George of the Jungle (film)

While touring Burundi with local guide Kwame and a trio of porters, San Francisco heiress Ursula Stanhope is joined by her fiancé, Lyle Van De Groot along with Max and Thor, a pair of poachers posing as trackers. Kwame tells the group of the "White Ape", a local legend of a superhuman primate that lives on Ape Mountain and rules the jungle. The next day, Lyle, insistent on taking Ursula home as soon as possible, goes into the jungle with her to find the White Ape, and they are attacked by a lion. Lyle knocks himself unconscious trying to flee while Ursula is saved by the King of the Jungle, George. After taking Ursula to his tree house home and caring for her, George introduces her to his three animal friends: Ape, a sapient, talking gorilla who raised him; Shep, his pet African forest elephant that acts like a dog; and Tookie, a toco toucan who gives him news involving the jungle’s animals. George is smitten with Ursula and attempts to woo her; Ursula soon reciprocates his attraction, and her time spent with George makes her no longer wish to return home.

Lyle, Max, and Thor soon arrive at the treehouse where Lyle finds Ursula, who is resentful at him for trying to abandon her during the lion attack. Max and Thor make to shoot Shep for his ivory, and Ape shouts at Shep to run. Everyone is stunned by the sight of the talking ape as Max and Thor decide to tranquilize and capture him. George runs to stop them and is accidentally shot by Lyle, who thought the gun was his novelty lighter that he had planned to scare him off with. Lyle and the poachers are imprisoned where Lyle is identified as the shooter by the porters. Max and Thor are released through deportation yet resolve to return to Ape Mountain to capture Ape and make a fortune off of him in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Ursula takes George to San Francisco to get medical help for his gunshot wound and to see the human world, which George is fascinated with.

While Ursula is at work, George explores San Francisco on his own and uses his vine-swinging to rescue a paraglider tangled on the suspension cables of the Bay Bridge. No longer having love for Lyle, Ursula admits the truth of what he did in Africa to her parents as well as her desire to break off the wedding, but her overbearing mother Beatrice objects. At a party intended to celebrate Ursula's engagement, Beatrice takes George aside and coldly tells him that Ursula's marriage to Lyle will proceed as planned and threatens him to stay out of it. In Africa, Max and Thor capture Ape, who manages to order Tookie to find George before falling unconscious from tranquilization. Tookie flies to San Francisco and informs George of Ape’s capture, forcing him to leave Ursula and return to the jungle. While confused of George’s unexplained departure, Ursula realizes she loves George and goes to find him, despite her mother’s protests.

Max and Thor, having returned to the treehouse after getting turned around by a phony shortcut trail, are confronted by George. With help from Shep, Tookie, and the arriving Ursula, George manages to defeat the poachers and save Ape. However, Lyle arrives too, having escaped prison, joined a cult, and became an ordained minister for arranging legal marriage ceremonies. Lyle has George subdued by a group of hired mercenaries as he forcefully takes Ursula to a boat waiting on Ape River and perform their marriage ceremony as they escape. However, the ceremony is interrupted by a series of harsh rapids that put them both in danger. George escapes the mercenaries with help from the other apes and swings in to reach Ursula and Lyle, only to crash painfully into a massive tree. As the tree falls over the river, George manages to pull Ursula to safety while the rapids lead Lyle into a dark cave. Lyle, thinking Ursula is still in the boat, proclaims their wedding vows, only to find, to his horror, that he had just married himself to a female gorilla.

George and Ursula declare their love for each other and marry with the people of both San Francisco and Africa as well as the jungle’s animals in attendance. Some time later, the two live in their own treehouse and are raising a son, George Jr., whom they present to the animals from atop Pride Rock.

In a mid-credits scene, Ape has moved to Las Vegas and becomes a famous stage singer with Max and Thor being part of his performance as a tree prop.

• Brendan Fraser as George, a young man who was raised in the jungle like Tarzan and frequently crashes into trees while swinging on vines.[4] Fraser had concurrently auditioned for the title role in Disney's serious animated adaptation of Tarzan, which would be released in 1999, but lost to Tony Goldwyn.[5]
• Leslie Mann as Ursula Stanhope, a wealthy heiress and George's love interest.
• Thomas Haden Church as Lyle van de Groot, Ursula's former wealthy, narcissistic, and bumbling fiancé who serves as the main antagonist of the movie.
• Richard Roundtree as Kwame, the head jungle tour guide during Ursula’s visit to Africa. In the film, Lyle always mispronounces his name.
• Greg Cruttwell and Abraham Benrubi as Max and Thor, two trackers hired by Lyle who are secretly poachers by trade.
• Holland Taylor as Beatrice Stanhope, Ursula's spoiled and controlling mother, who believes that social position is more important than having a loving marriage. She strongly dislikes George yet reluctantly accepts her daughter’s love for him.
• John Bennett Perry as Arthur Stanhope, Ursula's generous supportive father who takes a shine to George and approves of his daughter’s love for him over Lyle.
• Kelly Miracco as Betsy, Ursula's best friend who has an instant attraction to George.
• Abdoulaye N'Gom as Kip, Ursula's friend and an African tour guide.
• Michael Chinyamurindi as N'Dugo, Ursula's friend and another African tour guide.
• Lydell M. Cheshier as Baleto, Ursula's friend and the third African tour guide.
• Willie Brown as Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr.
• Lauren Bowles as Ursula's friend
• Afton Smith as Ursula's friend
• Samantha Harris as Ursula's friend
• Noah John Cardoza and Benjamin John Cardoza as George Jr.
• Crystal as Monkey.
• Tai as Shep, the African forest elephant with the personality of a dog.
• Joseph, Kaleb and Bongo as The Lion.

The lion, elephant, and bird scenes were all filmed with a mix of real animals, puppetry (especially for the lion fight), and CGI (to show Shep the elephant acting like a dog). The scenes with the orangutan, a chimpanzee, and the capuchin monkeys were filmed with live animals, but some computer work was used in a scene wherein the little monkey imitates George.[6]

Three male live African lions were used in this film. Joseph and Kaleb's trainer was Charlie Sammut of Salinas, California's Monterey Zoo.[7] Sammut temporarily replaced Fraser as his stunt double for the sequence of George fighting against the film's big cat. [8] Bowmanville Zoo's Michael Hackenberger trained Bongo. He hid behind trees onscreen and jump out from the trees intending to commit an assault while Sammut's lions, Joseph and Kaleb perfromed the attack scene with Sammut himself.

The large gorillas who live with George were all costumed actors who were Henson puppeteers. Their faces were remote-controlled animatronic heads, which, along with the yak fur gorilla suits, were provided by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.[9][6] Other effects were provided by Dream Quest Images.[9][10]

In the "Pride Rock" scene, when George presents his son to the animals, CGI work is again used.[6]

The jungle setting was constructed on a sound stage in Playa Del Rey, Los Angeles. The sound stage was 750 feet long, 71 feet high at the peak, 90 feet wide.[9]

The film was followed by a direct-to-video sequel, George of the Jungle 2, which picks up five years after the original. Most of the major characters were re-cast using different actors, although Keith Scott, Thomas Haden Church and John Cleese reprised their roles from the original.

• Official website
• George of the Jungle at IMDb
• George of the Jungle at Box Office Mojo