History Main / JunglePrincess

For some unfathomable reason, the [[FriendToAllLivingThings animals of the jungle obey her slavishly]] instead of viewing her as lunch, and the woefully benighted HollywoodNatives treat her as a goddess. If the Jungle Princess is particularly naive, she'll buy into that belief. Even if she's not particularly naive and although she may well possess some fearsomely strong instincts and drives toward it, her isolation from humans has left her with no concept whatsoever of romance. She is also likely to have severe ChronicHeroSyndrome.

The DistaffCounterpart of [[TarzanBoy Tarzan of the Apes]], this is a young woman of European extraction who has been raised in a [[DarkestAfrica jungle environment]], usually [[RaisedByWolves by animals]]. Despite her upbringing, though, she has managed to grasp the basic rudiments of [[HulkSpeak English]], tools, and fashion -- she is frequently seen wearing fetching leather or {{Fur Bikini}}s and wielding a [[BladeOnAStick spear]]. She is far more likely to have neat hair than WildHair, and her legs and armpits will be inexplicably hairless. She's likely to be an EarthyBarefootCharacter. She is also likely to have severe [[ChronicHeroSyndrome]]

For some unfathomable reason, the [[FriendToAllLivingThings animals of the jungle obey her slavishly]] instead of viewing her as lunch, and the woefully benighted HollywoodNatives treat her as a goddess. If the Jungle Princess is particularly naive, she'll buy into that belief. Even if she's not particularly naive and although she may well possess some fearsomely strong instincts and drives toward it, her isolation from humans has left her with no concept whatsoever of romance.

The DistaffCounterpart of [[TarzanBoy Tarzan of the Apes]], this is a young woman of European extraction who has been raised in a [[DarkestAfrica jungle environment]], usually [[RaisedByWolves by animals]]. Despite her upbringing, though, she has managed to grasp the basic rudiments of [[HulkSpeak English]], tools, and fashion -- she is frequently seen wearing fetching leather or {{Fur Bikini}}s and wielding a [[BladeOnAStick spear]]. She is far more likely to have neat hair than WildHair, and her legs and armpits will be inexplicably hairless. She's likely to be an EarthyBarefootCharacter.

* Capri from ''Manga/AnimalLand''.

* Shanana from ''Manga/MakyouNoShanana''

* The 1904 novel ''Green Mansions'' by W.H. Hudson may be the TropeMaker. Rima, the female lead, wasn't white or European; she belonged to a lost race that even the local Indians didn't know of. Her skin -- depending on the lighting, it seems -- varied in color, and in bright sunlight seemed "luminous".
** The novel was made into a movie starring Audrey Hepburn in 1959.

* ''Film/CaptiveWildWoman'': The Ape Woman started life as an exceptionally intelligent gorilla, Cheela, from the Belgian Congo. Brought over to the United States, she is turned into a human, Paula Dupree, by means of human hormone and cerebrum transplants. While she doesn't ever return home, she has an approximation of the jungle in the Whipple Circus, where she gets employed for the lion taming act once it's discovered that she has an eerie control over animals, whom she can gaze into submission. As a gorilla with no human past or education, she is incapable of human speech, but she does understand it. Her love interest is the American Fred Mason, for whose safety she ends up sacrificing herself.
** ''Film/{{Jungle Woman|1944}}'': The possibility is brought up that the gorilla Cheela actually started life as a human and was turned into a gorilla by an undisclosed scientific experiment. All the same, even as the human Paula Dupree she has the strength of a gorilla. In human form, she is a skilled swimmer and over time has picked up some capacity for human speech. Her playground this time around is the Crestview Sanatorium, which grounds contain a lot of vegetation. With Fred no longer in the picture, Paula's romantic interest shifts to the American Bob Whitney, who does not return her feelings.
** ''Film/JungleCaptive'': The Ape Woman is brought back to life with science and soon after given a new hormone donation to bring back her human self Paula Dupree. However, as a human she's not all there anymore due to damage to her human cerebrum. She's killed before she receives a new one (or her old one heals).

* Either subverted or deconstructed with San, the eponymous Mononoke-Hime of ''Anime/PrincessMononoke''. While she fits a lot of the traits of a Jungle Princess (though the forest isn't exactly a jungle, and she obviously isn't of European extraction), her character, like almost anything else in the movie, is not as two-dimensional and clear cut as it seems at first.

** Do not confuse her with the half-animal Panthea by underground artist Trina Robbins. (And Pantha from ''Vampirella'' doesn't even fit the trope.)

* There's one of these in the artificial jungle in the movie ''Who's That Girl?''.
* ''The Tiger Woman'', a 1944 Republic film serial, later [[CompilationMovie edited into the feature ''Jungle Gold'']].
* Nyoka the Jungle Girl from the 1941 serial ''Jungle Girl''.

* Tanya Roberts made a pretty good ''Film/{{Sheena}}'' for the 1980s.
* You could make the argument that Claudia Jennings played one in the trash film ''Film/GatorBait'', just switch the jungle for the Louisiana bayou.
* The Shaw Brothers ''Film/KingKong1933'' rip-off ''Film/TheMightyPekingMan'' (or ''Goliathon'') featured a particularly dim-witted version who was constantly on the verge of a nip slip.
* Creator/JosephineBaker played this part in many of her stage performances and subsequent films.
* ''Film/TraderHorn'': Nina was a toddler when African natives attacked her family, killing her father and spiriting her away. When white people find her 20 years later, she's the queen of her tribe.
* Jungle Princesses (more often than not, naked) are the favorite victims of quicksand in notorious California quicksand-porn filmmaker Dave Lodoski's efforts.

* In ''Film/BlondeSavage'', an expedition into the deep jungle discovers a native tribe led by a tall white blonde woman.
* A desert version in ''Film/YorTheHunterFromTheFuture'' with Roah, a blonde woman who was raised by a clan of {{mummy}}-like creatures, who revere her as a goddess. Or something. It's kind of hard to tell what's going on in this movie.
* Ursula Stanhope (though technically a Jungle Queen) in ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle''

* Maya from ''Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy'', complete with the MsFanservice leather dress and... impressive physique.
** Just to give perspective, she was played by Cerina Vincent... who played the perpetually nude foreign exchange student in ''Film/NotAnotherTeenMovie''.

* ''VideoGame/JillOfTheJungle''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfTarzan'' features La from the novels - ruler of the lost city of Opar. She's an antagonist for about three episodes. She's also a LadyOfBlackMagic.

* Rebecca Cunningham from ''WesternAnimation/{{Talespin}}'' dresses up like this in "A Star is Torn", but she's the DamselInDistress type, unfortunately.

The DistaffCounterpart of [[TarzanBoy Tarzan of the Apes]], this is a young woman of European extraction who has been raised in a [[DarkestAfrica jungle environment]], usually [[RaisedByWolves by animals]]. Despite her upbringing, though, she has managed to grasp the basic rudiments of [[HulkSpeak English]], tools, and fashion -- she is frequently seen wearing fetching leather or {{Fur Bikini}}s and wielding a [[BladeOnAStick spear]]. She is far more likely to have RapunzelHair than WildHair, and her legs and armpits will be inexplicably hairless. She's likely to be an EarthyBarefootCharacter.

*** Aside from tiny differences in the origin story, Lorna was a blatant Sheena rip-off, right down to the romantic entanglement with a GreatWhiteHunter and the monkey sidekick. That being said, it was also a distinct cut above most of Atlas's other offerings at the time.

** The whole Marvel game actually got its first female-driven series in the 50s with a comic titled ''Lorna, The Jungle Girl''. The whole thing was about this father and daughter that go to South Africa; the father is killed by some thugs and Lorna, having nowhere else to go, chooses to stay and train within the forest to eventually defend her people (animals and humans).

* ''VideoGame/CookieRun'' has Tigerlilly Cookie, a mysterious cookie with floor-length hair, a tiger, and limited language skills. She's a formidable warrior with her spear and often rides her tiger into battle. She's also a literal princess, being the long lost twin of [[PrincessesPreferPink Princess Cookie]] and granddaughter of [[FounderOfTheKingdom Hollyberry Cookie]].

* Sapphire Birch, ''Manga/PokemonAdventures''[='=] take on the female avatar from the game, takes her role as Pokémon trainer and researcher so seriously she actually [[GoingNative went native]], wearing clothes made from leaves and moss and growing her fingernails into claws. She has little trouble reintegrating into human society, but she retains the [[BadassNormal mind-boggling strength and agility]] she developed in the wild.

* The 1904 novel ''Green Mansions'' by W.H. Hudson may be the TropeMaker. She wasn't white or European; she belonged to a lost race that even the local Indians didn't know of. Her skin -- depending on the lighting, it seems -- varied in color, and in bright sunlight seemed "luminous".

* ComicBook/{{Fantomah}} may be an example. She's a blonde white woman who lives in the jungle and protects it from various {{Evil Colonialist}}s and indigenous villains. However, she has extreme magical powers to the extent of being a PhysicalGod, and a sadistically vengeful personality, which combines to make her seem more like a HumanoidAbomination than an actual human.

** She's now part of DC's ''[[ComicBook/FirstWaveDCU First Wave]]'' [[TwoFistedTales pulp-fiction]] imprint.

* Citra from ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' is a Western [[note]] she is dark-skinned but has blue eyes, and is related to a foreign NPC [[/note]] woman who rules a Pacific island and doesn't wear very much. She wasn't raised by the natives but has enthusiastically taken to their ways. She is attracted to the game's American protagonist and not to the local men. [[spoiler:Also qualifies as an evil version, because she encourages Jason's BloodKnight attitude and SanitySlippage, and eventually entices him to kill his friends and loved ones and have sex with her- and then decides that since their child(if she actually is pregnant) will grow to be a greater warrior than his father, Jason has now [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]], so she stabs him to death]].]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Dualot the [[AmazingTechnicolorWildlife blue kangaroo]] in the Golden Step-Ahead Video, "WesternAnimation/JourneyThroughTheJungleOfWords".

* ''Anime/MagicalPrincessMinkyMomo'': This is one of Momo's transformations in episode 20.

* Ursula from the 1967 ''WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle'', and Magnolia from the 2007 series.

[[quoteright:28(:[[ComicBook/ShannaTheSheDevil https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shanna_the_she_devil.jpg]]]]

[[quoteright:289:[[ComicBook/ShannaTheSheDevil https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shanna_the_she_devil.jpg]]]]