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I wanted to know: Did this movie ring true to his experience?
Were the real Jungle Cruise jokes better or worse than the Rocks?
And also, were all of the Jungle Cruise skippers hooking up in the 80s?
Its not on my LinkedIn, but it probably should be.
It actually helped me get my first job.
Okay, then lets establish your credentials.
I got it as a summer internship.
As part of the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom College Program.
MKCP, I think they called it.
The Jungle Cruise was one of the sought-after jobs.
My roommate was a lifeguard, which was pretty cush.
But in the hierarchy of Attractions jobs, Jungle Cruise was the cream of the crop.
Did you have to audition?
I definitely put Attractions at the top.
And back then, there were only male Jungle Cruise skippers.
If you were a dude, that gave you a leg up.
That part of the movie was such a great homage to the job.
Well get into the puns shortly.
So basically the same title as the Rock.He and I have a lot of similarities.
Youre both Jewish.Is he Jewish?
No.The only reason I didnt think he was Jewish is because hes too good of an athlete.
Youd pretend you were steering it, but the wheel didnt work.
It was on a track.
You controlled the speed.
When you went over certain things, the elephants would spray you, or the hippo would come out.
Remember how in the movie he chops a rope and stuff comes flying at them?
He had the [early] version of the ride.
By 1989, a lot of that stuff had been automated.
But basically, it was the same job.
And at the beginning, I dont think he even has his gun loaded.
Wait, did you have a gun?A real gun.
You had to clean it after work each day.
It had blanks in it, but it was a real gun.
For what?To shoot the hippos.
And to protect the guests.
Did you have the same outfit?I didnt have that driving cap or whatever that is.
I had a straw jungle cowboy hat and a polyester shirt, tan and brown, and polyester pants.
It was in the summer, so temperature-wise, it was similar to the movie.
It was 95 and humid every single day.
That sounds bad from a breathability perspective.
Was it paid?Yes, I made $5 an hour.
And they took your rent out of your pay.
I think I netted, like, $95 a week.
You lived at Disney World?Yeah, in apartments.
This really cool condo complex for 20-somethings.
All the interns lived there.
And there was a pool.
It was like Club Med for working college students.
Half were American students and the other half were foreigners who were working at Epcot.
So everyone was hooking up with each other?There was a lot of that.
I didnt fare as well as other skippers.
There were a lot of short romances.
Everyone was young and vibrant and having a blast and making five bucks an hour.
Lets get to the puns.
But your trainer would pride himself on teaching you jokes that were not SOP.
You could get in trouble.
But nobody ever did.
There was a script, but I dont remember really seeing it, just learning it from my trainers.
And a lot of the puns in the movie were the same.
They were the same as the jokes you yourself actually made?Oh, yeah.
To be honest, I dont get that joke.I dont either.
I didnt get it when I was saying it.
I got fired from an orange-juice factory because I couldnt concentrate, that was in there.
[Laughs at own joke from 1989.]
Did people in the 80s laugh at these jokes?Oh, yeah.
People thought you were so funny.
I know Im on a bunch of peoples handheld video Disney World vacation videos.
If they didnt laugh, youd tap the mic and go, Is this thing on?
How did you keep it fresh?
Maybe Id do, like, 20 trips around in a day.
And by the end, your voice was shot.
Youd be there til 2 a.m. and then have to be at work at 7.
Maybe sometimes I didnt give my best performance early in the morning.
This sounds amazing and horrible.It was.
Did anything bad ever happen?
Did anyone ever fall off the boat?
Was anyone rowdy?Im sure there were some hecklers.
You could maybe jam someones foot between the boat and the dock.
But there was this lore, like, Nothing bad ever happens in the Magic Kingdom.
Did the boat ever break?The boat would break every now and again.
This was also similar to the Rock how he was always tinkering with his boat.
It would stop and youd have to have somebody come and tow you out.
But back then, I dont think we thought about it that way.
It was Disney, it was the 80s.
When did you realize it was racist?I definitely did later.
You should be interviewing him.[Ed.
note: This seems to be a myth.
]Its nice to have a connection to him that way.
And now I have one to the Rock.
If there were a secret handshake, Id give it to him when I saw him.
If the Rock had been one of your coworkers, would you have found him intimidating?
Was there competition among the skippers?There were definitely factions.
Like the Jets and the Sharks.
Like, we were definitely loyal to our trainer and the other guys were loyal to theirs.
There was a competition around who had the better jokes.
Our film critic didnt like the movie.
Whats your official review?Hmmm.
I wish I had seen it in a theater.
Maybe if Id seen it on a bigger screen, it would have been better.
But I give them credit for the effort.
Its hard not to like the Rock and Emily Blunt.
I get her confused with Olivia Wilde.
I feel bad for Jason Sudeikis being dumped by Olivia Wilde.
Anyway, if I werent a Jungle Cruise skipper, Id give it a mid-50s on Rotten Tomatoes.
But since I was … maybe they could have cut it down to an hour and 45 minutes.
I dont know who this movie was for.
If youre under 13, it would probably scare you.
Maybe its for people between the ages of 13 and 13 and a half.
I appreciate that, as does Disney.
But then she brings him back.
Someday youll miss being young, Rachel.
That felt like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
The Jungle Cruise was in Adventureland, and 20,000 Leagues was in Tomorrowland, or something like that.
It didnt feel like the spirit of the Jungle Cruise.
And I dont remember the Jungle Cruise being about trying tooutrun a mean Nazi.
I dont want to make the Rock mad.
Im sure hell be reading this.
He definitely paid incredible homage to the craft of Jungle Cruise skippers.
