Speaking of Jungle Cruise and tone, it struck me that HK had a lighter tone overall compared to the U.S. versions. Would you say the U.S. versions overall are optimistic, pessimistic, or does it even really matter since the skipper has so much control of the experience? Should skippers play their roles with a certain outlook in mind?
To me, California’s Jungle is a mess. A collection of masterful scenes and details and one-liners, but they all just sort of happen. If you’ve never seen the scenes or you get a charismatic skipper, you’re golden, but otherwise, it’s all just sort of there.
Florida’s Jungle, on the other hand, is one of my favorite spaces anywhere because it uses tone to organize the scenes into an experience.
The Amazon is raw atmosphere, which gives the Skipper space to introduce themselves and the ride, and tricks us into thinking we’re not thirty feet from a popcorn cart.
The Congo establishes the three types of scenes we’ll see: humans affecting the jungle (Abandoned Pygmy Camp), animal encounters (Python), and complete stories (Gorilla Camp).
The Nile brings the fireworks. Most of what the Average Joe remembers about the ride happens here. Trapped Safari, Schweitzer Falls, the Hippo Pool, and so on.
The Mekong amplifies the three tenants of location art–atmosphere, story, and experience–into three climactic scenes: the Cambodian Temple, the Indian Elephant Bathing Pool, and Squeeze Play.
We return to the Amazon, where we wind down with anti-climactic plant jokes and cannibal puns.
It’s possible for a good skipper to notice this structure and design their spiel around it, but even if they don’t, it’s possible for us to ignore the skipper and enjoy the ride anyway.
Overall, I think the tone is firmly absurdist…a glimmer of optimism amid an abyss of pessimism. The ride explores themes of ignorance (the Skipper as unreliable narrator), and mortality (everything in the jungle is at least indirectly trying to kill us), and futility (humans versus nature).
Those pitch-black themes elevate the jokes from “cleverness” to “storytelling.” You’re stranded in the deadliest environment in the world, and you’re armed only with puns!
What’s more, it works! We survive! That’s how the Jungle Cruise manages to delve into some of the darkest ideas we have, yet still feel appropriate in a park whose theme is “reassurance” and whose nickname is “the Most Magical Place on Earth.”
A charismatic skipper can do whatever they want and make it work, but I believe that a good skipper understands the actual text of the ride, and designs their performance to emphasize it.
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