Published on Feb 21, 1998
Anytime you watch a Disney movie as an adult, you have to
suspend your logical thinking for an hour or so and try to become a
kid again. In the case of the character of George Of The Jungle, it
was a little harder for me; I grew up watching the Jay Ward
cartoons (paired up with Tom Slick and Super Chicken), but I
thought Brendan Fraser captured the essence quite well.
The same, unfortunately, can’t be said for the soundtrack to
George Of The Jungle. While it has some very good songs on
it, the bulk of it hits the thick leafy stick harder than a
Congressman on a ski slope. (No, no, wait… forget I said
that.)
Of the three versions of the theme song on this disc, the
stand-out version comes from… “Weird Al” Yankovic? The parody
king has created a version, barely a minute in length, which is the
closest to the original that one can come, even matching the
harmonies perfectly. (He seems to borrow some of the sound effects
from the cartoon, but that makes it all the more cool to me.)
The possible discovery here is Johnny Clegg & Savuka, a
South African band that never got the attention it deserved in the
States, even after Paul Simon popularized the style on
Graceland. “Dela (I Know Why The Dog Howls At The Moon)” is
a pretty track that captures a tribal feeling, despite apparently
having nothing to do with the movie. (If you like this song, check
out their album
Third World Child for more than a taste spoon.) And anyone
who doesn’t like the all-out ferocity of The Surfaris’ “Wipe Out”
needs their head examined; this surf rock instrumental shows why
it’s still regarded as a classic.
Sadly, this is where the praise stops. Most of the remaining
cuts on
George Of The Jungle make it seem like the disc is longer
than the half-hour it really is, and that’s really too bad. The
Presidents Of The United States Of America completely butcher their
cover of the theme song – and it’s reprised on the disc on the main
title mix. I don’t know why I dislike this version as much as I do
– it just falls short in many ways. It doesn’t capture the
lightheartedness of the original, it doesn’t stay true to the
original’s lyrics (though I’ll admit they had to pad it a bit to
stretch it out for the credits)… oh, who am I kidding, I’ll
always like the one from the cartoon best. So there.
Many of the short “interlude” pieces are complete wastes of
time. “The Man On The Flying Trapeeze” and “Aba Daba Honeymoon” are
pitiful and annoying, while “Go Ape” is a half-assed redo of
Yello’s “Oh Yeah” – can’t we stop messing with a song that wasn’t
that good to begin with? And John Cleese’s rendition of “My Way” –
the less said, the better.
Credit should be given to Marc Shaiman, whose compositions at
the end of the disc are all but lost in the mediocrity. I would
have preferred to hear more compositions of his like “Rumble In The
Jungle” than “Aba Daba Honeymoon” (every time I hear this song, I
think of “Laverne & Shirley” signing it – it’s caused me to
live on antacid tablets for the last three days).
When I first looked at the disc for
George Of The Jungle, I wondered why a soundtrack lasting
barely a half-hour would be released. After listening to it, I
wished they had made it much shorter. My advice: watch out for this
one.