This week we journey back to that really strange time in Disney's live action cannon, circa Inspector Gadget when everything was really strange and oddly sexual. This week it's George of The Jungle starring Brendan Fraser (Just in time for the brenaissance), Leslie Mann and John Cleese. Revist this 1997 oddball with us.
Storyline :Baby George got into a plane crash in a jungle, stayed alive and was adopted by a wise ape. Ursula Stanhope, US noble woman is saved from death on safari by grown-up George, and he takes her to jungle to live with him. He slowly learns a rules of human relationships, while Ursula's lover Lyle is looking for her and the one who took her. After they are found, Ursula takes George to the USA.
Directors: Sam Weisman
Writers: Jay Ward, Dana Olsen and Audrey Wells
Stars: Brendan Fraser, Leslie Mann, Thomas Haden Church and Richard Roundtree
Awards: 1 Win & 3 Nominations
Film Budget: $55,000,000
Gross Worldwide: $174,463,257
This song still slaps. Play this for your sweetheart and they will burn for you.
Not quite the original classic theme song for george. But we'll take it!
Watch out! Not only for trees but for these fun facts swinging right at you.
It was after seeing this film that director Stephen Sommers considered Brendan Fraser for the role of Rick O'Connell in The Mummy (1999).
Almost every element from the George of the Jungle (1967) cartoon series is included in this movie... even the "Never argue with the Narrator" line that shows up in Jay Ward's cartoons.
Dana Olsen's screenplay began as a spec script titled "Gorilla Boy" (Olsen's nickname for his son). While shopping the screenplay to the studios, he intentionally avoided Disney because he knew they had the film rights to George of the Jungle, and figured they wouldn't be interested in another Tarzan-type spoof. As it turned out, Disney didn't have a script for the movie and happily looked at (and bought) Olsen's story.
In the scene where Ursula is going to rescue George from his rescue of the skydiver caught on the Bay Bridge, she is standing on the front of the tugboats bridge. The music being played is the opening bars for "Don't Rain on my Parade" - a direct reference to Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (1968).
Brendan Fraser auditioned for the role of titular character in Tarzan (1999).
We could not be more thrilled to be able to revisit this fun film anytime right here on Disney+
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