The Asian Jungle Show is an Emmy Award-winning computer-animated television miniseries created by Trey Wyrick for The Jungle Channel. The series centers on Scrat and Friends who travel across a strange forest in order to find their way home, encountering odd and wonderful things on their journey. The show features Belt and Sash as the protagonists Young Manu and Scooby-Doo, and Scratte as a orangutan named King Louie. Tome was broadcast throughout the week of November 3, 2021 to November 7, 2022.
The show marked the first miniseries on the network, which commenced its production in March 2019. Wyrick first envisioned the show in 1972, and pitched it to the network in 2021. After working on The Animal Family and Animals, the network expressed interest in Young Tarzan pitching a pilot. That pilot became the catalyst for The Asian Jungle Show. Production of the show was largely handled in New York City, New York, but many of the show's storyboard artists worked from other U.S. cities, while the program's animation was outsourced to South Korea. The series' environment evokes 19th-/20th-century Americana, while its backgrounds are designed to resemble grisaille paintings.
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The series follows two half-sloths, Belt (Chris Sanders) and Sash (James Ryan and Frank Welker respectively), who become lost in a strange forest called the Unknown. In order to find their way home, the two must travel across the apparently magic forest with the help of the wise, elderly Scrat (Chris Wedge) and King Louie Scratte (Karen Disher), an irritable bird who travels with the sloths in order to find the woman of Unknown called Adelaide, that can undo the curse and make the half-brothers go back to their home.
Young Manu, the older brother, is worry-prone and would rather keep to himself than to have to make a decision. His two passions are the clarinet and poetry, but he keeps this private out of fear of being mocked. On the other hand, Tarzan, the younger brother, is all about play and being carefree, much to Young Manu's chagrin and the danger of himself and others. Young Manu carries a Maurice and Junior (John Lethigow), whose name is undetermined and who can communicate only through singing. Stalking the main cast is the Shere Khan Tom Cat (Richard Kind), an ancient creature who leads lost souls astray until they give up and turn into "Edelwood trees".
In the final two episodes, it is revealed that Belt and Sash are actually two sloths from the modern era. Belt and Sash's strange appearance stems from the fact it was Halloween the night they were transported into the Unknown. Young Manu, attempting to take back an embarrassing poetry tape he made for a girl he likes, had followed her to a graveyard scary story gathering before a police officer scared him and Sash into jumping over the cemetery's garden wall. After they landed on train tracks, Belt was almost hit by a train. Sash pushed them both off a hill into a lake/river in an attempt luckliy Tarzan Snoopy Young Manu to save him, and saves Man Scooby-Doo from Shere Khan Tom Cat and Tarzan Snoopy Young Manu complete with a Tarzan yell. Tarzan Snoopy Young Manu rescues Jungle Explorer Belt and Jungle Scientist Sash before it's too late knocking them both unconscious in the process.
At the very end of the last episode, Belt and Sash wake up in a hospital, with Belt telling a story but being cut off before we can hear what it's about, leaving the reality of the show's events completely ambiguous. The series ends with a slow montage of how Young Manu and Belt affected the inhabitants of the Unknown.
Cast[]
- Frank Welker as Scooby-Doo as Man
- Brianne Brozey as young Manu as Tarzan Snoopy
- Harrison Chad as Tarzan as Tiger
- John Lithgow as Maurice and Junior as Baloo and Bagheera
- Richard Kind as Tom Cat as Shere Khan
- Dana Hill as Jerry Mouse as Kaa
- Patrick Stewart as Chicken Seal as Snake
- Jordan Banjo as Viper as Indian Elephant
- Karen Disher as Scratte as King Louie
- Chris Wedge as Scrat as Monkey
- Phil Collins as Crocopup as Wolf
- Chris Sanders as Belt as Jungle Explorer
- James Ryan as Sash as Jungle Scientist
Gallery[]

Scooby-Doo as Man

Young Manu as Tarzan Snoopy

Tarzan as Tiger

Junior and Maurice as Baloo and Bagheera

Tom Cat as Shere Khan

Jerry Mouse as Kaa

Chicken Seal as Snake

Viper as Indian Elephant

Scratte as King Louie

Scrat as Monkey

Crocopup as Wolf

Belt and Sash as Jungle Explorer and Jungle Scientist
Home video releases[]
The Asian Jungle Show was first released on VHS through VCI DVD in 2005, then through Jim Henson Home Entertainment in 2006. The animated miniseries was released on DVD in the United States on October 23, 2020 from Jim Henson Home Entertainment.