George’s Second Term
Jerry Beck, one half of Cartoonbrew.com, posted an 8-minute clip from G4’s show The Lab with Leo Laporte which features an interview with Kevin Gamble and Jayson Thiessen, two of the creative minds behind the new George of the Jungle series. The series is animated in Flash by Studio B Productions in Canada, where Gamble is producing and Thiessen is directing.
Beck went easy on the show this time around, whereas back in the summer of ‘06 the concept got drilled.
But today, Beck need not sharpen his quill - the comments are shrill and filled with disdain over this retread of this classic Jay Ward series from 1967 - and particularly over the show’s use of Flash animation.
I find this all rather amusing. When Jay Ward first debuted Crusader Rabbit, a defining ‘limited animation’ series, I can only imagine the hubbub about how he was ruining animation. Almost two decades later, Ward had perfected his signature style, and he was onto George of the Jungle. The layouts, poses, color palette and overall humor of the original George of the Jungle series are all things I can appreciate, but I wouldn’t call this a beautifully animated show. It’s closer to an animatic - jumping pose to pose.
Don’t we all see the irony here? Flash is helping usher in a new era of limited animation, something Jay Ward helped instigate. Beyond that, the animation in these new series is far better than what Ward and his team could manage on those smaller budgets. Technology has advanced, but it appears that our standards have as well.
Crusader Rabbit
George of the Jungle

at Cold, Hard Flash, recently appeared on G4’s ‘Attack of the Show.’ He was interviewed by host








