Jason Klein vs. John Lasseter

Posted by casey on May 25th, 2011

I saw this video of the legendary and amazing John Lasseter, head of Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios and the new head of Disney Imagineering. What a trio of titles, right? Definitely one of my heros. This video chronicles Mr. Lasseter’s epic hawaiian shirt collection (My Pops also has an amazing Hawaiian shirt collection. Not a cheesy one either, real classy-like.). The video is cool and all, but it reminded me that John Lasseter was once a ride operator for the Jungle Cruise. He mentions it around the 1:05 mark.

Why is that significant? Well, I’m glad you asked. Our very own Jason has been obsessed with the Jungle Cruise for many moons. He used to give impromptu “Jungle Cruise” tours around the quad at our alma mater, Helix High School. A spot-on never miss a word performance too. Really impressive. So impressive is his Jungle Cruise knowledge that in 2007 Jason answered a call to win a chance to be a guest Jungle Cruise Skipper for the day. And he won! See, dreams do come true. Wanna see him in action? Well, here ya go…

Just to explain a bit, Jason used to live in Florida now lives in Vegas, hopefully we’ll get him back to SD soon. And yes, this is how he talks in everyday life. Like he’s announcing his own personal horse race in his mind.

4 Discuss Posted in: Around the Studio, Inspiration

Discussion

  1. I heart the jungle cruise.
    Here it is from 1974: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JiOC0GxuWQ But no sound.
    Here in 1986-bad camerawork, but can hear the routine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9d1FiT83f0

    — Tom Richards on May 25, 2011

  2. Wow! Awesome video vault footage. Have any of the teams you work with asked if he could fill in as game night host?? great stuff.

    — Erik Davila on May 25, 2011

  3. Haha. Experience of a lifetime!

    Great footage Tom! Imagineer Marc Davis is my other hero. Walt had this idea for a boat ride through a life size diorama. A little boring, Walt asked Marc to spice it up and so he dreamed up the visual puns and dry humor we know today. Brilliantly simple, yet timelessly legendary!

    — Jason on May 25, 2011

  4. THE BACK SIDE OF WATER! i lol’d.

    — Ryan from STL on May 27, 2011

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