The Rock has more movie projects going than we can keep track of, though we certainly try. One of the actor's newest official films is Disney's Jungle Cruise, however, it appears that particular movie comes with some additional perks and responsibilities. Recently Dwayne Johnson posted an image of himself with the original plans for the Disneyland ride, where he revealed that he'll be involved in helping to redesign the attraction in conjunction with the upcoming film. Check out the full comments below.
The Rock had been attached to a Jungle Cruise movie for some time but only recently was the movie made official. Little is known about what the movie itself will actually be, beyond the fact that Dwayne Johnson will play a Skipper, character somewhat similar to the Disney cast members who host the ride itself. Now, it appears that while the movie will be taking many cues from the ride, the ride will also take cues from the film. The Rock's Instagram post says that he and his Seven Bucks Production's partner Dany Garcia will be working with Disney Imagineers to update the rides in all of the existing Disney Parks. One assumes these changes will be based on the film, though that's not specifically stated.
The Jungle Cruise was part of Disneyland's opening day and has remained largely unchanged, physically speaking, since 1955. Today, the ride also exists at Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland. The only major change that has taken place since the ride's initial inception is that, while the skipper's narration was played straight originally, today it's played for laughs and is full of jokes and bad puns, puns which Dwayne Johnson has implied will be part of the new movie.
Seeing Disney rides get tied into associated media is nothing new for the parks. However, the question here is just how big of a redesign we're talking about. Will this just be a new skin over the existing ride, or is there more going on? Over the last few years, the Jungle Cruise has turned into the Jingle Cruise during the Christmas season. The ride is mostly the same, with simply a new script and seasonal decorations added. It's possible that this is all we could be seeing with the movie tie-in. Maybe the ride will be reskinned for a few months while the Jungle Cruise movie is in theaters and then be reverted to its existing form after the movie hype dies down.
However, The Rock uses the word "re-engineer" here, that makes this sound like it's a much bigger undertaking than simply changing the set dressing and writing new bad jokes.
The concept of the Jungle Cruise ride getting a major redesign isn't all that shocking. Disney Parks are in a state of perpetual improvement as they always look for new things to do. The fact that the Jungle Cruise has remained basically the same for as long as it has is something of an anomaly as it is. However, if Disney is planning a major, permanent, change to the ride to go along with the Jungle Cruise movie, that would signal that the company has some serious faith in the film. The other major Disney film franchise based on a ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, did eventually add movie elements, but Captain Jack Sparrow is still just a minor addition to the ride, and that was done after the movies became box office blockbusters.
Currently, Jungle Cruise has no set release date, however, based on Disney's recently released new calendar, we're eyeing August 9, 2019, which is the next date set for a live-action, non-fairy tale, release.
