{"id":608431,"date":"2021-08-02T11:36:24","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T15:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=608431"},"modified":"2021-08-02T11:36:27","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T15:36:27","slug":"how-disneys-wokeness-makes-jungle-cruise-stale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-disneys-wokeness-makes-jungle-cruise-stale\/","title":{"rendered":"How Disney\u2019s Wokeness Makes \u2018Jungle Cruise\u2019 Stale"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-disneys-wokeness-makes-jungle-cruise-stale%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=608431&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1170001769.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>There\u2019s nothing wrong, or new, about movies sticking to formulas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Does anyone want the guy and gal&nbsp;<em>not<\/em> to end up together in a rom-com finale? Should John McClane meet his Maker rather than dispatch the euro-thugs in \u201cDie Hard?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Woke movies are different, though.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The new film bylaws offer a fresh round of surprise-free storytelling. Social justice scribes shape their screenplays in very particular ways, and it doesn\u2019t take Columbo to suss them out. You won\u2019t find a better example than Disney\u2019s \u201cJungle Cruise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Story spoilers ahead:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Disney blockbuster stars Emily Blunt as a scientist on the hunt for a legendary flower, one with the power to cure any illness. Dwayne Johnson plays the skipper guiding Blunt\u2019s character down the Amazon river to see if it\u2019s just a legend, or the real deal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The action takes place circa 1916, and the period details capture that era to the letter. It helps to have all that Mouse House cash at a film\u2019s disposal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The woke nods begin almost immediately. Blunt\u2019s character, Dr. Lily Houghton, sounds like a character out of a 2021 Blue State. She dresses like a man, not a woman, begs various characters to free the caged animals in their keep and refuses her skipper\u2019s advice even though he has decades of experience at the helm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Don\u2019t mansplain to Dr. Houghton!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Right away audiences know Lily will be darn near flawless and, by extension, far less interesting than the filmmakers hope. And they\u2019re right. Even her one sizable flaw \u2013 she can\u2019t swim \u2013 is swept aside in the third act.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Astute film watchers will quickly predict a few shots at the patriarchy in that first act, and they arrive right on cue. To be fair, it is cute when Johnson\u2019s skipper calls Lily \u201cPants.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Lily\u2019s brother, McGregor (Jack Whitehall), joins the jungle cruise along with his parade of wildly inappropriate ensembles. He may look smashing, but you don\u2019t pack your best duds for an arduous trek down the river.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>McGregor is consistently mocked during the first act, ridiculed for his dandy behavior and disconnect from the mission. Then, he confesses to Johnson\u2019s Frank Wolff that he\u2019s close to his sister for more reasons than usual. She\u2019s stood by him while others teased him for being, well, the film can\u2019t have him say, \u201cI\u2019m gay,\u201d so he dances around the phrase but the meaning is perfectly clear.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The family-friendly romp stops cold to introduce a gay character whose sexuality adds nothing to the story beyond a virtue signal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Woke 101.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In real life, no one wants someone like McGregor to be mistreated in any way due to his sexuality. Here\u2019s where things get complicated. In a movie set in the early 20<\/span><span>th<\/span><span> century, it\u2019s likely a crusty skipper living in the Amazon isn\u2019t so progressive toward that lifestyle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Instead, Frank all but says, \u201cNot that there\u2019s anything wrong with that,\u201d and the story moves on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>More importantly, the woke moment telegraphs the next stage of the film. Suddenly, McGregor is a worthy adventurer, and the comedy attacks on him all but vanish. A modern screenplay could make fun of a foppish fool, but it won\u2019t do the same with an apparently gay character who revealed himself to his new friend.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Who saw that coming? Well, everyone who understands the cultural climate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Lily, Frank and McGregor run into a group of natives not once, but twice. The second time finds the trio in serious trouble, surrounded by an aggressive band of armed and angry tribespeople.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Wait. This is a woke Disney adventure. There\u2019s no way the film would recreate the often-demeaning portrayals of native tribes seen in films dating back to the 1933 \u201cKing Kong.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>There must be something afoot, so the chance that our heroes are actually in grave danger is slim to none, leaning hard toward none. Your assumptions are correct.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>None of this is accidental.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>We all know Disney, Inc. is one of the wokest companies on the planet \u2013 except when aligning itself with a nation known for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/disney-mulan-backlash-chinas-xinjiang-province-human-rights\"><span>running concentration camps against Uighur Muslims<\/span><\/a><span>. Being woke means having massive holes in one\u2019s moral compass.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The studio fired actress Gina Carano from \u201cThe Mandalorian\u201d last year after her social media messages triggered Woke Nation. Meanwhile, \u201cMandalorian\u201d star Pedro Pascal, who is openly liberal, shared a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/backlash-against-disney-grows-after-liberal-actor-in-show-with-gina-carano-made-similar-posts-still-has-job\"><span>more aggressive version<\/span><\/a><span> of the message that got her fired and suffered no professional comeuppance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The company\u2019s \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/05\/08\/disney-goes-woke-with-new-anti-racist-agenda-for-employees\/\"><span>anti-racist\u201d employee rules<\/span><\/a><span> similarly caught the public\u2019s attention, preaching Critical Race Theory to its unsuspecting worker drones.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>We\u2019re seeing that woke spirit permeate its blockbuster entries, a trend that unofficially started with the progressive posturing that helped sink \u201cStar Wars: The Last Jedi\u201d in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The recent \u201cCruella\u201d made a legendary villain into a heroine, of sorts, because she represented Girl Power on steroids.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Woke is officially part of the company\u2019s creative DNA, with \u201cJungle Cruise\u201d being the latest example. What\u2019s worse? Knowing a film studio has gone woke means less surprises, and diminishing returns, at your local movie house.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>member<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s nothing wrong, or new, about movies sticking to formulas.Does anyone want the guy and gal\u00a0not to end up together in a rom-com finale? Should John McClane meet his Maker &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-608431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}