Certainly you finally want to know what the actual ride experience would have been like – but first allow me some fwords of warning. If you want to, my friends, see them as our special version of a Safety Video playing in an endless loop in the queue line … keep in mind that the whole idea of this ride was to reproduce the equivalent of the Jungle Cruise on wheels and not an Indy type ride. Therefore the most important aspects of the rides would have been a mild thrill factor (on a par to Splash Mountain in the Imagineers’ minds) in combination with an extensive themeing. If you want to a “Jungle Cruise on steroids”, or a “pirates like ride with a little bit of a thrill twist”. Obviously environmental themeing played a major part in this ride. Already in the queue (which we discussed the last time) guests would have neber been sure whether they actually were inside a building or in the open air. This set-up would have continued throughout the ride, where the effect would have been intensified as in some actually covered scenes of the ride a “dry guest- wet show scene” rain effect was going to be used tricking even more the guest’s mind.

What follows cannot be a perfect scene by scene description of the ride, mostly because this is the least known of all the “never built” EuroDisney rides most propably as it is the only one which was never fully disclosed and also was never used “as it was” for other projects. Never the less what we know is that Chris Tietz’s idea for the ride was not to provide a ride with a strong storyline, but more to try to offer the guests a fully immersive visit to a jungle on a “random” feeling safari. This was supposed to allow him to push the environmental themeing techniques to all new levels, which Imaginers had learned and perfected so well over the years. As an added bonus there was supposed to some bumping of the guests in their seats here and there plus some pretty dangerous or funny encounters along the way. So lean back, buckle up, and off we go…

As our tour jeeps moves out of the station it would have entered the jungle where the surroundings would have become lusher and greener with every meter the jeep would have moved forward on the old trail. Soon the vegetation would open up a bit as we reach a natural clearing – home of the first scene featuring Audio Animatronic giraffes eating from the trees, one of them actually towering from our right to a tree on the left allowing us to pass right under it’s neck above our heads. Back in the deep jungle the jeep would have proceeded towards a river. Across which an old, rusty bridge would have spanned. Passing over it guests would have spotted numerous hippopotamuses bathing in the river below. According to some sources one hippo would have tried to squirt the jeep during the summer months providing for some light water gag effect in those months in which it could have been appreciated.

After the hippo encounter our jeep would have proceed along a beaten path, a trail passing lush vegetation and trees with monkeys on top of them looking down at us from both our left and our right, finally leading to another clearing from where we would have been able to see the temple a few (forced perspective extravaganza) kilometers away. This scene would have served as a testing ground for a new environmental themeing and rain effect Imagineers hoped to use. The show building would have featured a glass roof (much like the TokyoDisney World Bazaar one or the much smaller one above the streets of the Adventureland Bazaar / Café Agrabah a few meters further down the roads in Adventureland) which would have allowed light to pass through, while leaves and trees would have covered the structure preventing guests from actual detecting the roof, creating the illusion that they are in the open air and not in a show building. The scene would have been ready to transform into everything from a hot summer day to a tropical rain storm in a few minutes since the roof structure and trees would have featured hidden sprinklers to create a rainstorm effect, combining it with a wind and storm sound and air effects which would have allowed Imagineers to decide (according to the outside temperature and light conditions) whether and if so where “to make it rain” including on the guests.

As the jeep rumbled on the path would have become more and more enclosed with branches of the trees closing in the jeep creating more and more anticipation as the path finally leads us to the temple’s surroundings and gardens. Here we would have circled around ancient ruins seeing the detailed façade of the temple formed by two towers held up by a series of columns, adorned over and over with hieroglyphics. As the jeep would have approached the temple’s main entrance guests would have gotten a closer look at these details. Once the jeep actually crossed the gates to the inner sanctum of the temple the music played inside the jeep would have become dominated by happier, less adventurous rhythms as sounds from somewhere deeper in the temple would have drifted towards the guests. Our jeep would have travelled another few rooms leading to a balcony view, traveling on top therefore, giving us a great view of a party going on under us in a courtyard of the temple (think about a similar, yet longer, Phantom Manor ballroom view): the “I wanna be like You” scene from Disney’s Jungle Book reproduced in meticulous detail certainly including a dancing Baloo, Mowgli and King Louie with Bagera looking at the scene from the balcony with us passing right next to him. This scene certainly would have been the show stopper, the highlight of the safari, appealing to guests of every age – plus the Imagineers since they had been thinking about including such a scene in a ride for many years already. This unexplored jungle ride just seemed like the perfect fit.

Exiting the scene we would have found ourselves outside the temple heading for the return path but upon entering the thick jungle again we would have heard a growling from a tree a few meters ahead on the right as a tiger was perched right up on one of the lower branches next to the beaten path. With really no choice the jeep would have then quickly (pre-EMV testing) stirred left towards a rocky and unbeaten path providing a very bumpy and fast ride with the tiger continuing to come after us, popping up in every corner as we would quickly stir away from it. At one point we would have found us with the tiger behind us back on the other side of the “open air storm scene”, with the bridge and the river in front of us. Certainly the road back to the bridge would be blocked so the jeep would therefore have taken a muddy path (really back to back with the other scene), through the rain towards the hippo filled river and beating the tiger to it, providing us with a safe passage back to the station.

Sounds like an interesting ride, doesn’t it? Great environment, show stopper scenes, a classic Disney tie in and that sort of bump and excitement Adventureland was missing at the time. Unfortunately the price tag of the ride was supposed to be around 60 Million US-$ (which probably would have grown even further if Disney had tried to utilize the full EMV technology). But the price tag wasn’t the only cause why the ride was never realized. Most of all in those dramatic years following the opening of EuroDisney the management decided on a two tire / column plan: 1. placing priority on increasing the capacity with numerous small rides (which resulted in the “added capacity plan” featuring rides like Casey Junior, which gave the park an extra capacity of approximately 11.000 guests); 2. concentrating funds on one major, marketable thrill ride (which brought us Space Mountain).

But today the question must be: has this ride lost all chances of making it to Disneyland Paris? Well honestly speaking folks this ride would have for sure, especially thanks to the Jungle Book tie in and the rain scene, proved a fun filled trip, but all plans, models, sketches and drawings for the version discussed here have been wrapped up and stored deep in the Glendale archive. Imagineers and management agree nowadays that if any sort of Jeep ride was to head for Paris it would have be a successor of this Unexplored Jungle ride more based on the Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye / Crystal Skull attractions from Disneyland Anaheim / Tokyo Disney Seas. In fact it might be a plain clone of those as this should make the ride much cheaper than the development of an all new attraction and on top of that also a lot easier to advertise due to the Indiana Jones tie in. The ride would also be suitable for the Studios due to this movie connection...

...therefore my friends we might never be able to experience the mysteries of the unexplored jungle but not all hope is lost, that one day we will board a jeep in the Disneyland Resort Paris for some kind of ride (just restrain from bringing a bucket of water and using it on your neighbour if you want to reproduce that rainy scene please).

For now it's TTFN - tatafornow

MickeyFantasmic