George of the Jungle (1997)

I don't really care much for the Oscars to be honest with you. They come around every year and for me it maybe moves the needle a tiny little bit; "Oh, such and such has won an Oscar." but literally within in a month I've pretty much forgotten and I have zero chance of telling you the Oscar winners from last year. I remember Leonardo Di Caprio winning one for The Reverent and I remember being annoyed that The Lego Movie didn't win one for Best Animated. Where am I going with this? Well at the 95th Academy Awards this year, Brendan Fraser took home his first Oscar for his performance in The Whale - a movie I admittedly haven't watched yet. But it felt good man. I mean, it was a bit nailed on, the guy has swept up at awards ceremonies this year, but it felt good. He deserved it. Cast out into relative obscurity it was a real feel good story to see somebody so good at what they do make a comeback like that and really just feel so gracious and humbled by getting the accolades they are getting. He looks like one of the nice guys of Hollywood. Like it really means something to him to get the recognition he's getting at the moment. It's Disney Week this week. And one of the movies on my Watchlist is George of the Jungle. It's fair to say that reaction to George of the Jungle was pretty mixed. Although it did do well enough to find itself kept off the list of Worst Movies Ever Made, it currently scrapes a 5.5 / 10 on IMDB and holds 55% on Rotten Tomatoes. Probably not considered by Brendan Fraser to be one of his defining moments but potentially one of the films he's most remembered for, this week in a kind of odd tribute to Brendan, I'm going to try and learn for myself as to why it's so polarising in opinion.

Narcissistic wealthy douchebag, Lyle van de Groot (Thomas Hadan Church), and his much nicer fiancee Ursula Stanhope (Leslie Mann) currently on a travel holiday around a jungle in the heart of Africa are intrigued by a story told of a "white ape" by their tour guide Kwame (Richard Roundtree). So much so, that they decide to explore Ape Mountain with Lyle's... entourage?... Max (Greg Cutwell) and Thor (Abraham Benrubi) who are actually Poachers and Trackers undercover. When Lyle manages to upset Kwame and his team almost immediately... he drags Ursula into the forest hoping to find the "white ape" and get home as fast as possible, however they are suddenly pounced on by a lion causing Lyle to knock himself out, leaving Urslea at it's mercy. But she is suddenly rescued when George (Brendan Fraser) sweeps in and snatches her up, only to knock her out cold when he collides with a tree. It's... kind of a running gag... the whole tree colliding thing. Ursula wakes up in a treehouse to the sight of a gorilla bringing her breakfast.... a gorilla called Ape (John Cleese) and to "Tarzan wannabee" George bringing home some bananas which is all a bit too much for her and she passes out. George has never met a woman before and Ape has to explain the concept to him a bit but when Ursula finally stops passing out she explains that she needs to find the rest of the expedition team and let them know she's ok. George then calls for his "doggie" Shep, who it transpires is actually a MASSIVE elephant (Tai) that acts like a dog. And they set out across the jungle looking for them but Ursula quickly gets bored of that idea and instead just enjoys being in the company of George and the animals instead. George pretty much instantly develops "special feelings" for her and asks Ape to coach him on how to make Ursula his "mate" however his first attempt goes drastically wrong but it doesn't stop George and Ursula growing a little bit closer together. Meanwhile, not having any success with finding Ursula, Lyle makes an ass of himself some more which causes Max to step in and offer the trackers a reward if they capture George alive. However when they do finally catch up with George and discover he's actually just a man, and not actually a "white ape" they are disappointed. This doesn't stop Lyle making his way to the treehouse to reclaim Ursula though, but mad at him for abandoning her to the lion she refuses to go with him. In the meantime, Max and Thor spot Shep the elephant and planning to shoot him for the ivory they take aim but are startled by Ape shouting at them, deciding instead to capture Ape the talking the gorilla they aim at him but George rushes towards them only to be shot by Lyle who in his defence thought it was his novelty lighter and not... an actual gun. Nobody dies in the film though. The narrator (Keith Scott) literally says as much in the movie earlier on! And George wakes up on a private jet en route back to America - San Francisco to be precise! Whilst Lyle gets sent to prison for shooting George and - out on bail despite being poachers... Max and Thor hatch a plan to kidnap and exploit Ape in order to get rich back home... Struggling to decide how to tell her parents that, on the verge of their engagement party, Lyle is now in prison in Africa and that she brought an orphan man raised entirely by apes in the jungle home with her instead... Ursula takes George out to buy some human clothes but is spotted by Ursula's busybody mother, Beatrice (Holland Taylor)... As Ursula goes to work leaving George at home under strict instructions not to leave the house, she is ambushed by her father, Arthur (John Bennett Perry) throwing an impromptu engagement party for her. She is just about ready to confess everything to her dad when, transfixed by the news coverage of a paraglider trapped on the Golden Gate bridge, everyone watches on as George - now very much not inside the house... - swings from the bridge with a rope to rescue him and Ursula, dashing from the party to the scene is just there in time as George comes crashing onto the deck of the rescue boat. All of this captured on the news watched on by Ursula's incredulous mother... Meanwhile back inside the jungle, Max and Thor successfully creep up on and capture Ape who sends Tooki the Toucan to America to try and find George. Back in America, Ursula breaks the news to her parents and they take it really well! Nah just kidding they go apeshit (pun uh... not intended...) and her mom Beatrice decides that she definitely has to marry Lyle anyway. George them proceeds to make a fantastic first impression when he crashes through the would-be couples wedding cake splattering the parents in cake. Later at the engagement party, Beatrice threatens George, explaining that he will not get in the way of Ursula's wedding to Lyle which upsets George but before he and Ursula can do anything about it, George learns that Ape has been... well... apeknapped... from Tooki and dashes off into the night to save him, leaving a sleeping Ursula behind. But the following morning, Ursula comes to the realisation that she loves George, thanks to a bit of help from her parents putting the words in her mouth and despite her mothers protestations, she too dashes off to try and find George. Speaking of George, he literally mails himself back to the jungle... yeah UPS delivery and everything... before lacing up his new Nike Airs (no really) and springing through the jungle, until he gets to the treehouse to find it totally ransacked. Meanwhile Max and Thor have literally taken Ape in cage around in circles for 2 days, lost in the jungle only to end up right back at the treehouse where they started from. As they argue amongst themselves and... at one point with the narrator... George crashes down from the treehouse above and they have a proper slapstick fight. With a bit of help from his animal friends and then finally from a vine swinging Ursula at the end, George gets the better of the poachers. Ursula is just about to tell George she loves him when Lyle, fresh out of breaking out of prison and now a fully ordained minister... fair enough... rocks up and drags Ursula away, intending to marry her him... err... self I guess. As a gang of suddenly appearing mercenaries take George captive. However with a bit of help from his gorilla pals, George and Ape are broken free and everybody else not a monkey or otherwise gets caged up. Lyle, being the douchebag that he is manages to first get lost in a cave leading to him and Ursula crashing down a waterfall to then paddling a small dinghy down a rushing river rapid... but crashing onto the scene at supersonic speed... straight into a tree... George arrives just in time to rescue Ursula leaving Lyle to drift on into a pitch black cave where he gets sexually molested by a gorilla for... some reason... Finally safe, Ursula finally gets to tell George she loves him and he tells her he loves her too. They get married and end up having a lovely little family together. AWWWWWW.

This was GREAT. I genuinely really enjoyed this. It's really goofy. Really silly. And yeah really childish with it I guess, but you know what? I don't care. It's just really silly innocent humour. There isn't alot that's not to like here to be honest. It's maybe a bit simple, very cliché with it but the target audience here is obviously young children. It doesn't have to be mega contrived with it's plot or moral undertale. Sometimes it's ok for a movie just to be silly fun and this is pretty much what this is. Just silly fun. But it was funny with it and honestly made me laugh quite a few times. Yeah really enjoyable.

It is impossible not to like George in this. He is just written and portrayed to be so wholesome. Slightly childlike and innocent but also just written to be a completely selfless and compassionate guy with it. And Brendan Fraser is great at bringing that to life. He has a kind of babyfaced innocence about him here anyway given that he wasn't that old really! And I can kind of feel the 'nice guy' vibes just radiating out of him in this role. Those points aside, the dude is ripped in this movie man? Like he genuinely looks amazing. And yeah, I am starting to understand the whole sex symbol stuff. He's funny, daft, caring, positive and has a body that looks like it was sculpted out of bronze. Like, man, what is not to like? But yeah, he's perfect as the eponymous character here.

The rest of the cast here were also decent though. Thomas Haden Church is great in the unlikeable posh douchebag role, the poachers Max and Thor, although they don't get a lot of screentime are just fine as the quasi-bad guys. Even John Cleese complete with gorilla suit is funny and witty in his supporting role. Equally though, Leslie Mann as Ursula is perfect as a kind of girl-next-door, innocent and pure love interest and there is genuine chemistry between her and George. They work really well together.

In terms of storyline, things are kept pretty basic and it's a tale of George being discovered and then having to go back to the jungle to save his friend. Much more of the focus is on George and his shenanigans with the other animals and with Ursula than there is on any kind of detailed plot. Although the story that is in place serves it's purpose just fine enough in order to build the rest of the movie around and it does take a few twists and turns along the way with a couple of short sub-plots intertwined in. It was detailed and interesting enough that it holds the film together and gives it some structure rather than it just being slapstick set piece after slapstick set piece.

Cinematography-wise everything was mostly fine although, if I'm being critical there was quite a few scenes that I felt were shot on the cheap, especially avoiding having to have complex practical effects and / or special effects. Just minor things with George crashing into stuff or tumbling around that were shot in such a fashion so as to avoid having to have more overly complex post production. I don't know if that was to keep the budget down or constraint with scene production at the time but I found it a little bit surprising for a mainline Disney movie really where they usually don't cheap out on stuff like that. I wouldn't say it ruined the movie, but it certainly felt like there wasn't as much attention put into that section and the focus instead was much more on the gags. There was still some impressive and articulate camera work and practical effects with it, so it wasn't all shortcuts, but there was moments that I felt cut corners a bit rather than go down the fully professional route.

Couple of other things worth mentioning; costume design and... I guess you call it animal training? That was all spot on here. That they had actual scenes with an actual trained elephant is worth a nod of respect and the gorillas all looked like genuine gorillas despite being people in suits. Nothing to fault about the set design or location shooting either, it all looked very much like a jungle in the middle of Africa when they were supposed to be in a jungle in the middle of Africa. And the soundtrack, although pretty basic apart from the titular theme was fine enough that there wasn't any moments where the music felt awkward or out of place.

I thought this was really good. Alot of fun, some moments that got a snort, some moments that got a laugh. It was at it's heart just a very basic children's movie with silly gags, and silly over-the-top narration (which was great by the way!) but it was alot of fun and very innocent, very easy to watch inoffensive movie. I can't say it ever really pushed the envelope or broke new cinematic ground but it was still a really amusing, enjoyable watch and it's also pretty great just seeing Brendan Fraser do what he does best and appearing to have a bit of fun whilst he's doing it. You'd have to have the heart of a stone not to at least come out of this with a smile on your face and if you did, then I feel bad for you man. 4 out of 5.