A 2007 remake of Jay Ward's iconic 1967 cartoon of the same name, George of the Jungle is a Canadian-American cartoon produced between Canada's Studio B Productions and the American Classic Media (now a subsidiary of DreamWorks Animation) in association with Cartoon Network and Teletoon.
In a lot of ways, it's similar to the original show, following the misadventures of everyone's favorite heroic but thick-skulled Tarzan pastiche as he protects the rainforest from various threats with the help of an ape named Ape who is his best bud, his pet elephant Shep who thinks he's a dog, and the Tookie-Tookie Bird. However, Ursula is reimagined from George's shapely wife to the daughter of a scientist who has arrived from civilization to explore the rainforest, and taking on the original Ursula's jungle girl role and appearance is a new character named Magnolia. The show's Lemony Narrator remains ever-present, but joining the cast are now Ursula's scientist father and a diminutive witch doctor known only as the Witch Doctor.
This reboot originally ran for a single season of 26 episodes, but after several years in dormancy, the show was suddenly and unexpectedly Uncancelled in 2015 for a second season when Teletoon suddenly decided to commission for itnote . Due to some convoluted changes in the show's rights between seasons, the new season was instead created between Canada's Yowza Animation and Singapore's August Media Holdings, and also featured an entirely new voice cast and production team due to work on the show entirely moving over from Vancouver (where Studio B Productions is located) to Toronto (the home of Yowza Animation). Season 2 ran for another 26 episodes and retooled the series significantly, most notably redesigning George to look more like his original incarnation and completely overhauling Ursula and Magnolia's characters (most significantly by switching their names around). The second season debuted in 2015 on various children's networks across Europe, and eventually came over to North America in 2016, where in the United States, it aired on Kabillion.
2007 series provides examples of:
- Aardvark Trunks: In the episode "L'il Orphan Anteater'', George adopts a baby anteater with an expressive trunk that Shep the elephant grows jealous over.
- Adaptational Curves: George lacks the muscular build of his original counterpart (until Season 2, that is). However, Muscles Are Meaningless and he's still strong as he can be.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Ape is more laid-back than in the original cartoon, and doesn't speak in a British accent.
- Adaptation Name Change: Ursula's last name is Scott in this series.
- Ambiguously Brown: Ursula. By the sound of her dad's accent, she could be Latina.
- Bad Liar: Magnolia in an episode where she's trying to stall George, even denying she knows who Ursula is.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Don't let Ape's Nice Guy attitude fool you — he's still a gorilla and can be a force to be reckoned with when angry. Especially during Banana-Quat season.
- The Cameo: Bullwinkle, as a head trophy, winks.
- Canon Foreigner: Magnolia, Ursula's dad, the Witch Doctor and Mitch.
- Carnivore Confusion: One episode had George convincing the predators to start eating fruits and vegetables instead of meat, while Ursula and Magnolia teach the small prey animals to stand up for themselves. This resulted in the predators becoming hippies while the prey become vicious gangs, disrupting the natural balance. Eventually, the balance is restored when George pointed out there won't be enough vegetables for everyone.
- Couch Gag: The opening credits begins with "bum bum, bum bum bum bum bum". The fourth "bum" shows a glimpse of an animal (or animals) in weird expression.
- Decomposite Character: The original Ursula is split into Ursula (a brown-skinned city girl) and Magnolia (a redhead Texan/southerner jungle girl).
- Expy: Magnolia is one of the original Ursula, oddly enough.
- Foul Medicine: In "Cone Head", when George gets a nasty skin inflammation that Dr. Towel Scott identifies as "Itchy Swellitis", the good Dr. tells George that he needs to drink a pink medicine to cure it. However, George refuses to do so because the medicine is so foul it makes him to a bunch of disgust wild takes. Dr. Scott tries to convince him otherwise by stating that the medicine is now bubble-gum-flavoured, but it still makes whoever drinks it do those wild takes, it just also makes them blow a bubble afterwards.
- Holding Hands: In "Spoiled King", Magnolia, who was frustrated, is holding George's Hand even if it wasn't seen.
- Innocently Insensitive: In one episode Ursula tries to teach George how to tell people about their flaws without offending them, but ends up unknowingly pissing off Maggie when he demonstrates on her.
- Insult Backfire: In "Lucky Pants", after Tookie Tookie flies away with George's lucky "hat":Ape: You've really got control of these animals, do you, George?
George: Yes. Thank you for noticing.
- Involuntary Dance: Mitch's bongos cause Ape to dance uncontrollably.
- Kangaroo Pouch Ride: At the end of "Ape Ruth", two kangaroos (both male) convince George and Ape to compete in a pouch race, with the pair riding in each of their pouches.
- Lampshade Hanging: In "My Own Private Hero", Ape notices that George seemed (more) articulate when he was a baby.
- Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: The fathers of both Ursula and Magnolia are mad scientists (well, in the case of the latter, a mad witch doctor).
- Misplaced Wildlife: The African jungle setting has tigers, orangutans, rabbits, squirrels, sloths, beavers, anacondas, New World monkeys, tapirs, anteaters, kangaroos, giant pandas, grizzly bears and even the Loch Ness Monster living in it. While lions, giraffes, and zebras do live in Africa, they live in the savanna, not the jungle.
- Mistaken for Romance: George and Magnolia has more shipping moments than George with Ursula.
- Mythology Gag:
- In an episode where George believed he laid an egg, George imagines what his son "George Jr." will be like.
- In "Trouble With Bananaquats," George refers to Ursula as a guy, but Magnolia reminds him she's a girl. Likely a nod to George's gender confusion in the original cartoon.
- In "Muscle Mania", George briefly became muscular, like in the original cartoon.
- In "Still Got It", Mighty Burbank and Mighty Mary, in the flashback, resemble George and Ursula from the original cartoon.
- Nothing Is Scarier: In "Afraid of Nothing", George becomes literally afraid of nothing.
- Oh, Crap!: When George and Magnolia learn that the Bananaquats have grown (because of what it does to Ape).
- Race Lift: Ursula (from redhead Texan/southerner to Spicy Latina).
- Shout-Out:
- "Oh great, a mocking turtle."
- "George Lays an Egg" has a Shout-Out to Horton Hears a Who! when George accidentally loses his egg in a field of eggs and has to find it. Recalls Horton losing the clover bud with the Whos on it in a clover-filled field.
- Sluggish Sloths: In one episode, George meets a sloth that doesn't react to an act of heroism he performed. In fact, the sloth doesn't react to anything at all. He asks everyone else why this is, and they all conclude it doesn't like him, leading George to spend the episode trying to win the sloth over. At the end of the episode, the sloth starts clapping and congratulating him for what he did at the beginning of the episode, which was days ago at that point.
- Watch Where You're Going!: Ursula and Magnolia run right into each other while fleeing from traps in the episode "Found Temple of Doom". George must be rubbing off on them, however, because they both shrug it off.
- Whole Episode Flashback: "George Lays an Egg" is revealed to be one in the end. The egg was really a baby Tookie Tookie and George had been telling the story.
- Whole-Plot Reference: "George Lays an Egg" is one to Horton Hatches the Egg, with some elements from Horton Hears a Who!.
"George of the Jungle (Season 2)" provides examples of:
(Make note that Magnolia and Ursula's names have been switched for this series)- Almost Kiss: George and Ursula, for example.
- On "Nature's Call," after Ursula destroys the dam, she and George argue. It appears the two are about to kiss while having a stare down when Ape breaks them apart.
- On "Lovecano", after she scares away their nemesis Dr. Chicago, Ursula glares at George and growls while he talks. Despite this, they look like they're going to kiss.
- Animal Stereotypes: Defied with the jerko lemmings, which instead of jumping off cliffs, throw other creatures off them.
- Balloon Belly: In "The Flavour of Science" Magnolia gets a balloon belly after eating grubs.
- Brick Joke: In "True Bromance", Ursula's solution to solving George and Ape's broken friendship is to "throw them into a volcano". She still wants to do so even after the issue is resolved.
- Brutal Honesty: In "Heart of Gold" after George is turned evil, he lays some harsh truths on Ape, Magnolia and Ursula.
- Call-Back: In "Strong as He Can Tree" when Ape questions her techniques in helping George, Magnolia reminds him that he brainwashed George in "Clockwork George".
- Celebrity Paradox: In "Much Ado About Stuffing" George is turned into a stuffed toy and bought by a fan of the original 60s show.
- Chick Magnet: On the episode "Cute as Cute Does", Magnolia hugs George because he looks sweet. She ends up with a tattoo on her belly that depicts her and George in a heart.
- Defying the Censors: In "Nature's Call", during the battle of the sexes challenge, the animals decide which outhouse they'll take. When the challenge is complete, George's outhouse has more feces than Ursula's.
- Depraved Dentist: Dr. Chicago's mother, who uses robots with oversized drills. Averted by his father.
- Ditzy Genius: Magnolia. Despite being a scientist, in "Strong as He Can Tree" she says she doesn't know basic math.
- Dumbass Has a Point: In "For Science" when Magnolia's boss Professor Lang says she wants Ursula brought to the city and made into an attraction, even George knows this is a stupid idea.George: Did you no see King Kong?
- Everyone Has Standards: In "Guess What's Coming to Dinner", even Ursula doesn't want to hurt Ape's feelings by telling him his cooking is terrible. She has no problem with knocking him out with a club and running away, though.
- Extreme Omnivore: Ursula eats both animals and people.
- Fantastic Racism: "Shadow of a Dolt" ends with Ape and Magnolia making George seal a portal to the shadow world because their shadow counterparts are weird and creep them out.
- Fingerless Hands: Cuspid doesn't have hands or feet.
- Flipping the Bird: In "Body Politics," George's Body plays charades with Ape, then end the game by flipping him the bird.
- Forced Transformation: In "The Flavour of Science," Magnolia starts turning into a grub after eating several of them.
-
Genius Bonus: While it may sound like typical cartoon silliness, there is a species of penguin native to the jungle, the tawaki (though the ones seen here don't really look much like the ones inhabiting southernmost New Zealand).
- Hulk Speak: In this season, both Ursula and George speak in third person.
- I'm a Humanitarian: In "Kings and Little Ones," Ursula repeatedly tries to eat George and Magnolia.
- In-Series Nickname: George and Ursula call the narrator "Sky voice."
- It's All About Me: In "Valley of the Magnolias", Magnolia has herself falsely classified as an endangered species so she'll get preferential treatment. To teach her a lesson, Ape subjects her to some Laser-Guided Karma by having her locked in a protective cage.
- Jerkass Ball: In "Georgus Ex Machina," after George realises how helpful having an all-knowing narrator on your side is, he makes the narrator his deputy. The narrator lets the power go to his head and starts warping reality to suit him.
- Killer Rabbit: The Bush Baby of Doom. Actually a case of Shown Their Work, as bush babies can be much more vicious than they look.
- Last One's Ploy: The episode of the 2015 reboot, "Valley of the Magnolias", has Magnolia tricking the World Animal Council into classifying her as an endangered species to obtain priority rescue status (as George is legally required to provide protection to endangered species first and foremost) to make life in the jungle easier for herself, only to end up abusing said status to turn George into her personal manservant. Ape, who points out the absurdity of the situation, especially since there are actual endangered animals out there that George should be protecting, decides to put a stop to it by convincing the W.A.C to put Magnolia in a glass cage where she's forced to eat disgusting nutritional kibble and run on a giant hamster wheel for exercise while being shocked with electric prods.
- Let's Meet the Meat: In "Meet Meat" George is horrified to discover meat is made from animals, becomes a strict vegetarian, and tries to make all the carnivores vegetarians despite Ape's insistence that animals eating other animals is natural. When he discovers plants are also living organisms, he resorts to eating rocks instead.
- Male Gaze: "Valley of the Magnolias" has a quite a bit of focus on Magnolia's butt.
- Misplaced Retribution: In "Slothpocalypto," Ursula becomes angry after George ties her up, but after biting her way out of the ropes she takes it out on Magnolia instead.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: In "Strong as He Can Tree" it's discovered that crashing into trees is the source of George's super strength. Magnolia crashes into several trees, and though she doesn't gain any muscle, she still has super strength.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Ape in "Clockwork George", when he realizes that his actions have caused George to see him as a monster.
- Mysterious Past: Nothing is known about Ursula's past.
- Negative Continuity: "Meet Meat" ends with George becoming a ghost.
- No Ontological Inertia: In "Much Ado About Stuffing", when Dr. Chicago's machine is destroyed, everything that got turned into a plushie turns back to normal. Magnolia lampshades it.
- Parental Bonus: "My Georging Jacket" has creatures quite obviously having sex behind censor bars, as well as people licking psychedelic frogs. At one point they even have a floofer "floofing" behind a censor bar when there's no other floofer there.
- Magnolia: Hey, knock it off! This is a kids' show!
- Real After All: In "Valley of the Magnolias", after escaping her cage Magnolia runs and escapes the wildlife protection agents, only to fall down into the Valley of the Magnolias, which she thought she had made up. But then it turns out she's hallucinating all of this as it cuts to George and Ape finding her lying on the ground with several tranquilizer darts in her butt, talking to herself.
- The Remnant: In "Guess What's Coming to Dinner" an alien named Carl finds all of Ape's jellies, which his friends threw away instead of telling him they didn't like them, and mistakes them for members of his race. He then mind melds with them, bringing them to life, but when he's suddenly eaten by a lion in the middle of his speech, the jellies are left leaderless and just cause random destruction.
- Reused Character Design: Dr. Chicago, a villain from the 60s series, is brought back with Dr. Scott's character design.
- Same Character, But Different: This series uses the same characters as the 2007 series with some differences. George is a Top-Heavy Guy like the original George, Ape has a British accent like the original Ape, Magnolia and Ursula's names have been switched, Ursula (previously named Magnolia) is a feral wild woman, Magnolia (previously named Ursula) is a bit less sensible, the scientist and the witch doctor are no longer the girls' dads, and the scientist is now a villain.
- Sapient Eat Sapient: In "The Flavour of Science" Magnolia can't stop eating grubs that she knows full well are sapient and capable of speech.
- Screw Learning, I Have Phlebotinum!: In "The Flavour of Science" Magnolia finds a species of grub that increases her intelligence when she eats them. Turns out the effect is only temporary, and she has to keep eating them to the point where she becomes addicted. Unfortunately, eating them has other side effects...
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: In "For Science" Magnolia refuses to hand over Ursula, giving up a chance at fame and fortune.
- Shot in the Ass:
- When George and his friends are destroying the Jelliens in "Guess What's Coming to Dinner," they regenerate and shoot George in the butt.
- On "Lovecano," Ursula falls into a Cake Trap. While eating cake, Ape shoots her in the butt with tranquilizer darts.
- Shout-Out: In "My Georging Jacket", George deflates after accidentally licking a psychedelic frog, referencing an Above the Influence anti-marijuana PSA.
- Telephone Teleport: In one episode, Ursula shoves a bunch of lemmings into a fax machine so they'll attack Magnolia's boss on the other end.
- Too Dumb to Fool: In "Renaissance Ape," Ape and Dr. Chicago start hanging out in secret. When George and Cuspid ask them where they've been, Ape and Dr. Chicago both give the same excuse; "I was counting trees. You know, one-two-tree." Neither George nor Cuspid buy it.George: Wait... Trees can't count...Cuspid: Hey... There's more than one-two-tree trees in the jungle... What's going on?
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Ursula, who was called Magnolia in the previous series. She's much more of a feral woman here than in the first season, and thus a lot more violent.
- TV Never Lies: In "Rip van George", Magnolia's future descendant's brain is hooked up to the internet and every time she tries to look up facts on Jungle Wiki, she gets an article that's been vandalized to somehow include pudding. She blindly believes every word.
- Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: In "Rip van George", George's time leap is caused by a "hypervine" he uses to save an animal despite Ape's warnings that it's still an untested invention.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Averted in "The Ursula Solution". Tiger takes away Ursula's ferality and no one wants to help her get it back.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Ape gets this in "Clockwork George" after he brainwashes George. Even Ursula calls him out on this.
- Whole-Plot Reference: "Slothpocalypto" to They Live!.
- Women Are Wiser: Subverted with Magnolia. She's smarter than George, but Ape is smarter than her.
- Would Hit a Girl: In "Nature's Call," George tells Ape that Ursula has always interfered in George's rescue. When George said she always slaps George, he actually slapped Ursula before she punched him in retaliation.
