Psychotronic Cinemavision: George of the Jungle

George of the Jungle is an animated character created by Jay Ward and Bill Scott who had also created The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends. George is a combination of Tarzan and a cartoon characterization of George Eiferman, a Mr. America, Mr. Universe and IFBB (International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness) Hall of Famer.  The original cartoon premiered On September 9, 1967, and ran for 17 episodes.  Each episode was split into three segments.  The first was a “George” story, the other two were episodes of unrelated characters, Tom Slick, a race car driver; and Super Chicken, a superhero who happens to be a chicken. Each segment had a catchy theme song written by Stan Worth and Sheldon Allman and believe me, these songs stick in your head.  The cartoons were animated in Hollywood and are a bit more sophisticated than Ward’s earlier series but also caused the production to go over budget resulting in the limited amount of episodes.  In 1997 a live action adaptation of the cartoon was released which remained mostly faithful to the source material.

George of the Jungle (1967 Animated Series)

George (Bill Scott) is a somewhat dim-witted Tarzan like character with a big caring heart.  He swings through the jungle on vines and like the theme song insinuates, he usually ends up slamming into a tree or other obstacle.  George’s mate is Ursula (June Foray) who is much smarter than George and his best friend is an Ape named “Ape” (voiced by Paul Frees impersonating old British actor Ronald Colman) George’s pet dog is Shep who also happens to be an elephant that thinks it is a lap dog. George is often asked for help by Commissioner Alistair (Paul Frees) to save the inhabitants of the jungle territory of Mbwebwe Africa.  His foes include “Tiger” (Daws Butler) and “Weevil” (Paul Frees), two stereotypical hunters and mad scientist, Dr. Chicago (Daws butler). Although George is hopelessly unintelligent, he does possess substantial strength and jungle instincts which allow him to defeat his enemies.  An updated animated series was released in 2007 on the Cartoon network.

George of the Jungle (1997 Movie)

While rich socialite Ursula Stanhope (Leslie Mann) is on safari in the Burundi jungle in Africa, where she is told of the legend of the “White Ape”, a superhuman primate, which is mocked by her fiancé Lyle (Thomas Haden Church).  When Lyle dangerously pulls Ursula into the jungle the two are attacked by a ferocious Lion but are saved by the Tarzan like George (Brendan Fraser).  As Ursula recovers, she meets George’s best friend, and Ape named “Ape” (voiced by John Cleese) and Shep, his dog who happens to be an Elephant. Lyle and a couple of poachers he had hired as guides, eventually find Ursula and through a series of events, shoot George.  Ursula takes him back to San Francisco for medical attention, meanwhile the poachers kidnap “Ape” after learning he can talk.  George and Ursula fall in love, but George has to rush back to Africa to save “Ape”.  Ursula follows and together the two are triumphant in saving their friends.

The film was met with mixed reviews with the likes of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both giving it two thumbs up while other reviews were not so kind.  The movie used a combination of live animals, puppetry, and CGI to accomplish the different animal personalities and action sequences.  Financially the movie was a success which spawned a direct to video sequel in 2003 but neither Brendan or Leslie would return they are instead replaced with Chrisopher Showerman as George and Julie Benz as Ursula. Holland Taylor who portrayed Ursula’s mother in the original film was also replaced by Christina Pickles.  The sequel was met with mainly negative reviews and no other sequels were filmed.

I saw this film in the theaters when it was originally released and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The film remains true to the source material and yet updates it for a more modern audience nicely.  The characters are well portrayed, and Brendan Fraser not only looks the part, but connects well with the audience.  The laughs can be on the “low-brow” side but that fits in with the physical humor from the original cartoon, but it is combined with witty dialogue that adds a sophistication to the film. Overall, this is just a fun movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously and has a lot of energy and heart.

Often movies made from cartoons, somehow miss the mark.  They either over complicate the plot or don’t relate well enough to the source material or are just poorly written.  George of the Jungle is fun to watch in both its original animated format and as a big screen movie.  With a simple script that kept the right aspects of the source material and perfect casting.  The film adaptation succeeds where others have failed.