Dreaming Disney - The Jungle

It was sad news. Tales From the Jungle Crews which has really slowed in posting episodes the last few years is being fully retired, and the episodes will no longer be available. That’s a real kick in the pants as I’m still hungry for new chapters. With this turn, we must ask ourselves where do Disney fans hungry for Jungle stories go now?

Luckily, I adventured to The Jungle podcast. The official description is “Two former Jungle Skips talk Disney, Theme Parks, & Pop Culture. However, in true Skipper fashion, the conversation frequently heads into uncharted waters. Hosted by David "Dr. Skipper" Marley (Author, Disney Historian) & Trevor Kelly (Crooner, Senior Art Director).” The podcast drops every two weeks. The format is basically chit-chat between two long-term friends that focuses primarily on Disney news, Disneyland, Tiki events, and since we have two former Skippers, the Jungle Cruise. The chat is generally light-hearted with some fun opinions. The two know each other very well and able to get a little silly, which let’s be honest we can all use a little silly.

I mentioned that these two are two Disneyland former skippers. Dr. David Marley is a historian who currently teaches history courses. He has also written a number of books about the Jungle Cruise and is a speaker who appears at several Tiki events discussing I assume the Jungle Cruise. Trevor Kelly, is a crooner and podcaster that I listened to years ago on a show called Joey and Trevor Talk to Each Other, which much like The Jungle was two skippers chatting, or as I remember it more like shooting the poop. The Jungle is very much that type of show, where the topics could be the two mulling the latest Disney or Disneyland news, telling stories of their days in the jungle, or just them talking about whatever moves them that day. It’s that chit-chat type of format that for me is what I like. It’s chat going on in the background where I feel like someone is talking with me, even if I’m not live or in the room with them. It does not fill the gap left by Tales From the Jungle Crews, a show that transformed from chit-chat to one of the best oral history podcasts you can find. But it does give fans a little Jungle Crews content in an easy-to-digest format. And living so far from Disneyland, I like hearing local takes on the happenings around the park and the Disneyland Jungle Cruise. 

The Jungle is a fun chat between two friends. It’s a bonus they are informed former skippers who bring up the Jungle Cruise on the regular. The Jungle is fun mostly Disney talk that definitely provides me the coffee chat that I need, in a safe I’m still an introvert way, on a Monday morning.

Between Books - The Making of Disney's The Jungle Cruise

 

In the movie Elf, James Caan’s Walter Hobbs is a publisher who makes a mistake.  He approves a book for printing that is missing pages.  And now children around the world will never know how the adventures of a puppy and pigeon will end.  I mean it is fiction, right?  A publisher would never put out an embarrassing product when they could have stopped it from hitting the shelves.

Looking at you Disney!

I apologize author Michael Goldman.  I am not going to blame you!

Disney Edition’s The Making of Disney's The Jungle Cruise is truly one of the worst Disney books ever offered to the public.  Author Michael Goldman does the job he was contracted for.  He gives his readers the background of the Jungle Cruise ride.  He goes through the production of the movie, with text that is on par with what we would expect from D23 Magazine.  And there is are some interesting tidbits like the filming of Prima a completely CGI character.  And I love the references to Tales from the Jungle Crews, which shows me Goldman went past the Disney archives for material.  But the book is a major failure and Goldman can luckily blame Walter Hobbs, I mean Disney Editions, for this failure.

The Making of Disney's The Jungle Cruise was not sold as a physical book to support the movie.  And I can understand with the pandemic and changing schedules how this decision was made.  However, in producing this as an eBook only Disney has failed us.  The pages are full of colorful pictures and concept art.  And the book was laid out in an artistic presentation that if printed would honestly look great.  But instead in the Kindle app on an iPad, an enjoyable experience is a nightmare.  The text is too small.  The solution is clearly just expand the view and blow up the page.  Too bad the minute you do that the text and images become blurry.  Navigating the blown-up pages led to page skips and jittery page movements where at times I lost entire pages of text.  Sometimes, I would turn the page just to get a big white box until I again resized the page.  It is very hard to keep to the flow of the text when one is just worried they lost a page or had the page skip to a new location. The book was clearly prepared as basically a series of images not formatted for Ereading.  And none of the benefits of reading an electronic book are available like bookmarking or highlighting.  In short, Disney took a book they were maybe planning to print and turned it into a series of images which is mis sized and unreadable.

I love the Jungle Cruise.  I love the movie.  Too bad this book is a true disaster.  If Disney Editions had just put some effort into the user acceptance testing they would have found how horrible of an experience they were providing to their audience.  Maybe then they could have fixed the formatting issues and let readers enjoy the images and text.  This book is a disaster and the only reason I have not returned it is I got it on sale.  Honestly charging full price for this book is a greater price gouging ploy than a family of four staying at the Galactic Starcruiser.  This is a book you can skip over and avoid the frustration that reading it brings.

 

This post contains affiliate links, which means that Between Disney receives a percentage of sales purchased through links on this site. 

Dreaming Disney - WDWNT: The Magazine Issue 18

Issue 18 of WDWNT: The Magazine is now live online!

I have contributed an article about Kyle Crocker the founder of Tales From the Jungle Crews and the Skipcast Network.  I knew of Crocker’s love of the Jungle Cruise, but was not aware of his feelings of pride about Disney California Adventure and it’s coming into it’s own Summer 2012.

Other articles of note include the story elements of Aladdin that never made it to the big screen and the future of Pixar productions.

Remember, WDWNT: The Magazine is free to read online!

Dreaming Disney - Mahna Mahna Tour

The Between Kids love silly YouTube videos.  I cannot be the only walks into the office to only find kids watching videos of talking animals. 

Sometimes being a good Betweenland parent I'll sit down with them and redirect away from the animal videos to something more my style....Jungle Cruise ridethroughs.

The Mahna Mahna Tour, which has been featured on Tales from the Jungle Crews, is one of our absolute favorites.  It has Muppets, it has references to other Disney attractions, and it has some standard Jungle Cruise puns we all love.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of the rivers of the world as much as the Between Family has! 

Until next time, Mahna Mahna!

Dreaming Disney - Tales from the Jungle Crews

I can’t stop listening.

I’ve tried.  I’ve admitted I have a problem.  I’ve walked away from it, but I can’t stop listening.

My newest addiction is the podcast “Tales from the Jungle Crews.” 

Former Jungle Cruise Skipper Kyle interviews other past skips about their experiences with the attraction to create an oral history.  In many ways, Skipper Kyle is building this history for himself as he relives some of the best experiences of his life, but he lets the audience in and I’m thrilled he has.  In this informal and relaxed setting the stories from the Jungle Crews flow naturally as two to three friends having a conversation.  Some of the stories, many, of them may not be Disney Legal approved, but for The Jungle Cruise fan these are the stories we want to hear.  The skippers share their best behind the scenes stories (including some that may get you fired), tales of celebrity encounters, their best non Disney sanctioned spiels and of course their rehire status.  Rehire status may seem like an innocent question, but it often serves as the best story catalyst to get to the answer of no-rehire status.  

This show is so highly addictive.  I won’t be able to look at ducks in the rivers again.  Aerosmith will now forever break me into smiles.  And I’m pretty sure that I will be yelling, “This belongs in a museum!” to entertain myself for months to come.  I have heard ghost stories from the park that I have never heard.  And I love hearing about Jack Lindquist the celebrity.

I do have to give a word of warning.  The former Skips clearly loved working the attraction.  They also were fans of keeping the magic when working for the ride.  And though they attempted to keep most of their questionable activities off stage, sometimes this podcast gets a little blue.  Simply, if you see the Explicit tag on some episodes, believe Skipper Kyle, because the contents will either include profanity or a story that you don’t want to explain to the children. 

I’ve expressed my love of The Jungle Cruise before.  But it’s worse now, I’ve decided that I have missed out on an important life experience.  "Tales from the Jungle Crews" has confirmed my belief that the Skippers are the cast members having the most fun. 

I wonder how my fellow commuters in Betweenland would feel if I started spieling during the morning train ride.  They will be stuck with me for 25 minutes!  I mean they will be entertained for 25 minutes!