07/16/97
MOVIE REVIEW: George of the Jungle
'George' swings but hits a few trees

By MICHAEL JANUSONIS
Journal-Bulletin Arts Writer

**1/2 (out of five)
Starring Brendan Fraser, Leslie Mann, Thomas Haden Church, Richard Roundtree. A Walt Disney picture written by Dana Olsen and Audrey Wells, directed by Sam Weisman. Rated PG, contains violence. Running time: 92 minutes.

George of the Jungle is silly and broad and filled with pratfalls and slapstick and wacky animals and dastardly villains who fall into piles of elephant poop.

It's cartoonishly outrageous.

And why not? This Tarzan spoof is based on the hit '60s kiddie cartoon series on television. The filmmakers have aimed for that same blitzy spirit of cartoon-world nuttiness and have succeeded a thousandfold.

There are moments of inspired genius in George of the Jungle. Take George's pet dog, Shep, who is actually an elephant. Through computer wizardry Shep behaves like a dog, bounding into a scene, tongue hanging out clownishly, barking and fetching tossed logs as though they were sticks. Amazing!

Even better is a wonderful scene between George and a tiny monkey who chatters into George's ear in confidence about his unhappiness at being excluded from the other monkeys' group because of his size. Then the little critter plays out a scene with a lion that's inventive and heartwarming.

There are gorillas who play the drums, a talking ape named Ape (with voice by John Cleese) and a narrator who assures the audience when a man falls into a ravine not to worry because "nobody dies in this movie; they just get really big boo-boos."

Clearly George of the Jungle is geared to young children, and they'll love the over-the-top humor and slapstick. The movie's running gag, like the TV series, is that every time George takes flight on a jungle vine, he winds up slamming into a tree. After about the tenth time, the kids at a recent screening were still laughing at that one.

Adults will not be as amused, unfortunately. For all its clever moments -- and there are lots of them, including a marvelous scene that recalls The Lion King -- the plot is weak and George of the Jungle is ultimately too silly to score mightily with parents. Too bad. The best children's films -- The Wizard of Oz, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Bugs Bunny shorts -- are those that are savvy enough to appeal to adults as well.

The plot of George of the Jungle revolves around the romance between George (Brendan Fraser), who was raised by apes, and a "perfectly permed heiress" named Ursula (Leslie Mann) who falls madly in love with George after he rescues her from a lion. Eventually she takes him back to visit her uptight parents in San Francisco where George has some dull fish-out-of-water adventures.

But soon George must return to Africa (and in a very clever way) to rescue Ape from some ape-nappers and to fend off the jealous advances of Ursula's jealous but dopey fiance, Lyle (Thomas Haden Church). This stuff never catches fire. For one thing there are too many subplots going on at once. And there's nothing fresh about it. It all has the feeling of a plate of leftovers.

The athletic Fraser makes a perfect George, however, naive and unselfconscious about the lunacy he's asked to perform. There's a wonderful scene where he dances with abandon around a campfire with Ursula while the gorillas and a toucan named Tookie provide the music.

Mann brings a whimsical charm to Ursula and Cleese is superb, bringing just the right air of superiority to Ape, but with a human touch.