Today was a busy day for some of the smaller guilds with the Visual Effects Society, the Cinema Audio Society, and the Makeup and Hairstylists Guilds all announcing their nominations for 2013.
First, we have the Ves, whose main category to look at is “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture,” where we find Gravity and four other nominees that are just going to have to be happy with the fact that they got nominated. This is perhaps the easiest category to call in the entirety of awards season, and I don’t mean just here, but for the Oscar as well (Last year’s winner, Life of Pi, easily took this category before going on to claim the Oscar). It’s true that films like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Star Trek Into Darkness had outstanding effects as well, but nothing even came close to the amazing,...
First, we have the Ves, whose main category to look at is “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture,” where we find Gravity and four other nominees that are just going to have to be happy with the fact that they got nominated. This is perhaps the easiest category to call in the entirety of awards season, and I don’t mean just here, but for the Oscar as well (Last year’s winner, Life of Pi, easily took this category before going on to claim the Oscar). It’s true that films like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Star Trek Into Darkness had outstanding effects as well, but nothing even came close to the amazing,...
- 1/15/2014
- by Jeff Beck
- We Got This Covered
Tap those bongos now for "George, George, George of the Jungle," as Disney's vine-swinging, long-haired inhabitant of the deep bush catapults into action in this deliriously daffy family film, starring Brendan Fraser as the good-hearted but accident-prone George. The word-of-mouth beat will travel far and wide as Buena Vista should tap a roar of approval among kids, as well as we more subversive taller people, for this brainy dumb-stuff.
From the fertile and slyly satiric imagination of the late Jay Ward, who developed the "George of the Jungle" characters into a memorable late-1960s cartoon series, the screenwriting duo of Dana Olsen and Audrey Wells has sagely transmogrified "George" to a contemporary jungle man, replete with many of the same problems the modern male is confronted with -- namely the incursions of the civilized world. To George's '90s treehouse abode come not explorers and slavers but, rather, a pair of rich twits (Leslie Mann, Thomas Haden Church), a Brahmin couple from San Francisco who are on a prenuptial safari. Goosed with some daffy, albeit prototypical comic characters such as two dunderheaded poachers and some devilishly deadpan guides who are great levelers of the simple safari folks' pretensions, "George" is a nimble blend of high-flying farce and screwy social satire.
For the film scholars in attendance too young to have savored the delights of such ancient comedy classics as "Crocodile Dundee II", there's even a high-wire, farcical midsection where George is swept away to the City by the Bay when the uppity Ursula decides he is the man for her. While Ursula tries to outfit George in the finery and ways of her tony upbringing, he of course takes a more direct approach to the mores and nuances of San Francisco high life. Most wonderfully, it's snooty San Francisco that takes it on the chin in this breezy send-up of modern-day life.
Will George escape San Francisco unscathed by the unnatural ways and odd conventions of 20th century sophistication? Will he swing freely with this honor and integrity intact among his good friends the wise Ape, the tookie tookie bird and his trusty elephant, Shep? What will gentle George learn about love? Without tipping off the plot to all the development people out there who can't figure out where the "whammy" points are, let's just say that it's George, not that Greek muscleman, who will most likely emerge as Disney's most potent and likable summer hero.
Since it's not our policy to bray negatively on a movie that boasts an elephant that scampers and bounds around like a big puppy, we'll merely mention that the visual special effects under the supervision of Tim Landry are expert and inspired. In fact, director Sam Weisman's balancing act between the zany story and the clever technical contributions is sharp and sweet. Best of all, credit to Fraser for his high-flying, good-hearted performance as gentle, heroic George.
Cast a net of praise also around Mann and Church for their nutty performances as the ultra-snooty couple and to John Cleese for his Tory-ish voicing of an ape named Ape. The other players are a similarly inspired and off-the-wall bunch, including Richard Roundtree as a condescending guide and, of course, the tweedle-dumb and tweedle-dumber comic bad-guy duo of Greg Cruttwell and Abraham Benrubi.
Marc Shaiman's zesty music, braced by the jaunty theme song, has enough bounce and pizazz to launch a score of toe-tappers' conventions.
GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE
Buena Vista
Walt Disney Pictures
Producers David Hoberman,
Jordan Kerner, Jon Avnet
Director Sam Weisman
Screenwriters Dana Olsen, Audrey Wells
Story Dana Olsen
Based upon characters created by Jay Ward
Director of photography Thomas Ackerman
Production designer Stephen Marsh
Editors Stuart Pappe, Roger Bondelli
Music Marc Shaiman
Executive producer C. Tad Devlin
Visual effects supervisor Tim Landry
Co-producer Lou Arkoff
Costume designer Lisa Jensen
Casting Amanda Mackey Johnson,
Cathy Sandrich
Production sound David Kelson
Color/stereo
Cast:
George Brendan Fraser
Ursula Stanhope Leslie Mann
Lyle Van de Groot Thomas Haden Church
Kwame Richard Roundtree
Max Greg Cruttwell
Thor Abraham Benrubi
Beatrice Stanhope Holland Taylor
Betsy Kelly Miller
Arthur Stanhope John Bennett Perry
Voice of Ape John Cleese
Running time -- 92 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
From the fertile and slyly satiric imagination of the late Jay Ward, who developed the "George of the Jungle" characters into a memorable late-1960s cartoon series, the screenwriting duo of Dana Olsen and Audrey Wells has sagely transmogrified "George" to a contemporary jungle man, replete with many of the same problems the modern male is confronted with -- namely the incursions of the civilized world. To George's '90s treehouse abode come not explorers and slavers but, rather, a pair of rich twits (Leslie Mann, Thomas Haden Church), a Brahmin couple from San Francisco who are on a prenuptial safari. Goosed with some daffy, albeit prototypical comic characters such as two dunderheaded poachers and some devilishly deadpan guides who are great levelers of the simple safari folks' pretensions, "George" is a nimble blend of high-flying farce and screwy social satire.
For the film scholars in attendance too young to have savored the delights of such ancient comedy classics as "Crocodile Dundee II", there's even a high-wire, farcical midsection where George is swept away to the City by the Bay when the uppity Ursula decides he is the man for her. While Ursula tries to outfit George in the finery and ways of her tony upbringing, he of course takes a more direct approach to the mores and nuances of San Francisco high life. Most wonderfully, it's snooty San Francisco that takes it on the chin in this breezy send-up of modern-day life.
Will George escape San Francisco unscathed by the unnatural ways and odd conventions of 20th century sophistication? Will he swing freely with this honor and integrity intact among his good friends the wise Ape, the tookie tookie bird and his trusty elephant, Shep? What will gentle George learn about love? Without tipping off the plot to all the development people out there who can't figure out where the "whammy" points are, let's just say that it's George, not that Greek muscleman, who will most likely emerge as Disney's most potent and likable summer hero.
Since it's not our policy to bray negatively on a movie that boasts an elephant that scampers and bounds around like a big puppy, we'll merely mention that the visual special effects under the supervision of Tim Landry are expert and inspired. In fact, director Sam Weisman's balancing act between the zany story and the clever technical contributions is sharp and sweet. Best of all, credit to Fraser for his high-flying, good-hearted performance as gentle, heroic George.
Cast a net of praise also around Mann and Church for their nutty performances as the ultra-snooty couple and to John Cleese for his Tory-ish voicing of an ape named Ape. The other players are a similarly inspired and off-the-wall bunch, including Richard Roundtree as a condescending guide and, of course, the tweedle-dumb and tweedle-dumber comic bad-guy duo of Greg Cruttwell and Abraham Benrubi.
Marc Shaiman's zesty music, braced by the jaunty theme song, has enough bounce and pizazz to launch a score of toe-tappers' conventions.
GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE
Buena Vista
Walt Disney Pictures
Producers David Hoberman,
Jordan Kerner, Jon Avnet
Director Sam Weisman
Screenwriters Dana Olsen, Audrey Wells
Story Dana Olsen
Based upon characters created by Jay Ward
Director of photography Thomas Ackerman
Production designer Stephen Marsh
Editors Stuart Pappe, Roger Bondelli
Music Marc Shaiman
Executive producer C. Tad Devlin
Visual effects supervisor Tim Landry
Co-producer Lou Arkoff
Costume designer Lisa Jensen
Casting Amanda Mackey Johnson,
Cathy Sandrich
Production sound David Kelson
Color/stereo
Cast:
George Brendan Fraser
Ursula Stanhope Leslie Mann
Lyle Van de Groot Thomas Haden Church
Kwame Richard Roundtree
Max Greg Cruttwell
Thor Abraham Benrubi
Beatrice Stanhope Holland Taylor
Betsy Kelly Miller
Arthur Stanhope John Bennett Perry
Voice of Ape John Cleese
Running time -- 92 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
- 7/14/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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