This article is on the character from Walt Disney World's original trapped safari scene of the Jungle Cruise. For his successor character, see Felix Pechman XIII. For his Disneyland counterpart, see Lost Safari Guides.
The Low Man on the Totem Pole is the officially used conjectural name for a character from Walt Disney World's Jungle Cruise.
History[]
Biography[]
This man was a colonial safari-goer in the early half of the 20th century. Between 1911 and 1936, he was part of a safari-expedition passing through the African Veldt along the Nile river. The party came under attack by an angered rhinoceros which chased them up a tree in the veldt. The safari's further fate is unknown though it would become considered to be the longest missing but most spotted safari in history.
Development history[]
The Trapped Safari was designed by animator Marc Davis for a comedy oriented update of the Jungle Cruise. However, the gag was made featuring racist depictions of black people. A better conceived variant of the vignette was installed in the Magic Kingdom's Jungle Cruise in-which the members of the safari were white colonial explorers, fitting into an interpretation of white colonialism being inept and pathetic. The low man on the totem pole's mould was repurposed from the Caretaker of the Haunted Mansion.
In 2021, the Jungle Cruise was refurbished to feature less overt racism. Due to this, the Lost Safari was reimagined and installed the low man on the pole being replaced by Felix Pechman XIII of Silver Springs, Florida. However, this refurbishment also came with a more sympathetic approach to the trapped safari, stripping the Magic Kingdom version of the attraction of its anti-colonial interpretation.
Appearances[]
Jungle Cruise[]
This man appeared in Walt Disney World's safari scene. Undergarments resembling the man's red and white spotted underwear appears in Trader Sam's Gift Shop!.
Jungle Cruise: Wildlife Expeditions[]
The Magic Kingdom's lost safari appears in this incarnation of the attraction.
Skipper Canteen[]
There is an illustration of him and his safari on the totem-pole in the menus of the skipper canteen.[1]
Trivia[]
The Caretaker of the Haunted Mansion
- The man's face mould was repurposed from that of Silas Crump, the caretaker of the Haunted Mansion. Because of this, skippers sometimes commented on him being a, "distant cousin" of the caretaker.[2] Said character is difficult to place in any timeline due to being the Haunted Mansion's anachronistic setting and Crump's living status; it is likely that he would have been caretaker for the attraction's in-universe opening of 1969, however (31-34 years after the events of the American Jungle Cruises).
- The surname Crump has been used in the Jungle Cruise mythos for R. Crump, president of the Jungle Telegram Company.
Gallery[]
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