Disney’s Jungle Cruise Ride Updated Amid Controversy, Loses ‘Natives’

Disney has a new Jungle Cruise look at its theme parks — this after catching flak for what some said were racist depictions — and they did away with any and all offending robots.

The honchos at Disney unveiled this week an update to their Jungle Cruise rides at both Disneyland and Disney World … which were getting re-tweaked over the past year and change after a ton of people demanded they lose the so-called “natives” along the OG path.

The Mouse House posted a BTS video showing the process of what went into reworking the ride — and the engineers reiterated what Disney said in a statement … namely, that they wanted to remain faithful to what everyone loves and remembers about Jungle Cruise voyages of the past, while also being inclusive/respectful/accurate over depicting cultures.

What that, apparently, amounted to in the final product — based on video they posted of the updated Jungle Cruise ride — is no trace of the indigenous people that used to be seen along the way.

Most of those indigenous people were portrayed as Black — but they were also made out to look like what some have characterized as “savages” … something that’s been done time and again dating back to the 20th century. Dr. Seuss even used to portray indigenous people in the same fashion … always drawing them with super dark skin and exaggerated features.

It appears none of those depictions are still around in the new ride — but there are still Black people featured. Only now, they’re seen as part of the exploration squad … as opposed to being seen as the scary, cannibal-esque bad guys threatening the cruise passengers.

The call to revamp Jungle Cruise came on the heels of Disney announcing they were also giving their Splash Mountain rides a facelift … with the OG animatronics also being called racist and perpetuating deep South tropes. They took care of that, and now … this too.