If you read through his long post, it officially confirmed that he’s currently doing research for his new movie that will bring the world-famous Jungle Cruise to the Big Screen. The movie was officially greenlit by Disney in April and has begun pre-production.
With a little over a year to go, you can bet that a lot is going on behind-the-scenes to prepare. That preparation apparently included a tour of Walt Disney Imagineering and its own “Disney vault” with artifacts from Disney Parks’ past like including the original drawing of Disneyland pictured.
While it all sounds exciting, many Disney fans sounded off about one sentence that Mr. Johnson said in his post: “…we’ll partner with Disney’s brilliant Imagineers to help re-engineer and re-design the Jungle Cruise ride in all the Disney theme parks around the world.”
Many of what I’d like to call “Disney purists” were quick to point out that the changes The Rock wanted were going to change the original attraction that Walt envisioned and created. This isn’t the first time that the attraction has been changed in its history (e.g. the Jingle Cruise holiday overlay, which has been a hit with many of these purists). Disney was quick, however, to clarify the statement with the Orlando Sentinel saying that there are no current plans to change the attraction…at this time.
Depending on what happens with the development of The Rock’s Jungle Cruise movie including the story, those changes that he wants to do on the attraction might not see the light of day – much to the delight of Disney purists. But whatever happens, we can expect to see Mr. Johnson’s Jungle Cruise movie in spring of 2018.
DisneyExaminer Founder + Publisher. Walt inspired Disneyland, Disneyland inspired DisneyExaminer.
Catch me at Disneyland. Reach me at jordan@disneyexaminer.com or on Twitter @jordiepoblete
