‘Jungle Cruise’ Is Fun but Has Questionable Representation
'Jungle Cruise' is fun if you can ignore the racism of the ride it’s based on and the film’s bland, stereotypical characters.

'Jungle Cruise' is fun if you can ignore the racism of the ride it’s based on and the film’s bland, stereotypical characters.
If you haven’t watched Good Trouble yet, you need to. This Foster’s spinoff, aptly named for civil rights champion and Congressman, John Lewis, follows Mariana and Callie Adams Foster as they begin a new chapter of young adulthood and navigate life, careers, social justice, and love.
In the film adaptation, director Jon M. Chu turns each musical number into a massive show stopper, with grand set pieces and a wealth of diverse dancers. Yet, in this attempt to show reverence for the people of the Washington Heights barrio, Chu, or maybe more specifically those in charge of casting, left out a crucial part of the community, Afro-Latinos.
The Legendary Clades - a family of explorers - find themselves in a strange new world with fantastic creatures awaiting them. Perhaps their greatest challenge will be healing the ties that bond.
What seems like such a simple story of survival is so much more than that—it’s a story of family, and of war, and of destruction. It’s painful to watch, but not in a bad way. It makes its audience reflect on their own actions, and in how they are complicit in the sufferings of others as the adults in this film are. Grave of the Fireflies does not hold back from being heartbreaking, and it shouldn’t. It tells a message that needs to be heard decades after the war, and a story that cannot be forgotten by history.