George of the Jungle

Back in 1967, ABC aired George of the Jungle, one of Jay Ward’s most famous creations, which lasted 17 episodes (thanks to the animators regularly going over budget) and spawned some legacy media of its own. One of these was a film adaptation, George of the Jungle (GOTJ), which started life as a spec script called Gorilla Boy that parodied Tarzan. Disney would buy this spec script and have it rewritten into GOTJ (fitting, since the original cartoon was itself a parody of Tarzan). The final film released in 1997 and, in spite of the mixed reception, would more than earn its $55 million budget back with a final box office tally of about $174.4 million. I myself had vague memories of watching it as a kid, though not in a theater, and recently found myself curious about it again while revisiting the original cartoon. One stream through Disney+ later and while I can see how many children of the 90s would have more familiarity with this incarnation than the original, as well as fond memories, I found it less than stellar watching for the first time through adult eyes.

As a baby, George is the only survivor of a plane crash in Africa and is raised by its animal inhabitants. In adulthood, George (Brendan Fraser), now the king of the jungle, rescues explorer Ursula Stanhope (Leslie Mann) from a lion. Although George doesn’t have much experience interacting with other humans, the two of them bond to the point that Ursula brings him back home to San Francisco, leaving her fiancé Lyle van de Groot (Thomas Haden Church) behind. However, the duo go back to Africa on a rescue mission once they learn that George’s best friend, an ape named Ape (John Cleese) has been captured by poachers.

Although I didn’t know what to expect going in, GOTJ earns some commendation. The film commits to the idea of a live-action cartoon in both its comedic tone and some of the well-done practical effects, which the audience can see as early as George’s fight against the lion. This helps in the elements that remain faithful to the source material, including the core cast (even Shep (Frank Welker) and the Tookie Tookie bird (Frank Welker)) and the presence of a Narrator (Keith Scott). When the humor lands, it lands hard, with some good lines from the Narrator and consistently funny moments from the jungle guides, who steal every scene they’re in. The main plotline exploring Ursula’s growing infatuation with George flows well (for the most part) and has a good, natural progression. It helps that Brendan Fraser was not only attractive at the time, but clearly put his all into making George someone you could easily root for and has good chemistry with Leslie Mann’s well-written take on Ursula.

Brendan Fraser (left) has good chemistry with Leslie Mann (right).

Unfortunately, the film’s strong points can’t quite mask its flaws. While Lyle is clearly a jerk, which the film makes the sensible decision to lean into, a twist in the third act requires explaining something that happened offscreen (cartoon logic indeed). There are places where the film drags, enough that I kept looking at the remaining runtime the further I went in. Compounding that, a lot of the humor doesn’t land that well and doesn’t fit in with the layered satirical humor and clever word play from the original Jay Ward production. Instead, a lot of it is more juvenile and appeals to the lowest common denominator (namely gross bodily functions), which I have considered a lazy form of comedy. John Cleese also feels almost wasted as Ape, although he does provide the right accent for the character. As a note of personal preference, while The Presidents of the United States of America does an okay rendition of “George of the Jungle”, it’s not nearly as catchy as the original version (or, by extension, the Weird Al cover) due to how much the lyrics are changed to fit the changes made to George’s backstory in the film.

Speaking of changes, GOTJ feels more like a Tarzan film than it does Geroge of the Jungle and not just because both the cartoon and film germinated as Tarzan parodies. On this viewing, I noticed some similar beats between GOTJ and Disney’s own Tarzan released just two years later (interestingly, Brendan Fraser auditioned for the title role in Tarzan and lost to Tony Goldwyn). Both of the leads are the last survivors of a tragedy in the African jungle and raised by gorillas. As adults, the first human contact they have in years is with a woman whom they fall in love with. Part of the plot involves poachers attempting to hunt the gorillas that reside in the African jungle, with both films involving an attempt to civilize the male lead (Tarzan learns the ways of humans and attempts to leave for England by boat while George actually travels to San Francisco, where he’s a fish out of water). By the end of the film, the female lead decides to stay with the male lead so they can live out their lives together in the jungle. I’m not trying to be reductionist when pointing out these similarities. Rather, I find it interesting that both Tarzan and GOTJ managed to have such close similarities while still feeling like two completely different films.

If you grew up with this film and enjoy it, there’s nothing wrong with that and I’m certain that fans of Brendan Fraser or viewers who can vibe with the tone will find some good entertainment in this film. However, if you can, I would recommend watching the Jay Ward cartoon.