gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced English missionary to undertake a trip up a treacherous river and use his boat to attack a German gunship.

John Huston
C.S. Forester
Humphrey Bogart
Katharine Hepburn
Robert Morley
308 User reviews
108 Critic reviews
91 Metascore
5 wins & 9 nominations total

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Charlie Allnutt

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Trivia Sources claimed that everyone in the cast and crew got sick except Humphrey Bogart and John Huston , who said they avoided illness by essentially living on imported Scotch whiskey. Bogart later said, "All I ate was baked beans, canned asparagus and Scotch whiskey. Whenever a fly bit Huston or me, it dropped dead."
Goofs The propeller on the boat is made of bronze (stainless steel hadn't been invented yet). Bronze cannot be easily welded, even with the proper equipment, but he welds a new blade to the propeller. (In the book, Allnut makes a replacement blade out of iron, and rivets it to the bronze propeller.)

Captain of Louisa : By the authority vested in me by Kaiser William the Second I pronounce you man and wife. Proceed with the execution.

Crazy credits Opening credits prologue: GERMAN EAST AFRICA September 1914
Connections Edited into Catalogue of Ships (2008)
Soundtracks God of Grace and God of Glory (Cwm Rhondda) (uncredited) Words by Harry Fosdick Music by John Ceiriog Hughes

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Nov 7, 2013
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March 21, 1952 (United States)
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Disney’s Jungle Cruise Promises Old School Movie Magic

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt strive to find their own African Queen in the new trailer for Disney's Jungle Cruise.

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The coronavirus pandemic has affected the movie business in a pretty big way, from leaving big cinema chains like AMC on the brink of bankruptcy to countless movie delays, and Jungle Cruise is no different. The Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt Disney adventure has been delayed to 2021 due to the ongoing global health emergency. Disney made the announcement in April, well ahead of the movie’s original July premiere.

Regarding this Disney romp, Johnson ‘s big-screen backlog is a proverbial battle royal of major movies, but few are as intriguing given the pedigree of who he’s partnered with (i.e. not Vin Diesel or Jason Statham) as Jungle Cruise . Based on a Disneyland and Disney World riverboat theme park ride, this branded project is clearly designed to recreate the same lucrative ride-to-movie magic of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, but with Blunt co-starring in the film, it also looks intentionally evocative of classic Hollywood star two-handers, most notably being Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen (1951).

Director Jaume Collet-Serra helms the ship, coming off thrillers like The Shallows and Run All Night . The Spanish director is known for thrillers such as the aforementioned The Shallows and Liam Neeson-starring actioners in 2015’s ensemble offering Run All Night , 2014’s Non-Stop and 2011’s Unknown . His earlier films include the 2009 twist-touting hit horror film Orphan , 2007 sports drama Goal II: Living the Dream and his directorial debut in the 2005 remake of horror classic House of Wax , which famously showcased a (heavily-giffed) scene in which Paris Hilton met a memorable demise. Collet-Serra’s next film will be the January 2018-scheduled mystery thriller The Commuter , which will, again, co-star Liam Neeson.

Jungle Cruise will see Collet-Serra working off a script from J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. Glenn Ficara and John Requa wrote the initial script. Producers John Davis and John Fox (via Davis Entertainment), Beau Flynn (FlynnPictureCo.) Dwayne Johnson himself, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia are producing through Seven Bucks Productions.

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Jungle Cruise Release Date

Jungle Cruise will release on July 31, 2021 after being delayed from its earlier July 24, 2020 date amid the coronavirus emergency that caused movie studios to push back their releases.

The movie was originally scheduled to release in October 2019.

Jungle Cruise Trailer

Here’s the latest trailer:

And here’s the earlier one…

And here’s a cute promotional video Johnson and Blunt did together where they name check Bogie and Hepburn.

Jungle Cruise Cast

Dwayne Johnson is possibly the busiest man in showbiz after appearing in Hobbs & Shaw , Fighting with My Family , and Jumanji: The Next Level in 2019. It was partially that overload that caused Jungle Cruise to move to 2020. In the film, he plays Frank, an old riverboat captain and expert of life on the Amazon.

Emily Blunt is Lily Houghton, the intrepid would-be explorer who hires Frank to charter her through the Amazon. This is obviously emulating Bogart and Hepburn’s chemistry in The African Queen , which earned Bogie an Oscar. Blunt herself is already an Oscar winner, so the prestige she brings to the movie is self-evident.

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Jack Whitehall will also play a key role. The character, who remains unnamed for now, will be the brother of Emily Blunt’s character. Thus, he’s likely destined to join Blunt for much of the film’s action-packed exploits with Dwayne Johnson. Whitehall, a London-born actor and comedian, has fielded comedic runs on UK television, notably on Bounty Hunters and Bad Education .

Jesse Plemons will continue his onscreen antagonist Renaissance in Jungle Cruise , since he has been cast as one of the film’s villains. Indeed, Dwayne Johnson will have an “Opie dead-eyed piece of s**t” to fight in the former Breaking Bad villain and Friday Night Lights actor, Plemons, for this Disney theme park tie-in movie.

Jungle Cruise Story

Here is the official synopsis.

“Join fan favorites Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt for the adventure of a lifetime on Disney’s Jungle Cruise , a rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton. Lily travels from London, England to the Amazon jungle and enlists Frank’s questionable services to guide her downriver on La Quila—his ramshackle-but-charming boat. Lily is determined to uncover an ancient tree with unparalleled healing abilities—possessing the power to change the future of medicine. Thrust on this epic quest together, the unlikely duo encounters innumerable dangers and supernatural forces, all lurking in the deceptive beauty of the lush rainforest. But as the secrets of the lost tree unfold, the stakes reach even higher for Lily and Frank and their fate—and mankind’s—hangs in the balance. “

Joseph Baxter

An often overly-analytical, sometimes sarcastic writer whose work can be seen on Syfy Wire. It was previously seen on Cinema Blend and during a longtime tenure…

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African Queen is a breathtaking new model that brings Disneyland's
10 Behind The Scenes Things You Did Not Know About Jungle Cruise
Disney Movie Review: Jungle Cruise
African Queen
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COMMENTS

How The African Queen Influenced Disney's Jungle Cruise
While the African Queen is steered by a tiller in the back, the ships on the Jungle Cruise opt for a steering wheel in the front to better focus on the skipper guiding you. The flagship boat on ...
Is 'Jungle Cruise' a Remake of 'The African Queen'?
One major difference is that while The African Queen is based in reality, Jungle Cruise features a mystical Tree of Life that Dr. Houghton wants to find to harness its magical energy and healing ...
Humphrey Bogart's son on the parallels between The African Queen and
Humphrey Bogart's son addresses the clear parallels between The African Queen and Jungle Cruise. Plus, Stephen Bogart talks the 70th-anniversary big screen return of his father's Oscar-winning film.
'The African Queen' vs. 'Jungle Cruise': A Man, A Woman, A Boat, A
The African Queen. Up until this weekend, the number of major motion pictures about a man, a woman, and a boat navigating dangerous waters of rivers and lakes in a fierce jungle setting while ...
Jungle Cruise (film)
Jungle Cruise is a 2021 American fantasy adventure film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra from a screenplay written by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa, and Michael Green.It is based on Walt Disney's eponymous theme park attraction.Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, the film stars Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti.
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Compared 'Jungle Cruise' to 'The African
How critics reacted to 'The African Queen' and 'Jungle Cruise' Currently, The African Queen has a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes . On the other hand, Jungle Cruise has a 61% rating on ...
Jungle Cruise remake
Of course, the similarities can be overstated. While like The African Queen, Jungle Cruise is set during the early years of the First World War and sees German soldiers function as a primary ...
Jungle Cruise movie review & film summary (2021)
Notably, however, even though the stars' costumes (and a waterfall sequence) evoke the classic "The African Queen"—John Huston's comic romance/action film ... Wolff's day job is taking tourists upriver and making cheesy jokes in the spirit of "hosts" on Disney Jungle Cruise rides of yore. On the mission, Johnson immediately ...
Jungle Cruise (2021)
Jungle Cruise: Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. With Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Edgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall. Based on Disneyland's theme park ride where a small riverboat takes a group of travelers through a jungle filled with dangerous animals and reptiles but with a supernatural element.
'Jungle Cruise': From Disneyland Ride to Movie
Jungle Cruise production designer Jean-Vincent Puzos was inspired by The African Queen when designing Dwayne Johnson's Disney film.
Review: 'Jungle Cruise' is made from spare parts of better movies but
That was just a few years after Walt Disney himself watched Humphrey Bogart skipper Katharine Hepburn down river in "The African Queen" and felt inspired to build the still-thriving attraction. Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in "Jungle Cruise," 2021.
The African Queen (film)
The African Queen is a 1951 adventure film adapted from the 1935 novel of the same name by C. S. Forester. [5] The film was directed by John Huston and produced by Sam Spiegel and John Woolf. [6] ... The African Queen partially inspired the Jungle Cruise attraction at Disneyland.
Humphrey Bogart's son reflects on 'The African Queen' and why ...
(Jungle Cruise is based on the Disney theme parks attraction of the same name, which opened in 1955 — four years after The African Queen hit theaters. "You'll have to talk to Disney about that ...
The African Queen/Jungle Cruise Comparison
So both The African Queen and The Jungle Cruise have little models of the boats made, but admittedly, WDW's versions are smaller! The boat in the movie is called 'African Queen', but the boats in the Jungle Cruise attractions have a variety of names. In Disneyland, the queue and station are themed as the headquarters and boathouse of a ...
'Jungle Cruise' review: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt steer cheesy ride
Disney's 'Jungle Cruise' captures the cheesy fun of the theme-park ride with Dwayne johnson's punny skipper and Emily Blunt's adventurous scientist. ... Johnson and Blunt cross an "African Queen ...
Take a 'Jungle Cruise' with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in first
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Jungle Cruise appears to be charting a course for The African Queen by way of The Mummy, with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt standing in for Humphrey Bogart and ...
Jungle Cruise: 10 Behind The Scenes Facts About The Movie
The African Queen is a very important film in the jungle genre and one that, according to EW, originally influenced Walt Disney when creating the Jungle Cruise ride at his parks. But the Oscar-winning production has made its mark on the live-action adaptation, as well.
The Secret History of Disney Rides: Jungle Cruise
Inspired by the film "The African Queen," Jungle Cruise was originally to have real live, breathing animals (a suggestion by Walt Disney himself). ... After Jungle Cruise opened at Disneyland, guests raved about the attraction and another version opened with Magic Kingdom Park on October 1, 1975. Tokyo Disneyland opened Jungle Cruise on April ...
Disney Will Remove Jungle Cruise Ride's Colonialist Depictions of
The Jungle Cruise's designers incorporated influences including Disney nature documentaries and The African Queen, an Academy Award-winning 1951 movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine ...
THR Cover: How Dwayne Johnson Wooed Emily Blunt for 'Jungle Cruise'
Jungle Cruise, which is based on a 65-year-old riverboat cruise theme park ride, ... which itself was inspired by the 1951 Humphrey Bogart-Katharine Hepburn adventure film The African Queen ...
'Jungle Cruise' Review: Disney's Bumptious Rom-Com Theme-Park Joyride
He wears a hat just like the one Humphrey Bogart wore in "The African Queen," and she wears pants — which, of course, were an early adaptation of Katharine Hepburn's. ... "Jungle Cruise ...
The African Queen (1951)
The African Queen: Directed by John Huston. With Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley, Peter Bull. In WWI East Africa, a gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced English missionary to undertake a trip up a treacherous river and use his boat to attack a German gunship.
Jungle Cruise
Jungle Cruise, formally named Jungle River Cruise, is a riverboat amusement ride located in the Adventureland themed section at various Disney theme parks worldwide. The attraction is a simulated riverboat cruise that travels along a waterway using a concealed guidance system through areas with Asian, African, and South American themes. Park guests board replica steam launches from a 1930s ...
Disney's Jungle Cruise Promises Old School Movie Magic
News Disney's Jungle Cruise Promises Old School Movie Magic. Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt strive to find their own African Queen in the new trailer for Disney's Jungle Cruise.