Naturally, the success of Pirates has given Disney new hope that it's ride-to-screen strategy can have big payoffs with big franchises... Which is why there are reportedly some spectacular adaptations in the works to bring Disney attractions to the big (and small) screen... Here are just a few of the projects either in-production, or rumored to be on Disney's short-list.

The Jungle Cruise

Image: Disney

THE RIDE: The Jungle Cruise opened alongside Disneyland in 1955 as the park's starring attraction. Featuring unthinkable electro-mechanical creatures alongside its exotic river banks, the ride became an instant example of what Disney could bring to life. In the 1960s, Jungle Cruise was reimagined with help from veteran Disney animator-turned-Imagineer Marc Davis, who devised some of its more cleverly-staged and iconic scenes (like the "lost safari" who's about to get "the point," the Indian elephant bathing pool, and the lost ruins of Southeast Asia) and shifted the ride's attitude toward the humor and puns it's known for today.

The Jungle Cruise exists at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland, having recieved incremental upgrades and iterative changes at each. Increasingly, the humor on-board is paired with a more epic, adventurous backstory that fans suggest connects the ride in-universe to S.E.A.: The Society of Explorers and Adventurers, melding the "world famous" ride's founding into the early-20th-century world created by Imagineers. So while the ride stays light-hearted and knowing, layers of story and detail are applied every decade as it grows in esteem. 

THE MOVIE: Currently in-production, the idea of a Jungle Cruise movie is enough to get Disney Parks fans talking. After all, the 1930s-ish setting and story seem to make the ride perfect for an "Indiana Jones" style film series delving into ancient adventures, lost ruins, and steaming jungles. A truly-exotic exploration into the same kind of serial adventure films that inspired Indy, a Jungle Cruise tied into the S.E.A. story would be an incredible concept. If you ask Disney fans, there's just one potential problem...

Image: Disney

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will star.

It's not that there's anything wrong with the wrestler-turned-actor, who's made a name for himself in dozens of big budget action films including The Scorpion King, the Fast and Furious franchise, Baywatch, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and Rampage (plus Disney's Moana). It's that the inclusion of Johnson seems to indicate exactly what Disney has planned for this film: that it'll be just another family "adventure" comedy, akin to Johnson's own Journey 2: Mysterious Island. The addition of Emily Blunt may indicate that Disney does have bigger plans than another simple comedy, but until the first teaser trailers, we'll expect that Jungle Cruise will fall closer to Haunted Mansion than Indiana Jones. 

Big Thunder Mountain

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THE RIDE: First opened at Disneyland in 1979, Big Thunder Mountain was among the last of a generation of relatively cheap thrill rides that permeated the parks after Walt's death. In fact, the ride only exists because it was intentionally pulled out of a much larger project that would've given Magic Kingdom a Western-themed version of Pirates of the Caribbean, as chronicled in our must-read feature, Possibilityland: Western River Expedition. Rather than an expensive and elaborate dark ride, Big Thunder Mountain would quickly and cheaply bolster the tired, dusty Frontierland (given that pop culture had moved on from The Lone Ranger and Howdy Doody by the '70s). And the thrill ride was enough to support Disney Parks temporarily before the more cinematic Eisner era that would follow.

In its own way, though, "the wildest ride in the wilderness" became its own kind of Disney classic, the rustic red peaks forever synonymous with Disney's castle parks. The ride was given even more prominence within Disneyland Paris' one-of-a-kind Frontierland, where the mountain's more epic backstory merges with the heartbreaking love story concocted for the park's Modern Marvel: Phantom Manor – Paris' spectacular, new take on the Haunted Mansion. 

Image: Disney

THE SHOW: In 2013, Disney officially ordered a pilot  episode of a TV series based on the Western-set roller coaster, but it was scrapped shortly thereafter. There's no telling if the 2016 debut of HBO's big-budget series Westworld (based on the novel by Michael Crichton of Jurassic Park fame) would make Disney more or less likely to pursue a Western series of its own, but it's a shame. Especially when we see the way that Disney created an adventurous, exciting, haunting love story around the town of Thunder Mesa to coincide with Disneyland Paris' version of the ride, it's easy to see how spectacular a series about the town could be.

The Haunted Mansion

Image: Disney

THE MOVIE: Way back in 2010, Disney announced at San Diego Comic Con that a new adaptation of the Haunted Mansion was in the works, this time with acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro writing and producing. He said at the time, "We are not making it a comedy. We are making it scary and fun at the same time, but the scary will be scary." Del Toro also noted that he was aiming for a PG-13 film, starring the infamous and elusive Hatbox Ghost as the main spectre haunting the household. Allegedly, the screenplay was submitted in 2012, and as recently as 2015 rumblings of who would star and who would direct made waves. But so far... nothing else.

We don't yet know if Del Toro's more gritty, gothic telling of the Haunted Mansion tale will ever see the light of day, but it stands to reason that the ride still deserves an otherworldly, ethereal, and legitimately creepy telling... We'll see... 

Do you agree with our countdown of the best-to-worst ride-to-film adaptations in Disney's catalogue? Are we too harsh on the movies Disney has created? Would you rather see more movies based on rides, or rides based on movies? Use the comments below to share your thoughts!