The Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland Park will officially reopen on July 16, Disneyland announced Friday.
The ride will have “new adventures, an expanded storyline and more humor as skippers take guests on a tongue-in-cheek journey along some of the most remote rivers around the world,” Disney said in an email to the Deseret News.
- “We’re excited to be building on the story of the Jungle Cruise to include new adventures that stay true to the experience we know and love, while adding more humor, more wildlife, and an interconnected story,” said Chris Beatty, an Imagineer who led creative development of the enhancements. “As part of creative development, we’ve also introduced characters from around the world and took a thoughtful approach to ensure accurate representation of cultures in our story.”
Disneyland released a preview video that showcases changes made to the ride.
Changes to Jungle Cruise ride
Disney announced in January that it would upgrade the Jungle Cruise ride to address “negative depictions” of cultures, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The ride had been accused of having racists depictions, specifically surrounding the skipper. The changes are meant to “reflect and value the diversity of the world around us,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The changes to Jungle Cruise came almost six months after Disney announced that the Splash Mountain ride — which was loosely based on the 1946 Disney film “Song of the South” — would be updated to include characters from “The Princess and the Frog,” as I wrote about for the Deseret News.