Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Film / Jungle2Jungle

Go To

1%%
2%%Zero context entries are not allowed. Please add context before removing the comment tags.
3%%
4
5[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jungle_2_jungle.jpg]]
6
7''Jungle 2 Jungle'' is a 1997 Creator/{{Disney}} [[ForeignRemake remake]] of the 1994 French comedy film ''Film/LittleIndianBigCity'', starring Creator/TimAllen.
8
9Michael Cromwell (Allen), a New York-based commodities broker, wants to marry his lady love Charlotte (Creator/LolitaDavidovich). But his divorce from his first wife, Dr. Patricia Cromwell (Creator/JoBethWilliams), hasn't been finalized yet, and he has to locate her. He traces her to a tribal settlement in Canaima National Park, Venezuela. His visit comes with a surprise: Michael and Patricia have a 13-year-old son who has been raised by the tribe, Mimi-Siku (Creator/SamHuntington).
10
11Michael is convinced to take his son with him in a first visit to UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Major culture shock follows. Also, the boy finds his first love in Karen Kempster (Creator/LeeleeSobieski), daughter of Michael's co-worker Richard (Creator/MartinShort).
12----
13!!''Jungle 2 Jungle'' provides examples of:
14
15* AccidentalPervert: Depends on if you consider it an "accident" or not--Mimi is looking for his pet tarantula in Charlotte's bed while she's sleeping in it, and gets an eyeful of her lower bits. [[AllMenArePerverts He visibly doesn't mind what he sees]], but she understandably flips out when she sees him there.
16-->'''Mimi:''' ''[happily]'' Nice [[UnusualEuphemism poochie-poochie]]!\
17'''Charlotte:''' ''[wrapping herself up in a blanket and fleeing]'' ''THAT IS THE LAST "POOCHIE-POOCHIE" YOU'RE GOING TO SEE AROUND HERE, YOU LITTLE SAVAGE!''
18* AdaptationNameChange: Most of the main characters retain their names from the original French version, but Steph becomes Michael and Sophie becomes Karen.
19* AesopAmnesia: So Michael acknowledges that he took Patricia for granted, and paid more attention to his work than her. He even acknowledges it to Mimi, and realizes that's why Charlotte might be so unhappy. But he ditches Charlotte twice in the movie without telling her why, and by the end, she's clearly unhappy with Michael and unwilling to work around his schedule.
20* ArtisticLicenseOrnithology: Mimi reveals to Michael that he can speak English by correcting Michael's mistranslation of "hoko" as a generic term for birds, rather than the specific bird "toucan". However, the bird shown in the footage was a scarlet macaw, not a toucan.
21%%* AlphaBitch: Charlotte.
22%%* AwardBaitSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO5FzN1dk_0 It Starts In The Heart]] by Maxi Priest.
23* BerserkButton: Do NOT call Mr. Jovanovic "Mr. J." And don't screw him on a stock deal, either.
24** And don't ring the doorbell four times.
25* BigApplesauce: The movie features plenty of lovely shots of the pre-9/11 NYC skyline, along with location filming around the rest of the city.
26* BlitheSpirit: Michael and Mimi-Siku go for a stroll in Central Park after buying some hot dogs from a vendor. Then Mimi notices some [[StreetPerformer Street Performers]] singing and playing instruments for a number that sounds remarkably similar to the tribal music he has heard back home, and he excitedly performs an ecstatic dance before the astonished onlookers. Mimi urges his father to join him, and Michael indulgently does. Then ''everybody'' in the park gets into the spirit and joins in the spontaneous dance party.
27* BlowGun: Michael contrives to shoot himself in the leg with semi-paralytic darts not once but twice.
28* {{Bowdlerise}}: A unique case. In an edited version which aired on the Disney Channel in the late 90's, two scenes had lines replaced with alternate takes which were actually ''filmed on set,'' rather than simply dubbing the lines later which is the standard practice. Examples:
29** When Patricia is telling Michael his son's name, she explains that it roughly translates to "cat pee" instead of "cat piss."
30** Mimi-Siku refers to the Art/StatueOfLiberty as the "woman who lights up the sky," instead of "woman who hold fire up sky's butt." For continuity purposes, Michael's subsequent boisterous laugh was changed to a light chuckle.
31* ChildHater: Zig-zagged. Charlotte is ''almost'' an example, since she doesn't want to have kids and wasn't happy to hear about Mimi, but she ''does'' make an effort to befriend Mimi at first. She only starts disliking Mimi after the kid repeatedly acts out of line.
32* ClifftopCaterwauling: At the beginning of the movie, Mimi-Siku lets out a triumphant yell at the top of a cliff, after scaling it bare-handed.
33* CulturalTranslation: The original took place in France. Disney changed this to America.
34* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Richard isn't exactly thrilled when his daughter falls for Mimi.
35* DeadpanSnarker: Michael.
36* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Mimi and Karen actually ''didn't'' (this is a Disney film, after all, and they're just thirteen), but it doesn't stop her dad from freaking out and threatening her with boarding school.
37* DogFoodDiet: Well, Cat Food Diet. Mimi wanted to eat the cat, but settled for the food after the cat was taken away.
38* DoNotCallMePaul: Karen, in a fit of rebelliousness, tells her dad that her name isn't "Karen" anymore. It's "Oo-Koo-May," the name Mimi gave her.
39* EatTheDog: It's a running gag. First, Mimi wants to eat Charlotte's cat, but [[{{Squick}} he settles for the cat food instead]]. Then he kills a pigeon with an arrow and gives it to a homeless man to eat. Finally, he steals the Kempsters' exotic fish and roasts them over a campfire in the backyard.
40* ExactWords: Mimi-Siku asks Michael to take him to the Statue of Liberty "when he's a man." Michael agrees, not realizing that he will become a "man" according to his tribe the very next day. A bit of an unusual example as Michael is being held to Mimi's interpretation of his promise. At no point did he say when in Mimi's adult life the trip would happen.
41* TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily: Subverted, then played straight. Jovanovic and his goons are more than sufficiently menacing (nearly slicing off Richard Kempster's fingers), but then they are humiliatingly trounced by Mimi-Siku and [[LetsGetDangerous the surprisingly competent Kempster family]].
42* {{Fingore}}: Jovanovic's preferred method of punishment is to cut off fingers. We don't see anything since it's a family movie, but we do see the results of this punishment on another man.
43* FishOutOfWater: Three kinds.
44** First, there's Michael in the Amazon jungle and village. [[spoiler:As well as the Kempsters, who visit Mimi's village at the end of the film.]]
45** Second, and for the majority of the film, there's Mimi in New York City.
46** Finally, and more obliquely, there's Michael when he experiences SinkOrSwimFatherhood with Mimi, especially given Mimi's upbringing.
47* ForeignQueasine:
48** Lizard guts are Mimi's favorite food.
49** Also, Patricia offers Michael some bat bladder.
50** Jovanovic gives Michael and Richard some caviar straight from the fish. As soon as Jovanovic's back is turned, the two spit it out.
51* ForeignRemake: The original was French.
52* FourLinesAllWaiting: The father/son plot is the main focus, but there's also a lot more going on in the movie.
53** For instance, there's the plot with Richard, the coffee stocks, and the Russian Mafia.
54** Michael and Charlotte's relationship.
55** Mimi and Karen's romance.
56** The bit about the Statue of Liberty's fire.
57* GilliganCut: One happens during a father-son argument over the menu.
58-->'''Mimi-Siku:''' ''[after killing a snake]'' Now we cook it.\
59'''Michael:''' No, no, no, I do ''not'' eat ''snake.''\
60''(Cut to next scene)''\
61'''Mimi-Siku:''' Lizard guts?\
62'''Michael:''' No, actually the snake filled me right up.
63* GiverOfLameNames: Mimi. At age six, he named himself "Mimi-Siku," which means "cat piss." When he meets Michael, he names him "Baboon."
64** However, he later averts this trope by giving Karen a native name with a nice meaning.
65** May be In-Universe ValuesDissonance as Mimi's mother claims it's a territorial thing. "Baboon" may be a joke, however.
66* GreyAndGreyMorality: At the beginning of the movie, Michael is a bona fide {{Jerkass}} who is wrapped up in himself and his white collar world, which cost him his first marriage. But his ex-wife Patricia isn't much better--she constantly belittles Michael; she springs Mimi-Siku on Michael after thirteen years; she says that promises in the tribe are kept no matter what, despite her breaking her promise to meet Michael in Caracas for the divorce paperwork; and she angrily guilts Michael into taking a son ''he knew nothing about two days ago'' back to New York, knowing full well that Michael made the promise with the belief that a "man" is eighteen or older and not thirteen.
67* HuskyRusskie: The Russian boss and his enforcers. One is even strong enough to NoSell a PressurePoint attack (granted it was Michael's hastily improvised mimicry of Mimi's much more successful attack on another guy)
68* InTheLocalTongue: Mimi-Siku means "cat pee".
69* {{Kidanova}}: Mimi-Siku is very popular with the village girls and gives them cooking pots as gifts, which the girls love and are more practical than flowers in the jungle. He doesn't stop when he gets to New York, either, flirting with a girl on the street and later romancing Karen. Michael claims it's InTheBlood, but Patricia seems skeptical.
70* LargeHam: Richard Kempster. It is Martin Short, after all.
71* Letters2Numbers: The title is stylized to change the word "to" into the number 2.
72* LiteralMinded: Michael tells Mimi to pour milk on the [[ProductPlacement Cap'n Crunch]] to make breakfast. But Michael neglects to tell Mimi that both should go into a bowl first...
73* TheMafiya: Russian mobsters are the closest thing this movie has to main antagonists.
74* MightyWhitey: Played with, but ultimately subverted. Mimi-Siku ''is'' quite adept at tribal customs, but that is only because he has been explicitly raised as an native, and among native children. At one point the chief assigns him a task in order to "become a man," but due to Michael's refusal to cooperate it at first doesn't look as if Mimi will succeed. Michael himself is noticeably squeamish around the various jungle animals and Mimi's pets - as are other Anglo-American characters when Mimi is brought to New York.
75* MysteryMeat: The joke implied about Central Park Hot Dogs when Mimi-Siku tells his city-bound father Michael that the hot dogs he's trying out tastes like his favorite food back in his tribal home, lizard guts. This causes some squeamish reactions from his father who promptly spits out the portion he is chewing on and dumps the rest of the hot dog.
76* OnlyALighter: Mimi is given a mission by his tribal elder to steal fire from the Statue Of Liberty, and is disappointed to learn that its torch isn't real. At the end of the film his dad gives him a novelty lighter that looks like it.
77* ProductPlacement: Michael tries to introduce breakfast to Mimi by giving him Cap'n Crunch cereal.
78* RaisedByNatives: Mimi-Siku was born and raise by natives and therefore knows their culture well as opposed to Michael's city smarts.
79* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: While trying to escape from the Russian mobsters, Michael admonishes Richard for his harsh tone toward Karen, which leads to Richard giving him an angry tirade about his own supposed parenting skills.
80-->'''Michael''': Richard, screaming is no way to deal with a child, all right?\
81'''Richard''': Oh, what? Are you suddenly Dr. Spock here? You've been a father for three days. And you're giving ''me'' lessons? ''That's'' good.\
82'''Michael''': You sound like an idiot.\
83'''Richard''': I'm a parent! Therefore, I'm an idiot! I have spent every day for the last ''twelve years'' worrying about my kids. About their safety, about their happiness, about their crooked teeth! [{{beat}}] No offense, Andrew.\
84'''Andrew''': None taken.\
85'''Richard''': But of course, ''none'' of this means anything to ''you'', because in the next few days, your son will be gone!
86%%* TheRemake
87* RepetitiveName: Lipo-Lipo, Mimi-Siku's home village. The river guide even comments "So nice, they named it twice", a reference to Michael's home city of New York.
88-->'''Mimi-Siku:''' In Lipo-Lipo, we eat with hands.\
89'''Michael:''' In New York, New York, we eat with forks.
90* RiteOfPassage:
91** In order to become a man, Mimi-Siku is tasked with bringing back fire from the Statue of Liberty.
92** There's a ceremony which both Mimi-Siku and Michael take, which involves [[MachoMasochism grabbing a smoldering torch with your bare hand]].
93* SceneryPorn: Mostly in New York City, since the majority of the movie takes place there, but there are tons of lovely shots of Venezuela's Canaima National Park for the jungle scenes.
94* ShoutOut: "He's doing a [[Film/KingKong1933 Fay Wray]]!" (On Mimi-Siku on the outside of a high-rise)
95* SinkOrSwimFatherhood: Michael didn't even know Patricia was pregnant when she left, and due to the situation he finds himself in, must learn to shed some of his rigid self-important white collar mentality to bond with his son.
96* SuddenlyShouting: Michael takes the revelation of Richard making the mob deal and carrying the money with him in a crowded restaurant [[SarcasmMode with subtle delicacy]].
97-->'''Michael:''' Where's the money?\
98'''Richard:''' It's here. ''[picks up BriefcaseFullOfMoney]''\
99'''Michael:''' You're walking around ''New York City''... With a '''''MILLION DOLLARS IN A SUITCASE?!'''''
100* ToiletHumor:
101** In the natives' culture, children choose their own names. Mimi chose his at age six, and apparently "Mimi-Siku" means "cat piss."
102** Mimi also doesn't know how to use a bathroom. First he pees on the plane's exit hatch during the flight to New York, then later starts to pee on a potted plant in Charlotte's office. Michael later gives a humorous explanation of how to use a toilet.
103-->'''Michael:''' Before you pee, you lift the seat. After you pee, you put the seat back down. Females in tribe start war over this. Many deaths.
104** The scene in the tribe's bachelors' tent is mostly a series of fart jokes, such as Michael softly remarking "Talk about your wind instruments." He later remarks to Patricia that the bachelors could "make a killing in a gas future".
105* ToiletSeatDivorce: Patricia left Michael without explanation because he had a fifth phone line put in, and the guy installing it mistook her for the receptionist. To its credit, the film briefly acknowledges that they'd been having problems communicating for six months leading up to this incident (a fact that Michael blames on his then-new job); but since this angle is downplayed, it makes Patricia seem a little bit petty.
106* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The few people who went to see the movie did so because of the trailer. Especially the part where Martin Short is [[http://youtu.be/7uQm7SOJymg?t=1m14s shown a tarantula bigger than his hand.]]
107* TranslationByVolume: Mrs. Kempster does this with Mimi, even though he understands English fairly well.
108-->'''Michael:''' He's foreign, not deaf.
109* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: No one in New York bats an eyelash at Mimi-Siku wandering the streets in full jungle garb, though it's justified since it's New York City and crazy things are everywhere.
110-->'''Richard:''' ''[seeing Mimi for the first time]'' Look, kid, I've given to the rainforest, okay?
111* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Everyone hates Mimi's tarantula, but no one worse than Mr. Jovanovic, who flees and leaves the Kempsters alone ''forever'' after Mimi sets the tarantula on him. A Russian mob boss!
112-->'''Jovanovich:''' I have many enemies... But ''none'' like that spider!
113* YouNoTakeCandle: Mimi-Siku apparently talks like this since he was raised alongside a native South American tribe, though it's ''really'' odd since his mother holds a doctorate and speaks perfect English.

Top