Showing posts with label Jay Ward. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jay Ward. Show all posts

Saturday, April 5, 2014

George of the Jungle

George of the Jungle is an American animated series produced by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, who created The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The character George was inspired by the legend of Tarzan. It ran for 17 episodes on Saturday mornings from September 9 to December 30, 1967, on American TV network ABC. The half-hour program was distributed for many years by Worldvision Enterprises, currently part of CBS Television Distribution.

In the opening title, George is depicted swinging on vines, repeatedly slamming face-first into tress or other obstacles even as the theme-song writers warn him to "watch out for that tree!" Another running gag is that George keeps forgetting that he lives in a treehouse, falling to the ground every time he leaves home. George's "beloved mate" is Ursula, a Jane-like character far brighter than George, whom George refers to as "Fella". George's closest friend is an ape named Ape who like Ursula is far more intelligent than George. He has a pet elephant named Shep, who behaves like a lap dog, as George refers to him, a "great big peanut-lovin' poochie", and who he thinks is a dog. Also of note is the Tooky Tooky the toucan famous for his call: "Ah ah ee ee tooky tooky." In 1997, the segment was adapted into a live-action film titled George of the Jungle. Brendan Fraser played the title role, with Leslie Mann as the lovely Ursula Stanhope, John Cleese as the voice of Ape, and Thomas Haden Church as the villain. A direct-to-video sequel George of the Jungle 2, starring Christopher Showerman as George, was released in 2003.

The cartoon series features the voices of Bill Scott as George. June Foray as Ursula. And Paul Frees as Ape.

Friday, March 28, 2014

Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends

Rocky and Bullwinkle is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959 to June 27, 1964 on ABC and NBC television networks.  Produced by Jay Ward Productions, the series is structured as a variety show, with the main feature being the serialized adventures of the two title characters, the anthropomorphic moose Bullwinkle and a flying squirrel Rocky. The main adversaries in most of their adventures are the Russian-like spies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale. The cartoon series takes place in the fictional town of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, which was based on the real life city of International Falls, Minnesota.

Supporting characters that are in the series including Dudley Do-Right, Crusader Rabbit from his own series in 1949, Gidney and Cloyd the little green men from the moon who were armed with scrooch guns, Captain Peter Peachfuzz the captain of the S.S. Andalusia, and Mr. Peabody and Sherman, the boy and the dog who first appeared in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and then the full-length animated movie released on March 7th, 2014, directed by Rob Minkoff, the director of The Lion King. And for Rocky and Bullwinkle as a live action/animation movie, it was released on June 30, 2000 starring June Foray once again as Rocky, and Keith Scott as Bullwinkle after the original voice died in 1985.

The cartoon series features the voices of June Foray as Rocky. Bill Scott as Bullwinkle, Mr. Big, Mr. Peabody, Gidney and Cloyd. Lucille Bliss as Crusader Rabbit. Walter Tetley as Sherman. And Paul Frees as Captain Peter Peachfuzz.