Story
The Jungle Bunch is about a group of animals dedicated to keeping a jungle island safe. Maurice the Penguin is a tiger ‘on the inside’. He leads the group, which consists of his friends Gilbert the Tarsier, Miguel the Gorilla, and Maurice’s ‘son’ Junior, who’s a tiger fish. Maurice wants to be a hero like his mother, Natacha the Tiger, who used to lead the Justice Group with Tony the Sloth and Goliath the Rhino. The Justice Group has retired to live a peaceful life, and Natacha disapproves of Maurice trying to be a hero.
The jungle is under threat from a mean and nasty koala named Igor. When Natacha and her group were protecting the island, Igor burned it to the ground with explosive mushrooms. Natacha’s friend Ricky, a monkey, managed to save Maurice’s egg before dying in the fire. Now that the jungle has regenerated, Igor has returned from exile with more dastardly plans.
Themes
Animals in peril; good versus evil
Violence
The Jungle Bunch has a lot of violence. For example:
- Igor sets the jungle on fire by throwing mushroom bombs. These explode all over the island and cause animals to flee in panic to the shore. Ricky, Natacha’s friend, is trapped in the fire with many baby animals, which he manages to save. The scene shows Ricky clinging to a tree in flames, which collapses. Ricky is presumed dead.
- During the fire, which is a very intense scene, rocks crash to the ground. One nearly crushes a tortoise. Tony falls from a tree, but Natacha saves him.
- As the island regenerates, the apes take over and use the other animals as slaves. The apes throw things to make the animals do their bidding.
- Miguel gets into a fight with the other monkeys, and he gets hit repeatedly.
- Igor traps the Jungle Bunch in green foam and puts explosives in it. Igor’s sidekick, a crab, lights the fuse to blow them up. They are saved just in time by their friends.
- There’s an ‘illegal’ fight between Goliath and an elephant. The scene is very much like a fighting den with the crowd cheering and carrying on. The fight between the two large animals is quite intense. They headbutt each other and are thrown into the air.
- Tony fights the baboons with his claws and some martial arts.
- Igor and the crab throw a bomb directly at Natacha, Maurice, Junior and Tony. They all fall to the ground and look as if they might have been killed. Fortunately, they survive.
- The Jungle Bunch and the Champs fight the baboons. Natacha knocks out three of them. Miguel thumps them repeatedly.
- Igor sets off the explosives and the island starts to shake. Rocks fall and animals run everywhere.
Some of the violence in The Jungle Bunch is comic and is meant to make you laugh. For example:
- Gilbert invents a flying contraption to put out fires, but it isn’t quite ready to fly and crashes into the jungle. No-one is hurt.
- Animals fall over and crash into things.
Sexual references
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
- One of the young animals is told by her parent that she can’t go out wearing a bikini. She joins her other friends who are all wearing bikinis while she has nothing on.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
The Jungle Bunch shows some use of substances. For example, a hippo at the entrance to the fight tells Natacha and Tony that the drinks are on him.
Nudity and sexual activity
The Jungle Bunch has some nudity and sexual activity. For example:
- A bird shows her bottom where her hair has been burned off.
- Gilbert and Batricia (a bat) kiss a few times. One time is a very long kiss.
Product placement
None of concern
Coarse language
The Jungle Bunch has some coarse language.
Ideas to discuss with your children
The Jungle Bunch is an animated movie that might appeal to older children. It features familiar characters from the long-running French television series of the same name.
But if you’ve seen the TV series or a previous movie based on it, you might be disappointed with this one. Despite the cute-looking characters, there are some intense, dark and violent scenes that are likely to upset younger children. This movie is therefore not recommended for children under 7 years, and we recommend parental guidance for children aged 7-10 years.
The main messages from this movie are that you can be a hero even if you don’t look like one, and that good will triumph over evil.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include teamwork, friendship and courage.