JUNGLE CRUISE AND DISNEY PARK RIDES
TURNED INTO MOVIES
By Lee Parham
With the latest Disney summer blockbuster Jungle Cruise rolling into theaters, we take a look back on the other Disney theme park attractions that have turned into movies.
IMAGE CREDIT: DISNEY
The Walt Disney Company made its first foray into feature filmmaking in 1937 with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which went on to receive critical acclaim and animation iconicity.
IMAGE CREDIT: DISNEY
18 years later one of Walt Disney’s boldest ideas came to fruition in the opening of the first ever Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, known as “the happiest place on earth.”
IMAGE CREDIT: THE WALT DISNEY ARCHIVES
Disney continued to expand their theme park empire, first to Orlando, Florida with the inception of Disney World in 1971, and then into other countries such as France, Japan, and China.
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Disney has dominated both the theme park landscape and film industry for decades, so a crossover event between two of their biggest cash cows was inevitable.
Mission To Mars
The first Disney Park ride to receive a film adaptation was Tower of Terror made into a Disney Channel original film in 1997 starring a young Kirsten Dunst.
IMAGE CREDIT: JENNIFER FICKLEY-BAKER
Despite the ride being famously based off The Twilight Zone TV series, Tower of Terror the movie had no connection to the show and is the only theme park adaptation to not be released theatrically.
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The turn of the century witnessed the release of Disney's first attempt giving a theme park film a big budget by means of Mission to Mars, directed by Mission Impossible helmer Brian de Palma.
An all star cast featuring Gary Sinese, Don Cheadle, Connie Nielson, and Tim Robbins weren’t enough to save Mission to Mars from crashing as a commercial and critical failure for the studio.
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In 2002 the Disney World attraction known as the Country Bear Jamboree was made into a film called The Country Bears, which failed to recoup its small budget and was panned by critics and audiences.
IMAGE CREDIT: WERNER WEISS and DISNEY
Disney Park films seemed to be on the rocks, but everything changed in 2003 with two wildly different releases, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Curse of the Black Pearl and The Haunted Mansion.
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Pirates of the Caribbean and the Curse of the Black Pearl
The Haunted Mansion
Pirates of the Caribbean was exactly what Disney had hoped for, spawning a billion dollar franchise and one of the most beloved characters in film history with Jack Sparrow played by Johnny Depp.
IMAGE CREDIT: DISNEY
On the opposite end of the spectrum, The Haunted Mansion was not the resounding success Disney had hoped for. The Eddie Murphy led horror comedy was mocked by critics and failed financially.
IMAGE CREDIT: DISNEY
Besides a plethora of sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney changed course away from theme park films and didn’t release another for over a decade until Tomorrowland in 2015.
While not one specific attraction and more a section of The Magic Kingdom, Tomorrowland posed a promising concept for a film with futuristic ideas and Pixar veteran Brad Bird tapped to direct.
IMAGE CREDIT: DISNEY
However misfortune struck again as Tomorrowland became Disney’s latest live action casualty, wasting a good cast lead (George Clooney) and a big budget, ultimately becoming a massive box office flop.
Despite mixed reception and return on investment from other theme park movies, Disney has moved full steam ahead with Jungle Cruise, inspired by the river-based safari ride of the same name.
Disney has high hopes for Jungle Cruise by casting major stars Dwayne Johnson as a riverboat captain and Emily Blunt as a scientist hoping to spawn the next live-action blockbuster franchise.