‘George’s’ Klutzy Shtick in Jungle Drives ‘Em Wild

IRVINE —  In “George of the Jungle,” the handsome but clumsy vine-swinger (Brendan Fraser) falls in love for the first time with a San Francisco heiress, Ursula Standhope (Leslie Mann), who first has to break her engagement to the snooty wimp Lyle Van Der Groot. (Rated PG)

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He’s strong. He’s fearless. He looks good in Armani. But no matter if he’s swinging from vines in Africa or cables on the Bay Bridge, George can’t help crashing face first into inanimate objects--mostly trees.

The comedy’s main shtick runs from the beginning to the end of the movie, and kids couldn’t get enough. As they came out of the theater, 6-year-olds Nicolas Andreas and his friend Tyler Williams of Huntington Beach spread their arms, sang the theme song, “George, George, George of the Jungle” and ran face first into the mirrored columns in the lobby, sending each other into fits of giggles.

George isn’t as sharp as some of the English-speaking animals who raised him. His butler-gorilla (British voice by John Cleese) cooks gourmet, reads the International Herald Tribune and tries to keep George out of trouble. But George’s innocence is part of his charm, and his friendships with lions, monkeys and his “trusty doggie”--an elephant named Shep--also delighted the young.

Four-year-old Logan Dunn of Rancho Santa Margarita liked seeing the elephant wearing a crown of flowers and told her mom she wants to see the movie again.

George lives in a cartoon jungle, full of eee-eee-ooo-ooo-aah-aah’s, already familiar to preschoolers. “It’s in Africa!” said a thrilled 3-year-old Marley Donenfeld of Laguna Beach.

There are dangers there, of course, but as a deep-voiced narrator assures viewers after the first fall from a sheer cliff, “Nobody dies in this movie, they just get really bad boo-boos.”

For older kids, there are more subtle jokes. After Ursula gets lost in the jungle, the patronizing Lyle hires Swahili-speaking native guides to help find her. When he offers them a “magic box” to take pictures, English subtitles explain they prefer the resolution of a Leica 35mm camera.

The bathroom humor is kept to a minimum, overshadowed by slapstick and tongue-in-cheek narration (“Meanwhile, back at a really big footprint in the mud. . .”)

Despite the gorilla mating rituals George picked up from his butler (blow out cheeks, throw handfuls of leaves in the air and hoot about in a dominant fashion), Ursula is equally smitten and takes him back to San Francisco, where her society mother is horrified, but her girlfriends are impressed with his “sensual intelligence.”

In clean and wholesome Disney fashion, no one else in the movie, not even the totally buff and loinclothed George, seems aware of his sex appeal.

Not necessarily so in the audience.

“I thought George had nice muscles and a nice tan,” said Linda Van Derostyne with a laugh. She saw the movie with her boyfriend, George Austin of Lake Forest, and his children. “They did a good job of keeping it clean and cute.”

Maybe a little too clean and cute for some older kids who can’t get enough R-rated action.

Kevin Austin, 11, said he needed a few more fistfights and a little more elephant poop. “I wish he would have banged into some more trees,” he said.

Added his friend David Marquez, 11: “I wish he ran into the rocks over the water rapids.”

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At Issue: How do ratings affect children’s interest in movies and TV programs?

Not surprisingly, the more restricted a show, the greater their interest, according to a report of the National Television Violence Study released earlier this year.

In a study of 374 children and MPAA ratings, researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that older children (ages 10 to 15) wanted to see a show significantly more when it was rated PG-13 and R, and significantly less when the same show was rated G.

The researchers said they did not find the so-called “forbidden fruit” effect in the content-based ratings recently adopted for television.