George of the Jungle *** (1997, Brendan Fraser, Leslie Mann, Thomas Haden Church) – Classic Movie Review 888

Director Sam Weisman’s 1997 Disney comedy finally turned Brendan Fraser into a bankable star, playing a boy who survives an aircraft accident as a baby and is brought up by a monkey, swinging into trees rather than from them. Weisman’s Tarzan-style spoof is junior-league but certainly amiable and amusing enough.

The arrival on the scene of dumb blonde safari-woman Ursula (Leslie Mann), whom George saves, leads to them having a swinging time in his tree house, at least till her fiancé Lyle (Thomas Haden Church) comes to try to find her. Then, when Ursula takes George home to San Francisco, it’s he who is like a duck out of water.

There’s some entertaining stuff in Dana Olsen and Audrey Wells’s screenplay, but what charm George of the Jungle has, almost all comes from Fraser’s appealing and expert performance, and he does look cute in his little loin-cloth.

John Cleese, as the voice of Ape, is on unusually funny form, especially singing My Way, though the ape animatronics are pretty lame.

The film is narrated by Keith Scott and the George of the Jungle theme is by Sheldon Allman.

Almost every element from Jay Ward’s original George of the Jungle cartoon series is included in the movie. Olsen’s screenplay began as a speculative script titled Gorilla Boy (his nickname for his son). It got to Disney, who held the George of the Jungle rights but had no script for a movie and bought Olsen’s screenplay.

There’s a feeble 2003 sequel, George of the Jungle 2, with Christopher Showerman replacing Fraser.

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