The Jungle Book Cruise

This coming May the world famous Jungle Cruise will be finally re-opening to Disneyland guests after a long rehab closure. It is well known that the closure was partially due to the installation of a more automated docking and loading system of guests, however many have speculated to possible additions and changes to the 1955 original ride.Well there are actually huge changes in store for guests...

That is right! Due to the huge success Disney's live action  The Jungle Book, Imagineers have quickly gone to re-imagine the entire ride and story to fit into that of Mogli, the man cub. In maybe the most controversial change of all, Imagineers have replaced the fun joke-filled dialog of the skippers to audio recordings narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley as Bagheera. Once aboard you will hear the familiar voice begin to tell you a story, "Many strange legends are told of these jungles. But none so strange as the story of a small boy named Mowgli..."

Here an Imagineer finishes the final touches of Baloo's claws.

Imagineers replace nearly every scene with something from the 2016 movie. Around the first turn you will come up to what used to be the Bengal tiger in the ruins which are now King Louie's ruins with a few additional monkeys added. The animitronic sitting under the archway is one of the biggest We've seen at a Disney park. Louie calls out to the boat, "Give me the secret to your red flower." The boat passes him and enters the elephant bathing pool.  The pool has also remained mostly untouched, with the only addition being the baby elephant has been added spraying water over his head onto Mowgli who is riding on his back. Next you enter what is the only scene that has not been changed, (except for the narration) the gorilla camp. Now being a gang of gorillas being sent by King Louie in search of the man's red flower. When approaching the African section of the ride, you will see that the animals are all now gathered hearing Shere Khan speech about wanting the man cub returned. The men being chased up the pole by a rhino has been completely replaced with a scene of Mogli and Bagheera talking about running from Sheer Khan. Some of the hippos have been removed from the hippo pool area to make room for one of the most impressive animitronics, Baloo floating down the river with Mogli playing drums on his belly. This portion of the ride has the bear necessities playing on board as well as in the scene. The new flow of this scene has allowed for Disney to finally retire the controversial gun shot. Next guests flow by the villagers dancing which has been slightly modified to be the man village, with the men dancing around a large silk flame (similar to Pirates) fire. Bagheera warns us once again of the dangers of man's red fire. The ducking hunters with the spears have been removed with nothing to replace them as you reach the back side of water. Here there is a clever tie in with Bagheera mentioning this wonder of the world. Fans of the ride may also be thankful that the Piranhas are still part of the show, and are mentioned as being part of the dangers of the jungle including the terrifying giant snake, Kaa. Imagineers just modified the large snake which was already part of the original show with only adding in the sound bite form the movie, "Trust in me..." And finally, we come up on a safe Mowgli (replacing trader Sam) waving goodbye to you next to the baby elephant. An instrumental version of "The Bare Necessities" plays over the speakers as you dock.

This is the first scene riders experience on the re-imagined ride. The sheer size of this animitronic paired with the articulation in his face, set the bar appropriately high of the rest of the ride.