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Ride
- The Danza: All of the skippers use their real first names.
- Distanced from Current Events:
- At Florida's version of the ride, the jokes the skippers would make about a crashed plane prop were dropped following the events of 9/11, with the skippers instead being told to find ways to divert guests' attention away from the prop. It wouldn't be for several years until the jokes surrounding the crashed plane were brought back.
- After a toddler was dragged into the Seven Seas Lagoon and killed by an alligator at Disney's Grand Floridian Hotel at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida on June 14, 2016, Disney asked its cast members not to say the iconic one-liner "Watch your children, or the crocodiles will!" (or any jokes about the gators and crocodiles) on the attraction anymore. The jokes they would make about a pair of crocodiles named Old Smiley and Ginger were eventually brought back a few months later, however.
- Long Runner: Being one of the original Disneyland attractions, the ride's been around for over 60 years and still going strong.
- Market-Based Title:
- Jungle Cruise: Wildlife Expeditions at Tokyo Disneyland.
- Jungle River Cruise at Hong Kong Disneyland.
- Milestone Celebration: At Disneyland's version of the ride, the showering elephant was temporarily painted gold to celebrate the park's 50th anniversary in 2005.
- Parody Retcon: The original concept was a straight safari attraction with the inconvenient live animals replaced with animatronics. It didn't really work, so it was switched to the current Played for Laughs version.
- What Could Have Been:
- The attraction was originally meant to contain live animals, but this was deemed too impractical. The idea of featuring real animals in a theme park, however, was eventually realized in Disney's Animal Kingdom.
- A jeep-based version of the ride was planned for Disneyland Paris, but scrapped due to the park's initial financial failure.
- In the late 90s, updates proposed for the Walt Disney World version ranged from an original concept emphasizing a strange crocodile cult
to a version based on the George of the Jungle movie simply called the George of the Jungle Cruise.
Film
- Actor-Shared Background:
- Lily can't swim, and has to improvise when trying to pull an underwater lever. Emily Blunt likewise was inexperienced with swimming, and had never filmed an underwater scene before.
- Although they had not met before making this film, Emily Blunt and Jack Whitehall grew up in the same part of London, only streets apart, making them apt to play siblings.
- Box Office Bomb: One of the biggest that ever happened to Disney as a whole. Despite earning 220 million dollars at the box office, due to a combination of high production costs and marketing (which had its own issues, while still costing an enormous pile of money) the film ended up losing 110-150 million dollars, depending on evaluation. Disney themselves declared the film would need to earn half a billion to be considered profitable.
- California Doubling: Though most of the film is set in Brazil and the Amazon rainforest, the film was shot in Hawaii and Atlanta.
- Creator-Chosen Casting: Emily Blunt was Dwayne Johnson's personal choice for Lily. She actually turned it down twice because she was exhausted from back to back filming of Mary Poppins Returns and A Quiet Place II, but was persuaded to sign on when he recorded a video message expressing his desire to work with her, and Jaume Collet-Serra flew out to New Orleans personally to meet with her.
- Creator's Oddball: Jaime Collet-Serra mainly directs horror films or thrillers like House of Wax (2005) and The Shallows, so helming a light-hearted Disney adventure flick is different for him.
- Dawson Casting: The real Prince Joachim was 25 at the time the movie takes place. Jesse Plemons was already in his early 30s.
- Fake Nationality:
- American Dwayne Johnson as the Spanish Frank.
- American Jesse Plemons as the German Prince Joachim.
- American Paul Giamatti as the Brazilian Nilo Nemolato, though both have the same ethnicity (Italian).
- Follow the Leader: The film was first greenlit in 2004, following the success of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Of course, being an Extremely Lengthy Creation that didn't see release until 2021, it was far less of a proven track record by then.
- Harpo Does Something Funny: Jack Whitehall was allowed to improvise on set.
- Invisible Advertising: The first trailer had the misfortune of being released days before the coronavirus pandemic would affect theaters around the world, causing many release date changes and/or cancellations. As a result, aside from an announcement about the film being pushed back, no news about the film surfaced until the announcement that it would be a Premier Access title on Disney+. Instead, Disney focused on marketing Black Widow (2021) and Cruella. The marketing campaign resumed in May 2021 (timed to the release of Cruella), albeit just two months prior to release. The end result was a marketing campaign worth in total over 150 million dollars... and failed to market the film.
- Meaningful Release Date: The film's pre-COVID release date was set 65 years to the month after the opening of Disneyland and the original attraction. After being delayed a year, it ultimately opened on the 50th anniversary year of the ride's second incarnation at Walt Disney World, as well as on the 70th anniversary year of the ride's inspiration, The African Queen.note
- Playing Against Type: While Emily Blunt has shown her range in many different roles, she is normally likely to show up as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold or humourless Action Girl. Playing a dorky, enthusiastic scientist who provides comic relief is a different stretch for her.
- Real-Life Relative: Emily Blunt's brother Sebastian cameos as a guard that Lily overpowers at the start of the film.
- Recursive Adaptation: In a way, since the ride was (unofficially) based on The African Queen.
- Release Date Change: The film was originally set to be released on October 11, 2019, but was pushed back to July 24, 2020 (presumably to avoid competition with Joker and Gemini Man), before the COVID-19 Pandemic wreaked havoc on the 2020 movie season, forcing it to move back another year to July 30, 2021. Like Cruella, it became available to watch both in theaters and on Disney+ via Premier Access.
- Typecasting: Like in The Mummy Returns, Dwayne Johnson plays a former soldier gifted with supernatural immortality and invincibility. He gets Taken for Granite in both films too, but gets better in this. And is undoubtedly the hero.
- What Could Have Been: Before Dwayne Johnson was attached, it was reported that the film was conceived as a vehicle for Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. Dwayne Johnson also expressed interest in Patty Jenkins directing.
- Word of Gay: Jack Whitehall's character MacGregor reveals that he's turned down three proposals from women due to having his interests elsewhere, which have led to him being shunned. He's also portrayed in a very campy manner, between his effeminate mannerisms and his cartoonish volume of luggage that would make Princess Vespa blush. It's strongly implied, but never outright stated that he's gay or attracted to men, with said character only being confirmed as gay in external interviews. His actor also did not initially know that the character was supposed to be gay until partway through production.
