GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE (1967)

Great for kids, great for families
Looking for a fun DVD set for your kids? You can't do much better than this one. You get a lot of video (17 22-minute programs), all of it filled with the same decidedly offbeat, narrated storytelling style creator Jay Ward made famous in his earlier "Rocky & Bullwinkle" programs. Though "George of the Jungle" doesn't have the sly adult themes of Bullwinkle, it still has plenty of appeal, to kids as well as parents.

My 13-year-old daughter offers this review: "Silly. And 4 and a half out of five stars."

Of the show's three cartoon series ("George of the Jungle," "Tom Slick" and "Super Chicken"), my personal favorite is "Super Chicken." Its far-fetched premise suits Ward's dry sense of humor to a tee. I've read where some parents fear Super Chicken because they think the lead character's continual need for "super sauce" may be a hidden drug reference. Maybe it is, but I can't imagine today's...

At last!!!
More than 6 hours of classic "George of the Jungle", "Super Chicken", and "Tom Slick" cartoons plus the never-before-seen pilot episodes of both "George of the Jungle" and "Super Chicken"!

Running for 17 episodes, George of the Jungle was a spoof of the Tarzan story. A "show" consisted of three unrelated cartoons, each running about six minutes. They are "George of the Jungle", "Tom Slick", and "Super Chicken".

"George of the Jungle"
Life in the Imgwee Gwee valley is not easy for George (voiced by Bill Scott). He doesn't quite understand his mate Ursula (voiced by June Foray), "that funny-lookin' fella who never shaves". His best friend is an ape named Ape (voiced by Paul Frees) who sounds Oxford educated, and then there's Shep, George's pet elephant who behaves like a lap dog. Also lots of trees...

"Tom Slick"
Tom Slick is a clean-living, stalwart hero type (voiced by Bill Scott). Scott also did the voice of Gertie Growler (his only female...

Worth Buying, Despite Edits & Missing Interstitials
All 17 shows are included, including the Superchicken story, "The Laundryman", which featured a Chinese stereotype as a villain. I'd feared that this would have been excised from the collection, and I'm glad they didn't, as it's one of the funniest episodes in the series.

For those who are anal-retentive completists (hi, nice to meet you), you'll notice that the 5-10 second interstitials they played between each cartoon are missing. Often, they consisted of one character introducing another character's segment on the show. Those who bought the "George of the Jungle" videotapes from Fox back in the 1990's will remember these. Why they didn't make it to DVD, I wish I knew.

The big bonuses in this set are the original George and Superchicken pilots. They're VERY worthwhile, though the DVD's producers saw fit to monkey with these. First, there's some inauthentic music clipped onto the end of both pilots. I think they borrowed some music from Jay Ward's "Fractured...

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