George of the Jungle (1997)

I had another fit of nostalgia as I was sewing a few days ago. I promptly popped in my VHS copy (oh yeah I still rock those) of "George of the Jungle" . The minute the theme song by Presidents of the United States came on, I became that drooling adolescent all over again. De-lish.

I doubt alot of people will remember that "George of the Jungle" was an animated series in the sixties as part of the the "Rocky and Bullwinkle" show. The show ran the episodes again on nickelodeon I believe so I was able to fall in love it when I was younger. I seriously miss "Rocky and Bullwinkle" show and all the side characters. Rocky, Bullwinkle, Dudley Do right, mr. peabody. oh It was so much fun watching them all. I didn't really understand it at first but I still loved the humor.

"George of the Junge" is somewhat like a tarzan spoof. He's a muscular man who grows up in the jungle and is a hapless idiot. The biggest joke and recognizable feature of George is that he always swings into trees. Much like how I plow through doorways.

"George of the Jungle" has George played by Brendan Fraser (oh oh there is so much I can gush about him) who has raised by a pack of gorillas including one that talks named, well, Ape (who is delightfully voiced by John Cleese-damn. this man is so awesome even just his voice is hilarious!). George encounters the beautiful Ursula (who is played by Leslie Mann- whom I loved in 'Knocked Up'). Ursula is an heiress on vacation in Africa where she is caught up with her fiance Lyle (played by Thomas Hayden Church-wow! Sandman!). Lyle unfortunately hired some black market poachers who have their eyes on capturing "the white ape". Then ensues a cute tale of romance, adventure, fun, and an elephant that fetches logs.

Wow. I can't stop gushing about this film. I was mesmerized by it when I was younger and I adore it today. The movie maintains a wonderful balance of silliness, fun, excitement, and enjoyment so well. It's one of those movie that children can enjoy and adults can love.

This movie also holds a special place for me because I would like to think that this was the time when I stopped thinking that boys were icky. When my little young eyes watched the very eye-pleasing muscular body of Brenden Fraser, I understood why Ursula would fall in love. That scene where he is running in slow motion....oh wow.

Brenden Fraser was the perfect casting as George. His great body and his goofy demeanor was perfect. Fraser always exudes this personality of the nice,sexy guy. He's really great looking but your not surprised if asks you to pull his finger. Man do I love those types of guys. Sexy and goofy. Fraser tops my celebrity crushes hands down.


Taking an animation and making it into a real life movie has had a very, VERY limited success rate. There have been so many strings of lame attempts. I mean every time I think of The Garfield movies I just want to cry bucket loads of tears.The beauty and joy of this movie is that the movie makers understood what the show was about. It was just a simple show of silliness. How cute is a Toucan bird that goes "Teek-teek-toukie-toukie" all the time?Or the little monkey that called for advice from George.

Also there was only minimal product placement and pop cultural reference. Which was very refreshing. It just left me to simply enjoy the movie.

The only downside? I can't get the theme song out of my head!"george-george george of the jungle....watch out for that treeeeeeeee!!!!"