When Toy Story debuted in 1995, computer generated animation was on the cutting edge and the cost and work involved made it unique. Therefore, traditional hand-drawn still ruled the genre. Over the years, more and more studios were able to produce computer generated animation and it's reached the point where the medium has come to dominate animation both in feature films and in home-video releases. (Although we do still get hand-drawn animation in some television shows.) The good part of this evolution of in animation is that we are treated to some truly creative and impressive movies and shows. The downside is that we've reached a point where nearly anyone can release a CG movie. And this brings us something like The Jungle Bunch: The Movie.

As The Jungle Bunch opens, we watch an egg fall into the water in Antarctica and make its way across the ocean. When the egg hatches, a baby penguin emerges and he is adopted by tigers. Because of this, Maurice (voiced by John Lithgow) grows up thinking that he is a tiger and he points tiger stripes on his body. Seeing himself as a great warrior, Maurice travels the jungle with his pet fish, Junior, in tow, keeping the peace. The other animals, like Fred the warthog (voiced by Donald Learly), frogs Al (voiced by Stan Hanks) and Bob (Chris Smith), Miguel the gorilla (voiced by Stand Hanks) and bush baby (?) Gilbert (voiced by Dre Gordon) all tolerate Maurice's bizarre behavior. One day, two penguins, Ping (voiced by Stephanie Sheh) and Pong (voiced by Richard Smallberries, Jr.), arrive in the jungle. They are seeking a great warrior who will help their group fight off the walruses who take all of their food. Maurice immediately volunteers for the job, although Ping and Pong are very skeptical. Maurice convinces his jungle friends to accompany him to Antarctica. Will Maurice's delusion allow him to succeed?

I don't often dwell on the origins of movies, but where did The Jungle Bunch (whose on-screen title is The Jungle Bunch: Back to the Ice Floe) come from? The multiple shorts included on the DVD as extras imply that someone has been working on this for a while, but I can't find any information on it. The movie is presented as if we are supposed to be familiar with this character, perhaps from a book or another movie. This presentation sets a very strange tone for the movie.

The Jungle Bunch does try to separate itself from the pack by offering odd characters. As noted above, Maurice the penguin who thinks he a tiger warrior is certainly unusual, especially given the fact that he acknowledges that he has to reapply his tiger stripes. Fred the warthog sings all of his dialogue and sounds like Elvis. I don't know if Al and Bob are supposed to be a gay couple, as that would seem like an odd thing to put in a family film, but they certainly seem like a gay couple. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but we don't usually see this in animated movies.) Miguel the gorilla has the mind of a child and he loves to "tap" things. Gilbert suffers from insomnia. These individual traits show that someone put some work into the film, but not with the overall story.

The main thing that stands out about The Jungle Bunch is that it's incredibly pedestrian. The animation vacillates between nicely detailed to surprisingly simplistic (the penguins look like black bowling pins with eyes). The story never brings in anything original and the scenes are very episodic. There are a few humorous movies, but the movie is never really funny. It's great that the powers that be got John Lithgow to voice Maurice, but his delusions make him unlikable and therefore unfit to carry the movie. At a little less than an hour, The Jungle Bunch rarely drags, but you'll ultimately be disappointed as you wait for something interesting to happen.

The Jungle Bunch never explains where Maurice got a fish bowl in the jungle on DVD courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The movie has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the transfer has been enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is sharp and clear, showing no grain and no defects from the source materials. The colors look very good here, most notably brighter tones like oranges and yellows. The image is never overly dark or bright. The digital transfer brings detail to the image which does show the questionable nature of some of the animation. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are good and they do a nice job of presenting the various sounds of the jungle. The separation is very good and quite detailed. But, surround sound effects are basically absent. It actually sounds weird to have such nice front channel effects and nothing from the rear.