Are any of you old (and cynical) enough to have scoffed at the idea of the Pirates of the Caribbean film when it was announced? I mean, I can’t say I fell into that category, as I was still young, full of wonder, and loved all things Disney and pirate related. (At the same age, I thought the Star Wars prequels were flawless,  so let’s just say I was easily impressed.) But if you really think about it, the idea of making a film based off of a ride was just…strange. Like the opposite is quite common. Of course film themed rides can are the standard –who wouldn’t want to go on a ride based on their favorite films? But Disney…Disney really did take a dark boat ride featuring animatronic pirates and turn it into a multi-billion dollar film franchise. Who could blame them for trying to milk that formula with some of their other park attractions. So far, their other attempts have been…less than successful (The Haunted Mansion, Tomorrowland.) But hey, Disney has a lot more rides and tons more money, so why not try try again?

Set in 1916, Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) and her brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) detail Lily’s research on the Tears of the Moon, a fabled tree whose petals can cure illnesses, to an association of English explorers, explaining that the petals could revitalize medicine and aid in the war effort. The Houghton’s request access to an arrowhead recovered by Dr. Albert Falls that Lily believes is key to locating the tree. When the association denies their request, believing the tree to be a myth and a female scientist unqualified to join their ranks, Lily steals the arrowhead instead. She narrowly avoids Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons), a German aristocrat who also wants the arrowhead and the tree.  Traveling to South America, Dr. Houghton meets up with Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson), an overzealous and exaggerating jungle cruise tourist guide, which initially starts with deception but eventually leads the group on a jungle adventure in pursuit of the Tears of the Moon.

I can’t say I see too much originality in this film. A lot of the visual and plot aspects derive from the Pirates films. But don’t worry, it has a healthy dose of The Mummy, Indiana Jones and Star Wars thrown in as well! The one slightly more…unique aspect was the the character of MacGregor, Lily’s not-so-adventure ready brother. While having a whiny load character in these types of stories is a fairly common trope, he might be my favorite I’ve ever seen of this. I don’t want to spoil too much about him, but I did find myself smiling every time he was on screen. Emily Blunt, who is a pro at playing strong woman, made sure to go over the top this time, as her character Lily makes Princess Leia seem polite at times. At least it works for this type of film. As far as Dwayne Johnson’s Frank goes, he felt like he literally embodied the “soul” of this movie. Yes, this seemingly unoriginal cash grab of a movie actually has bit of soul to it.

I’m not sure if I should be surprised or not that Jungle Cruise was chosen to be the base of this latest attempt. It’s one of the attractions I remember the least in my visits to Disneyland. Perhaps I was just too hyper fixated on ghosts and pirates. But looking up a video of the ride on YouTube, it all came back to me. The one thing that makes it unique, though, from all of the attractions that got turned into films so far is it’s guided by an actual person (the Skipper) reciting the (very pun-heavy) given script with their own flair. To this extent, the film stayed pretty faithful to the original spirit of the ride. Dwayne Johnson’s Frank truly embodied the cheesy, punny Skipper featured in the actual tour, sprinkling in many corny jokes from the ride throughout the film. And for fans of the ride (and cheesy humor in general, like me) this alone is worth the price of admission.

Much like any old school Disney park ride,  the Jungle Cruise ride relies heavily on animatronics, not that I would ever complain about that! The movie…well…much like most films made at this time, is almost all CGI when it comes to special effects. I’m really only drawing a comparison of the two because, I must admit, the CGI in this film doesn’t quite cut it for me. I’m not saying its bad, just not great compared to what I know Disney is capable of. Yet, (and hear me out), in this rare instance, this aspect almost lends itself to adding more charm to the film. Because the CGI feels “less than real”, I was reminded of the of the ride’s animatronics. We crusty adults know both animatronics and CGI aren’t real, yet if we’re having enough fun in either a ride or a movie, it doesn’t matter.

While Jungle Cruise probably won’t be enough to inspire another multi-billion dollar franchise, its definitely the “Disney Ride” film I’ve enjoyed the most since the (first three) Pirates films. Sure, it lacked in originality and depth. But that didn’t matter, as it was just plain fun and did everything it needed to do to pay proper homage to the ride. The only downside is I wish I can go back to Disneyland now….