George of the Jungle (2007, season 2)

George of the Jungle
George, George, George of the Jungle Watch out for that 2016 season revival! Also, why does this need to be called a second season when it’s clearly more of another soft reboot?
Genre: Comedy Running Time: 12 minutes Country: Canada United States Release Date: September 10, 2016 - February 18, 2017 Network(s): Teletoon Created by: Jay Ward Distributed by: DreamWorks Classics Starring: Cory Doran Paul Dobson Britt Irvin Linda Ballantyne Mark Oliver Seasons: 1 Episodes: 26

George of the Jungle (2007) is an animated television series. It is a reboot of Jay Ward and Bill Scott’s 1967 American animated television series of the same name, which in turn is a spoof of the fictional character Tarzan, created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Using Flash animation, it is produced in Canada, airing there on Teletoon. The remake mostly stays true to the original production, with a few key differences existing between the two. One episode of the show typically consists of two 11-minute segments. This is unlike the original cartoon, which featured other stories such as Tom Slick and Super Chicken.

The original series aired from June 29, 2007 until January 11, 2008. The original series premiered on Teletoon on January 11, 2008 and on Cartoon Network in the United States exactly a year prior.

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 on September 10, 2016, it officially premiered on Teletoon and ended almost a year later after that on February 18, 2017.

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 This Season Swung in the Wrong Direction

1. It takes away the charm of the original 1967 series and even the first season of this show, as it has little-to-no action scenes.
2. Terrible, and sometimes even weird, character designs, especially on 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. The flash animation here, while a bit of improvement, is a downgrade from season 1, with decreased frames and choppy movements in some scenes, and it's an eyesore and can affect some viewers' vision, due to the bright colors.
4. Very awful grasp of the source material, more so than the first season.
5. Even more usage of toilet 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.
   • 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. There are lots of animation errors in many of the episodes.
9. The models for the animals are reused way too much, it feels like the animators were copying and pasting.
10. All of the flaws season 1 had, are cranked up to the ridiculous degress, due to the various problems as listed below.
11. This season has some of the highest amounts of character butchering 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 flanderization. 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, yet still a competent hero 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.
12. Horrible designs for a lot of the 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
13. This season tries too hard to pander to kids with its toilet humor, homosexuality jokes, and anime references.
14. The entire cast of the first season don’t reprise their roles here, and the new cast sounds awful.
    • George's voice acting is just as bad as the first season due to him speaking in third person with poor vocabulary as mentioned above.
15. 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.
16. The title cards are also a huge downgrade from the first season as it just shows a green background.
17. Despite this being called a "season", this feels more like another reboot/remake of the 1967 series.
18. This season overall killed the entire "George of the Jungle" franchise.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Ape isn't dumbed down like the others and is still likable, he is less of a punching bag than in the first season.
2. Decent theme song.
3. As said earlier, the animation got improved a little bit, but that's not much saying it.
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.
   • Ape also talks in a British accent again unlike in the first season, and is one of the few characters to have a tolerable voice on this show.
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 also 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.
8. The first season used to be actually good.

Reception

Season 2 of 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" (Which is considered the worst episode of the second season, as well as the entire series)
• "Valley of the Magnolias”
• "Cute Is as Cute Does”
• "Trial by Jungle"
• "Nature's Call"
• "Lying Cloth"

Trivia

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

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