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ClosetPirate
09-04-2001, 03:58 PM
Ok, I was watching the news last night (Channel 8 in San Diego) and they said that the ride operators no longer carried the fake pistols to shoot at the hippos. Does anybody know the reason for the change?

Also, a funny Jungle Cruise ride story: I was on the ride a couple of months ago and the operator was running through he regular speach. It's amazing how many of those animals weight 500 pounds and can leap 20 feet in the air.

Anyway, we came to the python hangin in the tree and the guy started his routine and some smart aleck guest interrupted him and said something like "Yeah yeah, it weighs 500 pounds and can jump 20 feet hit." The CM said something like "No, snakes can't jump. You are the weakest link, goodbye" My side hurt I was laughing so hard.

MickeyD
09-04-2001, 04:06 PM
It's discussed in the effects cutbacks thread http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?threadid=1973

3894
09-04-2001, 04:06 PM
Originally posted by Collectionlaw
Ok, I was watching the news last night (Channel 8 in San Diego) and they said that the ride operators no longer carried the fake pistols to shoot at the hippos. Does anybody know the reason for the change?


Shooting at hippos is not considered politically correct. Never mind the backstory that the hippos are about to attack.

dalen
09-04-2001, 08:25 PM
My first trip to Disneyland was when I was seven years old (about 1970).

During the Jungle Cruise, my Mom was sitting with her arm around me as we went through the attraction.

Sure enough, as soon as the guide "shot" the hippo, she jerked her arm and smacked me right up the side of my head! :p Not to worry, though. I turned out to be OK (as far as I can tell).

I guess she hadn't been paying too much attention and didn't see the guide draw the pistol.

skeleton@thewheel
09-05-2001, 03:48 PM
Hey!

I read about this in the paper today too!! boy was I :mad: !

"politically correct" jeeze, is that a oxymoron or what?!!

what's next? shutting down the Autopia because cars pollute the air???

I guess we better hurry back to the Disneyland before all the fun and nostalgia are "cleaned and corrected" away!

:confused: :( :confused:

3894
09-06-2001, 07:01 AM
The Jungle Cruise is retro fantasy. It's the African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, for crying out loud! Fake river, fake falls, fake animals, fake guns, fake headhunters - it's all part of the fantasy.

Ozymandius
09-06-2001, 01:08 PM
Just another example of outside world overexaggerated sensitivities defacing and otherwise demarking a national treasure.

<soapbox> In a park of "make believe and fantasty" no less where we are encouraged, nay, commanded by the plaque penned by Walter Elias Disney himself upon entering:

Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tommorrow and fantasy.

I dare say that abused political correctness by the overly sensitive was not our past, should not be our future, and at least for me not a part of MY fantasy.

While I firmly object to the killing of animals for other than food. I never once, even as a child, thought that they were actually shooting a hippo. Are we to assume that children of today are less intelligent to know when something is make-believe or uncapable of the concept? I do realize that people will be upset at my comments, saying I am not being sensitive to those who children who were killed in schools becuase some kid saw it on TV or on a computer game and that violence begets violence. To them I say, violence was here long before any of us, to say that to take away TV and computer games will solve the problem is exactly my point--narrow-viewed--Shooting a fake hippo, will do no harm to the millions of animals that are poached and slaughtered each and everyday. Regardless of whether a make-believe skipper in a make-believe ride in a make-believe amuesment park shoots a make-believe bullet at a make-believe hippo, many hippos die everyday. One could just as easily say that by shooting the fake hippo we are looking at our past (see plaque) to see how far we've come in helping them for tommorrow. </soapbox>

But I digress as I usually do.

Bottom line, keep the cap guns.

Ozy

Kuzcotopia
09-07-2001, 08:23 PM
Shooting hippos reminds me that hippos are being shot in the real world everyday.

I don't like that reminder during my day at Disneyland.

To me, this is like how they took out the "Shoot the Bear" shooting gallery from the Frontierland shop. Shooting bears isn't fun. Not that real bears really suffer... just that shooting animals isn't fun.


Now if they let me take a gun into Tiki Room... that might be fun!

*singing*

Shoot the Birds
Two-bits a clip!

Two-bits, two-bits, two-bits a clip"


"Buenos Dias Sen-yorEEEEEtahhh.... It's Cho Time, Allow me to offend half the Audience.... with my SEEESter RoZEEEEETah!

BLAM! BLAM BLAM!

thamnarestan
09-08-2001, 12:31 PM
I don't understand why some people were offended at skippers shooting hippos. It's not as if they were shooting them for sport; the hippo was charging the boat and the gun was being used for self defense. What do these PETA-types actually value animal life over human life? Sadly, I think they do.

Napsto
09-08-2001, 12:36 PM
for a while the skippers were just firing straight up in the air to scare the animas anyways.

MickeyMoose15
09-08-2001, 04:13 PM
They stopped shooting the hippos at WDW in 1998 right before Disney's Animal Kingdom opened. I guess they don't want any more damn complaints from animal rights activists.

Cadaverous Pallor
09-09-2001, 02:20 PM
Weird, I thought I posted this before...:confused: Maybe in another thread? If so, I aplogize for repeating myself.

When the guns were removed a few months ago, the skipper CM in our boat actually mentioned that they were gone and said "ask me about it after the cruise." We naturally did, and he said that the guns they used to have were REAL guns with blanks in them. Safety inspectors got really worried about regular bullets somehow making their way into the guns and asked for them to be removed.

I then thought that not putting in replacement fake cap guns was just the cheaper way to go, but now hearing about WDW I realize it was probably more of a PC move.

I guess the natives will go next....:(

Disney Princess
09-10-2001, 09:38 AM
Yeah, and I think I made this same reply :) (in that same thread...was it the Effects Changes one?) that while the Jungle Guns WERE real Smith and Wessons, they:

1. Were always under heavy security and monitoring to prevent a guest from coming in contact with one.

2. Were modified so they couldn't fire real bullets. Only if someone knew a lot about guns could the device be possibly disabled, and since they were guarded anyway, the chances of that happeing were practically nill.

The reasons they were taken away were the PC reasons since our society has become very sensitive about guns, and also because many parents complained about the guns' effects on their children (ie, too violent, too loud, etc).

And it is also true that for a while, Skippers were intsructed to fire the gun into the air to scare the hippos instead of firing AT the hippos, but still there was the noise issue about frightening children. Thus the guns' ultimate removal.

Disney Princess