Saturday, May 10, 2014

The Jungle Cruise and AWOL Airwaves







Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom
Adventureland - Jungle Cruise - Queue - 1991







Nate Grigg on Flickr








K. Martinez said...

The Albert AWOL "Voice of the Jungle" loop from the Magic Kingdom and the Global Broadcasting Service loop from Disneyland Park are my favorite audio backgrounds. For me, they probably submerse one into the atmosphere, more than any other. I can't say I prefer one over the other as they are both uniquely different and I was never a fan of complete duplication between the parks.

As for the Tiki Room 1963 personas vs. the 30s Jungle Cruise vs. 1941 era Jeep in the gorilla camp scene, I don't consider that an issue, since to me the Magic Kingdoms are fantasy based and not really about historical reality.

Thanks for assembling the MK Jungle Cruise audio loop. I've thoroughly enjoyed the audio projects you've produced, as they definitely provide a fresh take and some insight into the BGMs and loops at the Magic Kingdom. It's amazing how different this one sounds and feels compared to the WDI produced loop.

Alex Blasingame said...

Thanks for sharing another informative article! I feel by knowledge of Disney magic and ephemera swell each time I read on of your great posts

CatInHat said...

Great article, as always. Your posts are always so well thought out. I actually had that soundtrack from the remake of "Pennies From Heaven," so at least 2 were sold...

Jeremy said...

This is such a great post! I've been assembling these tracks for years now-- ever since I left Jungle.

After meshing times, shrinking, expanding and taking the original edits the Imagineers used, I have a good chunk of tracks edited down to exactly the way they sound in the loop. There are some pretty ingenious edits!

Also, for what it's worth, I'm fairly certain the EQ on the music was simply done by running it through an RIAA EQ.

chris said...

It is probably fair to call the Pennies From Heaven film a boondoggle (it was certainly a box-office flop), and it's by no means perfect, but it's something of a cult classic now (as well as the BBC original, not to discount that) and for good reason. It's highly entertaining - utterly bizarre, lurid and sultry, dripping with emotion, achingly strong dance scenes (including from Christopher Walken in an incredible performance, but that is not even the most memorable dance scene).

Fred Astaire hated it, because he was unable to prevent them from incorporating footage of him dancing from one of his 30's movies in the film (it's a wonderful sequence). But I think his hatred of it is really interesting, and drives home the value of the movie (in part) - Astaire's 1930s were innocent and gay (in the sense that the word was used in the 30s), and Astaire's films are an utter delight, my vote for the greatest musicals ever made. The reality of the 30s for most people was quite different, though, and the film masterfully contrasts the joyful music of the day to the reality (stylized reality, yes).

The Purple Rose of Cairo is another film from around the same time that examined this theme as well - also something of a cult classic - and quite relevant to the Jungle Cruise, I think, since the film-within-the-film is about a 20s/30s explorer who would be right at home on the Jungle Cruise.

More broadly, both films are about constructed perceptions of reality vs. true reality - very fitting for Disney parks in general.

Dan said...

The preshow music for Jungle Book Live at Animal Kingdom had a similar tone as AWOL Radio, just set in India, with the announcer giving out warnings about tigers and such. It was very funny. Do yo know if this preshow music is available?