George of the Jungle 2

I'm not one to go into a movie that's meant to be silly, expecting shakespere. But like a lot of comedy sequels, the jokes were too set up and too planned instead of coming from the situatution. Angus T. Jones was sweet as Junior and didn't get enough screentime, Julie Benz is a wonderful actress but suffers in this role, Chris Showerman would have made a fine 'new' George with a better script, as would Thomas Haden Church returning as Lyle. But everyone suffers do to a bad and very unfunny story that attempts to manipulate you into laughing. But beyond the line about the reason for a new 'George', I barely laughed at all. And I certainly didn't believe in George and Ursula's love despite the extremely idiot situations (though I did in the first film). There's silly so funny you watch it over and over again (first George of the Jungle film) and silly so stupid you never want to see it again (the sequel). Even the kids, who loved the first film, didn't laugh much watching this one. And they kept wondering why the all important Junior was conviently dropped from the middle of the story only to magically jump in again at the end. This movie was one of the worse Disney sequels ever made.

I must say, this movie was almost great. The jokes were pretty funny, and the acting (except for Beatrice) was pretty good, despite the replacement of most of the cast. Even the music was fun and fitting. Where this movie really fell apart was the storyline. I won't get into details, but let's just say it was lacking, at best. Many things were poorly explained, or unreasonable. Another problem, though minor and only slightly annoying, was the way George's elephant, Shep, was portrayed. In the first movie, he blended well with the rest of the set and characters. In this one, he is obviously done with relatively weak CGI that will damage the mood of the scene.

It really is a pity that it had a few major glaring flaws... It could have been really good otherwise.

Caught part of GEORGE 2 on TV recently, but couldn't get myself to watch it through to the end. Just awful! I can't even remember the plot. All I know is that George and Ursula were not the George and Ursula of the first movie, which was bad enough. There's a lot of scrambling around, but the direction and editing were so shoddy and choppy, it was like watching outtakes or deleted scenes. Having the original voice of Ape the Ape back was not nearly enough to make me warm up to this. GEORGE 2 is probably the single worst sequel I have ever seen, and that is saying something. Jeez, because of IMDb's 10 lines rule, I have to keep typing when I have nothing more to say about this crapulastic made-for-TV sequel. Disney, hang your head in shame.

On this website, this is currently ranked as the worst Disney movie of all time and it's probably in my Top 3. I admit there were a few funny jokes when they outright admitted they couldn't get Brendan Fraser back for this movie. Unfortunately, all that was drowned out by horrible special effects and bad jokes. The worst part is at the end where they have all these poop, fart, and crotch jokes. Looking back, I think the original "George Of The Jungle" was probably the funniest live action adaptation ever made. That's actually quite a compliment seeing as how the original show wasn't even that great.

The CGI in this is among the worst I've ever seen in my life. The elephant and kangaroo look absolutely terrible and it sincerely scared me whenever they appeared on screen. This movie offers no interesting new villains. I remember these funny henchmen from the first movie and now they're replaced by Charlie's Angels...for some reason. I guess this could have worked as like a sketch or something because it has only enough jokes for that short time. Direct to video sequels are always bad and this is no exception. It's sad when the best is "The Lion King 1 1/2 and that just recycles stuff from the first movie. *1/2

Thomas Haden Church should've followed the previous stars' lead and avoided this script. The replacement stars are passable, but really lack the spark of the original cast and play it more as imitators than inhabitants of the characters. The script itself crosses the line from just stupid enough to be funny to just simply stupid, most evident in George's transition from sweet, innocent and naive to annoyingly stupid. Chris Showerman's performance fails to convince us that his clumsiness is anything more than intentional pratfalls intended to elicit a laugh. Unfortunately, they just aren't believable enough to be funny and happen way too often. The script takes Beatrice Stanhope's matronly meddling beyond plausibility, having her stoop to unfathomable depths to end her daughter's socially unbecoming marriage and reunite her with the clearly deranged Lyle van de Groot. Although her actions in the first film were somewhat believable, it is hard to imagine any mother would engage in such heinous activities once a grandchild is involved. There is also no explanation given as to the obvious absence of Mr. Stanhope. Far too often the script repeats gags from the first film, only they've lost their element of surprise and charm. Even the special effects are poor shadows of the original - the animals look more cartoonish than real.

Although she sat patiently through this one, my 6-year-old never even giggled while watching this "bonus feature" that came boxed with the original on DVD. I think curiosity and the simple fact there were some animals kept her attention, and at least she didn't fall asleep, but I doubt this will ever be on her list of favorites and really wasn't worth the money we didn't pay for it. I wouldn't recommend anyone waste their precious time watching this horrible sequel. Next time Disney should shell out for the original team rather than torture fans with such a pathetic follow-up to a surprise gem like the first "George of the Jungle" film.