George of the Jungle (2007)

George of the Jungle
George, George, George of the Jungle Watch out for that 2007 reboot!
Genre: Comedy Running Time: 12 minutes Country: United States Canada Release Date: June 29, 2007 - January 11, 2008 (Original series) September 10, 2016 - February 18, 2017 (Revival series) Network(s): Cartoon Network (U.S., Season 1) Teletoon (Canada) Created by: Jay Ward Distributed by: DreamWorks Classics Starring: Lee Tockar Paul Dobson Britt Irvin Tabitha St. Germain Brian Drummond Cory Doran Rob Tinkler Linda Ballantyne Bridget Wareham Terry McGurrin Martin Julien Jeff Lumby Seasons: 2 Episodes: 52 (104 segments)

George of the Jungle is a Canadian/American flash animated television series that aired on Teletoon and is the remake/reboot of the 1960s animated series of the same name created by Jay Ward.

In 2015, almost a decade after the first season ended, some Canadian producers teamed up with Singaporean animators to animate the second season of the show also known as George of the Jungle. A year later, it officially premiered on Teletoon and ended almost a year later after that.

Plot

The ultra-clumsy but lovable George is swinging around the jungle to save the day along with his best friend Ape, an explorer girl named Ursula, and a jungle girl named Magnolia by his side.

Why It Swung in the Wrong Direction

In General

1. It takes away the charm of the original, as it has little-to-no action scenes.
2. Terrible, and sometimes even weird, character designs, especially on George, who isn't even buff in the first season, and Dr. Towel Scott, as well as the plants, and animals, such as the zebras, gorillas, elephants, giraffes, monkeys, birds, crocodiles, snakes, and rhinos.
   • Even some of the animal designs don’t match their actual species such as the ibexes which look more like kudu in this show, the meerkats bear more of a resemblance to weasels, rather than actual meerkats, and then there’s a new character, named Big Mitch, who is supposed to be a marmoset, but looks more like a golden lion tamarin instead.
3. Awful flash animation that may affect photo-sensitive viewers' vision.
4. Very awful grasp of the source material (though the second season would even show less respect of the source material).
5. Overuse of gross-out humor and slapstick.
6. Nonsensical episode plots that go too far into disturbing territory, especially in the second season; an example of this is the episode where Ape and George having bugs stuck up their noses which makes them snore loudly.
   • In the season 1 episode, "Conehead", George gets a rash, and must take pink medicine to cure it, but he refuses to, and sings a song to his friends about why he thinks it’s good to scratch, instead of taking medicine, which is a bad lesson to kids.
   • The season 2 episodes, "Trial by Jungle", and, "The Flavour of Science", in particular, were nothing, but very harsh Magnolia torture episodes.
   • Likewise, similar to The Wacky World of Tex Avery and Victorious, which isn't really a bad show, but does have its flaws, the episodes have many extremely weird, disturbing, disgusting, and out-of-context scenes, that have no place in the show.
7. The show has some inaccurate facts about animals, such as tapirs having mouths on their snouts, when their mouths are supposed to be under their snouts, rather than on their snouts, and warthogs eating eggs, and bark, which is not what they eat in real life. In one episode, a warthog suggests about eating its friends, when warthogs are supposed to be herbivores, instead of carnivores.
8. Animation errors in many of the episodes, especially in the second season.

Season 1

1. The characters have been badly butchered. George is now an annoying, whiny, sulky, moronic, and wimpy coward, rather than a bumbling, lovable, strong hero; Ursula is now a stereotypical tomboyish city girl; and Ape is now just a punching bag, even if he still has his old persona, etc.
2. While the voice acting is passable, Lee Tockar does a poor job voicing George.
3. Dr. Towel Scott, while likable, talks in a nearly offensive Italian accent.
   • A zebra also talks in an African-American accent in one episode.

Season 2

1. This season worsened most of the problems stated in season 1, but takes this up to extremes, due to the various problems as listed below.
2. This season has some of the highest amounts of character changes ever in a franchise, or television series, even worse than that of other long-time running franchises, or television series, to the point that almost none of the characters are likable at all in any way. Not even SpongeBob SquarePants, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Teen Titans Go! or even Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go! would have the characters with this high amount of changes. Almost all of the characters are completely different from how they were in the first season. Just to name a few examples of this atrocious character butchering:
   • George changed from being a bumbling, but strong and lovable hero in the original 1967 series, to then just dumb and childish in season 1, to a literal manchild who speaks in the third person with poor vocabulary as of this season.
   • Ursula, who has been renamed Magnolia in this season, changed from being George's love interest in the original 1967 series, to then a tomboyish city girl who was a nice and friendly sidekick to George who wanted to introduce modern culture to the jungle in season 1, to a cynical, obsessive, "Rick Sanchez"-like scientist, with a college degree in biology, as well as being the huge punching bag of the show, as of this season.
   • Magnolia, who has been renamed to Ursula in this season, changed from being a dimwitted but softhearted, fashion-loving jungle girl, who spoke with a southern accent in season 1, to a disgusting, savage predator, who not only speaks almost like a primitive caveman, but also barely shows charm, and only harms everyone and the environment around her for fun, as of this season.
   • Dr. Towel Scott, who has been renamed to Dr. Chicago in this season, changed from being a helpful, harmless doctor in Season 1 to a mad dentist-turned-scientist who wants to destroy the jungle for no apparent reason given throughout this season.
     • Speaking of Ursula and Magnolia, their names were switched for no valid reason at all, as well as Dr. Scott being renamed, "Dr. Chicago".
   • The Witch Doctor has become a stereotypical traditional healer, which some Africans may find offensive.
   • The new characters in this season, Cuspid and the Ape Council barely have any purpose to the season other than being only there for filler.
3. The flash animation, while a bit of an improvement, is nowhere as fluid as it was in season 1, with decreased frames and choppy movements in some scenes, and it's still an eyesore and can affect some viewers' vision, due to the bright colors.
4. Horrible character designs for some characters, mainly George’s, but was likely done to reflect his original 1967 appearance, even Ursula, previously known as Magnolia in the first season, has an uncanny design, unlike her original one. Also, the visuals look like an odd combination of The Fairly OddParents! and Johnny Test.
5. This season tries too hard to pander to kids with its toilet humor, jokes about homosexuality, and anime references.
6. Obnoxious voice acting, which replaced the entire cast of the first season.
   • George is arguably the worst of them all due to him speaking in third person with poor vocabulary as mentioned above, to the point his season 1 voice is vastly superior.
7. The crew from the first season weren’t involved in this production, making this season more like a second reboot or a less amusing version of Spliced than a continuation of the series.

Redeeming Qualities

In General

1. The humor is occasionally funny.

Season 1

1. While the theme song is ruined, the instrumental can be catchy.
2. Magnolia and Ursula have passable designs.
3. Magnolia, The Witch Doctor, and Dr. Towel Scott are pretty interesting additions to the main cast, thus being the only likable characters along with Ape.
   • Shep and Tookie-Tookie are also likable as well.
4. Passable voice acting, except for Lee Tockar as George.
5. Had a few decent episodes, such as, "George Lays an Egg", "Trouble With Bananaquats", and, "License to Swing".
   • The season finale, "Escape From Madmun Island", was decent and was a perfect way to wrap up the first season of the show.
6. The first time Jay Ward Productions had involvement with a television series since they haven't been functioning ever since 1967, with a few exceptions.
7. This season is more tolerable.

Season 2

1. Ape isn't dumbed down like the others, and is less of a punching bag than in the first season.
2. Decent theme song.
3. The animation is a bit better in this season.
4. George once again has a muscular build, like in the original 1967 series. In the first season, he was noticeably thin and scrawny, yet never lost any of his strength.
5. Some of the characters from the original 1967 series return, such as Weevil Plumtree and Tiger Titherage and it even had a cameo of the original George in the episode, "Much Ado About Stuffing".
6. Some of the animal designs are an improvement over the first season, such as the tigers, sloths, cheetahs, and spiders.
   • Magnolia's (previously known as Ursula in the first season) design is still passable as well.
   • Tiger and Weevil's designs are also decent.
7. "Heart of Gold", was an alright series finale.

Reception

George of the Jungle (2007) received negative reviews. It currently holds a 4.3/10 rating on IMDb.

Episodes With Their Own Pages

• "The Flavour of Science"
• "Cute Is As Cute Does”

Trivia

• This is the first time Tiffany Ward, Jay Ward's daughter, worked on her father's shows.
• DreamWorks Productions distributed the second season.
• Like most other kids shows, The show has an official YouTube channel.

Comments

Loading comments...