Skipper John

Skipper John
First appearance	Jungle Cruise (attraction)
Attractions	Jungle Cruise Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar Magic of Disney Animation
Performers	John Lasseter
Biographical information
Aliases	Skipper Lassetter
Affiliation	Jungle Navigation Company
Physical description
Species	Human
Gender	Man
Height	5′ 7″
Eye color	Grey

Skipper John or Skipper Lassetter is a character associated with the Jungle Cruise. He is a fictional counterpart to the real-world John Lasseter.

History

Biography

Skipper John was an eccentric skipper who worked for the Jungle Navigation Company in the early half of the 20th century. The skipper is known to have operated off of the belief that, "Adventure is out there!". John was particularly infamous due to often talking about sentient toys, intelligent insects, and living cars.

Skipper John had some connection to the immortal Trader Sam. Sam and John even acted together in a film called, "The Jungle Cruise" made by Walt Disney Pictures. Sam kept a photo of John unknowingly holding a rare (likely dangerous) snake while piloting a ship.

Development history

John Alan Lasseter (1957-present) is a real-life film director, screenwriter, animator and voice-actor. Lasseter directed various films for Disney-Pixar and worked as Disney's Chief Creative Officer. This relation ended in 2017 after he was exposed for running a sexist and hostile work-place in-which he inappropriately harassed several women on staff.

Appearances

Jungle Cruise

Skipper John has previously worked as a skipper on the Jungle Cruise.

Magic of Disney Animation

Skipper Lassetter is mentioned as being an actor in the Mickey Mouse film, "The Jungle Cruise".

Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

There is a photograph of Skipper John piloting a boat in this bar. It comes with the description from Trader Sam reading, "Skipper John thought he had grabbed the microphone, but it was actually a rare Black Coil Snake".

In other media

Merchandise

Vinylmations have been made in Skipper John's likeness, using him to represent skippers.

Printed materials

Disney Parks Presents: Jungle Cruise

Skipper John is the host of the tour in this book where he pilots the Congo Queen.

Web-media

D23

Nigel Greenwater described Skipper John in a video on the Enchanted Tiki Bar.

Trivia

• In the Skipper Canteen is another tribute to Lassetter via a book titled Great Characters of World Literature by J. Lasseter. It is unknown if this is the same character as Skipper John. There is also a book by, "B. Lasseter" titled, "The World Through a Lens".
• Nigel Greenwater references Toy Story, Up, A Bug's Life and Cars in-relation to John's history.
• In Disney Parks Presents: Jungle Cruise, John mentions a plant named, "Bill". This is a reference to botanist Bill Evans who created the Jungle Cruise ride's jungle.
• During the 2020 Jingle Cruise, there was a present in the queue with the name, "John" written on a leaf tag.

Gallery