There is no doubt that Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” is an enjoyable family-friendly adventure film with lots of action and spectacular visual effects. Yet at times it comes across as a tone-deaf throwback to a bygone era of this company’s productions.
The story begins with a legend about the Amazon. Conquistadors set out in search of the Teardrops of the Moon, red flowers that can heal any illness. The jungle fights them every step of their journey to prevent their acquiring this treasure. Finally, they become cursed and are frozen in time as vines entwine them.
Shifting to 1916 London, we find MacGregor Houghton (Jack Whitehall) reading from prepared index cards to an elite British society, all men of course. Ostensibly he is requesting money for a trip down the Amazon to find the Teardrops of the Moon. In the gallery above sits his sister, Lily (Emily Blunt), who sneaks away to go into the backrooms where archaeological finds are stored.
Here she runs into Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons), a son of Kaiser Wilhelm. Both Lily and Joachim are seeking the same object, an arrowhead that is the key to discovering the Teardrops. Lily wants the Teardrops to heal the war-wounded and for medical science, while Joachim wants them to win the war for Germany.
Lily manages to steal the arrowhead. After a madcap chase scene, she eludes Joachim. She and her brother prepare to leave for the Amazon.
On the Amazon, we meet Captain Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson), skipper of a tourist boat. He leads his charges on what is clearly an amusing knock-off version of Disney’s Jungle Cruise ride. He warns the passengers about headhunters. All the while, he cracks terrible puns to the dismay of his guests.
Lily and MacGregor arrive in the Amazon. They end up shipping with Frank to find the Teardrops. But they are not the only ones going upriver. Joachim is there with a submarine crew. He almost succeeds in ambushing Frank’s boat as it leaves the town.
Frank is convinced that Lily does not have what it takes to make it up the river. He does everything to persuade her to turn back.
Joachim locates the frozen Spanish conquistadors. He offers them river water to animate them if they will join his quest as allies in obtaining the Teardrops. They agree and are revived as scary beings infested with snakes and in one case, bees.
Now it is a race to see who will get to the Teardrops first.
The end credits reveal that the film was shot on location in Kauai and the state of South Australia. The cinematography is beautiful as are the location shots augmented from time to time with visual effects.
The visual effects are quite good. The conquistadors look sufficiently ghoulish without being too scary for tweens, and the final reveal is very well-done. I especially love Proxima the jaguar, which may be motion-capture since the role is credited to Ben Jenkin.
The story has one great twist that comes out of nowhere. The pacing is not too slow for young children. I especially liked the mythological and supernatural elements. The inclusion of World War I Germans as a substitute for Nazis gives the film a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” feel. The action scenes and fight scenes are well-staged.
On the down side, the creators seem tone-deaf to the fact that this takes place during World War I. With its heavy casualties, mutilated veterans, and horrific trench warfare, the “Great War” was a cataclysm that completely altered the United Kingdom. Yet whenever we are in London, there seems to be no sign of the conflict, other than Lily mentioning that she wants to help the war-wounded. The fact that the son of the Kaiser can freely visit England also seems outlandish.
The second tone-deaf measure involves the complete absence of indigenous people on the Amazon. The only groups that we see are those led by Trader Sam (Veronica Falcon), who has an agreement with Frank to provide action on his Jungle Cruises, and a flashback scene to the conquistadors. The entire Amazon seems uninhabited, either by Europeans or native peoples.
The fact that the story revolves around white people also merits comment. While Dwayne Johnson is part Samoan, this is not the ethnicity of his character in the picture. Whether Germans on a submarine or revived conquistadors, the main characters are predominately of European descent. This seems like a retrogression for Disney to a past era of casting and character creation.
Then there is the “gay” character, MacGregor. He reveals to Frank that he sticks by Lily because she stuck by him when his family rejected him over his failure to marry a woman. He tells Frank that his “interests happily lay elsewhere.”
This seems like a complete cop-out to parents of children who would be offended by having an overtly gay character. Of course it is true that in 1916 the character MacGregor probably would not have used the word “gay” to characterize himself, but the fact is that he could have said that he was attracted to men, which would have been less oblique.
This way Disney gets to have its cake and eat it too. It makes a gesture to the LGBTQ+ community by having an “out” character, but also does not make it so obvious that those offended by queerness have to explain it to their children.
Aren’t we past the time when this dissembling is necessary? It just seems completely cowardly to me. This is especially so since Disney’s show “Andi Mack” has a gay character. It will be interesting to see if even this sideways mention of queerness merits a boycott.
The film is rated PG-13 for sequences of adventure violence. I would not recommend it for pre-school children, as the revived conquistadors might generate nightmares.
In sum, this is an enjoyable action-adventure picture with some wonderful elements in it. The fact that the film has problems does not negate these positive features. I would encourage discussion, such as about the fact that indigenous peoples do live on the Amazon too, among families who attend.
Three and a half out of five stars
Dr. Lily Houghton travels from London, England to the Amazon jungle and enlists Frank Wolff’s questionable services to guide her downriver on La Quila—his ramshackle-but-charming boat. Lily is determined to uncover an ancient tree with unparalleled healing abilities—possessing the power to change the future of medicine. Thrust on this epic quest together, the unlikely duo encounters innumerable dangers and supernatural forces, all lurking in the deceptive beauty of the lush rainforest. But as the secrets of the lost tree unfold, the stakes reach even higher for Lily and Frank and their fate—and mankind’s—hangs in the balance.
Stars Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Edgar Ramírez and Jack Whitehall, with Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
Story by: John Norville, Josh Goldstein Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Based on: “Jungle Cruise” by Walt Disney
"Jungle Cruise": Family-friendly adventure fun
Summary
In sum, this is an enjoyable action-adventure picture with some wonderful elements in it. The fact that the film has problems does not negate these positive features. I would encourage discussion, such as about the fact that indigenous peoples do live on the Amazon too, among families who attend.
Leave a Reply