George of the Jungle

Of all the shows airing on Boomerang at the moment, George of the Jungle for me is by far the worst, even more so than the very poor Inspector Gadget reboot. Anybody who is a fan of the original show, which was a childhood favourite and still is a classic, will be disgusted by this show, but films and TV shows do always deserve to be judged on their own merits, strengths and weaknesses. George of the Jungle is one of those shows that fails as a standalone, you don't even need to have seen the original show to judge this as bad.

The animation is very flat and blocky, all the characters are visually unappealing and stiff drawn, it did feel like the animators went for using as many backgrounds as possible in one episode with not enough attention given to colour or detail and the colours are so lacking in vibrancy it hurts the eyes. Sure, George of the Jungle is not the first animated show to use this style of animation but it is one of the laziest uses of it. With the music, the use of the George of the Jungle theme tune in rousing instrumental form in the end credits sequence is the only part worth listening to, the opening credits use is catchy but far too commercialised with some pretty witless rap lyrics. The rest of it is not very memorable and lacks variety.

George of the Jungle's biggest flaw is the writing. None of the original wit survives here, and the dialogue just sounds dumbed-down, horrendously cheesy and juvenile (for both children and adults), while the gags are far too rushed, like with the recent Tom and Jerry Show and with the animation here the writers seemed to pile in as many gags as possible regardless of quality. For this viewer personally, target audience was also an issue, because it struck me as too complicated for children, who will find it hard to keep up with the frenetic pace of the episodes and the execution and the gags, and adults will be embarrassed by how annoyingly juvenile it all is, people will argue that the show and the live action films were silly and they were but they also had wit and charm, with this viewer lacking either the immaturity just felt too much. The stories felt like they were written very hastily and are so lazy and sometimes repetitive it's embarrassing.

Another big failure is the characters, that they're unrecognisable from their original personalities will present a problem (Ape has none of his sophistication or refinement, something that even the live-action sequel got right, one of few things) for many but a bigger problem is that their new personalities are often annoying and are stripped of everything that made them so likable. George is far too much of a wimp and of all the characters of all the shows airing on Boomerang he is a contender for the most irritating, and Magnolia is not much better. The most tolerable of the characters is Ursula and even she's bland. The voice acting sounded shrill and overdone often, mistaking screams and shouting for manic energy, particularly Lee Tockar as George.

In conclusion, one of the few shows on Boomerang at the moment that fails on all counts. 1/10 Bethany Cox

George of The Jungle has got to be one of Cartoon Network's greatest cartoons, but for some strange reason, is also one of the shortest lived CN programs. While programs such as "Skunk Fu!" and "Chop Socky Chooks" seemed to die - This was one of those show that went far...

This cartoon starts off each episode with a great intro theme - "Watch out for that Tree" ! It concerns a King of The Jungle (named George) and his best friend Ape (the Ape). Also featuring is Tookie-Tookie (the Bird), Magnoila & Usula (a couple of girls who are George's friends) and Sheph(a Packiderm - and George's pet). George lives in the Jungle. The voice of Magnoila was supplied by Tabitha St. Germain (who also does the voice of Heloese on "Jimmy Two Shoes", and of course she also supplies the voice of Nazz from Ed, Edd, & Eddy).

When it came to facing danger - I saw George as being a jungle-man who clearly knew his limits.

And, just because George "sometimes" (and I do emphasize the word "sometimes") ran away (and, yes, even hid) when faced with a perilous situation, that didn't necessarily make him a coward in my eyes. I mean, George was certainly no dummy.

And, besides the George character here - I found myself somewhat puzzled by Ursula and Magnolia. Like, neither of these 2 chicks had any romantic ties with George - So, because of that - I began to seriously suspect them of being a pair of "closet" lesbians, though, of course, that sexual possibility was never really reinforced in any way.

All-in-all - I found this animated, Canadian, TV production from 2007 to be fairly entertaining, for the most part.... And, yes - George certainly was a silly, immature klutz a good part of the time - But, hey! - After all this TV program was, in fact, just a kid's cartoon.

(IMO) - This 2-D animated TV series (from 2007-2008) had both its fair share of entertaining moments, as well as its not-so-entertaining moments, too.

And, as a viewer, if you aren't totally willing to forgive our childlike hero, George for being the bungling klutz that he obviously was, then, I'd suggest that you pass on viewing any of these episodes and find something more to your liking to watch.

As for me - Yes. I will admit that "George of the Jungle" certainly did have its limits when it came to originality in its story-lines. But, all the same - I kinda grew to like the George character who (when faced with certain dangers) actually did quite the opposite by running away every once in a while.

It's one thing to remake a classic for the modern age and to gussy it up with modern references. It's something else to take a classic and totally mess it up into something that only shares the same name as the original. The latter is what you get with this modern version of "George of the Jungle".

Where do I even start? While the original had some really cheap animation, and I'll be the first to admit it was done cheaply, the animation had heart. The cheapness added to the whole thing. But with this, it just feels soulless and corporate. You know, it's like something designed by committee and it lacks the heart and the soul that the original had.

All of that could be forgiven if the writing was any good. But it's not. This is a a poorly written cartoon. Gone is the clever wit and sight gags and we now have tired and cliche settings. The characters even have a 2D feel about them. It's just not funny and not worthy of the name George of the Jungle.

I suggest seeing the original series or the first live action movie if you want a taste of what this could have been.