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In the pantheon of Disney movies based on Disney theme park rides, "Jungle Cruise" is pretty good—leagues better than dreck like "Haunted Mansion," though not quite as satisfying as the original "Pirates of the Caribbean." 

The most pleasant surprise is that director Jaume Collet-Serra (" The Shallows ") and a credited team of five, count 'em, writers have largely jettisoned the ride's mid-century American colonial snarkiness and casual racism (a tradition  only recently eliminated ). Setting the revamp squarely in the wheelhouse of blockbuster franchise-starters like " Raiders of the Lost Ark ," " Romancing the Stone " and "The Mummy," and pushing the fantastical elements to the point where the story barely seems to be taking place in our universe, it's a knowingly goofy romp, anchored to the banter between its leads, an English feminist and adventurer played by Emily Blunt and a riverboat captain/adventurer played by  Dwayne Johnson . 

Notably, however, even though the stars' costumes (and a waterfall sequence) evoke the classic "The African Queen"—John Huston's comic romance/action film starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn ; worth looking up if you've never watched it—the sexual chemistry between the two is nonexistent, save for a few fleeting moments, like when Frank picks up the heroine‘s hand-cranked silent film camera and captures affectionate images of her. At times the leads seem more like a brother and sister needling each other than a will they/won’t they bantering couple. Lack of sexual heat is often (strangely) a bug, or perhaps a feature, in films starring Johnson, the four-quadrant blockbuster king (though not on Johnson’s HBO drama "Ballers"). Blunt keeps putting out more than enough flinty looks of interest to sell a romance, but her leading man rarely reflects it back at her. Fortunately, the film's tight construction and prolific action scenes carry it, and Blunt and Johnson do the irresistible force/immovable object dynamic well enough, swapping energies as the story demands.

Blunt's character, Lily Houghton, is a well-pedigreed adventurer who gathers up maps belonging to her legendary father and travels to the Amazon circa 1916 to find the Tears of the Moon, petals from a "Tree of Life"-type of fauna that can heal all infirmities. She and her snooty, pampered brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) hire Frank "Skipper" Wolff (Johnson) to bring them to their destination. The only notable concession to the original theme park ride comes here: Wolff's day job is taking tourists upriver and making cheesy jokes in the spirit of "hosts" on Disney Jungle Cruise rides of yore. On the mission, Johnson immediately settles into a cranky but funny old sourpuss vibe, a la John Wayne or Harrison Ford , and inhabits it amiably enough, even though buoyant, almost childlike optimism comes more naturally to him than world-weary gruffness. 

The supporting cast is stacked with overqualified character players. Paul Giamatti plays a gold-toothed, sunburned, cartoonishly “Italian” harbor master who delights at keeping Frank in debt. Edgar Ramirez is creepy and scary as a conquistador whose curse from centuries ago has trapped him in the jungle.  Jesse Plemons plays the main baddie, Prince Joachim, who wants to filch the power of the petals for the Kaiser back in Germany (he's Belloq to the stars' Indy and Marion, trying to swipe the Ark). Unsurprisingly, given his track record, Plemons steals the film right out from under its leads.

Collet-Serra keeps the action moving along, pursuing a more classical style than is commonplace in recent live-action Disney product (by which I mean, the blocking and editing have a bit of elegance, and you always know where characters are in relation to each other). The editing errs on the side of briskness to such an extent that affecting, beautiful, or spectacular images never get to linger long enough to become iconic. The CGI is dicey, particularly on the larger jungle animals—was the production rushed, or were the artists just overworked?—and there are moments when everything seems so rubbery/plasticky that you seem to be watching the first film that was actually shot on location at Disney World.

But the staging and execution of the chases and fights compensates. Derivative of films that were themselves highly derivative, "Jungle Cruise" has the look and feel of a paycheck gig for all involved, but everyone seems to be having a great time, including the filmmakers.

In theaters and on Disney+ for a premium charge starting Friday, July 30th. 

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Film credits.

Jungle Cruise (2021)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of adventure violence.

127 minutes

Dwayne Johnson as Frank Wolff

Emily Blunt as Dr. Lily Houghton

Jack Whitehall as McGregor Houghton

Edgar Ramírez as Aguirre

Jesse Plemons as Prince Joachim

Paul Giamatti as Nilo

• Jaume Collet-Serra

Writer (story)

• Glenn Ficarra
• Josh Goldstein
• John Norville

Cinematographer

• Flavio Martínez Labiano
• Joel Negron
• James Newton Howard

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Sheena grew up in the African wild, raised by a mystical witch woman. When her foster mother is framed for a murder Sheena is forced to flee, helped by her ability to talk to animals and her... Read all Sheena grew up in the African wild, raised by a mystical witch woman. When her foster mother is framed for a murder Sheena is forced to flee, helped by her ability to talk to animals and her knowledge of the jungle. Sheena grew up in the African wild, raised by a mystical witch woman. When her foster mother is framed for a murder Sheena is forced to flee, helped by her ability to talk to animals and her knowledge of the jungle.

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• Goofs During most of the movie, Sheena is barefoot. When she gets to the Zambuli after escaping from the crashing helicopter, she wears sandals. She is wearing those sandals when she pursues Otwani while riding on her zebra. After Otwani makes her fall from the zebra, she is barefoot again.

Sheena : See! Even in chains, we can defeat them! Turn your minds back, my people. Remember yourselves a thousand, a thousand moons ago! Bring your bows!

• Alternate versions In order to obtain a "PG" rating in the UK, 14 seconds were cut from the original theatrical release to edit the stabbing of a man's throat with a spear and a shot of a man on fire. The video release, rated "15" in 1986 restored the cinema cuts but lost a compulsory BBFC cut to a shot of a zebra being tripped over.
• Connections Featured in At the Movies: Sheena, Queen of the Jungle/Dreamscape/The Adventures of the Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension/The Bostonians/Metropolis (1984)
• Soundtracks Sheena's Theme - Interlude Composed and Conducted by Richard Hartley

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• August 17, 1984 (United States)
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‘Jungle Cruise’ Review: Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in Disney’s Bumptious Rom-Com Theme-Park Joyride

The two stars have an undeniable plucky chemistry in a fantasy adventure so rollicking it threatens to turn romance into one more special effect.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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In “ Jungle Cruise ,” a Disney adventure that demonstrates how basing a movie on a theme-park ride may now be a more natural occurence than adapting it from a novel, Emily Blunt plays Dr. Lily Houghton, a London researcher-explorer who’s as fearless, in her demure way, as Indiana Jones, and Dwayne Johnson is Frank Wolff, the friendly huckster of a river-boat captain who ferries her down the Amazon at the height of World War I.

He wears a hat just like the one Humphrey Bogart wore in “The African Queen,” and she wears pants — which, of course, were an early adaptation of Katharine Hepburn’s. For anyone old enough, or old-movie-centered enough, to care (which is maybe five percent of this movie’s prospective audience), the banter between these two could be said to evoke Bogart and Hepburn — or, at least, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in “Romancing the Stone.” Frank, a charlatan with a chip on his shoulder, calls Lily “Pants” and tells godawful jokes. She call him “Skippy” and rolls her eyes. And as they go at each other with gusto and bite and a touch of venom, you can sit back and feel, at moments, like you’re at a romantic comedy.

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But it’s like watching a romantic comedy while strapped to a roller-coaster with a VR headset on. “Jungle Cruise” is at once a love story, a made-for-4DX action movie, a “Pirates of the Caribbean”-style fairy tale featuring a ghostly conquistador (Edgar Ramirez) and his pewter-armored henchman with digital snakes slithering through their bodies, and God knows what else. Blunt, appealingly brash, makes mincemeat of Frank the lug but lets you know she likes him anyway, and Johnson knows how to deliver a genial putdown that still stings. They’ve got a chemistry, no doubt about it, but in a funny way the romantic pluck of “Jungle Cruise” plays like one more trick effect. You can practically touch the one-liners as they ping off the screen.

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I enjoyed the movie more than I did the two recent “Jumanji” films, because you can kind of pretend that there’s something at stake, and the director, Jaume Collet-Serra, stages it all with a certain breathless bravura. Leaving the dock in the Brazilian jungle where Frank plays P.T. Barnum to gullible tourists, our heroes set off in his barely seaworthy steamboat, only to have to get out of the way of a torpedo launched by Prince Joachim, a Teutonic megalomaniac played by Jesse Plemons with a smirky flourish. The ship plows right into Frank’s docking station, which blows up real good.

There’s a turbulent sequence in which the boat speeds toward a waterfall, and a funny one that fools us into thinking, for a moment, that the movie is going to exploit the woefully outdated stereotype of a “primitive” tribe of cannibals wearing skull masks. (It’s actually mocking it.) Lily has brought her brother, MacGregor, along for the ride, and he’s a pampered dandy who think it’s not dinner unless you’re wearing a dinner jacket. He’s played by Jack Whitehall, in a pinpoint performance that benefits from not having to repress the implication that the character is gay, though it might have benefited even more if his coming-out speech to Frank didn’t dance around the subject nearly as torturously as the old repression.

“Jungle Cruise” is a movie that implicitly asks: What’s wrong with a little good old-fashioned escapism? The answer is: Absolutely nothing, and “Jungle Cruise” is old-fashioned, expect that it pelts the audience with entertainment in such a lively yet bumptious way that at times you may wish you were wearing protective gear. Lily has in her possession a mystical arrowhead, which everyone wants, because it’s the totem that will lead her to the Tears of the Moon, a legendary tree (it’s like the Fountain of Youth) with magical healing properties. That sounds like a Disney MacGuffin, and is, except what struck me after a while is that the real preoccupation of “Jungle Cruise” isn’t romance, or even adventure, but metamorphosis. Tree vines grow and wrap themselves around historic explorers; a fearsome tiger is revealed to be a pussycat; a key character turns out to be 400 years old; a theme-park ride turns into a love story and then back again. All that remains unchanged is the price of an oversize box of Raisinets.

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, New York, July 26, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 127 MIN.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Davis  Entertainment Company, Seven Bucks/Flynn Picture Co. production. Producers: John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia. Executive producers: Scott Sheldon, Doug Merrifield.
• Crew: Director: Jaume Collet-Serra. Screenplay: Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra, John Requa. Camera: Flavio Labiano. Editor: Joel Negron. Music: James Newton Howard.
• With: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti, Veronica Falcón, Dani Rovira, Quim Gutierrez.

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Dwayne johnson and emily blunt in ‘jungle cruise’: film review.

The perennial Disneyland theme park ride goes the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' route with Jaume Collet-Serra's big-screen adventure, in which Amazon explorers encounter threats both human and supernatural.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Of all the longtime favorite rides of the Disneyland theme parks, the Jungle Cruise , introduced in 1955, is among the most enduringly captivating. Sailing on a 1930s British steamer down the major rivers of Southeast Asia, Africa and South America through lush vegetation, accompanied by a skipper with a weakness for bad puns while Audio-Animatronic animals pop up in the waterways or on the riverbanks, the quaint Adventureland attraction is the very definition of transporting. Those central elements survive in Disney’s big-screen offshoot, though just barely, given the writers’ assiduous efforts to drown them in overplotting.

Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra is usually found putting Liam Neeson through his B-movie action-man paces, or, more memorably, pitting Blake Lively against a pesky shark in The Shallows . But family-friendly humor isn’t quite his strong point, and the absence of a light touch here means that even the teasing banter and sexual tension between appealing leads Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt is a bit stiff. By the time they start wrestling with 400-year-old undead conquistadors and an evil spawn of the German kaiser who navigates the Amazon in a submarine, you probably won’t much care if they find the elusive object of their expedition, let alone seal it with a kiss.

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Release date : Friday, July 30 Cast : Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Edgar Ramirez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti, Veronica Falcón, Dani Rovira, Quim Gutiérrez Director : Jaume Collet-Serra Screenwriters : Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra, John Requa; story by John Norville, Josh Goldstein, Ficarra, Requa

Everything about Jungle Cruise points not to creative inspiration in spinning a feature property out of the ride, but to corporate bean counters enthusing, “Hey, it worked for Pirates of the Caribbean !” Following that template to a fault, the project has been in the works for more than 15 years, originally slated to shoot in 2005 for a 2006 release date. Since then, the script has passed through many hands before being taken up by Michael Green (who co-wrote the terrific Wolverine farewell, Logan , and penned Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie remakes) with Glenn Ficarra and John Requa.

Though kids are the target demographic, anyone older is likely to spend a lot of time thinking about the superior films being ransacked here for ideas, among them Raiders of the Lost Ark , Romancing the Stone and The African Queen . But the Disney brand and the Rock factor should ensure a sizable audience.

The problem of a numbingly overcomplicated storyline is apparent from the 10-minute pre-title sequence. Hurried narration explains that a single petal from a great tree deep in the heart of the Amazon jungle — known as the Tears of the Moon — can cure any illness or break any curse. Countless explorers over the centuries have attempted to find it and harness its powers, including Spanish conquistadors led by Aguirre (Edgar Ramirez), who betrayed the indigenous guardians of the tree who rescued his expedition’s men from the jungle’s menace. With his dying breath, the native chief cursed them to remain eternally within sight of the river, unable to leave or die.

Cut to London in 1916, two years into World War I. Blunt’s Lily Houghton, a female Indiana Jones fully equipped with pith helmet and safari gear, infiltrates the chambers of a science society to steal a recently recovered arrowhead believed to be the key to finding the Tears of the Moon. As a decoy, her brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) presents her theories about the unparalleled healing powers of the mysterious tree, which could revolutionize modern medicine and greatly aid the war effort.

While the starchy boys’ club membership is rejecting their request for support, Lily is behind the scenes in a slapsticky scuffle with nefarious Prince Joachim of Germany ( Jesse Plemons , with a chewy accent) for possession of the arrowhead, which culminates with her dangling over Piccadilly Circus on a precariously suspended ladder. By the time Lily and fussbudget toff MacGregor reach the Brazilian port that will be their embarkation point, I was already growing restless.

The situation improves once Johnson shows up as Frank Wolff, who runs what he calls the best and cheapest river cruise on the Amazon on his beat-up boat. He’s an affable rascal, in cahoots with crafty female tribal chief Trader Sam (Veronica Falcón) to give the tourists an alarming thrill as part of a ride that includes rigged animal appearances. The enjoyable sequence that introduces Frank deftly tethers the film to its Adventureland roots and would have made a far more engaging opening.

There’s a bunch of superfluous business with Nilo Nemolato (Paul Giamatti, with another shticky accent, plus a cockatoo), the commercial rival to whom he owes a bunch of money. But Lily is soon scammed into engaging Frank’s services, and they set off upriver on what could generously be called a rollicking, fantastical riff on Heart of Darkness . Some early humor comes from MacGregor packing like Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , with trunk after trunk of toiletries and apparel for every occasion, most of which Frank tosses overboard. Meanwhile, Lily’s radical-for-the-era choice of pants is repeatedly emphasized to establish her feminist bona fides.

Frank repeatedly exaggerates the dangers ahead — and fabricates some scares — to encourage Lily to turn back. But the feisty explorer remains determined, even when they face treacherous rapids. As they search for the sacred tree, Prince Joachim does everything possible to blow them out of the water, first with weaponry and then by setting loose the reanimated conquistadors. (The German’s supernatural communication powers are never quite explained.) The pointed detail that the otherwise fearless Lily can’t swim makes it no surprise when she is forced to lead a daring underwater maneuver, which at the same time ups the romantic ante with Frank.

The climactic action — including revelations about Frank’s history — is so convoluted that many audiences will be checking out, especially as the movie careens toward the two-hour mark. That applies both to the unlocking of the Tears of the Moon mystery and to the inevitable battle with Aguirre and Joachim, even if the screenwriters’ bid to infuse a sense of the mythic elevates the story slightly above the generally juvenile level.

Like Plemons and Giamatti, Ramirez is another talented actor squandered in a thankless part. There’s none of the hammy fun of his Pirates counterpart, played by Geoffrey Rush. The jungle and its creatures have ravaged the conquistadors’ bodies, suspending them between life and death, so Ramirez is rendered unrecognizable by CG excesses that transform him into a mass of writhing snakes. One of his comrades (Dani Rovira) is the spirit of the beehive — in what’s almost certainly not an homage to the classic Victor Erice film.

Blunt and Johnson at least keep it watchable, and Frank’s groan-inducing jokes are fun enough. Sample: “We’re headed into headhunter territory, which is a terrible place to be headed.” Both Frank and Lily are well-drawn characters, and their opposites-attract chemistry is serviceable in that sexless Disney way. But there’s no larger-than-life persona along the lines of Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow to galvanize the frantic action. And while Collet-Serra handles the accelerating physical mayhem efficiently, he lacks the joyous verve and inventiveness, the controlled chaos that Gore Verbinski brought to his movies in the Pirates franchise.

The novelty here, already widely commented on while the film was in production, is Disney’s first openly gay character, MacGregor. Leaving aside the outcry over the casting of an actor who identifies as heterosexual, Brit comedian Whitehall is a likable presence, even if his posh blathering makes him more of a familiar type than a distinctive character. MacGregor’s account to Frank of his bumpy family history, being disinherited after refusing various suitable marriage opportunities because his interest lay “elsewhere,” is played unambiguously. But his gradual transformation from stuffed shirt into plucky adventurer is strictly by-the-numbers.

Jungle Cruise is a typically well-upholstered Disney package, shot by Flavio Labiano with vibrancy and lots of swooping camerawork in the action scenes. (Hawaiian locations stand in for the Amazon rainforest.) It’s handsomely appointed with period trappings by production designer Jean-Vincent Puzos and costume designer Paco Delgado, and wrapped up in a boisterous orchestral score by James Newton Howard — although an interlude of crunchy electric guitars is a little mystifying. The CG creatures, notably a jaguar named Proxima, are the usual mixed bag of artificial-looking photorealism, though young audiences seldom seem to mind.

If only the core charms that have given the Disneyland ride such longevity weren’t so smothered by overstuffed plot. Compared to other attempts to turn theme park attractions into fresh revenue streams, it’s not as lifeless as The Haunted Mansion or Tomorrowland . But that doesn’t mean it’s good.

Full credits

Distributor: Disney/Disney+ Production companies: David Entertainment Company, Seven Bucks, Flynn Picture Co. Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Edgar Ramirez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti, Veronica Falcón, Dani Rovira, Quim Gutiérrez Director: Jaume Collet-Serra Screenwriters: Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra, John Requa; story by John Norville, Josh Goldstein, Ficarra, Requa Producers: John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia Executive producers: Scott Sheldon, Doug Merrifield Director of photography: Flavio Labiano Production designer: Jean-Vincent Puzos Costume designer: Paco Delgado Music: James Newton Howard Editor: Joel Negron Visual effects supervisors: Jim Berney, Jake Morrison Casting: Mary Vernieu, Marisol Roncali

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Movie Review: Disney's Jungle Cruise

July 29, 2021, 11:37 PM · So how much like Disney's Jungle Cruise is Disney's Jungle Cruise?

Disney's latest attempt to turn one of its beloved theme park attractions into a motion picture franchise hits theaters and Disney Plus Premier Access this weekend. The word on the theme park attraction long has been that your ride will be as good as your skipper. With Dwayne Johnson at the helm of Jaume Collet-Serra's film, we should know that we're in for a fun time.

(I watched the movie tonight at D23's premiere event at the El Capitan in Hollywood, along with thousands of other Disney fans, clad in Jungle Cruise skipper hats and noshing on Dole Whips. After a live pipe organ mini-concert of Disney tunes, Disney CEO Bob Chapek appeared to thank fans and introduce the film. See some photos on our Instagram.)

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But we don't see Johnson right away. Emily Blunt gets to launch this adventure, playing Dr. Lily Houghton, a botanist obsessed with finding the Tears Of The Moon - the miraculous healing petals of a legendary flowering tree that has been luring explorers to their demise in the Amazon for centuries. With her brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) serving as decoy to distract the members of a stuffy turn-of-the-20th-century British scientific society that can't be bothered to listen to a mere woman , Blunt takes the film's first set piece - a swashbuckling theft from the society's archives of the artifact that's key to finding the long-lost tree.

That scene also introduces our Big Bad - the German Prince Joachim. Played by the wonderfully twisted Jesse Plemons ("Breaking Bad," "Game Night"), Prince Joachim gives us a World War I-era version of the "evil German" stereotype. He's after the same petals, both to help Germany win the war and to help him rule Germany.

After introducing the Houghtons and our villain, we then get to meet Johnson's Frank Wolff - skipper of the Jungle Navigation Company's La Quila. On board sailing the Amazon, Johnson wastes no time riffing into dozens of well-worn Jungle Cruise jokes that will be familiar to frequent Disney theme park visitors.

And yes, they do the "backside of water" gag - even before we see the movie's title on screen.

The Houghtons soon arrive in Brazil, and after a few more set pieces in a long first act, 45 minutes into the film the Houghtons and Skipper Wolff set sail on our adventure. At this point, classic movie fans might be raising an eyebrow. A jungle skipper taking a brother and sister up river with Germans on the hunt? Yes, you are getting strong "The African Queen" vibes here - as you should, as that 1951 film much influenced the look of Disneyland's original Jungle Cruise ride.

The Germans disappear for much of the second act, during which we meet the film's version of the natives that Disney recently dispatched from the theme park rides . Except that here, they're in on the con - playing the savage role for gullible tourists that Wolff brings up river. There's a point to be made here about first-world visitors' expectations in a remote land, but don't waste time waiting for the film to pull on that thread. This is very much a cinematic carnival ride - one emotional trigger after another, all to leave you entertained while giving your brain a much-needed rest.

The Germans return for the third act, in which Jungle Cruise goes full-on "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl." In fact, we've got a blend of Pirates of the Caribbean with "Avatar" here, with a dash of - I kid you not - "National Treasure: Book of Secrets"' finale thrown in just to complete Disney fans' movie-reference Bingo cards.

The resolution is a cheap and corny as the jokes on a typical Jungle Cruise ride, which I suppose is what we deserve for climbing aboard this two-hour trip. Even Blunt's Dr. Houghton gets to crack a Jungle-style joke during the final scene, which creates plenty of room for the sequel that Disney surely hopes a big box office weekend (and Disney Plus order) will justify.

Overall, "Jungle Cruise" (the movie) delivers laughs, action, and enough in-jokes to satisfy any dedicated theme park fan. And if you don't believe me... you might be in de-nile.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

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Replies (16)

"Evil German" stereotype? Thats racist Disney should remove that character from the movie.

@Daniel, This is very clearly a setup. Watch Disney Animation: in a few years, by way of apology, they'll release culturally respectful Princess Movie set in Germany. After that, the new IP can profitably take over the Germany pavilion in EPCOT.

Also: this is a terrific review. I appreciate the restraint which paid off with the punch of the closing sentence.

Surely they must have included Shirley Temple?

Meanwhile, Disney Springs is reporting that all showtimes at the AMC are sold out for this weekend. Apparently, they were all bought out by one ticket goer. Disney was not at liberty to disclose the identify of this mysterious patron, only that his first name is Tim…

Odd that they decided to go the supernatural route. PotC, the ride, has at least a slight nod to the supernatural with the talking skull and crossbones, so there it seemed to fit. But the Jungle Cruise ride is meant to be reality based, seems off brand to bring in otherworldly elements.

Nice review - Thanks...

James - All AMC theaters sold out to one person - hahahahahaah....

Took my family to see it last night…

Absolutely loved it…

It’s very much an adventure movie in the vein of the Mummy and Pirates of the Caribbean so those comparisons are apt (More closely to the Mummy from my perspective)…The Rock has a tendency to suck all the charisma from his co-stars for some reason…Not on purpose but it’s just because he’s so damn charismatic himself that everybody else around him just seems lesser when sharing the screen with him…Amazingly enough Emily and Jack more than hold their own here and it really does feel like an ensemble rather than another ~here’s THE ROCK~ movie…The baddies could’ve been given a bit more screen time and Paul Giamatti’s character was criminally underused but overall it’s a great summer time adventure movie…

Sets things up for a sequel or spin-offs in this world…**SPOILER** While they don’t specifically call it S.E.A. they certainly reference the “Society” several times **SPOILER**

I really hope it does well but it feels like they spent a good chunk of change making it, and COVID won’t be doing it any favors in getting to be a big earner…If not for COVID then Disney would’ve absolutely kicked off their new big money franchise for sure with this one…Hopefully it does well enough to keep things going because this was a good one…

I don’t think the society in the film is supposed to be SEA. (There’s a brief glimpse of a sign with the society’s name, and it ain’t SEA.) I wonder if Blunt’s character will go on to join the actual SEA in a sequel. That’s definitely the vibe I got.

Planning to see it at my big movie house tomorrow so looking forward to it. I always like the idea of "guy does a con on tourists only to run into the real thing" storyline so this looks fun.

I can certainly see that being the case Rob…She could decide to create her own inclusive “Society” which ends up being the SEA we’ve seen references to in the parks for a long while now…Very exciting possibilities if this film manages to be a success…Let me be the first to say that an Expedition Everest film set in this film universe and s mandatory at this point…Make it happen Disney, make it happen…

JUst saw it and pretty fun. Some good twists on the plot and the backstory and Johnson and Blunt terrific along with Whitehall bringing more depth to a role than expected.

Now imagining the sequel, Lilly finding a clue to an ancient Viking treasure and warned "this is no Cruise...it's a Malestrom."

I was dumbfounded that they took the "tribesmen" out of the ride to make it more inclusive, but then put them in the movie.

Robert, you wrote, “I watched the movie tonight at D23's premiere event at the El Capitan in Hollywood, along with thousands of other Disney fans…”

How could you be sure all of those thousands of Disney fans were vaccinated as you wish Disney would require of all park guests over the age of 11 as you recently tweeted out?

https://twitter.com/themepark/status/1421237801253625856?s=21

This movie is a little too Mummy Returns and not enough The Mummy (Fraser/Weisz not that Cruise abomination). There is 1 part that I won't ruin (at the village) that I kind of hated, without that I think it would have been a better film, for me it really didn't fit.

It was still an enjoyable film,the cast is great, perform their roles perfectly although Paul Giamatti felt completely underused.

@stevenz: The movie was shot two years ago, intended for last summer, long before the decision on the ride was made.

Not perfect, but very enjoyable movie.

Incidentally, while the film has a nod to a movie influence on the ride (African Queen), I liked that the final act seemed to reference a ride influence: Blackpool Pleasure Beach's River Caves.

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Jungle Cruise Review

24 Jul 2020

Jungle Cruise

Sometimes, it’s not the reboots and remakes that make you despair of Hollywood’s lack of originality. Sometimes it’s a theoretically original film like this, another attempt to turn a Disneyland ride into a big-screen franchise. As you watch Jaume Collet-Serra ’s adventure, you’re haunted by the unpleasant feeling that this is a supposedly fun thing that’s already been done before. It’s only thanks to Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt that the result holds the attention, and it’s a credit to them that it’s entertaining at all.

The ride that inspired this is a slightly insipid glide past animatronic animals. For the big screen we’re in the Amazon in 1916, where Captain Frank (Johnson) is engaged to take scientist Lily (Blunt) on a hunt for “ el flor de la luna ”, a mythical flower that can cure all ills. Her brother MacGregor ( Jack Whitehall , about whom the less said the better) is along for the ride as they follow in the footsteps of conquistador Aguirre ( Edgar Ramirez ).

It’s not badly done by any means, yet it's deathly derivative.

If you enjoyed Rachel Weisz’s plucky librarian in The Mummy , you’ll love Blunt’s plucky scientist, also tottering about on a library ladder and railing against the sexist scholars who won’t grant her the academic recognition she deserves. Johnson’s scoundrel captain, meanwhile, may recall a certain Corellian smuggler, or a Caribbean pirate. He shares a loose moral sense with both, drives a beaten-up craft that he claims is the fastest in the sector, and is in hock to a rich local boss ( Paul Giamatti , wasted). And it’s a shame that Ramirez’s Aguirre doesn’t draw from Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski to add some demented intensity, because those flashbacks play more like a limp Pirates Of The Caribbean .

It’s not badly done by any means, with lovely animal effects, big, well-staged chases and lots of antics for Blunt and Johnson. Yet it’s deathly derivative. Action beats are lifted from Raiders Of The Lost Ark , music comes (mystifyingly) courtesy of Metallica (in collaboration with composer James Newton Howard), and there are endless references to The Mummy . Orphan filmmaker Collet-Serra manages to inject some nuance into the portrayal of an Amazonian populace, led by Veronica Falcón’s Trader Sam, and gives Jesse Plemons an entertainingly outrageous accent as a German princeling. The script even pulls off a surprise or two — though one of those, involving Whitehall’s character, is horribly misconceived.

But with a budget this big and a crew this talented, the film shouldn’t be this reliant on Blunt and Johnson’s bickering to hold the attention. In his fourth jungle outing (after Welcome To The… , Journey 2 and Jumanji ), His Rockness gives good world-weary, and Blunt’s bossiness sparks off him nicely, in a dynamic straight out of The African Queen . They don’t have much romantic chemistry but they do make for a fun odd couple, and at times they’re the only thing stopping you from throwing yourself to the piranhas. When did on-screen adventure start to feel so planned?

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Jungle Cruise (2021) Movie Review – A fun-packed summer guilty-pleasure

Cruising along to the summer blockbuster season

Jungle Cruise is, in its simplest form, a proper summer blockbuster. It’s cheesy, packed full of slapstick jokes and puns wrapped around enough action to fulfil the quota for a fun-packed family adventure.

Based on the theme park ride of the same name, the intent to rekindle that same spark Pirates Of The Caribbean achieved is certainly evident. In fact, Jungle Cruise feels like a patchwork of different movies all rolled into one.

There are echoes of The Mummy (the 1999 version, not the ghastly reboot) with its character dynamics, the adventure and antagonists from Indiana Jones and the general story and treasure hunt of Pirates. There’s definitely a sense of Deja vu while watching and that’s both to the strength and weakness of this film.

Before we dive into that, the story here essentially takes a formulaic treasure hunt story and fleshes it out to include elements of Disney’s theme park ride, Jungle Cruise.

At the center of this romp sits Dr Lily Houghton and her brother Macgregor. Together, they enlist the talents of wisecracking, pun-making skipper Frank Wolff to locate an ancient tree. There’s a prophecy around this allegedly claiming that it has the power to heal. If true, this could change the future of medicine forever.

So off the gang go, cruising down the river to find this ancient treasure. However, it soon becomes clear that they’re not alone in this pursuit.

From here, the story takes on all the usual tricks of the genre, with lots of action set pieces and plenty of simple but effective bouts of dialogue to progress the character arcs.

Jungle Cruise is unashamedly good fun. It’s a proper guilty pleasure with some genuine laugh out loud moments. Jack Whitehall is obviously an acquired taste but he brings the character of MacGregor to life in the best possible way. It’s a camp, not-quite-outright-gay performance but one that certainly shines.

Likewise, Emily Blunt does a decent job bringing Lily (aka. Dr Pants) to life alongside Dwayne Johnson’s portrayal of Frank Wolff. If his character feels familiar it’s mostly down to the choice of films The Rock picks.

There have been a lot of jungle adventures over the years and Johnson feels like he’s been in them all. While he’s not bad here, and certainly charismatic, this performance tends to bleed into a lot of the other jungle-faring romps too.

That’s something echoed by the antagonists of this movie as well. Unlike iconic characters like Barbossa and Davey Jones in Pirates, there’s absolutely nothing here that gives these players depth beyond the “very-obviously-evil” trope. Even the creature designs feel like they’ve just been kicked off Davey Jones’ ship.

Where the film excels though is in its pacing and general storyline. Sure, the movie is a bit predictable but this is a proper family adventure and the movie sticks to all the usual tropes and expectations of the genre. It never takes itself too seriously either.

There’s one action scene early on where Lily ziplines her way onto Frank’s boat. Instead of a smooth landing, a sheet blows in her face and she’s forced to crash-land on an adjacent barge. It’s a simple, silly moment of subverting expectations and Jungle Cruise has these segments in abundance.

You’re obviously not going to get Oscar winning material here. When it comes to summer blockbusters (and Christmas movies too by that same token) being cheesy and predictable is just part of the package. The real meat and potatoes comes from the fun factor and Jungle Cruise has bundles of it.

For those old enough to remember, there was a time when The Mummy was panned hard by critics. Some called it hopeless and an Indiana Jones wannabe. Fast forward to 2021 and it still holds up as one of the more fun and enjoyable entries in the genre.

Jungle Cruise is unlikely to ascend to that same cult status but it’ll definitely find an audience. This is a family adventure first and foremost, and it has enough in the tank to please both kids and adults. This is one trek through the jungle well worth taking.

Read More: Jungle Cruise Ending Explained

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Review: 'Jungle Cruise' is made from spare parts of better movies but kids will love it

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily “millennial Mary Poppins” Blunt knock themselves out in “Jungle Cruise” to keep kids wowed with excitement as everything from headhunters to snapping piranhas go on the attack.

Jungle Cruise

Join Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt for the adventure of a lifetime on Disney's "Jungle Cruise," a rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon.

The movie, now playing in theaters and streaming on Disney+ Premier Access , is based on a Disney theme-park ride that’s been at it since -- wait for it --1955. That was just a few years after Walt Disney himself watched Humphrey Bogart skipper Katharine Hepburn down river in “The African Queen” and felt inspired to build the still-thriving attraction.

“Jungle Cruise” is nowhere near the league of that film classic. It’s a goofball throwaway that just wants to give family audiences a thrill ride down the Amazon, and it begs to be compared with another Disney excursion, “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

And that’s the problem.

“Jungle Cruise” borrows so heavily from “Pirates,” not to mention “The Mummy” and the incomparable “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” that it’s basically a knockoff. Johnson is a musclebound charmer, but small potatoes next to Johnny Depp, who swanned so deliciously through the role of pirate Jack Sparrow that he won an Oscar nomination.

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Acting awards are not in the cards for “Jungle Cruise ,” though that’ll be no big whoop to preteens who manage to circumvent the film’s inexplicable PG-13 rating. Set in 1916, two years into World War I, the movie is built to distract young’uns with all-stops-out special effects.

Johnson plays Frank Wolff, the captain of a ramshackle riverboat who offers the cheapest jungle cruises in Brazil -- plus a nonstop flow of groan-worthy puns.

“I used to work in an orange juice factory, but I got canned,” Wolff says at one point.

MORE: Review: 'F9: The Fast Saga' is the biggest, baddest popcorn movie of the summer

Blunt has it worse. As British scientist Lily Houghton, a female Indiana Jones who shocks society by wearing pants, she is stuck in an exposition dump of an opening scene about why Houghton and her fussy brother, MacGregor (Jack Whitehall), need to chug down the Amazon.

Houghton is in search of flower petals from an ancient tree, called Tears of the Moon, which can only be found after Houghton steals a sacred arrowhead containing a map that will lead her to there. Even a single, falling petal is said to cure any illness or break any curse.

Download the all new "Popcorn With Peter Travers " podcasts on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Tunein , Google Play Music and Stitcher .

It’s all just an excuse for director Jaume Collet-Serra, who pitted Blake Lively against an angry shark in “The Shallows,” to lead Wolff and Houghton through a series of rousing perils. Houghton's brother doesn’t do much, though his coming-out to Frank would have raised eyebrows a century ago.

Wolff and Houghton interrupt their budding romance to fight off Joachim (hammed to the hilt by Jesse Plemons), a mad German prince in a submarine, and Aguirre (Edgar Ramirez), a Spanish conquistador who’s been undead for 400 years and looks like it.

Young audiences may go “ewww” at Wolff and Houghton's awkward smooching, but they’ll perk up at their near-death experiences in treacherous rapids and with poison snakes. The real scene-stealer is a photorealistic jaguar named Proxima, who becomes everyone’s favorite pet.

“Jungle Cruise” is made up of spare parts from better movies and at over two-hours in length, it’ll be tough on short attention spans. On the plus side, it is way better than “Haunted Mansion” and “Tomorrowland,” other Disney rides that morphed into movies.

Amazingly, Johnson and Blunt still sell it. He calls her “Pants” and she dubs him “Skippy,” nicknames they both hate. But their natural warmth as performers humanize characters built from flimsy cardboard.

“Jungle Cruise" may be dim, dopey and derivative, but the kids will love it, and like the Metallica song in the film, “nothing else matters.”

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Jungle Cruise Review: A Pleasant Enough Throwback

When the House of Mouse isn't cannibalizing its own animated canon for new live-action remake fodder, Disney has proven that they're not above mining one of their theme parks' beloved rides for an adaptation when plotting their next big tentpole release. But "Jungle Cruise," a long-gestating project finally seeing the light of day in theaters and through Disney+'s Premiere Access PVOD platform, is the rare cynical cash grab that seems more principally concerned with actual crowd-pleasing than brand management or franchise development. 

Sure, the film, starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt , is clearly a four-quadrant studio picture designed to sell merchandise and inspire Disney World trips. But, for the most part, it sidesteps the many irritating pitfalls most modern blockbusters fall prey to. Instead, it nails a comforting, swashbuckling tone not seen from mainstream adventure films since Stephen Sommers' "Mummy" films or Gore Verbinski's original "Pirates" trilogy, both of which "Jungle Cruise" owes a profound debt.

However, as genuinely entertaining as the film turns out to be, it is not without its frustrating drawbacks — chiefly an over-reliance on a pervasive and grating brand of humor that fails to feel of a piece with the rest of the movie's very welcome throwback vibe.

Something for everybody

"Jungle Cruise" takes a little visual inspiration from the 1951 John Huston picture "The African Queen," which also helped inspire the Disney ride this film is based on. Johnson, as riverboat captain Frank, looks like the human growth hormone version of Bogart; Blunt, as his passenger Dr. Lily Houghton, gives her ambitious scientist a little glint of Hepburn. But plot-wise, the film closely resembles the general structure and tone of 1999's "The Mummy." Like Brendan Fraser before him, Johnson's Frank is a brutish rogue tasked with helping a studious woman (Blunt) and her charming but useless brother (Jack Whitehall) go on a grand quest for a MacGuffin foretold from legend. In this case, it's The Tree of Life and the Tears of the Moon, a rare artifact Lily thinks could be used to revolutionize medicine and science.

But this being a movie, they're not the only people on this quest — Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons), a feisty Imperial German royal, is hot on their trail, hoping to use their findings to help Germany win the Great War, as the film takes place before there was a second one. 

The film's script has passed through a myriad of hands, with "Blade Runner: 2049" scribe Michael Green and "Bad Santa" writing duo Glenn Ficarra & John Requa getting final credit, so there's the typical amount of tonal and plotting inconsistency at play here. But it feels less noticeable under the crackling energy and pulpy aesthetic director Jaume Collet-Serra has crafted. Particularly in the film's fun first half, every sequence has a playful and efficient visual flair that calls to mind the best Disney animated outings, as well as any number of adventure serials.

It feels like such a pleasant change of pace for Collet-Serra, perhaps best known for providing Liam Neeson the best most thoroughly enjoyable entries into his late-period action canon. Seeing the guy behind "The Commuter" and "Unknown" cut loose with a budget this big, stars this bright, and a brand name so important to Disney is a real blast. He creates a broad, easygoing canvas on which brilliant performers like Plemons and Paul Giamatti (in a smaller role as a cantankerous harbormaster) can paint big, bold portraits as cartoonish as they are memorable. 

It's not easy to properly embody the nostalgic sense of wonderment that Disney is always trying to capture like lightning in a bottle, but "Jungle Cruise," at its best, does a sterling job of hewing close to what has worked so well about similar adventure stories of the modern era. It's family-friendly, without feeling like it's pandering to an imaginary child that doesn't exist. It's unafraid to be silly, but not so much so that it detracts from the dramatic stakes necessary to make its action set pieces properly thrilling. 

Most mercifully, the viewer can make it from the opening scene to the closing credits without the feeling that what they're watching is not a complete and satisfying film, but a cleverly packaged trailer for an as-yet-undeveloped sequel no one even had the opportunity to ask for.

But there is still one nagging flaw that holds it back from being a home run.

Maybe Vin Diesel was right

Over the years, Disney has made several attempts to bring "Jungle Cruise" to life, with a pretty close brush coming from a potential version with "Toy Story" stars Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. But unsurprisingly, it's the version with "franchise viagra" Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson attached that saw it through to completion. After all, the man is unstoppable.

At first, he does, in fact, look faintly ridiculous in his little Skipper costume, bursting out of it like a circus strongman. (Even if that curious anachronism does make you long for Shane Black's long-developed "Doc Savage" flick with Johnson in the lead to come to life.) But within a couple of scenes, his particular brand of megawatt charisma overpowers any potential misgivings one might have about his casting, quelling questions like "didn't he just do two other jungle-themed movies?" by reminding you, "no, those were board game-related. This is for real!"

While his chemistry with Blunt has that "Romancing the Stone" interplay we all love so much and he obviously avails himself quite nicely whenever cinematic fisticuffs must be employed, Johnson's presence weighs the film's otherwise effervescent formula down. Striking the right tone in a movie like this, one ostensibly designed to send everyone home happy without outwardly alienating anyone, is delicate work. But it's not the litany of screenwriters or the director shifting gears for the first big time in his career who muddle it up. It's Johnson's inability to stop being, well, himself.

Vin Diesel famously joked that he had to teach Johnson how to act when the two starred in "Fast Five" together, something Johnson and co-star Blunt had a great laugh about on this film's press tour. General consensus around the feud posits that Diesel is a worse and less successful actor than Johnson and that he was just guarding his franchise territory for fear of the Rock stealing it out from under him. But the point Diesel was trying to make wasn't that Johnson isn't talented, but that he can't turn off his particular shtick. In most of his starring vehicles, this isn't much of a problem, because above all else, those movies, like "Skyscraper" and "Rampage," are specifically built to be delivery systems for him doing his thing. People pay to see those movies to see Johnson be Johnson, for better or worse.

When "Jungle Cruise" is firing on all cylinders, it's when Johnson finds the right groove, contorting himself to fit into the confectionary vibe everyone involved has come together to create, and it's a true joy to see. But as the film presses on, more and more scenes drag with what feel like improvisational Johnson bits, or awkward slices of comedy that feel like they were flown in from other, more grating modern movies "Jungle Cruise" otherwise feels like a welcome respite from.

It's not quite enough to fully derail the ride. Everyone gets to the destination intact and mostly satisfied by the journey. But everything else works so surprisingly well that these drawbacks feel all the more offensive and harder to ignore. But when this film inevitably does strong numbers, at home and at the box office, who's really going to look at this man, whose muscles have their own muscles, and tell him it might be time to dial it back?

Jungle Queen

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Jungle Queen (1945)

Genre: action / adventure, duration: 219 minuten, country: united states, directed by: lewis d. collins and ray taylor, stars: edward norris , eddie quillan and douglass dumbrille, imdb score: 5,8  (181), releasedate: 22 january 1945.

This movie is not available on US streaming services.

This movie is not available on UK streaming services.

Jungle Queen plot

"1000 JUNGLE TERRORS! 1000 DARING ADVENTURES!" During World War II, Nazis are mobilizing local tribes in Africa to revolt against their British overlords. Americans Bob Elliott and Chuck Kelly arrive in Africa to help the British. Both have to deal with the Nazi spies Dr. Elise Bork and her henchman Lang, posing as scientists in search of the "Secret Sword." And they meet the explorer Alan Courtney and his attractive cousin Pamela, who are also looking for this 'Secret Sword'. Lang has a lot of influence on the chieftain Maati. Alan Courtney, who seems to know where the 'Secret Sword' is, is found murdered. When Bob and Chuck also get into trouble, they are helped by the mysterious jungle queen Lothel.

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Lothel, Jungle Queen

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Jungle Queen: Chapter 05 - The Burning Jungle Reviews

• 0 hr 15 mins
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As chapter five of Jungle Queen reveals, Pamela (Lois Collier) is saved from the attacking wildlife fauna by Bob (Edward Norris). Accompanied by Jungle Jack (Budd Buster), the intrepid American sets out for Tong-Gara to warn Godac (Clinton Rosemond) of the duplicitous Nazis. But Lang (Douglass Dumbrille) has Maati (Napoleon Simpson) kidnap the Judge and blame his disappearance on the Americans. As Bob and Jack approach the Tongghili village, they are met not only by the irate tribesmen but a raging brush fire.

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Take a 'Jungle Cruise' with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in first trailer for Disney's new ride-based blockbuster

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After five high-stakes voyages alongside the Pirates of the Caribbean , an ordinary Jungle Cruise sounds downright relaxing. But the first trailer for Walt Disney’s upcoming summer blockbuster suggests that audiences are in for a ride that’s even wilder than the theme-park attraction it’s based on. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Jungle Cruise appears to be charting a course for The African Queen by way of The Mummy , with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt standing in for Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn and Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz respectively. (Watch the trailer above.)

Like those adventure-loving odd couples, Johnson and Blunt will apparently spend a lot of their journey together bickering, a dynamic that they demonstrated for Yahoo Entertainment when we caught up with them at D23. In the film, Blunt plays Lily Houghton, a scientist headed into the deepest parts of the Amazon jungle in search of the Tree of Life. In order to get there, she hires Johnson’s riverboat captain, Frank, who boasts about having the “cheapest, but also the most thrilling” jungle cruise on the whole river. Because of the perilous nature of Lily’s journey, though, Frank drives a harder bargain to ferry her and her brother, McGregor (Jack Whitehall), upriver. “$10,000 to bring you there alive — dead is $15,000.” Why the extra 5K bump? “Dead, I’d have to carry you.”

Besides Rose Sayer and Evelyn Carnahan, there’s also a little Sundance Kid mixed into Lily’s DNA. At the end of the trailer, Frank’s little riverboat is about to plunge over a giant waterfall, and his passenger picks that exact moment to reveal an unfortunate secret: “I cannot swim!” Knowing that the fall will definitely kill her, Frank does the only logical thing and raises his rates. “The price just went up.”

Jungle Cruise ’s mixture of action and humor is going over well on Twitter, with many noting the movie’s obvious forebearers.

This aint the African Queen but it looks soooo fun!! O2H! O2H! O2H! The Jungle Cruise Trailer Brings the Disney Ride to Life! - https://t.co/6cFAAJ4ynO https://t.co/MkKlUYsUpM via @comingsoonnet — Demetri Panos (@demetripanos) October 11, 2019

// That “Jungle Cruise” trailer gave me strong “The African Queen” vibes. I knew he was going to say “the backside of water” when I saw him flushing it down. 😂 I’m more excited about it than “Onward” to be honest, but that last part with the cgi villain.. ehh.. not great. — Thomas Summers (@sortedgreen) October 11, 2019

Okay, so it's The Mummy (1999) on a river. https://t.co/Ps7b3G8urZ — Stephen T. (@GoshZilla) October 11, 2019

The characters are so similar to the Mummy, but does look fun. https://t.co/w00wLMiIit — 🎃🕸Michelle Benson🕸🎃 🔜 Scotland Comic Con (@michelleb822) October 11, 2019

RACHEL WEISZ WALKED IN THE MUMMY SO EMILY BLUNT COULD RUN IN THE JUNGLE CRUISE — julie andrews is my religion (@katiethebadger) October 11, 2019

Looks fun. Jungle Cruise meets Indiana Jones. — All ~ Troy (@allabouttroy) October 11, 2019

Also I pointed this out before, but I love the explicit call out to The African Queen (one of the principal inspirations for The Jungle Cruise attraction) via The Rock's outfit pic.twitter.com/ZO7eKjmZVi — Mark Willard (@MarkWillard85) October 11, 2019

Fun fact: The African Queen famously influenced the design of the Jungle Cruise ride . That the movie version is now consciously paying homage to that movie is just the circle of Mouse House life.

Jungle Cruise sails into theaters on July 24, 2020.

Watch: Johnson and Blunt match wits over who’s the biggest scaredy-cat when it comes to theme park rides:

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

How 'The Addams Family' became a parable for the immigration debate

Watch 'Jungle Cruise' stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt zing each other with explosive allegations

Inside Jon Favreau's 'Lion King' remake: Watch the voice stars act out the Disney movie behind the scenes