Warning! Spoilers ahead for Disney's Jungle Cruise
Disney's new film Jungle Cruise has been released, featuring a handful of comparable characters seen on the classic Disney Parks ride. The Jungle Cruise attraction is one of the oldest attractions at the parks and it's also one of the most beloved, taking passengers on a trip through the rivers of South America, Asia, and Africa. While most of the characters on the ride are animatronic animals, there are some notable characters that were originally featured that are also seen in the new film starring Emily Blunt as Dr Lily Houghton and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as skipper Frank Wolff. That being said, how do the movie characters measure up to those seen on the ride?
Dwayne Jonhson As The Skipper
On the Jungle Cruise ride, passengers are taken on a boat tour led by a skipper, a role filled by one of Disney Park's various cast members. While they do have a script to be followed as the boats visit various animatronic animals such as tigers, hippos, monkeys, and more, they're also allowed to flesh out their commentary with jokes of their own, the "punnier" the better.
In comparison, Dwayne Johnson shines in his role as Frank in the Jungle Cruise film, serving as the skipper of the La Quila who guides the new characters Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) and her brother McGregor (Jack Whitehall) through the rivers of the Amazon. However, even before the true adventure begins, Frank is seen taking groups of people on tours for money, and his cruises very much resemble the ride itself, featuring some of the best elements of the Jungle Cruise rides's fake threats such as the attacking hippo and headhunter tribesmen. However, Frank also shares some of the classic jokes every skipper tells on the ride throughout the course of the movie, such as the classic "backside of water" gag and the pun about the headhunter tribe not being a place anyone would want to "be headed". That being said, Frank also throws out jokes of his own with absolutely terrible and groan-worthy puns, just like any skipper would from the Disney attraction.
Veronica Falcón As Trader Sam And The Headhunter Tribe
Jungle Cruise surprisingly features Trader Sam as well, leader of the headhunter tribe and friend of Frank played by actress Veronica Falcón. On the Disney ride, Trader Sam was featured near the tour's end, being a business-minded cannibal offering shrunken heads for sale while wearing a fanciful top hat. However, Trader Sam (and the headhunters) were recently removed from the ride this year as part of Disney's initiative to modernize some elements of their rides, wishing to do away with some of the more racial and stereotypical depictions of Indigenous tribes.
Despite the controversy, Trader Sam and the headhunters are indeed featured in the new Jungle Cruise film, seen as friends of Frank who help him run his cruises, pretending to attack his boat just like the headhunters used to do on the ride. Additionally, the movie version of Trader Sam eventually gets a fanciful top hat of her own to match her now absent counterpart from the attraction, and she helps Frank, Lily, and McGregor translate the arrowhead key.
Other Characters From The Jungle Cruise Disneyland Ride
Other than Trader Sam, the skippers, and the headhunters, there aren't really any other characters that have comparable characters in the new movie. However, Paul Giamatti's Nilo Nemolato has a white cockatoo briefly seen named Rosita, a reference to the runaway white cockatoo whose presence can be seen all over Disney's Adventureland such as Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain, and the Tiki Room attractions. Furthermore, the off-screen Dr. Albert Falls is referenced a few times in the film who was the founder of the Jungle Navigation Company on the ride and the discoverer of the tour's Schweitzer Falls and "the backside of water." However, in the film he's simply the one who found the arrowhead key in Lily's possession. All that being said, While the attraction is really just an animatronic safari with very little narrative or human characters, the elements that are (or were) present were adapted in some pretty fun and dynamic ways for the new Jungle Cruise film all the same.