Tarzoon Shame Of The Jungle [1975] aka Jungle Burger XviD (16:9 AR 1.82)
French animation.... this is an english version
Africa...where the web of life is spun from cheaper thread!
Africa...where elephants have a graveyard and men are left to rot where they fall!
Africa...where pestilence,carnage,and rapine are not disasters but a way of life!
Africa...dark flame that lures the ruthless human moths who lust for easy riches!
Africa...home of the fierce t'ungala warriors who have no word for "mercy".....or "wheel" or "calendar" or "disinfectant" or "light bulb","printing press","steam engine","fork","can opener","telescope","toilet paper".......
"an uncomfortably accurate reflection of that civic eyesore known as toilet art"
IMDB........ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073691/
WIKI........ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzoon,_la_honte_de_la_jungle
Poster...... http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/1378/jb1qx.jpg
Snapshot.... http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/6231/sotjss5.png
VIDEO
Size.... 700MB
Duration.... 01:08.32
Codec.... XviD
Frame Width.... 640
Frame Height.... 352
Data Rate.... 1300kbps
Frame Rate.... 25 F/S
AUDIO
Bit Rate.... 128kbps.... MP3
2 Channel Stereo
Audio Sample Rate.... 48 KHz
Bits Per Sample 16 Bit/Sample
Directed by
Picha
Boris Szulzinger
Writing credits
(in alphabetical order)
Pierre Bartier writer
Anne Beatts American version
Michael O'Donoghue American version
Picha writer
CAST
English-dubbed version
John Baddeley as Voice(s)
John Belushi as Craig Baker
Pat Bright as Queen Bazonga
Adolph Caesar as Brutish
Brian Doyle-Murray as Charles of the Pits #1
Andrew Duncan as Charles of the Pits #2
Judy Graubart as Stella Starlet
Christopher Guest as Chief M'Bulu / Short / Nurse
Deya Kent as Voice(s)
Bill Murray as Reporter
Emily Prager as June
Guy Sorel as Cedric Addlepate
Johnny Weissmuller Jr. as Shame
Original 85 minutes French-language version was cut to 79 minutes to avoid a X rating in the USA and released with new dialogue rewritten by _"Saturday Night Live's scriptwriters and dubbed by that show's stars John Belushi, Bill Murray and Christopher Guest
PRO
Shame comes home and find his mate, June, abducted by...well..peckers! His ape explains in graphic details how June was aroused and abducted by the penises and demonstrated how it...well...spanked the monkey when the peckers aroused June. Lotsa slapstick, politically incorrect humor, not just about sex, but also about colonization ("Africa - the continent where life is spun by a thinner thread than other places"). The animation is fluent and rich, the soundtrack is rock'nrolling and this is really a bellylaugh-a-minute movie. Some people are likely to find the movie quite provocative but this is better natured than Fritz the Cat, which on occasion turned quite violent without the redeeming humor, but there is certainly a kinship. The humor occationally gets quite elephantine, quite literary! Highly entertaining. 7/10
ANTI
The creative writers of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE wrote the English version of this extreme unfunny cartoon from France. The film was barely released (played in Seattle as TARZOON;SHAME OF THE JUNGLE in only one drive-in with a small ad in 1979) This film only got any kind of release was because of the voice talent of John Belushi who has a thankless voice role in a unfunny material he wrote (!). I don't know what voice Bill Murray did, and the late Adolf Ceasar also has a nothing voice role also. All the jokes do not work, and it's a suprise since MR. MIKE'S MONDO VIDEO worked very well. Only highlight is a amusing march segment these soldiers did with a funky catchy french/african tune on. It a watered down 70mins print for the U.S., but I guess the french has more explicit cartoon version. Not recommended, unless you like to check out Belushi's forgotten work.
A 15-minute pilot was shown at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, and the film was finished by September 1975. The following year, the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs sued the producer of Tarzoon and 20th Century Fox, the film's distributor in France, for alleged plagiarism. The estate lost the case after the French court determined the film was a legitimate parody.
In 1978, the film was imported into the United States by International Harmony and Stuart S. Shapiro. Shapiro recalls telling customs that the film was a work in progress and it would be edited to be suitable for theatrical release in the U.S. He did not remember any problems bringing the film into the country. The distributor encountered problems finding theaters willing to show the X rated version of the film. The film ended up making a profit in San Francisco, but was largely unsuccessful in other towns.
Eventually, the film was reedited and dubbed. After several changes, the distributor persuaded the MPAA to change the film's rating to an R. The R rated version of the film featured new dialogue performed by American actors and comedians such as John Belushi, Adolph Caesar, Brian Doyle-Murray, Judy Graubart, Bill Murray and Johnny Weissmuller Jr.
The Burroughs estate filed another lawsuit demanding that the name of the film be changed when their lawyer found a New York State statute covering disillusion of trademark. They argued that Tarzan was a wholesome trademark and that the current product degraded the character's name. A judge agreed. The suit was filed three weeks into the film's New York run. The title was shortened to Shame of the Jungle, and the "Tarzoon" character name was altered by cutting the name out of the soundtrack negative and splicing it back into the soundtrack upside down. According to Shapiro, the film did not do as well at the box office, because audiences were attracted to the "Tarzoon" name.It also extremely pissed off the Burroughs estate to have the Wiessmuller name associated with it.
The R rated version of the film received negative reviews. Vincent Canby of The New York Times said that the film was an "unsuccessful attempt to parody the life and adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan." Tam Allen in The Village Voice called the film "an uncomfortably accurate reflection of that civic eyesore known as toilet art," and compared it unfavorably to Fritz the Cat and Dirty Duck. Playboy praised the film's artwork, but felt that the film became "monotonous after a good start — still, in the off-the-wall category, the most literate prurient and amusing challenge to community standards since Fritz the Cat."
The film was banned by the New Zealand Board of Censors in 1980.
