George of the Jungle (Cartoon Network)

GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE is nominally a remake of the classic cartoon series that ran briefly in the late '60s -- but other than the title and the hero's habit of referring to himself in the third person, it has little in common with its predecessor. This new George (voiced by Lee Tockar) has no Tarzan-like backstory, there are plenty of other humans in the jungle (mostly "jungle girls"), and other than in the opening credits, he never runs into a tree while swinging on his vine.

George of the Jungle is set in a jungle whose inhabitants inexplicably include rabbits and pandas, as well as every "normal" jungle species. Given that they all talk, it's hard to see why the pandas should be so hard to swallow -- but somehow they're representative of the show's thrown-together approach to plot and humor. Even a mildly funny set-up -- George convinces the predators to eat vegetables while the jungle girls teach the smaller animals to be more assertive -- dissolves into a feeble pay-off, paying lip service to the need to restore the natural order but never managing to either do so or to be funny about it.

The primary trouble with George is that it's neither fish nor fowl -- it's meant for families to watch together, but it's too complicated for younger viewers and has little to offer parents. It's a hard balance to strike, and George has missed it.