Tuesday, July 29

Tarzoon: The Shame of the Jungle

In 1975, there was a French/Belgian animated adult film directed by cartoonist Picha and Boris Szulzinger. I have seen fragments of the movie, it is mostly a goofy beautifully-animated cartoon, much like a satire of private parts, not hentai or porn-like at all. They had a little Penis army and Tarzoon got his penis tugged at by Vagina-like flowers. The movie was a big hit in Europe but unfortunately because of a lawsuit from the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan creator), when the movie came to the States, it was simply called "Shame of the Jungle." The "Tarzoon" character name was altered by cutting the name out of the soundtrack negative and splicing it back into the soundtrack upside down. According to Stuart S. Shapiro, the film did not do as well at the box office, because audiences were attracted to the "Tarzoon" name.

Shapiro recalls telling customs that the film was a work in progress and it would be edited to be suitable for theatrical release in the U.S. He did not remember any problems bringing the film into the country. The distributor encountered problems finding theaters willing to show the X rated version of the film. The film ended up making a profit in San Francisco, but was largely unsuccessful in other towns. Eventually, the film was reedited and dubbed. After several changes, the distributor persuaded the MPAA to change the film's rating to an R. The R-Rated version got mixed reviews.