{"id":2248,"date":"2021-07-27T13:44:50","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T11:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1297364"},"modified":"2021-07-27T13:44:50","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T11:44:50","slug":"is-jungle-cruise-a-remake-of-the-african-queen","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/is-jungle-cruise-a-remake-of-the-african-queen\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Jungle Cruise a remake of The African Queen?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dwayne Johnson\u2019s new Disney movie has more of a connection with the Humphrey Bogart classic than you might realise. <\/p>

By Huw Fullerton\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 27 July 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

New Disney adventure Jungle Cruise<\/a> follows in the footsteps of Pirates of the Carribbean to create a film franchise from a theme park ride, with the Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt-starring fantasy movie based largely on the popular \u2018Jungle Cruise\u2019 ride familiar to many Disneyland visitors.<\/p>\n

However, fans have also noticed a connection to a slightly more rarified source \u2013 1951\u2019s Humphrey Bogart\/Katherine Hepburn classic The African Queen, which similarly saw a rough-and-ready skipper take a brother and sister duo on a dangerous steamer journey during the First World War while dodging German soldiers. Dwayne Johnson\u2019s Frank even dresses a bit like Bogart\u2019s Charlie!<\/p>\n

And the similarities are no coincidence. According Johnson himself The African Queen was a big inspiration on the film, for one simple reason \u2013 the original theme park ride this film was based on was heavily inspired by the older movie.<\/p>

In other words, The African Queen was totally tangled up in Jungle Cruise\u2019s DNA from the start, and the filmmakers couldn\u2019t help but return to that source for some more inspiration (alongside many other movies).<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s a little context for you\u2026 Jungle Cruise was Walt Disney\u2019s baby,\u201d Johnson told Radio Times<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a0ride has been around since 1955, which is when Disneyland first opened. It was Walt\u2019s way of bringing a safari to people in\u00a0the\u00a0States; people who couldn\u2019t necessarily go overseas\u00a0or travel. I\u2019ve been on\u00a0the\u00a0ride many times and it\u2019s an incredible honour to bring it to life in this way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also pulled inspiration from movies like\u00a0The\u00a0African Queen, Romancing\u00a0the\u00a0Stone and\u00a0the\u00a0Indiana Jones series, so you know you\u2019re in for some fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Jungle\"<\/div>
Jungle Cruise<\/span><\/figcaption> Disney<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Of course, the similarities can be overstated. While like The African Queen, Jungle Cruise is set during the early years of the First World War and sees German soldiers function as a primary adversary during a riverboat quest, it\u2019s set on a completely different continent (South America) and has a fantastical story that\u2019s more about finding magic flowers and dodging undead conquistadors than avenging murdered villagers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that the brother in The African Queen (played by Robert Morley) doesn\u2019t feature for a large part of the film, whereas Jack Whitehall\u2019s McGregor is a key character throughout Jungle Cruise. And as far as I can remember, there were no magic bees in the older film.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s hard to argue that there\u2019s shared imagery \u2013 German vessels destroyed in exotic rivers, deadly rapids, bickering romance, treacherous locales and doomed semi-colonial quests \u2013 that could lead some Jungle Cruise viewers to seek out the 1955 classic.<\/p>\n

One person, at least, seems certain that no-one could mistake it for a remake or reboot \u2013 Bogart\u2019s son Stephen, now a Hollywood composer.<\/p>\n

\""The\"<\/div>
Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in The African Queen (Getty)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cThe Rock is fine,\u201d he told EW<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s got a great personality. He seems like a very good person. I think he works hard; he cares about it, and I\u2019ll go see the movie. It\u2019ll be fun. But I never thought of it as a continuation, nor do I think Dwayne Johnson is trying to be Humphrey Bogart, that\u2019d be tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to disparage [anyone],\u201d he added, noting the earlier film\u2019s long shelf life. \u201cBut 70 years later, they probably won\u2019t be doing a re-release of Jungle Cruise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though given Disney\u2019s history of re-packaging or remaking their older movies, we probably shouldn\u2019t rule anything out\u2026<\/p>\n

Jungle Cruise in in UK cinemas and streaming on Disney Plus from Friday 30th July. Want more? Check out our dedicated Movies<\/a> page or our full TV Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dwayne Johnson\u2019s new Disney movie has more of a connection with the Humphrey Bogart classic than you might realise. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":2249,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/is-jungle-cruise-a-remake-of-the-african-queen.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/is-jungle-cruise-a-remake-of-the-african-queen-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/is-jungle-cruise-a-remake-of-the-african-queen-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/is-jungle-cruise-a-remake-of-the-african-queen.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/is-jungle-cruise-a-remake-of-the-african-queen.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/is-jungle-cruise-a-remake-of-the-african-queen.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/is-jungle-cruise-a-remake-of-the-african-queen.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Dwayne Johnson\u2019s new Disney movie has more of a connection with the Humphrey Bogart classic than you might realise.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/2248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}