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Meet the Characters of Disney’s Jungle Cruise

By the D23 Team

Disney’s Jungle Cruise , inspired by the classic Disney theme park attraction, is a rollicking thrill ride down the mighty and mysterious Amazon, set to make waves when it arrives in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access on Friday, July 30. Featuring a star-studded cast led by Dwayne Johnson as the wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and Emily Blunt as determined botanist Dr. Lily Houghton, Jungle Cruise is a pulse-quickening adventure in which Lily enlists Frank’s guide service and his ramshackle boat, La Quila , to convey her through the deepest and most dangerous parts of the Amazon River to try to uncover the mystery of an ancient tree—one with the power to change the fate of humanity. Here is a guide to the dazzling array of colorful characters you will meet beginning this Friday when Jungle Cruise debuts.

Frank Wolff/Dwayne Johnson Charismatic skipper Frank Wolff is head of the Jungle Navigation Company. Opportunistic and endlessly charming, Frank leads unwitting tourists on sightseeing cruises along the Amazon that are low on substance but high on humor. As a producer, the potential for a Jungle Cruise –influenced feature film project was tantalizing enough, but to take on the mantle of Frank, the down-on-his-luck skipper of the jungle cruise riverboat, was chock-full of possibilities for Johnson. Describing his character, Johnson says, “Frank is a skipper on the Amazon, and he takes a lot of pride in what he does. There are elements as the movie progresses where you start to realize things about Frank that one would never have guessed. The man is an old soul who has a very unique perspective on life itself. Frank meets Lily, who is ambitious and brave and funny and charming and beautiful, and all these things eventually remind him how great life can be.”

Dr. Lily Houghton/Emily Blunt Dr. Lily Houghton is a determined British scientist and explorer who is as brilliant as she is fearless. Driven not only by her ideals but by an unrelenting desire to prove herself, free-spirited Lily is a force to be reckoned with. “I was just so struck by Lily’s determination and tenacity, and the fact that she was so ahead of her time, considering that the film is set in 1917,” says Blunt. “There was so much inequality between men and women and what was expected of her at the time. But she doesn’t subscribe to what was appropriate for her sex. And I found her really funny. She’s very reckless and heedless and adventurous. I admired her spirit.”

Captain Aguirre/Edgar Ramírez Captain Aguirre is the fearsome leader of a cutthroat crew of soldiers. These cursed men are powerful fighters who carry a personal vendetta that makes them even more of a threat to Frank and Lily on their quest. “I also love the mystery of my character, Aguirre, and the duality of the character,” Ramirez says. “To play a character like Aguirre, who walks that very thin line between good and evil, is very interesting.”

MacGregor Houghton/Jack Whitehall Lily’s brother, MacGregor, joins her and Frank on their expedition down the Amazon. Dapper MacGregor enjoys the finer things in life—stylish fashion, fine dining and elegant living—even in the middle of the rain forest. British comedian/actor Jack Whitehall is perfectly cast as a well-meaning sibling, whose often inept attempts to take care of his sister give the film some of its most hilarious moments. Although he and Blunt had never met, they soon discovered some unexpected overlaps in their backgrounds growing up in the same part of London. The pair easily fell into a familial rapport. “Our backstories are very similar,” notes Whitehall, “so Emily and I playing sister and brother just seems so right. I think we’ve been able to transfer all of those weird connections we have on to the screen in the best possible way.”

Nilo/Paul Giamatti Owner of a wildly successful sightseeing cruise company, Nilo is a powerful figure—and a tough competitor—in the Amazonian port town where Frank ekes out a living with his ramshackle boat. Veteran actor Paul Giamatti portrays Nilo, who has a long history with Frank Wolff, Johnson’s character. “Nilo keeps Frank under his thumb,” says Giamatti. “He extorts money out of him, and he wants all the boats in the town. He even wants Frank’s beat-up boat. Nilo just wants to control everything. So he’s bullying Frank to get what he wants.” Frank’s boat, La Quila , is the exact opposite of Nilo’s slick, state-of-the-art tourist boats that are moored in the same harbor. “ La Quila is a wonderful sort of character in and of itself,” comments Giamatti. “It’s just a fantastic, beat-up old trooper of a boat, which Frank is like too, in many ways. Frank’s been around a long time, and the boat’s been around a long time.”

Prince Joachim/Jesse Plemons Prince Joachim is a wealthy and capable young commander with an arsenal of military-grade weapons at his disposal. In his quest for power and glory, he ruthlessly seeks the secret at the heart of Lily and Frank’s journey. “We tried to create a villain character that feels unique,” Plemons says. “It was just about finding his quirks. He’s someone who is forward-thinking and looking far ahead into the future. So, I tried to keep that in mind when I was working on the character.”

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Film / Jungle Cruise

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Jungle Cruise is a 2021 adventure film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and based on the Disney Theme Parks ride of the same name , and in turn loosely based on The African Queen , the film that inspired the ride.

Set during the early 20th century, a riverboat captain named Frank Wolff ( Dwayne Johnson ) takes Lily Houghton ( Emily Blunt ), an English scientist, and her brother MacGregor ( Jack Whitehall ) on a mission into a jungle to find the Tree of Life, which is believed to possess healing powers. All the while, the trio must fight against dangerous wild animals, a competing German expedition and a rather unexpected enemy .

The film also stars Édgar Ramírez , Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti . It was released on July 30, 2021, simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access. The film became available to all Disney+ subscribers on November 12, 2021. In August 2021, it was announced a sequel, again featuring Johnson and Blunt, had been greenlit.

Jungle Cruise contains examples of:

• Accidental Murder : MacGregor punches Joachim into a wall, who then happens to be crushed by a piece of stone that falls from above. MacGregor immediately lampshades that he didn't mean for that to happen.
• Action Girl : Lily is quite the swashbuckler, having even more stunts than Frank, as well as throwing a pretty solid punch.
• Adaptation Expansion : Like with Pirates of the Caribbean , Jungle Cruise adds plenty of new characters and lore that didn't exist in the original ride, such as the Tears of the Moon, the tree that can heal anything, the Conquistadors who were cursed while trying to take it, the Germans seeking to seize it for their war effort, and many of the Amazon creatures in general as the Amazon River has the most minimal role of all the rivers in the ride, being primarily represented by piranhas or Inspiration Falls depending on the version.
• Affectionate Nickname : Lily and Frank playfully refer to each other as "Pants" and "Skippy" respectively.
• Agony of the Feet : Shortly after getting the arrowhead from the society, Lily and MacGregor recount an incident where he apparently lost two toes from an expedition to Bhutan when he was 7 when MacGregor is arguing against joining her on her planned Amazon trip. Later, he hurts the other foot when escaping from Aguirre and his men.
• All Animals Are Dogs : Proxima the jaguar acts a lot like a dog.
• Ambiguously Gay : MacGregor is rather heavily implied to be gay, but not explicitly said to be so. He admits to Frank that he has rejected three attempts by his family to marry him off to highborn young ladies because his affections lie "elsewhere," and his sister Lily is the only relative who doesn't regard him with disgust. Given the social conventions of upper-class Edwardian English society, it's possible that he's talking about being in love with a working-class woman , but his evasive description (and the fact that he's an able-bodied military-age male who's not in the army at the height of WWI), and the fact he never mentions an actual love interest and the specification that he could not accept any offer (which could be loyalty to another woman he has fallen for, but is more likely to mean that the issue is in the gender) pushes the audience's suspicions pretty far in the other direction. It's worth noting that this is accurate for the time period the movie is set in.
• Amusing Injuries : Poor Frank gets punched a whole lot. And after he's revealed to be immortal, he gets even worse, since he can survive things like being stabbed, shot, and attacked by piranha.
• And I Must Scream : Tired of Aguirre and his crew constantly tracking him down, Francisco lured them into a trap that dropped them down into a cave out of sight of the river. When the jungle tried to drag them back, they were immobilized, turned to stone, and their bodies began to erode, becoming part of the jungle itself. At the end, he leaves them in the same state once again, and nearly suffers this fate himself.
• And Starring : "With Jesse Plemons , And Paul Giamatti "
• …And That Little Girl Was Me : At one point, Lily and Frank discuss Aguirre's cartographer, with Frank saying that he spent his life searching for the Tears of the Moon to no avail. He fails to mention that he was said cartographer, and had been searching for the Tears of the Moon for centuries.
• Angry, Angry Hippos : Invoked. During his boats trips, Frank uses a fake hippopotamus to scare the tourists, even though (As one of the tourists points out) hippos don't live in the Amazon.
• When Joachim shoots at Frank's steamboat with dual mounted machine guns, he runs out of ammo, calls for "reload", and then sits around as if he expects it to happen automatically (the actual reloading process occurs offscreen). The guns he's using have ammo drums that have to be swapped out manually.
• At least one of the German soldiers uses an American shotgun despite being a member of the Imperial German Navy (and Imperial Germany's contentious relationship with shotguns on the battlefield, which they insisted was a war crime ).
• Frank's riverboat, La Quila , doesn't make much sense mechanically. The "engine" seen being lifted out of the ship near the start of the film looks vaguely like a dressed-up steam engine piston assembly, but it has no obvious physical connection to the firebox or propeller (such connections would also make the engine more difficult to remove and reattach than shown). The firebox is misplaced, being located in a stove-like chamber at the base of the (excessively large) funnel instead of being under the boiler (which either doesn't exist, or is also not where it should be). The mechanical parts of the ship in general are overdressed with pointless components and pipes while the actual working parts are too small for a boat the size and speed of the Quila (an engine with one or two pistons, a stove-size firebox, and a boiler small enough to stow away are more fitting for the small steam launches used by the real-life ride).
• The interior of Joachim's U-Boat is excessively roomy, to the point where it's not immediately obvious that the scenes taking place in his personal study are actually inside a part of the sub until he opens the door. Needless to say, this sort of accommodation would not be possible in a World War One-era submarine (which were notoriously cramped, greasy, and generally filthy).
• Aristocrats Are Evil : Prince Joachim is one of the main antagonists of the movie, seeking the Tree of Life to use its powers to win the war for Imperial Germany.
• MacGregor sums up Lily's excursion at the Society. MacGregor: Breaking and entering, larceny and, worst of all, having to take public transport.
• At the end, when MacGregor is telling the Society about the adventure, they seem to take in all the crazy exploits, the battles with evil Germans and the undead monstrous conquistadors...but it's when he mentions a woman being chief of a native tribe that the Society members act in outraged disbelief, as if they're unaware of the female monarchs their own country has had in the past—including Queen Victoria, whose reign had only ended with her death in 1901, well within living memory of the setting .
• Awesome, but Impractical : A German U-boat might have allowed Joachim to smuggle himself and a crew of supporters into the Amazon river undetected, as well as boasting more offensive capability that anything else in the river, but U-boats were built for the open ocean, not rivers. Even a river as big as the Amazon can only barely fit the sub, and the closest it gets to being a threat is at the start of the journey, when the river mouth is widest and Joachim can maneuver without too much difficultly, allowing him to bring the guns and torpedoes on board to bear against Frank's decisively less well-equipped craft, but once Frank used his boat's smaller size and greater agility to his advantage, Joachim accomplishes little to inconvenience him, save wrecking Nilo's rival boating company in the crossfire. By the time of the Final Battle , the submarine becomes beached when Frank and Lily uncover the secret entrance to the Tears of the Moon through lowering the water level in the basin they're in, whereas Frank's boat can still proceed through to the tree no problem. Frank: Who brings a submarine to the Amazon?
• The Barnum : Frank's "thrilling" cruise is purposefully engineered to be exciting without any real danger, using fake submerged hippos and natives acting the part of blowgun-wielding "marauders".
• Beastly Bloodsports : In the bar where Lily and MacGregor meet Frank, some fights between spiders and scorpions are organized.
• Been There, Shaped History : A mild case as it turns out Frank is the one who founded the town he lives in centuries before .
• Belligerent Sexual Tension : It does not take long after Frank and Lily meet for them to start bickering, giving each other sassy nicknames, and saving each other's lives .
• Big Bad Duumvirate : Prince Joachim and Lope de Aguirre are the main villains of the movie.
• Bilingual Bonus : The name of Frank's original rescued animal was the Spanish phrase La Proxima note  (Meaning "The Next") . It was also the name of the next one, and the next one, and the next one.
• Bling of War : Aguirre's armor was both more ornamental than the rest of his troops and gilded with gold.
• Bloodless Carnage : Justified in Frank's case as a side-effect of the curse prevents him from losing any blood. When the curse stops working again, he happily notes that he's bleeding .
• Book Ends : The film begins with MacGregor giving a speech to the Society, stuttering and using cue cards from Lily while going along as a distraction to ask for their approval. The movie ends with him giving his own speech and fully confident after his Character Development , soundly and rightfully rejecting their request for Lily to join on her own behalf.
• Brick Joke : Early on in the film, Lily taunts Joachim by switching the arrowhead in it's container with a Toucan toy that was in the same packaging crate. Joachim keeps hold of it, and in the finale Frank does the same thing to Aguirre, pretending the Toucan toy wrapped up in a cloth is the Petal they're fighting over to distract him long enough for his boat to ram and block the river entrance to the chamber they're in, activating their curse's restrictions against all 5 of them .
• Brother–Sister Team : Lily and MacGregor Houghton. Lily's adventurous and determined, and MacGregor goes with her to keep her out of trouble. Also counts as Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy .
• Poor Nilo, getting his boating company caught in the crossfire of a submarine .
• Also MacGregor, who gets repeatedly dragged into his sister Lily's adventures. Apparently, one such expedition cost him two toes.
• But Not Too Gay : Billed as yet Disney's most recent "first openly gay character" note  (after Artie in Cruella , LeFou in Beauty and the Beast , Officer Spector in Onward , Larma D’Acy and Wrobie Tyce in The Rise of Skywalker and that one guy Joe Russo played in Avengers: Endgame ) MacGregor merely says his "interests lie elsewhere" when discussing his past refusal to marry. (Just to cement that it's this trope, he talks of being ostracized because of "who I love," but has no love interest whatsoever in the film.) Justified in that the timeframe is WW1 and England was known to arrest gay people for 'crime of indecency' so he at least has an excuse of not wanting to discuss it out-loud.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder : MacGregor is a downplayed example. Lily has a tendency to let her adventurous tendencies get the better of her, while the cooler-headed MacGregor helps to save her from whatever situation she's put herself in. The opening demonstrates this well when Lily is hanging over a busy street, and MacGregor gets a double-decker bus to stop under her, allowing her to drop down safely.
• Complete Immortality : The conquistadors including Frank are immune to any form of death, including old age or injury. No matter how damaged they are, they'll just regenerate. The only way to circumvent this is to break their curse with the Tears of the Moon.
• Curse Cut Short : Frank gets out an "Oh, shi—" before getting taken out with a tranquilizer dart.
• Deadpan Snarker : How MacGregor copes with the situation.
• Death by Looking Up : MacGregor knocks Joachim against a wall that causes a pillar to fall on top of him, though he has enough time to let out an "Oh scheiße " before he's crushed.
• Death Seeker : Frank, after experiencing Who Wants to Live Forever? . He gets over it after Lily lifts his curse and instead goes to London with her to live out his natural lifespan.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit : Lily pulls off one by proxy in the finale, shooting Frank to make it look like she was betraying him for a chance at the Tears of the Moon. He wasn't really affected because of his curse, but it gave him the opportunity to fake it and go to rescue MacGregor.
• Department of Redundancy Department : "Trader Sam likes a trade."
• Lope de Aguirre was this, relentlessly venturing further into the Amazon jungle no matter how many losses he suffered, from his ship, to his crew falling one by one, to eventually himself succumbing to either exhaustion or disease before the natives found him and nursed him back to health. Francisco reveals this was because his daughter was deathly ill, and he hoped to cure her with the petals, but it's tragically Deconstructed as this very trait of his is ultimately what damns him to a Fate Worse than Death twice over. The native chief cursed him and bound him to the river because he refused to turn back after finally finding proof of the Tears of the Moon and was willing to slaughter both the natives and even his own brother-in-arms Francisco if it meant getting the arrowhead, and his refusal to accept the consequences of his actions lead to him instead blaming Francisco when he became included in the conquistador's curse, hunting him down and repeatedly killing him over the years until Franciso was forced to subject him to Taken for Granite , because he would never stop coming after him otherwise .
• Lily is also a good example. She will get the Tears of the Moon, and no undead conquistadores, German royalty, river rapids, naysaying from Frank, or sexist gentleman's club will stop her. Frank: You should give up! Lily: You should give up the guitar !
• Disney Death : Happens to Frank twice. First, during a fight with Aguirre, he's stabbed through the heart and falls into the river. Then it turns out that he's immortal. And later at the end of the final battle, he sacrifices himself by ramming his boat to block the river in order to defeat Aguirre once and for all, turning himself, Aguirre, and his men into stone. Then Lily gives him the petal, which revives him.
• Don't Explain the Joke : After making a pun about a pair of toucans fighting over something to eat (a game only two can play) that falls flat, Frank starts explaining that they're toucans and only two can play...get it? His passengers aren't impressed.
• Dragon with an Agenda : Prince Joachim indulges in some Evil Gloating about how first he will use the Tears to win the war, then Take Over the World , and finally "reign forever." Given that he's the youngest son of Kaiser Wilhelm, it sure doesn't sound like he plans on sharing immortality with Papa Willy or any of his five big brothers or his younger sister.
• Dwindling Party : Aguirre's expedition got hit with this, first losing their ship on the mouth of the river, then the entire crew dying one by one to the dangers of the jungle, with only 5 conquistadors, including Aguirre himself, being left on the verge of death by the time the native tribe found them and nursed them back to health with the Tears of the Moon. Then that number dwindles down to 4 once Francisco turns on his compatriots when they start killing the natives to get the arrowhead .
• Dying Curse : After being stabbed, the chief used his last breath to lay a curse on the five conquistadors to live forever yet never be allowed to leave view of the Amazon River. This also saved his daughter, who had the Arrowhead, as the jungle dragged Aguirre away from her.
• Evil Is Petty : Prince Joachim's not only a greedy bastard, but he's also quite vindictive shown in the Royal Society at the beginning of the film when he murders many of Sir James's workers with his own hands just because the latter unintentionally mispronounced his name.
• Evil Makes You Monstrous : Unlike the similar curse in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl , the Conquistadores' curse doesn't specifically do anything to their appearance, as demonstrated by Frank/Francisco, their Token Good Teammate who looks totally normal . Their current Body Horror is the indirect result of continuing to be evil after being cursed. Francisco had to trap them in a cave away from the Amazon to stop them pursuing him. Since they were suddenly away from the river, the jungle tried to pull them back, but it couldn't get them through the surrounding stone, and instead merged them with the surroundings. Even after they're re-animated by Joachim bringing the river to them, their original bodies have suffered so badly from erosion that they were replaced with things like bees, mud, and snakes. Had they not gone after Francisco, they'd look much the same as they always had.
• Exact Words : When Joachim said that only one of them can get the petal, he asks Frank if was willing to give up his petal for Lily. Frank specifically said Lilly will have to kill him for it. So she does. Or more specifically, she helps him fake his death so he could go help MacGregor.
• Fate Worse than Death : The conquistadors were cursed with immortality at the cost that they would always be drawn back to the river if they tried to go out of visual range of it. Later, Francisco (Frank) managed to trap them in a pit so that they would be kept away from the river for centuries, their bodies collapsing and being 'replaced' by things ranging from bees to snakes until the German forces detonated explosives to send the river into the pit . This happens again at the end, when the heroes use Frank's riverboat to cut off the flow of water into the temple; the curse drags them into the temple walls, where they will presumably stay forever .
• Five-Second Foreshadowing : Aquirre mentions getting revenge on a man named "Francisco" one minute before the reveal that Frank is a former member of their group and is cursed as well .
• Frank looks surprised when Lily shows the map...which makes sense as he drew it and is amazed a copy got to England .
• In said staged fight, when Frank wrestles with the jaguar on the ground, he sees a scorpion skittering towards the cat and immediately throws her to the other side (and when he sees a spider on that side, he tosses her up and onto a table), showing that he's clearly manipulating the fight to keep Proxima away from anything that might actually hurt her. He is also more concerned about Proxima's safety than his own, since he is effectively immortal.
• During the fight Proxima bites Frank's arm, later prompting him to remark that she did it "way too hard". Such a bite would have, at the very least, left Frank with a noticeably bleeding wound, yet he appears perfectly fine. One may wave it off as being part of the ruse, or a fumble of the FX crew, but it's actually a subtle hint at him being unable to bleed due to his curse .
• Frank looks noticeably shaken when he sees the arrowhead Lily's wearing around her neck and becomes insistent upon being the one to take her on the cruise to find the Tree, even after she's discovered his lies about being Nilo, whereas before he was determined to take her on a safe, but enjoyable trip to get her money to pay for his boat back. At first, this seems to be foreshadowing that Frank had himself been searching for the Tree before giving up and deciding to become a Riverboat skipper after failing to find it for years, but instead it's because he's literally just seen the key to breaking his curse dangled right in front of him and knows Lily is actually serious about finding the tree .
• Frank complains Proxima is "the worst cat I've ever had." This seems a joke at first until you learn Proxima is only the latest in the long line of cats Frank has owned over the centuries, all sharing the same name .
• During a conversation with MacGregor Frank reveals that he speaks Latin which was the dominant lingua franca of European scholars prior to the 18th century. As a cartographer Frank would likely have been versed in this language as part of his education.
• Frank makes reference to having "run out of things to draw" before it's revealed that he was the cartographer for the conquistador's expedition through the Amazon and has spent centuries drawing maps of the region .
• When Frank and Lily meet the mutated Aguirre, Lily is surprised that the legend of the Conquistadors is true, while Frank just says "this is impossible." Frank already knew the curse was real, because he was one of the conquistadors and is the reason they were trapped, thus he isn't surprised that Aguirre is alive, just that he escaped the cave.
• Frank initially nicknames Lily as "Pants", mainly out of his jokes about seeing a woman wearing pants. While it could easily be chalked up to it being an unusual sight in the Amazon, it may also be combined with Frank's lack of knowledge about the world beyond the Amazon due to his curse, not to mention his age; seeing as it's been a while since he was last in an actual city and may literally not be used to seeing women wear such clothing to begin with. It's not just him either; the conquistadors similarly refer to Lily as the "woman in pants", which hints at both Frank's true age and his history with them.
• Observant viewers will realize that the terms of the conquistador's curse, that they are 'never to leave sight of the river again' fits neatly in with Frank's job as a riverboat captain who has intricate knowledge of the estuaries and layout of the jungle landscape.
• When talking about the local legend that some types of fish in the river as shapeshifter spirits who will curse them with bad nightmares for life if they look them in the eye, Frank warns Lily and MacGregor that 'If you believe in legends, you should believe in curses too.' Whilst it seems to be foreshadowing the fact that the conquistador's curse is Real After All , it's actually foreshadowing that Frank himself has first-hand experience with the curse, being a member of the conquistador's party 400 years ago.
• During Frank's conversation with MacGregor, he has somewhat doubtful expression when MacGregor claims there haven't been any conquistadors in the area for 300 years. Because MacGregor is claiming the cursed conquistadors weren't real, to one of the conquistadors in question .
• Counts more as Five-Second Foreshadowing , but when Frank is impaled by Aguirre, he seems remarkably unconcerned with the mortal wound, pulling himself closer on the blade to grab the arrowhead from one of Aguirre's snakes and throwing it to Lily even as he falls off the tree, showing remarkable clarity of mind for somebody who's about to die. It turns out that Frank's actually immortal, and has apparently been impaled before. Repeatedly .
• Frank is negotiating with the natives in their own language. After a few moments, we see the translation where Frank is surprisingly outspoken about Lily being difficult and blasé about their lives in danger. This sets up the reveal the tribe and Frank are working together and this is all a huge performance . A similar foreshadowing can be taken from earlier in the film where the natives who "attacked" Frank's tour group were obviously also putting on a performance .
• Early in the movie, Frank jokingly claims that Zaqueu looks 10, but is actually 47. Frank is actually the one who is significantly older than he looks .
• In the first scene where Frank is giving a jungle cruise to tourists, he points out two toucans fighting over food ("a game only two can play") . This foreshadows the role of the toucan figurine when two characters are fighting over either the Tears of the Moon or the arrowhead, where the loser is tricked into fighting over the figurine instead.
• When Frank gets punched by either of the Houghton siblings, he comments on their "strong form." While this is expected for Lily , he also says it about MacGregor. MacGregor happens to be an amateur boxer.
• Frank seems to be incredibly fond of his riverboat and refuses to part with her or replace her, despite her being...past her prime (to put it mildly) . Turns out, he built the boat by hand 400 years ago and she has been his home the whole time, which explains his reluctance to part with her.
• Why would Frank be particularly cold and dismissive of the Houghton siblings, even treating them exploitatively in the first acts? As someone cursed to be immortal, he has already buried many of his friends so he does not want his heart broken again. The emotional distancing has become a coping mechanism.
• Friendship Moment : Frank explaining to Lily his full backstory for the first time including his true name and why he was also chasing after the Tears of the Moon marks the moment the two characters were able to finally trust each other.
• Funny Background Event : While Frank is tossing MacGregor's bags in the river, a group of locals on a rowboat can be seen snagging the luggage for themselves.
• Gaia's Vengeance : The Conquistador that's made out of Bees Wax, is dripping honey, and has bees following him everywhere is none too pleased when Prince Joachim kills some of his bees. He learns about it because one of them managed to escape and flew back to tell him. When he appears he says quite angrily "I've been told you were not nice to my little friends."
• Gender Flip : The male shrunken head salesman Trader Sam is switched into the female chief of the native tribe.
• Got Me Doing It : Lily unleashes a bad pun at the end, as Frank had been doing throughout the movie.
• Guilt by Association Gag : A dramatic example. Francisco, who would eventually be known as Frank, was included in the curse on the conquistadors despite turning on them in order to protect the native village.
• He Knows Too Much : After his identity is accidentally revealed, Joachim kills everyone who was in earshot of it. Justified as he is a German aristocrat in the middle of London during World War I .
• Heroic Sacrifice : Frank uses La Quila to block the river and petrify the conquistadors once more... at the cost of the curse getting him too. Thankfully, it doesn't last long before Lily cures him.
• Prince Joachim Franz Humbert of Prussia, youngest son of Kaiser Wilhelm II. note  The real Prince Joachim, between being unable to adjust to his change in status after his father was deposed and his marriage falling apart, killed himself in 1920. He also reportedly did not speak English.
• Lope de Aguirre, the 16th Century Spanish conquistador, who's been trapped in the Amazon jungle since his supposed death. His comrades (Melchor, Sancho, and Gonzalo) are all names of historical figures relevant to Aguirre's conquest of Peru.
• Prince Joachim of Prussia was a real person; he did serve in the German army during the First World War but doesn't seem to have been particularly villainous. Indeed Irish rebels against the British during the Easter Rising in 1916 even considered offering him the throne of an independent Ireland in the event of a German victory. Overlaps with Death by Adaptation as the real Joachim survived the war only to take his own life in 1920 after Germany became a republic and his marriage had fallen apart.
• However, the trope is also downplayed: Joachim is a villain mostly because he opposes the heroes, and while his goal is not admirable in the slightest using a magical remedy to win the war and extend his own life keeping the monopoly of it are pretty understandable goals for a member of a royal family. His villainous actions are done in pursuit of that goal rather than out of malice. He is also one of only two men never shown to be dismissive of Lily because of her gender.
• Hollywood Natives : Invoked by Frank, who works with the Puka Michuna as part of his show, with the tribal leader, Trader Sam, even commenting on how ridiculous the whole show is, and the tribe is actually quite normal, even if they aren't entirely aware of outside happenings.
• Humanoid Abomination : The conquistadors, sans Frank , due to a side effect of their curse; when they're freed after having been petrified for centuries, erosion had done a serious number on their bodies and they have to take elements from the surrounding area to fill in the missing parts. Aguirre himself is mostly snakes, and his men are made of beehives, mud, and tree branches respectively.
• I Ate WHAT?! : Subverted. When MacGregor drinks what he thinks is beer at the native tribe, Frank points out it's actually fermented spit. Though initially disgusted, MacGregor continues to drink it anyways. It is also a sign of character development.
• Improperly Placed Firearms : A minor example where one of the U-boat crew threatens Frank with a Winchester '97 12-gauge. The Germans had a major cultural aversion to shotguns being used as combat weapons, enough that in 1918 they threatened to execute any American captured with one as a war criminal note  the US called them out on it, citing their liberal use of flamethrowers and poison gas , and promised to execute all German POWs if they tried it; the Germans quickly backed down . So although not impossible, it is highly unlikely that any German grunt would even possess, much less use, a combat shotgun.
• Inevitable Waterfall : Frank and Lily's boat heads towards a waterfall at one point when sailing down the rapids. They almost end up going over it because Frank gets distracted messing around with Lily and fails to notice they've missed the turn into the safer river path.
• Invincible Hero : Frank puts on the persona of being one in his river cruises, pretending to be an experienced skipper who can handle any dangers the jungle throws at him and his passengers with ease and cracking jokes all the time. Then it turns out he's literally this, as one of the five conquistadors who were cursed by the chief, he literally cannot die or be meaningfully hurt by any dangers of the jungle, and has apparently been stabbed by weapons often enough that Trader Sam has gotten tired of pulling them out of him and offers advice to Lily on how to best yank out a sword Frank's impaled by .
• In-Universe Factoid Failure : One of the fake menaces Frank brings up to the tourists is a hippopotamus, but (as one girl points out) there are no hippos in the Amazon.
• Invincible Villain : The conquistadors are cursed and utterly unkillable, with the heroes being able to fight them off, but not being able to keep them down for long, and unlike the cursed pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean , breaking their curse isn't easily achievable, as it requires the Tears of the Moon, which only bloom rarely in a secret location, so the heroes' only real choice is to Run or Die . Thankfully, the 'run' option is made more practical by the curse, as the Conquistadores can only pursue targets so far before they're dragged back to the river.
• I Take Offense to That Last One : Of all the snide remarks that Lily makes to Frank, the one that really gets to him is the accusation of playing his guitar off-key.
• Frank desperately wants the Tears of the Moon flower so he can break his 400 year old curse. When there was only one flower, he decides to not only give it to Lily, but to also allow himself to be turned into stone (while also trapping the other conquistadors) to save Lily's life.
• Downplayed on Lily's part. Although the consequences of her giving the last Tears of the Moon to Frank to break his curse isn't as dramatic, it meant all of the effort and money she has spent on finding the flower would have gone to waste, not to mention the possible flak she would have received for failing to get a specimen of the flower.
• Subverted Trope : see Karmic Jackpot
• Jerkass Has a Point : Joachim doesn't have any noble purpose regarding the flower, but he is right in pointing out that Lily owes nothing to the association that wouldn't accept him because of her gender (noticeably, he is the only man beside MacGregor to never disregard her because of it, in his first appearance seeming genuinely impressed by her pointing out that the association mislabeled an artifact). Lily does end up choosing to reject the association in the end because of their mistreatment.
• Karmic Jackpot : Lily gives up the single petal she has to revive Frank. The moonlight then happens to illuminate a single branch, allowing another to bloom for her to take.
• Frank is generally cynical, doesn't think Lily can find the Tears of the Moon, and runs a tourist attraction full of fake thrills . He's also willing to put himself on the line to save Lily and Trader Sam's tribe. And during Lope de Aguirre's expedition, he was the only one to turn against Aguirre when he decided to massacre the tribe that took him in.
• MacGregor really doesn't like the jungle and also doesn't think the legends are real. But that doesn't matter to him, because Lily's his sister (and the only member of his family who didn't disown him for his homosexuality), and he'd follow her into a volcano .
• Lame Pun Reaction : Frank's many puns are often met with groans. One child begs her mother to make him stop.
• Large and in Charge : Frank is the skipper of the boat and it's mentioned several times how big he is. He's played by 6'5"/196cm, 260lb/118kg Dwayne Johnson. This actually becomes a plot point, as it means Frank is too large to fit through the underwater ruins blocking the entrance to the tree's location, and has to help Lily overcome her inability to swim to reach the lever that opens the way .
• Let's Get Dangerous! : MacGregor is presented as an Upper-Class Twit who is shown to hate the jungle, behaves quite effeminately (he's quite possibly gay) and brings an absurd amount of luggage on a trip up the Amazon River. He's also a Queensberry Rules boxer, and proves himself to be a very competent fighter when he completely levels the German submariners during the finale. He's even the one who takes out Prince Joachim, albeit partially by accident.
• Logical Weakness : Albeit an impractical one; the Conquistadores' curse restricts them to the immediate vicinity of the Amazon river. If you really want them away from somewhere, you can re-route the river, changing where the curse allows them to go. Of course, this does require significant effort (it's not easy to change the course of the world's largest river), but it's how Joachim awakens the Conquistadores to help him out- he uses explosives to direct the river partially into the cave where they were trapped. It's also how the heroes defeat the Conquistadores in the end, using Frank's steamboat as an impromptu dam to suddenly define the area they were in as 'too far from the river'.
• Logo Joke : The bay in the Disney logo is seen to have purple water, and after the Disney logo fully appears the camera dives into the water.
• Lots of Luggage : MacGregor brings an absurd amount of luggage for a trip up the Amazon. Frank promptly throws most of it overboard.
• Lovecraftian Superpower : The trapped Conquistadores have had parts of their body replaced by jungle. This makes them "disgusting" in the words of one and makes Aguirre wonder if they still have souls, but it allows them to control the wildlife in their bodies.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy : The adventure-seeking Lily who prefers wearing pants to MacGregor, who always tries to be a Sharp-Dressed Man and be clean, no matter how impractical.
• Master of Unlocking : Lily is quite adept at lockpicking and uses it to get things she wants and into places others don't want her to be.
• Misplaced Retribution : The native chief cursed all five conquistadors for the slaughter of his tribe, including Francisco, who didn't participate in the massacre and actually helped his daughter escape with the arrowhead his 'allies' were trying to retrieve, thus forever including him in Aguirre's eternal punishment despite not having done anything to deserve it himself. It's Justified though, as it's implied the chief's curse was vaguely-worded enough to count all the conquistadors as a group together, and the majority of them were guilty of shedding innocent blood, so the chief's Dying Curse wasn't able to exclude Francisco, not to mention the fact that the chief wasn't able to see Francisco turning on his comrades to protect his daughter. In addition, it also technically saved Francisco's life, as he was mortally wounded by Aguirre and almost died before the curse affected him.
• Misplaced Wildlife : In-Universe . Frank's Jungle Cruise tour includes props of Hippos that he makes move around with loaded weights strategically cut to stimulate the cruise with safe but exciting thrills for the passengers. One little girl tries to point out that hippos aren't native to the Amazon before Frank shushes her.
• Motive Decay : Frank reveals Aguirre's quest to find the Tears of the Moon was initially to find a cure for his terminally ill daughter, before he succumbed to anger and slaughtered the natives upon being rejected by the chief on the cusp of achieving his heart's desire. His anger at Francisco/Frank protecting the natives and allowing the chief's daughter to flee with the arrowhead they needed to find the tree lead to him spending their immortal lives hunting Frank down and killing him again and again, despite both of them being immortal and thus the outcome pointless regardless , and his daughter having long succumbed to either her disease or aging over the years. By the present day, he merely wants to break the curse that binds him to the river and give Frank further punishment for the Fate Worse than Death he gave them .
• Frank is the Pungeon Master just like the skippers on the ride the film is based on.
• The "dangers" of Frank's boat trips for tourists seen in the trailer are as fake as the ride it's based on. Frank also utters the famous "backside of water" line after he secretly cuts a rope to produce a "waterfall" from a sluice pipe hidden above.
• Dr. Albert Falls is alluded to through a collection of artifacts discovered on his expedition, including the mysterious arrowhead.
• While Frank's riverboat operation is the film's version of the Jungle Navigation Company, the competing "Nilo's River Adventure" bears a closer resemblance to the original Disney ride and the bright red and white boats from pre-90s incarnations. Nilo's office also features a door based on the offices seen on the upper floor of the Skipper Canteen at the Magic Kingdom.
• Nilo's cockatoo is Rosita, the missing Birdmobile girl from The Enchanted Tiki Room that later made an appearance in person in the Jungle Cruise/Tiki Room themed restaurant Tropical Hideaway at Disneyland.
• The chief of the native tribe is named Trader Sam, albeit a gender-flipped incarnation.
• The chamber the Tears of the Moon is hidden in is essentially a Mayincatec version of the sunken temple found at the Magic Kingdom and Tokyo versions of the attraction.
• The Navigator : Both Frank and Lily are skilled navigators, Lily because she's been adventuring most of her life and is skilled at reading maps and orienteering, and Frank because he lives and works on the Amazon, and knows every branch and tributary, because he's had centuries to roam them, looking for the Tears of the Moon. In fact, he's the one who drew the very map Lily is using.
• Never Say "Die" : Frank uses a lot of euphemisms to talk about his intent to commit suicide after breaking the curse.
• No Kill like Overkill : Joachim fires a torpedo against the La Quila , a tiny riverboat.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent : No explanation is ever given for Frank's clear American accent, even though he's living in Brazil and is a 400-year-old Spaniard.
• Not So Above It All : At the end of the movie Lily joins in with making puns while driving Frank off into London.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain : The Beeswax Conquistador comes off as the least threatening of the cursed conquistadors, being knocked out and incapacitated twice by mundane means whereas his more threatening compatriots require more effort to subdue, as well as partially enjoying his cursed state because he now tastes delicious, but his connection to the bees nesting inside him means that the conquistadors have a long-range spy network, able to communicate with Joachim and send him after Frank and the others when they evade the cursed group, as well as tracking them down for the Final Battle when one bee escape Joachim's attempts to crush them all and prevent the conquistadors finding the tree.
• Only in It for the Money : Frank only reacts to Lily's demand for a river trip when she starts talking about her wealth, in part because he needs to make 5000 Real in one week in order to pay off his debt to Nilo in order to keep his boat, and his livelihood. This then becomes subverted when he catches a glimpse of the Arrowhead hanging around her neck, as it offers an opportunity for him to finally break his curse .
• Panthera Awesome : Proxima the jaguar. Frank exploits this by training her to fake fights with him to make him look good.
• Percussive Maintenance : Lily restarts Frank's engine by giving it a kick.
• Piranha Problem : At one point, Frank throws a small rodent into the river to attract piranhas and eat them. Later in the film, a school of piranhas attacks Frank to eat him. Since he's immortal they aren't successful, but the experience is clearly unpleasant for him .
• Pocket Protector : Subverted , but the spirit of the trope is there. Towards the climax of the movie, Lily grabs a gun and fakes turning on Frank in order to take Joachim's offer of 'a single petal' from the tree, shooting him so he falls into the water and can then ambush the remaining Germans back on his cruise boat holding MacGregor hostage. Frank actually doesn't have any such protective items to block the bullets, but since he's Immortal , it enables him to convincingly 'fake' getting shot more realistically . The only thing that nearly gives away the ruse is Frank getting equally taken off-guard by Lily's Unspoken Plan Guarantee and needing a second bullet to get the hint.
• Politically Correct History : Zigzagged. MacGregor was realistically shunned by most of his family and associates for being gay in the 1910s. When he explains this to Frank, who is a Spaniard that grew up in the 1500s during the country's conservative Catholic environment , Frank is surprisingly open-minded about his sexuality and doesn't judge him. Given Frank's been stuck on the river for 400 years and has likely met plenty of people from all types of cultures and customs, he's had plenty of time to accept such things.
• Profane Last Words : Joachim says "Oh scheiße" before being crushed to death.
• The Punishment : The Conquistadors certainly don't like their current state, but it allows them some decent, if creepy superpowers , while Frank is entirely human, aside from the immortality . The trope is downplayed because the punishers didn't intend for them to get powers, and their curse does come with the hobble of being unable to go too far from the Amazon river. The chief who cursed them originally wanted them to stop them from pursuing his daughter, and Frank intended to just trap them forever. The reason they are partially made of jungle is because of the effects of erosion on their petrified bodies, and they only escape because Joachim re-directed the river with explosives.
• Prussians in Pickelhauben : Apart from Lope de Aguirre , the villains are Imperial Germans, complete with a U-boat. Bonus points for Joachim specifically being the Prince of Prussia.
• True to the original ride, Frank can't help but riff off several puns during his touring spiel, much to the annoyance of everyone who goes on a voyage with him. Some of the jokes are directly lifted from the ride's script.
• In the ending, Lily teaches Frank how to drive. Lily remarks she has no idea what they're getting into, to which Frank replies, "An automobile". Lily replies that that remark was "exhausting". Geddit?
• Ragnarök Proofing : Justified . The cursed Conquistadors use archaic weapons like a musket, crossbow, hatchet and swords that are still in working order and sharp as they're ever been—in the case of the crossbow and cusket they're still able to fire despite their wielders being made of Mud and Beeswax without the substances interfering with the firing mechanisms in any way—alongside armour that's still in usable condition, but it's made clear that this is because the items in question have become fused to their bodies through the centuries, and are thus included in the curse that preserves their existence. At once point, Aguirre chucks a knife at Lily that then turns into a snake, showing that they're basically forming the weapons from the surrounding environment to attack their targets with, when they're not using the parts of the environment they're made of to attack instead.
• Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud : When MacGregor reads Lily's prepared statement at the beginning, he says, "Pause for dramatic effect" in front of everybody.
• Reduced to Ratburgers : Subverted when Frank shoots a rodent out of a tree and MacGregor asks if he expects him to eat that. Instead he uses it as piranha bait.
• Relationship Upgrade : Frank and Lily .
• Really 700 Years Old : Frank the skipper is really the 400 year old Francisco, formerly Aguirre's cartographer and right-hand man until the massacre of the natives created a rift between them.
• Reimagining the Artifact : Trader Sam and the other native characters are reimagined as native actors Frank hires to provide thrills to his passengers. Sam even mocks the stereotypical costumes they put on to scare Lily and MacGregor.
• Revenge Before Reason : Aguirre could make the most of his immortality like Frank has done, but instead he obsesses over punishing him for his betrayal. This forces Frank to inflict a Fate Worse than Death on him.
• Running Gag : One of the Houghton siblings getting surprised by Frank and reflexively punching him in the face, which he shrugs off with minor annoyance (and a remark that they have "strong form"). Frank: Every time!
• The Savage Indian : Invoked by Frank as one of the "dangers" of the Amazon. At one point, jungle natives start shooting darts at Frank's boat, which is full of tourists; when one actually gets inside the boat instead of just hitting the side, Frank mouths "c'mon!" and gives them a disapproving "that could've hit someone!" look, to which they depart with a sheepish wave of apology, meaning they're just in cahoots with him to provide safe thrills to the tourists.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here : Trader Sam literally jumps ship when Joachim catches up to the heroes and she swims back to her tribe.
• Sealed Evil in a Can : Aquirre and his men into were imprisoned in a cave where they couldn't see the river, resulting in them being turned to stone when the curse tried to drag them back and couldn't do it properly. It turns out Frank did it. Joachim sets them free. Frank manages to cut them off from the river inside the temple and seal them away again.
• Sealed Evil in a Duel : A variant, in that Frank and Aguirre technically don't have to fight each other, but Aguirre blames him for losing the arrowhead all those centuries ago and takes his anger out on Francisco by repeatedly hunting him down and killing him, even if the curse prevents Francisco from staying dead. Eventually, Frank gets tired of getting repeatedly stabbed and decides to swap this for Sealed Evil in a Can instead .
• Self-Inflicted Hell : While cursed to live forever and be unable to leave sight of the river, Aguirre and his men only end up as twisted, undead monsters because they continued to hunt down Frank in the name of Revenge , leading him to trap then in a place where they couldn't return to the river and were left petrified for centuries .
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man : Frank is a gun-toting, rough-and-tumble boat captain and former Spanish conquistador . MacGregor Haughton is a foppish pretty boy, albeit a surprisingly competent Queensberry Rules boxer .
• Sharp-Dressed Man : MacGregor insists on being one, impracticality be damned. Both Frank and Lily point out multiple ways that this is a bad idea. He does not remain one for long.
• Shot in the Ass : MacGregor gets it with a tranquilizer dart.
• The main female character's names are both types of flowers, Lily and Rose.
• Frank and Charlie when first starting out, point out that there's only two hours of daylight left, but Lily and Rose points out that that is two hours of extra time to go.
• Frank and Charlie point out that the only place to take a bath is the river. However, Lily doesn't take them up on the bath, unlike Rose.
• After going through a set of rapids, the main male character expects the female character to want to turn back, but instead they enjoyed it.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer : MacGregor's role is greatly de-emphasized in the trailers (the amount of times he's clearly in frame across all of them could be counted on two hands, and his speaking lines on one hand), while Nilo never shows up or is mentioned at all; justified, as Jack Whitehall and Paul Giamatti aren't nearly as internationally famous as Blunt and Johnson are.
• Small Role, Big Impact : Dr. Albert Falls is only mentioned in passing, but he found and retrieved the Arrowhead that was required to find the Tears of the Moon. There's also Aguirre's cartographer, who made the maps that Lily and Joachim both use. Subverted with the latter; he's actually a main character.
• Something That Begins with "Boring" : MacGregor attempts to play "I Spy" with Trader Sam in the canoe before being ambushed.
• Soundtrack Dissonance : In comparison to the film mostly using rousing adventure-movie-style music, the tragic backstory portions instead use a re-recorded version of Metallica 's "Nothing Else Matters".
• Staff of Authority : Prince Joachim carries a fancy one that also happens to be a Sword Cane .
• Lily doesn't know how to swim.
• During the final fight at La Luna Rota, after MacGregor knocks some German soldiers into the water, they are not seen again.
• Take Me Instead : When the group is captured by the natives, Frank tries to convince them to let Lily and Macgregor go, insisting that there's no way all three can get out. Subverted when it's revealed that Frank knew all along they weren't in real danger .
• Taken for Granite : This is the fate of the conquistadors after Francisco tricked them into falling down a pit far from the river, manipulating the specific wording of their curse against them. When the jungle attempted to drag them back, it couldn't pull them through the rock and they were instead fused into it. By the time Joachim releases them after 300 years, the elements have eroded their petrified bodes enough that they end up forming replacements from the jungle matter around them in facsimiles of their original bodies. Frank exploits this in the climax to petrify them and himself once more .
• Taking You with Me : Frank pulls this on Aguirre and the conquistadors during the finale. Ramming his steamer to cut off the river's access to the tree chamber causes the curse to ensnare and petrify all five Spaniards, Frank included . Only a last second intervention prevents this being fatal.
• There's No Kill like Overkill : Using a pair of MG-08/15 machine guns against Frank's boat? Reasonable enough if you have murderous intent. Escalating to a torpedo when that fails? Now you're just getting ridiculous.
• Tribal Face Paint : When MacGregor befriends some of the locals, one offers what MacGregor assumes to be red face paint. Only after does he learn it's permanent tattoo ink.
• Underwater Kiss : Frank does the "Breath of Air" type to Lily (twice) to save her from drowning when she's trapped in an underwater cage.
• Undying Loyalty : Despite him loathing his sister's adventurous nature and the scrapes it drags him into, MacGregor states he would still follow Lily into a volcano if he had to, because she's the only member of his family who didn't disown him when it was revealed he was gay (or so he implies.)
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee : Lily's plan to trick Joachim at the end is a good example, although it almost fails because Frank is just as in the dark as the audience, and doesn't know he's supposed to fall into the water after she shoots him, so he can swim over to help free MacGregor. Luckily, he gets the hint after the second shot.
• Upper-Class Twit : MacGregor is a benign example. He is the sort of guy who tries to take golf clubs on a trip down the Amazon, but he's also the sort of guy who will follow his sister into a volcano because she stood up for him.
• Frank has a pet jaguar, showing his deep understanding of the Amazon and the creatures living there. He's also had an ocelot and a cougar over the years.
• The Beeswax Conquistador also appears to view the bees nesting in him as allies/companions, referring to them as his "little friends" when confronting Joachim at the sacred tree .
• Vomit Chain Reaction : After the rapids, Frank teases Lily about looking seasick and offers some food, prompting her to vomit. This in turn causes MacGregor to vomit to Frank's amusement... until he nearly vomits himself.
• Villains Want Mercy : Aguirre begs Frank not to seal him and the other Conquistadors away again as they're being turned back to stone.
• The Conquistadors are effectively immortal and possess incredible powers but have to stay in sight of the Amazon at all times. Several times, their attempts to get the arrowhead are thwarted simply because their target ran a bit too far away, and they get dragged away from the chase. Intentionally invoked by the chief who cursed them in the first place, as he wanted to make sure they couldn't catch his daughter as she escaped with the arrowhead.
• The Beeswax Conquistador apparently shares a sympathetic connection to the bees nesting in his body. When Frank vents the furnace on his boat into his face, it floods the cabin with smoke and suffocates the bees, causing the Conquistador to faint in addition to the heat causing the honey and beeswax in his body to soften and lose its integrity.
• Wham Line : Frank: Actually...it's Francisco. And I'm basically 400 years old.
• Wham Shot : When Lily finds Frank washed up on shore after being stabbed, she thinks he miraculously survived...and then sees the sword still sticking out his back with Frank seemingly feeling no pain, let alone bleeding .
• What Happened to the Mouse? : Aguirre pursued the tree in order to save his daughter's life, and it was being denied that which drove him to turn on the natives. Despite this it's never mentioned what happened to her and so whether she recovered from her illness or died is left unknown. Justified, as the conquistadors were cursed to be unable to leave the Amazon river, and as such had no real way of finding out her fate.
• What Have I Become? : The conquistadors are horrified at what has become of their bodies. Aguirre even wonders if they still have souls after being ravaged by the curse for centuries. However, it's averted by the beeswax conquistador. Mud Conquistador (in Spanish): We're disgusting. Beeswax Conquistador (in Spanish): Speak for yourself. I'm delicious!
• Who Wants to Live Forever? : Obviously the cursed conquistadors aren't happy about their situation, but Francisco is shown having lived for so long that he's had to bury every friend he's made since . At the conclusion, Francisco is 'freed' of his immortality and enjoys the chance to live a normal life away from the Amazon even knowing that he will now die of old age . "Everything you see as new, I've seen hundreds of thousands of times."
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? : Lily is afraid of swimming, which is a bit problematic when her latest adventure takes her up the Amazon river.
• The Worm That Walks : Aguirre and his fellow conquistadors have had their bodies devolved into this after years of being cut off from the river, with them being made of different jungle parts like snakes, mud and frogs, tree roots and branches, and bee nests.
• Wrestler of Beasts : Frank fights a jaguar in front of the protagonists to convince them to hire him. It is later revealed that the jaguar was tamed and the fight was staged.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good! : As shown by Frank /Francisco, the conquistadors' curse doesn't actually make them monsters or anything other than Immortal humans who cannot die, age or leave sight of the river for the rest of eternity. Aguirre's pointless anger at Francisco for allowing the chieftain's daughter to flee with the arrowhead instead drives him to spend about 50 years hunting him down and killing him again and again in a pointless demonstration of his wrath towards his former brother-in-arms, rather than doing something productive with the time he had been granted. Whereas Francisco was able to build a small town, and make a livelihood out of the advantages the curse granted him , Aguirre's refusal to do anything other than blame others for his situation instead lead to him being imprisoned by Franciso and devolving into a literal and figurative monster by the present day.
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Heroes Wiki

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Lily Houghton

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She is played by Emily Blunt , who also played Princess Mary in Gulliver's Travels , Juliet in Gnomeo & Juliet , The Baker's Wife from Into the Woods , Evelyn Abbott from A Quiet Place , Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins Returns and Tempest Shadow in My Little Pony: The Movie .

• 1.1 Background
• 1.2 Jungle Cruise
• 2 Personality
• 3 Appearance
• 5 Navigation

Biography [ ]

Background [ ].

Lily Houghton and her brother MacGregor Houghton were born to the British Houghton family in the latter end of the 19th century. When MacGregor was threatened to be disowned due to being gay, Lily stood by him. In adulthood, Lily was a skilled botanist and aspiring adventurer though she was barred from these aspirations due to the misogyny of her peers. Lily also had an interest in film and recording footage of nature with early cameras.

Jungle Cruise [ ]

During the early 20th century, a riverboat captain named Frank Wolff takes Lily Houghton, a scientist, and her brother McGregor on a mission into a jungle to find the Tree of Life, which is believed to possess healing powers. All the while, the trio must fight against dangerous wild animals and a competing German expedition.

Personality [ ]

Lily Houghton is known as loving, instructive, level-headed, understanding, humble, optimistic, unselfish, good-hearted, headstrong, trusting, organized, nurturing, polite, adventurous, nice, truthful and sweet.

Appearance [ ]

Lily Houghton is a young lady who has a slender build. She also wears clothing for safari.

• Houghton was partially inspired by Abigail Chase from National Treasure , Evelyn O' Connell from The Mummy and Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark .

Navigation [ ]

• 1 King Baldwin IV
• 2 Yoshi Toranaga
• 3 Lucy MacLean

Villains Wiki

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Lope de Aguirre ( Jungle Cruise )

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Lope de Aguirre is one of the two main antagonists (along with Prince Joachim ) of the 2021 Disney live-action film Jungle Cruise , based on the Disney theme park attraction of the same name .

He was a Spanish conquistador and Frank Wolf's arch-nemesis and former friend/brother-in-arms. Aguirre was cursed by the Chief of the Guardians of the Jungle due to trying to claim the Tears of the Moon, getting imprisoned alongside his fellow conquistadores within the jungle.

He was portrayed by Édgar Ramírez , who also played Paz in The Bourne Ultimatum , Ares in Wrath of Titans and Bodhi in the Point Break remake.

• 1.2 Jungle Cruise
• 2 Personality
• 3 Powers and Abilities
• 5 Navigation

History [ ]

Lope de Aguirre met Frank after his father passed away. They became like brothers and worked together on a map that lead to the Tree of Life.

In 1556, Aguirre's daughter had fallen sick, so he went on an expedition with Frank to a deep jungle to find the Tears of the Moon so that he could heal his daughter from her sickness. A while after he and his crewmates like Gonzalo , Melchor and Sancho went into the jungle, each of them started getting fevers and sicknesses, with one of them dying from snake venom. He too, had fallen ill and thought of his failure to find the Tears and save his daughter.

The Guardians of the jungle found them and used some of the Tears from the tree to revive him and his crew and nurse them all back to health. With him being alive and well again, he was closer to finding the petals of the tree to heal his daughter. For a time, Aguirre was happy, due to being so close to claiming the Tears, and would even have fun the Guardians children.

Overtime, he became impatient and begged for the Chief of the tribe to give them the Arrowhead, which could lead him to the Tears of the Moon. However, when the Chief refused to give it to him and deemed him unworthy, Aguirre kills him and many of the tribesmen in the process of taking the Arrowhead more forcefully before Frank tries to stop him, allowing the Chief's daughter to escape.

After he seemingly kills Frank, Aguirre and the others chase after the daughter in to the jungle. The Chief used his last words to curse Aguirre and his crew to remain in the jungle forever and never leave sight of the river, or the jungle would take them back to it. Sometime afterwards, Aguirre had fought Frank for his betrayal of his crew and losing the hope of seeing his daughter again. The fight went on for many years until Frank put an end to it by trapping him and his crew in a dark cave where the Jungle petrified them for 300 years while his body had decayed.

Jungle Cruise [ ]

He remained in the cave, encased within stone and dried up without any of the river water until Prince Joachim freed them in exchange for finding the Arrowhead and the Tears of the Moon. After being freed by Joachim with explosives detonating the cave and allowing the river water to flow within, many different creatures got fused with due to the curse. In Aguirre's case, his partially-decomposed body got fused with snakes.

Watching from a branch as a snake, he sees Frank along with Lily and MacGregor Houghton, drifting off deeper in the jungle to another native tribe similar to the ones that cursed Aguirre and his crew. Aguirre follows them and ends up attacking all the tribe's men again.

They go after Lily, who has escaped from them and has the Arrowhead, but as soon as they caught up to her, the jungle pulls them back towards the river due to the curse that was placed on them long ago. They come back and become their creature forms, informing Joachim of the location of the Arrowhead and where Frank and Lily were heading to.

Joachim captures MacGregor and catches up to Frank and Lily, and forces them to find the temple where the tree is being held. As soon as Lily and Frank find the tree and bloom all of it's petals, the moon sets way too soon as the blossoming petals begin disintegrating. Lily plucks one of the petals and Joachim tries to take it from her.

As Joachim failed to get the petal, Aguirre, having felt betrayed by him since he didn't inform them where the tree was like he promised as well as the fact that Joachim swatted some of Sancho's honeybees, betrays him in turn and decided to go after the petal for himself. His crew attacks Frank and the others, that is until Frank crashes into the wall and causes the river's water within the temple to be emptied out, allowing the vines around it to surround Aguirre and his men along with Frank. While Frank soon receives the tears of the moon, freeing him from the curse, Aguirre and his crew are once again petrified within stone, though Lily managed to use the petal to free Frank from his curse. While possible they’re sealed up for real, Aguirre and his crew probably dead for good.

Personality [ ]

Prior to be cursed, Aguirre was determined to heal his daughter, demonstrating a strong bond he had with his family. He also at one point shared a similar bond with Frank.

Aguirre was initially peaceful with the Guardians who saved him and his crew, and displayed a gentle side when he would play with their children. However, Aguirre would not allow anything get in the way of his quest to claim the Tears of the Moon and resorted to violence when the Chief of the Guardians refused to let him have them.

Upon being betrayed by Frank and cursed to never to leave the jungle, Aguirre apparently broke of all positive relations he had with his former brother in arms and would seek to punish him for thwarting his efforts to heal his daughter. This resentment and desire for vengeance appeared to only grow as time passed, even more so when Frank went on to trap Aguirre and his crew in a cave, turning them to stone for over 300 years.

Powers and Abilities [ ]

• Immortality : Due to the curse placed upon him by the Chief of the Guardians, Aguirre is immortal, remaining alive for hundreds of years and could not ever be killed. However, the curse also prevented Aguirre from leaving sight of the jungles' river. Anytime Aguirre left sight of the river, vines would grab him and forcibly drag him back. If the jungle could not take Aguirre back to the river, the vines would restrain him and he would quickly turn to stone.
• Snake Manipulation : Due to being stone for over 300 hundred years thanks to Frank and the curse, Aguirre's body had been ravaged by the jungle. Upon being revived, Aguirre became a monster that was fused with snakes and can even dissolve into snakes. Aguirre could control the snakes that comprised his body, wield their venom, and see through their eyes.
• Throughout the whole movie, Aguirre mostly spoke in Spanish and only spoke English a few times at the end of the movie.
• In a complete contrast to the film Aguirre's goal of trying to save his daughter's life, the real Lope de Aguirre ended up killing his daughter Elvira to spare her from tortuous treatment immediately before he was captured and executed for his treasonous actions against the Spanish crown in 1561.
• Despite being the central antagonist, Aguirre served as Frank/Fransisco's arch-nemesis and he was proven to be more dangerous and responsible for the curse placed on both himself and Frank. Upon Joachim’s death, Aguirre became the final antagonist to be defeated.

Navigation [ ]

• 1 The Boiled One
• 2 Miss Circle
• 3 Judge Holden

• Jungle Cruise original characters
• Jungle Cruise (film) characters
• 1800s births
• English characters
• Clientele of the Jungle Navigation Company
• Jungle Cruise (Magic Kingdom)
• Jungle Cruise (Magic Kingdom) characters
• 2021 refurbishment

MacGregor Houghton

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MacGregor Houghton is the tritagonist of the Jungle Cruise . He is portrayed by Jack Whitehall .

• 1.1.1 Origins
• 1.1.2 Jungle Cruise
• 1.1.3 Later life
• 1.2.1 Controversy & Homophobia
• 2.1.1 Jungle Cruise
• 2.2.1 Jungle Cruise
• 5 References

History [ ]

Biography [ ], origins [ ].

MacGregor Houghton is the younger brother of Lily Houghton . The family lived in Kensington where MacGregor lived a posh and privileged life with a love for clothing and Queensberry Rules boxing. When MacGregor was seven, he lost two of his toes on an adventure with Lily. MacGregor was secretly gay with his family attempting to put him in arranged marriages on three occassions. On the third occasion, MacGregor came out and would have been dissowned by their uncle had it not been for Lily's support.

Jungle Cruise [ ]

In 1916, MacGregor attempted to arrange an expedition from the Royal Anthropological and Diverse Adventures Society in London to locate the mythical Tears of the Moon in the Amazon rainforest . This flower could supposedly heal any ailment and would require a sacred arrowhead to locate. The society rebuked this proposal resulting in Lily stealing the arrowhead.

The two proceeded to travel to Porto Velho in the Amazon to locate the Tears of the Moon . Here, MacGregor met with harbourmaster Nilo Nemolato to negotiate a river passage. However, Lily chose to instead recruit con-artist boatsman Frank Wolff to escort them down-river due to seeing him fight off a jaguar , unknowing that it was Wolff's trained jaguar, "Proxima". Leading up to the boat passage, Frank dumped many of MacGregor's clothing and belongings into the river while mocking him and comparing him to a woman.

Throughout the journey, MacGregor frequently whined and bickered about wanting to return to the town. Eventually, the party was captured by the Puka Michuna tribe who were working with Frank to try and acquire the arrowhead. The party was brought to their tree base in, " Headhunter Territory " where MacGregor befriended the locals. During his time amongst the Puka Michuna, MacGregor tought some of them how to use golf-clubs but also got half his face stained in red tattoo-ink.

They were again attacked by cursed conquistadors working for Lope de Aguirre , enlisted by their enemies in the German Empire . Following this, the Puka Michuna chieftain, " Trader Sam " returned MacGregor to the town in a canoe. Before they could return to port, the two were attacked by the submarine of German Prince Joachim of Prussia . Sam abandonned MacGregor while Joachim threatened MacGregor into revealing the Tears of the Moon's location by threatening to slaughter the Puka Michuna peoples.

The Germans brought MacGregor to the tree's temple where a fight ensued from which the Houghtons and Wolff emerged the victors.

Later life [ ]

The Houghtons were considered sensations when returning to England. The Royal Anthropological and Diverse Adventures Society attempted to enlist the two, only for MacGregor to turn them down and demean them at a lecture instead. At some point before the December of 1938, he wrote a book titled, "My Interests Happily Lay Elsewhere".

Development history [ ]

Controversy & homophobia [ ].

Following the film's release, the film was frequently criticized for using homophobic stereotyping in MacGregor's character. MacGregor is portrayed as being an effeminate, cowardly and posh man with a love for clothes compared to that of a woman's, these generally being traits written in mockery of queer men. MacGregor also functions in an archetype similar to the, " Gay Best Friend " trope through his relationship with Lily. While in the second half of the film he is shown more competently, he also has his stereotyped characteriztics consistently played up for camp comedy by his cisgender heterosexual actor, Jack Whitehall.

Leading up to the release of the Jungle Cruise, the Sun reported that Whitehall’s character would be gay. Due to this, MacGregor's character has become an extension of the, "Disney's first openly gay character" meme in online-media, a running gag referencing how Disney’s LGBTQ+ characters (usually white cisgender-men) are touted by the media as being their "First openly gay character" only to have their identity referenced briefly in passing. Houghton shares this trait with Specter from Onward, Bobby from Avengers: Endgame, LeFou from the remake of Beauty and the Beast, and Artie in Cruella. [1]

Appearances [ ]

MacGregor is a prominent supporting character in this film.

Attractions [ ]

On a shelf in the queue of the Magic Kingdom 's Jungle Cruise is a book titled, "My Interests Happily Lay Elsewhere" by MacGregor Houghton. This alludes to MacGregor's quote implying his homosexual attraction from the film. [2]

• Disney has repeatedly cast queer actors in their movies before, including Ian McKellen, Luke Evans, Ellen DeGeneres, Ben Whishaw, Billy Eichner, Lena Waithe, John McCrea, Jack Dylan Grazer, Auli'i Cravalho, Glenn Shadix, Jane Lynch, and Nathan Lane, albeit not consistently in openly queer roles nor does it necessarily condone putting a non-marginalized actor within their marginalized roles.
• MaGregor might be inspired by Samuel Sayer, the brother of Rose Sayer from The African Queen (1951) who partially inspired Lily. The two characters are shown dressed in all white suits.
• The Houghtons' surname is likely a tribute to historic actress Katharine Houghton Hepburn (1907-2003) who portrayed Rose Sayer in the African Queen. Incidentally, Katherine Hepburn well known in old Hollywood to have been a prolific sapphic and it is sometimes asserted that she married her husband Spencer Tracy (1900-1967) as a beard to dodge accusations of lesbianism, possibly connecting to MacGregor Houghton's sexual orientation.

Gallery [ ]

References [ ]

• ↑ https://www.themarysue.com/another-first-openly-gay-character/
• ↑ http://www.imaginerding.com/2022/12/04/jungle-cruise-crews-join-the-pach/
• ↑ https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2456386/disney-is-facing-backlash-over-gay-jungle-cruise-character
• 1 Lope de Aguirre
• 2 Frank Wolff
• 3 Dr. Lily Houghton

• Hong Kong Disneyland attractions
• Adventureland
• Adventureland attractions
• Water rides
• Kingdom Keepers locations
• Disney's Fastpass equipped attractions

Jungle Cruise

• Pirates of the Caribbean attractions
• Disney Tsum Tsum
• Português do Brasil
• View history

This article is about the Disney Parks ride. For the 2021 film of the same name, see Jungle Cruise (film) .

• Magic Kingdom
• Tokyo Disneyland
• Hong Kong Disneyland

The Jungle Cruise is an attraction located in Adventureland at many Disney Parks, including Disneyland , Magic Kingdom , and Tokyo Disneyland . At Hong Kong Disneyland , the attraction is named Jungle River Cruise. Disneyland Paris and Shanghai Disneyland are the only Magic Kingdom-style Disney parks without Jungle Cruise in their attraction rosters.

The attraction simulates a riverboat cruise down several major rivers of Asia , Africa and South America . Park guests board replica tramp steamers and are taken on a voyage past many different Audio-Animatronic jungle animals. The tour is led by a live Disney cast member delivering a humorous scripted narration.

• 1 Inspiration and design
• 2.1 Attraction summary
• 2.2 Major changes
• 2.3 Description of specific changes
• 3.1 Attraction summary
• 3.2.1 Boats
• 3.2.2 Major changes
• 4.2 Major changes
• 5.1.1 Major changes
• 5.1.2 Boats
• 6 Gun signals
• 7.1 Television Appearances
• 7.2 Film adaptation
• 10 References

Inspiration and design [ ]

Walt Disney developed the Jungle Cruise alongside Adventureland, inspired by his successful True-Life Adventures nature-film series as Adventureland was originally named, "True-Life Adventureland". Walt originally wanted the attraction to feature live-animals though for many obvious reasons this was opted out for audio-animatronics (though later recycled for Kilimanjaro Safaris ). Imagineer Harper Goff referenced the 1951 non-Disney film The African Queen frequently in his ideas; even his designs of the ride vehicles were modeled after the steamer used in the film. The project was placed on the schedule to open with the July 17, 1955 debut of Disneyland.

When plans began to develop, Bill Evans, the Imagineer responsible for landscaping Disneyland and most of Walt Disney World , faced the daunting task of foresting an entire jungle on a limited budget. Aside from importing many actual tropical plants, he made wide use of "character plants" which, while not necessarily exotic, could give the appearance of exoticism in context. In a particularly well-known trick, he uprooted local orange trees and "replanted" them upside-down, growing vines on the exposed roots. The clean water was dyed brown to prevent visitors from seeing the bottom of the “river”, which varies between three and eight feet deep.

Although Goff and Evans can be credited with the creation and initial design of the ride, Marc Davis , recognized for his work on venerable attractions, such as The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean , added his own style to the ride in later versions and Disneyland updates. The "Indian Elephant Bathing Pool" and " Trapped Safari " were among his contributions. In the 1990s, the ride received theming and aesthetics to imitate the popular Indiana Jones film-series of Lucasfilm as a means of tying into Disneyland's attraction Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye . Later, refurbishments would orient the Jungle Cruise predominately towards campy jokes (most frequently improvised by skippers decades earlier and made part of an official script) and self-referential humor.

Disneyland [ ]

The attraction was in the opening day roster of the park, and has remained open and largely unchanged in theme and story since then. Aside from alterations and maintenance changes, four completely new show scenes have been added to date. In 1995 the river channel was rerouted to make way for the queue buildings and entrance courtyard of the Indiana Jones Adventure.

While the current version and most previous instances have made use of a comedic spiel, filled with intentionally bad puns, the original intent of the ride was to provide a realistic, believable voyage through the world's jungles. The original spiel had no jokes and sounded much like the narration of a nature documentary. Starting with the Christmas season of 2013, Jungle Cruise was given a seasonal overlay called Jingle Cruise and was decorated with various Christmas decorations.

Attraction summary [ ]

The queue and station are themed as the former headquarters and boathouse of the Jungle Navigation Company , located in a British colony within the Lost Delta of India in the year 1938. The queuing area is cluttered with appropriate props, such as pinned insects, an old radio on top of a bookshelf, and a chessboard with miniature animals and decorated shotgun shells replacing the pieces. The extended queue winds upstairs, underneath an Audio-Animatronic hornbill, and then downstairs again. Big band music from the 1930s plays overhead from the Global Broadcasting Service and occasional news breaks by announcer Nigel Greenwater .

In the queue's entrance is company founder Dr. Albert Falls ' map of the, "Jungle Rivers of Adventureland", a series of supernatural rivers connecting locations across the world into the realm of, "Adventureland". Throughout the queue are references to the lost crew of the Kwango Kate consisting of skipper Felix Pechman XIII , Dr. Kon Chunosuke , Siobhan Murphy, Rosa Soto Dominguez, and Dr. Leonard Moss. Guests also pass by the office of company president Alberta Falls containing her portrait and the cage of her pet bird, Kamaka.

Once aboard the boats, guests are introduced to their skipper and they head into the jungle, allegedly never to return. The first rivers simulated are the Irrawaddy and Mekong rivers, representing tropical Southeast Asia. The boats sail through a dense rainforest, and ancient Irrawaddy temple ruins where passengers see a Bengal Tiger, giant spiders, king cobras, and crocodiles. Passing a shrines of the historic King Jayavarman VII (c.1150–1160), a bowing elephant and a metal cobra, the boats enter the Sacred Indian Elephant Bathing Pool where dozens of Indian elephants prance in the water and squirt water at the passing vessels.

The theme transitions to the rivers of Africa, and riders see a family of baboons, and a safari camp that has been overrun by gorillas . The boats careen past the dramatic waterfall, Schweitzer Falls , between two African Elephants, and large termite mounds. A tableau of the African Veldt follows, showing zebras, wildebeest, and giraffes watching a pride of lions feasting on a zebra beneath a rocky outcropping. Beyond the lion's den, an angry rhinoceros has chased the marooned crew of the Kwango Kate up a tree. Antelope and hyenas watch from nearby while hyenas wait at the bottom of the tree for their coming meal.

The skipper then pilots the boat into a large pool, containing the sunken Kwango Kate and belongings of the lost expedition. This disturbs a pod of hippos that signal their intent to attack the boat. Armed with a gun filled with blanks, the skipper fires into the air to frighten them away. The boats narrowly escape and encounter the lost Jungle Cruise boat, The Mekong Maiden being crewed by chimpanzees while chimps along the riverside play with the marooned crew's belongings. The boat also passes another pair of chimps with a magnifying glass and net observing an infestation of butterflies that they had released from their crates.

The boats pass behind Schweitzer Falls (famously referred to as "the Backside of Water") to enter the Amazon River. Skeletal animal remains and warning signs featuring pictures of dagger-toothed fish forewarn the next show scene, where the boats encounter a swarm of leaping piranha. The guests then pass a pool of water buffalo nearby a large python before finding their way to the Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Lost & Found . This establishment was left in possession of Indigenous South American, " Trader Sam " who turned the lost & found into a gift-shop to sell of the belongings of guests. In Sam's absence, the shop is overrun by monkeys who snap a photo of guests while they pass by a hornbill (who originally appeared on the rafters of the ride's queue until the most recent refurbishment) and Sam's pet elephant Ellie .

The boats proceed to make their return to the boathouse but not before passing through an uncharted tributary within a Polynesian river. Along the water's edge are Jungle Navigation Company docks along the Enchanted Tiki Room and advertisements for, " The Tropical Hideaway ". A white cockatoo named Rosita appears waiting for a Jungle Cruise boat and turns to sing to and crack jokes at the guests. Finally, the boats return to the Lost Delta where guests disembark.

Major changes [ ]

• 1962 - Addition of Indian Elephant pool
• 1964 - Addition of African Veldt and Lost Safari scenes
• 1976 - Addition of Cambodian Temple and Gorilla Camp scenes
• 1993 - Various minor additions
• 1994 - Addition of boathouse queue
• 1995 - Rerouting of river to accommodate the Indiana Jones Adventure
• 1997 - Replacement of the original ride vehicles
• 2001 - Skippers' guns removed after March 24.
• 2004 - Skippers' guns return starting October 1.
• 2005 - Happiest Homecoming on Earth refurbishment, opened May 4, 2005. Various replacements and reconstructions, addition of piranhas, and updates to Gorilla Camp scene.
• 2013 - Debut of the seasonal Jingle Cruise overlay, which became more elaborate the following year.
• 2016 - The attraction is closed until May for refurbishment to install a new docking system.
• 2021 - New storyline at Disneyland and Magic Kingdom announced on January 25. However, following Disneyland's reopening after being temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Disneyland version of this ride remained closed and the refurbishment was delayed until July 16, 2021. The updated version of the ride soft-opened on July 9, 2021.

Description of specific changes [ ]

The baboons at the safari camp previously sat on the African termite mounds. A total of six lions have been removed since opening day: one that growled when the African Veldt was added, two lionesses from the Veldt that were fighting over a bloody strand of zebra meat, a lion and a lioness that each had a zebra leg in their mouth, and a dead lion hanging on a spit over a fire in the native village. Also removed from the Veldt were African wild dogs laughing at the pride. The native village was originally a dense jungle filled with tikis, masks, and several more natives. Trader Sam previously wore a mask and a gorilla across the channel tried to grab his merchandise.

Starting in 2013, a holiday overlay was added themed to Christmas at both Disneyland Park and Magic Kingdom with holiday-themed jokes and decorations on the boats, and holiday music on the radio station in the queue in the aptly-named " Jingle Cruise ". This refurbishment ceased in the January of 2017 but continued to be performed at the Magic Kingdom.

In January 2021 , Disneyland and Walt Disney World both drastically changed their Jungle Cruises to remove overt racism from the attraction.

The changes included removing the headhunter tribe, the original trapped safari, the Buddhist statues, and Trader Sam. The headhunters were replaced with a scene of chimpanzees riding the Mekong Maiden, an allusion to a decommissioned Jungle Cruise boat. This attraction also explicitly featured "Adventureland" as a geographic location in-universe rather than an anachronistic combination of locales.

There are 12 vehicles, with a maximum of 9 in operation at any given time. The boats in 1955 were painted as clean, idealized replicas, but have since been given a more realistic theming reflecting the grunge and wear of actual watercraft due to the addition of Indiana Jones Adventure and its ruggedness.

Names in use:

• Amazon Belle
• Congo Queen (gold-painted for 50th anniversary)
• Hondo Hattie
• Irrawaddy Woman
• Kissimmee Kate
• Nile Princess (Wheelchair lift equipped)
• Orinoco Adventuress
• Suwannee Lady
• Ucayali Una (Wheelchair lift equipped)
• Yangtze Lotus
• Zambezi Miss

Names decommissioned in 1997:

• Magdalena Maiden
• Mekong Maiden

Magic Kingdom [ ]

The ride is set in the year 1938 as guests enter the Amazon River Base of the colonial business, the Jungle Navigation Company . The boathouse's radio broadcasts AWOL Airwaves, the service of one Albert Awol who plays music and relays announcements. Within the boathouse are several allusions to the corruption and negligence of the Jungle Navigation Company including a board of lost boats, an escaped orangutans, crates of damaged cargo, attempts to sell a feral tiger, and the employee of the month dying of disease. Additionally is a map of the Jungle Rivers of Adventureland , a series of mystic waterways which make up the jungle realm of, "Adventureland" mapped by skipper Frank Wolff and gifted to the Falls family before being augmented by Alberta Falls for skipper usage.

Throughout the queue are references to a lost Jungle Cruise tour containing the likes of skipper Felix Pechman XIII, Dr. Kon Chunosuke, Siobhan Murphy, Rosa Soto Dominguez, and Dr. Leonard Moss. Guests proceed to board boats on docks across from the shack of the elusive O.I. Cyhu. The skipper introduces themselves and begins to take the boat full of guests down the tropical rivers of the world. The ride starts out in the Amazon River, where the passengers encounter butterflies with one-foot wingspans, or as the skipper might say, twelve inches.

The boat then passes Inspiration Falls, which transitions into the Congo River in Africa. Here, the boats happen upon an empty mercantile called Boats & Baits AND Bites! run by one, "Skipper Sully". This shop is shown to have originally been called Boats & Baits before being turned into a quick-service dining establishment selling exotic fish such as piranhas. The boats proceed to encounter a giant python before making a getaway. After this, the boat then passes a camp that has been raided by gorillas, which transitions the cruise into the Nile River. The boats also encounter a downed airplane with the words, " The Amazing Hathaway Browne " on it, referencing the vehicle's owner.

While making the transition, the boats pass by Schweitzer Falls, named for the company founder Dr. Albert Falls. After encountering two elephants, the boat passes along the African Veldt, where numerous African animals watch a pride of lions eat their kill. The boat then finds the lost crew of the Kwango Kate, referenced in the queue. They have been chased up a tree by an angered black rhino while hyenas wait at the base of the tree for a free meal. After this, the boats encounter the sinking Kwango Kate which is taken over by chimpanzees, some of whom are eating Dr. Chunosuke's rare butterflies. The group then passes by another waterfall, Schweitzer Falls, and encounters a pool of hippos. They are about to charge the boat until the skipper scares them off, either via yelling or gunshot.

They enter a temple which has been destroyed by a natural disaster. Inside the skipper is silent as they encounter, baboons, cobras, and an Indochinese tiger. After they exit, they come across an elephant bathing pool where numerous elephants are relaxing in the water. The boat narrowly avoids being sprayed by water from one of the elephants. Following this, the boat returns to the Amazon rainforest where they find the Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Lost & Found . This establishment was left in possession of Indigenous South American, "Trader Sam" who turned the lost & found into a gift-shop to sell of the belongings of guests. The guests see the shop overrun by monkeys before making their return to port.

Due to being opened much later than its Disneyland counterpart, the Magic Kingdom's Jungle Cruise had much more involvement by Marc Davis. The plane is the back-half of the Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior found at The Great Movie Ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios in the Casablanca scene.

The character of Albert Awol was added in 1991 to the Jungle Cruise during a refurbishment:

Around the time of the opening of Disney's Animal Kingdom , the skippers' guns were removed. They returned around November 2004 in the form of wired props that played gunfire sounds over the boats' PA systems.

Each variety of plant throughout the attraction was carefully selected by landscape architect Bill Evans to ensure that the foliage would be able to endure Florida's unique climate: hot summers and relatively cool winters. The most difficult aspect of this was making sure these plants had the appropriate look and feel of traditional tropical plants in the equatorial jungle. During the Christmas season of 2013, Jungle Cruise was given a seasonal overlay called Jingle Cruise and was decorated with various Christmas decorations.

In January 2021, Disneyland and Walt Disney World both drastically changed their Jungle Cruises to remove overt racism from the attraction.

The changes included removing the headhunter tribe, the pygmy camp, the previous trapped safari, and Chief Nah-Mee . This attraction also explicitly featured, "Adventureland" as a geographic location in-universe rather than an anachronistic combination of locales.

There are 15 vehicles, with a maximum of 10 in operation at any given time.

Current boats

• Amazon Annie
• Bomokandi Bertha (Wheelchair lift equipped)
• Congo Connie
• Ganges Gertie
• Irrawaddy Irma
• Mongala Millie
• Nile Nellie
• Orinoco Ida
• Rutshuru Ruby
• Sankuru Sadie
• Senegal Sal
• Ucyali Lolly
• Wamba Wanda (Wheelchair lift equipped)
• Zambesi Zelda

Retired boats

• Kwango Kate (Retired in 2000)
• 1973 - Expansion of boathouse queue, frogs removed from Amazon River scene.
• 1986 - African Veldt is enclosed by trees to hide views of Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa .
• 1991 - Queue updates, introduction of the Albert Awol music loop. New scripts give Trader Sam the alternate name of Chief Namee.
• 1994 - Crashed Airplane scene is added.
• 1996 - Several figures on the Lost Safari are replaced.
• 1998 - Skippers' guns removed around the time Disney's Animal Kingdom opened.
• 2000 - A canopy structure is removed from the Amazon River scene for safety concerns. Queue is reconfigured for Fastpass and the boats receive a rustic makeover.
• 2004 - Skippers' guns return around November.
• 2016 to 2017 - "Crocs eating children" joke briefly removed after toddler was killed by a real alligator at the Grand Floridian Resort [1]
• 2021 - New storyline added over the course of several months from January through the summer. New Trapped Safari, Chimpanzee Boat scenes, Pygmy Village is turned into a boat and bait shop, and the crashed airplane is turned into an Adventurers Club tribute. Frogs returned in October.

Tokyo Disneyland [ ]

The Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland attractions are very similar to each other, with the exception of a few minor differences. While the boats in the Magic Kingdom's attraction travel counter-clockwise, the boats at Tokyo Disneyland travel in a clockwise direction. The current incarnation of the attraction is known as Jungle Cruise: Wildlife Expeditions . This version includes unique effects in the temple, a full musical score, and an alternate experience for nighttime cruises.

The station and surrounding area are themed to a more upscale African city, as opposed to an isolated jungle outpost. This version shares a station building with the park's steam train ride, Western River Railroad . Within the boathouse, voices of Jungle Navigation Company personnel give instructions to guests. The spiels in Tokyo Disneyland are delivered in Japanese and skippers bow to the audience after each joke.

The story focuses on establishing a "friendship with nature", with the Skipper keeping three animal totems in their boat: The Tiger of Courage, the Elephant of Wisdom, and the Monkey of Cleverness. Using one of these three totems and calling upon their matching animal spirits, the Temple's carvings are brought to life in a celebration with man's connection with nature. The first lines from the song " Circle of Life " from The Lion King can be heard when the boat passes through the African Veldt scene. At the end of the attraction, guests encounter Chief Nah-mee (also known as "Salesman Sam") and Ellie who are trading fruit and the three medallions which the skippers have in their boats.

There are 13 vehicles, with a maximum of 12 in operation at any given time.

All boat names, except Orinoco Ida, are alliterations.

• Kwango Kate
• Wamba Wanda
• Zambezi Zelda
• Mid-1990s/Early 2000s - The blank-firing guns are replaced with wired props that play gunfire sounds when used.
• 2008 - Chief Nah-mee (Salesman Sam) offers bananas instead of shrunken heads starting March/April.
• 2014 - The original Jungle Cruise closes on January 6 to undergo a revamp. It reopens on September 8 as Jungle Cruise: Wildlife Expeditions. The skippers' guns and the skulls/skull imagery were removed during the revamp.

Hong Kong Disneyland [ ]

The shape of Jungle River Cruise 's route is significantly different compared to the others, and circumnavigates Tarzan's Treehouse . A grand finale is included with a battle between angry fire and water gods. Three languages are regularly available: Cantonese, English, and Mandarin. Each language has a separate queue, allowing visitors to experience the journey in their preferred language.

The queue takes place in a small boathouse less elaborate than the boathouses found at the other parks. After winding through the queue, guests board one of the boats and meet their skipper who speaks either English, Cantonese, or Mandarin, to accompany the park's guests who speak many different languages themselves.

The boats then depart and head down the river, past Tarzan's Treehouse where the skipper tells guests to wave goodbye to the guests traversing the treehouse, for they will never see them again. The boats then drift past a mother Indian elephant and her calf playing in the water, followed by another elephant showering in a waterfall. A large bull Indian elephant emerges from the water squirting a plume of water at the boats with the guests narrowly avoiding the free shower.

The vessels then drift down a narrow stream past ancient Cambodian ruins which have been claimed by the jungle. Giant spiders and king cobras watch the boats as they move on. Up ahead several crocodiles are seen resting on a small beach, while a school of hungry piranha are jumping in the hopes of attacking the guests. The boats escape into Africa and they pass a large safari camp where several curious gorillas have discovered clothes, guns, hammocks, and books, as " Trashin' the Camp " plays on a nearby 1930s radio. The African Veldt comes into view where antelope, giraffes, zebras, and African elephants stare at the boats. The vessels then drift into a small pool where a pod of hippos try to tip the boat. Several feet ahead a rhino is seen chasing a safari group up a tree while several hyenas look on laughing.

Skulls and cloth impaled on broken bamboo sticks appears as tribal drums and horns fill the air. The skipper tells guests that they have entered head hunter country and must quietly sneak by. The boats slowly pass through the main village where several upright shields rest in the tall grass. A native notices the boats and all the shields now revealed to have head hunters behind them begin firing spears and poison darts at the boats as they narrowly escape into a rocky canyon. In the rocky canyon, the boats stop near two unusual rock formations that look like faces, revealed by the skipper to be the fire god and the water god who constantly feud over their differences. The fire god sets the river ablaze while the water god vomits a water bomb, causing the flames to die and the whole canyon to become a cloud of steam. The boats escape the canyon and pass a baby elephant before returning to the boathouse.

• 2006 - Piranha Attack and Trapped Safari scenes added, enhancement of Gorilla Camp, African Veldt, and Headhunter's Territory
• 2007 - Temporary scene added during the " Pirate Takeover " summer event (from May to August); attraction name changed to "Jungle River Cruise: Pirate Takeover!"
• 2015 - Seasonal overlay added during Halloween event; attraction name changed to " Jungle River Cruise: Curse of the Emerald Trinity "

There are 9 vehicles, with a maximum of 8 in operation at any given time.

• Congo Queen (Wheelchair Accessible)
• Lijiang Lady
• Yangzi Ying Ying

Gun signals [ ]

The Disneyland version of the attraction uses live revolvers firing blanks. They are always fired at the Hippo Pool scene, but are also used to signal to the dock in the event of an emergency. Each signal has a different meaning, and is signified by the amount of shots fired using the louder emergency blanks:

Live guns were used at the Magic Kingdom until 2001, when they were replaced with fake props and an on-board sound effect.

In popular culture [ ]

• In the Disney's Sing-Along Songs video Disneyland Fun during "Following the Leader", Jungle Cruise made an appearance.
• In the film Tarzan , gorillas in Tarzan's troop homage the gorillas of the jungle cruise when they hold a rifle to their eye.
• Jungle Cruise was parodied as Timon and Pumbaa's Virtual Safari on The Lion King Special Edition.
• A stand up comedy show featuring only Jungle Cruise Skippers, called The Skipper Stand Up Show, has been doing shows in Fullerton, California since May 2006.
• Disney's "Fab Five" characters, cruise boat and the "River Expedition Company" boathouse were incorporated into an original painting and limited edition print offering by artist Randy Souders entitled "Jungle Cruise" created for the 1999 Official Disneyana Convention at Disneyland .
• In Australia's Disneyland special: The Wiggles Live at Disneyland Park , Greg and Murray are on this ride thinking they're in the wrong place.
• In the " Mickey Monkey " episode of the 2013 Mickey Mouse shorts, the "Fab five" ride a Jungle Cruise boat and accidentally abandon Mickey in the jungle. In the later episode " Wish Upon a Coin ", Goofy briefly appears dressed as Chief Nah-mee.
• A Chibi Tiny Tales short involved the characters of the DuckTales reboot riding the attraction.

Television Appearances [ ]

• A behind-the-scenes look at Jungle Cruise was featured in the Disney+ Original series Behind the Attraction .

Film adaptation [ ]

The film adaptation , originally scheduled for release in 2007, has experienced various delays and changes. The shooting of the film, originally scheduled for 2006, was cancelled. Moreover, the original screenplay by Josh Goldstein and John Norville was reportedly rewritten by Al Gough and Miles Millar. This original screenplay followed a group's riverboat journey through a jungle in search of a cure and was to have featured a contemporary setting. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen were set to star as a Skipper and a frustrated passenger respectively until this version was cancelled.

A new version of the project starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt was announced in 2017, with a planned shooting time in the Spring of 2018. This version of the project is described as a comedic action-adventure film in the vein of Indiana Jones and the attraction's original inspiration, The African Queen . Jack Whitehall joined the cast as "Disney's second openly gay character". [2] Said character was criticized due to being a campy gay character portrayed by a heterosexual actor who is also subject to coded jokes by Dwayne Johnson's character about his sexuality. The film was eventually released on July 30 , 2021 .

• Jungle Cruise is one of the few original rides at Disneyland that is still open today.
• Disney's Animal Kingdom has two attractions inspired by the Jungle Cruise. One is Kilimanjaro Safaris which reuses Walt's original plans for a faux environment with real animals while the other is the alien jungle cruise of Na'vi River Journey which is an Avatar-themed reimagining of the attraction.
• Both Kevin Costner and John Lasseter worked there as captains of the boats in Disneyland. [2]
• In a popular story recounted by Jeff Lange, a writer for weblogging site Jim Hill Media, an experience at the Jungle Cruise helped bolster John Lasseter.
• Disneyland Paris used to have a Jungle Cruise themed gift-shop called Trader Sam's Jungle Boutique but this was replaced with the Indiana Jones Adventure Outpost .
• The name of the Jungle Cruise's most famous boat The Congo Queen was likely a tribute to Charlie's boat The African Queen from the film.
• The Magic Kingdom's Jungle Cruise featured a container of, "Rose's Leech Salt" referencing a scene in the Jungle Cruise where Rose Sayer helped Charlie Allnut recover from leeches. Also in this queue was a map of the Congo with the words, "Follow the Route of the Jungle Queen" and highlighted route passing Ponthierville where a church was illustrated. This alluded to how the film of the African Queen was partly filmed in Ponthierville, most notably within its cathedral and by using, "The Jungle Queen" as a surrogate name for the African Queen of the film.
• One of Chief Nah-mee's heads was allegedly made to resemble the head of Katherine Hepburn as a tribute to her character Rose Sayer.
• In Bengal Barbecue is a (photoshopped) photograph of Charlie Allnut and Rose Sayer riding the Zambezi Miss past the original lost safari in the African veldt.
• In Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar is a post-card sent to Trader Sam from Charlie Allnut, offering his advice and services.
• The Jungle Cruise film takes influence from the African Queen with Frank Wolff even being modeled after Charlie Allnut.
• The Minnie Mouse section of Magic of Disney Animation featured the poster for a film called, "The Jungle Cruise" modeled after the poster for the African Queen albeit with Mickey Mouse as Charlie Allnut and Minnie as Rose Sayer.
• The clothes of Frank Wolff and Lily Houghton are hung up in Alberta Falls' office in Disneyland. The map of the Amazon river is framed in the boathouse and a conquistador hat seemingly references the villainous Lope de Aguirre. While difficult to see, the chimp's map aboard the Mekong Maiden is signed by, "F.W." AKA Frank Wolff from the film.
• During the world premiere of the Jungle Cruise, one of the boats was turned into Frank's boat La Quila.
• In the Magic Kingdom, there is an office with Frank's hat, Lope de Aguirre's helm and the map of the Amazon in Alberta's office. The map of the Rivers of Adventure is also signed, "F.W." for Frank Wolff, a major character from the film.
• During the Jingle Cruise, a crate addressed to Rosita's owner Nilo Nemolato from the film was added to the African Veldt.

Gallery [ ]

References [ ]

• 3 Mufasa: The Lion King