
DATE: Thursday, July 17, 1997               TAG: 9707180874

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E7   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Movie review

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   76 lines

FILM ``GEORGE'' IS DELIGHTFULLY DUMB

``GEORGE OF the Jungle'' is movie that is so wacky dumb-dumb that it's pretty nigh endearing. Aimed directly at children, little children, the wee ones, it is so shameless about its knock-about slapstick, that adults may even put up with it.

After all, a groan is very close to a laugh. There are plenty of both.

Tarzan should perhaps sue, but he'd have to get a good lawyer to prove that this foolishness is any more foolish than those Johnny Weismuller movies.

George, of course, was the 1960s TV cartoon. Even those who never saw it or don't remember it will catch on immediately to the irresistible title jingle: ``George! George! George of the Jungle . . . strong as he can be.'' Once you've heard it, you'll be humming it for days.

Unfortunately, the movie version almost misses the beat by using a Seattle rock group called the Presidents of the United States of America. The TV musicians were more catchy.

Brendan Fraser, throwing caution and seriousness to the winds, dons a flimsy loin cloth and proves that he's not self-conscious at all about taking on the title role. He crashes into trees regularly. Whack! Splat! All three of the Three Stooges couldn't have done it with a bigger thud. Fraser, who has tried, fitfully, to be a serious actor, returns to the stance he took in ``Encino Man.'' He's perfect as a wacky but likable jungle hunk.

Most diverting is the animal cast, led by the superstar Tai as Shep, an elephant who thinks he's a dog. With the help of animatronic digital computers and scientific things like that, Shep chases his tail and fetches logs as if they were sticks. This elephant, quite convincingly, makes doggie moves.

Then, there's Tookie-Tookie, the toucan bird. He, or she, doesn't do much, but he's colorful. Ape, a simple to-the-point monicker, is the wise voice of reason - and the voice of that of John Cleese.

Hormones get into play when Ursula, ``a perfectly permed heiress'' from San Francisco, takes one look at George's pectorals and rethinks her engagement to the stuffy Thomas Haden Church (a villain who is much more dopey than he is threatening). The kids howl when the bad guy falls in a pile of elephant poop. It's that kind of movie.

George goes to San Francisco, where Ursula (Leslie Mann, with a baby-voice that is a mix of Melanie Griffith and Judy Holliday) is trying to convince her stuffy parents that an ape-man might not be a bad son-in-law. Fraser's stunt man does a grand swing across the Golden Gate bridge.

Sam Weisman, who directed the unimaginative ``D2: The Mighty Ducks,'' has the sense to do nothing but pull out all the stops and just let people bump into things. Maybe he was aware that he had no script.

Just to thwart the critics, including this one, the film added a narrator who reminds us constantly that the producers KNOW the movie is pretty cornball and shallow. The narrator, who can't seem to shut up even in the midst of the best scenes, makes sport of the film at every turn. When someone falls in a ravine, he cautions that ``nobody dies in this movie. They just commit big boo-boos.''

Children seemed to love all the pratfalls and movement. They howl, even when George hits a tree for the 15th time. The kids are likely to go for ``George of the Jungle'' in a big way. Parents, and even straggling singles, will laugh out loud too. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

DISNEY

Brendan Fraser crashes frequently and hilariously in ``George of the

Jungle.''

Graphic

MOVIE REVIEW

``George of the Jungle''

Cast: Brendan Fraser, Leslie Mann, Thomas Haden Church, Richard

Roundtree

Director: Sam Weisman

Music: Marc Shaiman

MPAA rating: PG (some campy jokes but little that's

objectionable)