MICKEY WRIGHT

                                               (the Other Mickey)

 

                                                                            Mickey was "Captain Mickey" for Disneyland's World Famous Jungle Cruise in

                                                                            Anaheim, CA from 2007 to 2010.  

                                                                            The Jungle Cruise was one of the original attractions at Disneyland when it

                                                                            opened in 1955. Walt's original idea was to give guests a river boat adventure

                                                                            down a jungle river with live animals appearing along the way. It quickly became

                                                                            apparent that live animals would not be dependable for park operating hours.

                                                                            Simple robotic animatronics were developed to present the realistic

                                                                            animals...elephants and tigers (oh my!)...for the Jungle Cruise. They were ideal for

                                                                            the Jungle Cruise because they would appear on cue, anytime, night or day. More

                                                                            complex developments in anamatronics eventually produced a very realistic

                                                                            President Lincoln who stands and delivers a moving speech.
 
                                                                            Another change from Walt's original ideas for the attraction was the use of

                                                                            humor. Walt so wanted the trip to be an adventure, skippers were trained to

                                                                            make the trip as realistic and frightening as possible...humor had no place.

                                                                            Somewhere along the way though it became clear that humor not only had a

                                                                            place on the ride, but was very much needed. Mickey said his personal objective

was to try to make the trip as much of an adventure as possible, with as much laughter as possible. This was accomplished mostly with puns and physical humor. 

As part of their 25th anniversary Disneyland Tokyo invited all the Jungle Cruises from around the world to send representatives to participate in a special international event in Japan. The management team at the original Disneyland decided to let the skippers compete for the privilege of representing their Jungle Cruise at the event. Mickey and another skipper were thrilled and honored to be chosen to share this dream-come-true experience.

**The picture -top left- is of Captain Mickey taking cast members in Tokyo on the adventure of their lives.**

Mickey now lives in Fort Worth, Texas, where he is just "Cappy"...Liberty's grandfather. He did return to Disneyland to work in the Jungle one summer and confessed that he hopes to do so many times in the future.

Captain Mickey's Rivers of the World Gallery is a presentation of his digital art. Each piece of art presented here was created from a photograph he personally took on the World Famous Jungle Cruise.

Be sure to visit and LIKE his FaceBook Fan Page if you'd like to keep up with his art happenings. Here's a link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mickeys-Rivers-of-the-World-Art-Gallery/568476053189538?ref=hl

NOTE: "Captain Mickey's Rivers of the World Gallery" is in no way connected with Disneyland or any other Walt Disney enterprise. The only connections of Mickey and his art to Disney are by his heart-strings.