The 1967 series provides examples of:
- Acting for Two: Bill Scott voices George, Tom Slick and Super Chicken. They all talk to one another in a "scenes from next week" segment on the original show.George: (to us) Stay tuned for scenes from next week's show starring Tom Slick (fanfare), Super Chicken (fanfare) and George of Bungle! (Tom and Super Chicken do a take)
Tom: That's "jungle," George.
Super Chicken: I think he was right the first time! - Genius Bonus: Chuck the Rain Spirit is a reference to Chaac the Mayan Rain God.
- What Could Have Been:
- Ursula was originally named Jane in the unaired pilot and early scripts, but ABC executives ordered it changed to avoid a lawsuit from the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The staff named Ursula after actress Ursula Andress.
The Disney live action films provide examples of:
- California Doubling:
- In the first film, the majority of the jungle scenes were shot on an indoor set in California. On-location filming used Hawaii for additional jungle scenes and San Francisco as itself.
- The sequel was shot in Australia, with the real San Francisco only appearing in Stock Footage.
- Creator Backlash: Not necessarily the entire film, but many years after, the stars have spoken about scenes they regretted shooting:
- Leslie Mann felt uncomfortable in the scene with the live lion and said she would never have agreed to that had it been shot today.
- At a 2022 event, Brendan Fraser apologized for the scene where George rescues a man on the Bay Bridge. Even though a dummy was used, everybody not involved in the movie thought it was a real person stuck.
- Deleted Scene: Some scenes were cut from the film, including:
- George having to save Ursula from a quicksand pit.
- At the mall, George starts swinging around the store and goes on an adventure with Beatrice's dog.
- Lyle returning from the African jail and arriving at the engagement party, completely bald and with an eyepatch
- Lyle's monologue about his escape was then reworked for a scene for the sequel, which was cut as well.
- George and Ursula reflecting about the city at a fountain, paying off the "What mean embarrassed?" scene from earlier.
- Ursula is seen rushing to Betsy's car with her luggage after she realizes she loves George. This scene actually appears in the TBS and Cartoon Network airings of the film.
- There's a scene of Tookie inside a passenger jet where a flight attendant offers him a mimosa. It was shown in the trailer but cut from the movie. It was finally used in the sequel as an Imagine Spot.
- Direct to Video: George of the Jungle 2 was released for VHS and DVD.
- Dolled-Up Installment: The movie initially started out as a spec script from Dana Olsen titled Gorilla Boy, a parody of the Tarzan films. Olsen avoided selling it to Disney, who had the film rights to George of the Jungle, but they bought it anyway and adapted Olsen's script to fit the characters and Jay Ward-style.
- Fake American: The American accented Lemony Narrator of the film is voiced by Australian voice actor and impressionist Keith Scott.
- Revised Ending:
- An early script draft sets the climactic battle with Max, Thor and Lyle on a rope bridge.
- Some of the tie-in storybooks detail an alternate climax, where Lyle, Ursula and George float down the river on giant lily pads, eventually going through an ape mall complex hidden within the mountain. After George rescues Ursula, Lyle ends up going over a waterfall.
- Star-Making Role: This is the first movie that really put Brendan Fraser on the map, a position he would solidify two years later.
- The Other Darrin: The sequel recast the roles of George (Christopher Showerman), Ursula (Julie Benz), and Ursula's mother (Christina Pickles); only Thomas Haden Church (Lyle) and John Cleese (Ape) reprised their roles from the first movie. It is said that Brendan Fraser was offered to come back but was unable to. Naturally, the movie makes fun of this:Narrator: Huh? Wait a minute! Who the heck are you?
George (now played by Christopher Showerman): Me new George. Studio too cheap to pay Brendan Fraser.- For the Latin American dubbing, the roles of George (Arturo Mercado Jr.), Ursula (Natalia Sosa) and Ursula's mother (Magda Giner), formerly done by Héctor Lee, Toni Rodríguez and Liza Willert, were also recast. While Cleese and Church did reprise the roles of Ape and Lyle in the film itself, Ape's other dubbing actor, José Lavat, was also recast with Sebastián Llapur, but the voice of Lyle (Oscar Bonfiglio) from the first film was respected, thus making him the only original dubbing actor from the first film to keep the part.
- Technology Marches On: Characters are shown using camcorders and film cameras. Both have since been supplanted by smartphones.
- Uncredited Role: Joel Hodgson was a script doctor on the first film and helped come up with the Animated Credits Opening and much of Ape's dialogue.
- What Could Have Been:
- In an earlier script draft, Ursula originally came from Atlanta. This would have led to a scene where George hijacks an orchestra in the city's bandshell to perform the show's theme. Ursula's reluctance to dancing (established in the "Dela" scene) would've been a recurring plot element that is brought up here.
- George was originally supposed to save a pair of window washers outside Ursula's apartment. This was later changed to a man jumping from the Bay Bridge, but the authorities were opposed to the image it would present of the bridge, thus this was changed to a parasailer.
- The scene where Ape teaches George how to attract Ursula was meant to follow the first scene in the treehouse. Additionally, Ursula's vine-swinging lesson was supposed to immediately precede her and Lyle's reunion.
- Brendan Fraser expressed interest in reprising his role as George for the sequel, but was unable to due to a commitment as DJ Drake in Looney Tunes: Back in Action. In a 2022 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fraser hinted that he didn't return because the studio didn't offer him enough money to return. He said: "I think 'George' got a remake, and they built a joke into it that the studio was too cheap to hire me, which wasn't accurate."
- Disney considered transforming the Magic Kingdom's version of the classic Jungle Cruise attraction into the "George of the Jungle Cruise." Similarly, a jungle set with some of the characters from the film was planned to be included in the Studio Tram Tour at Disney MGM Studios Europe.
