Released in 1995 by a now-defunct studio (often misattributed to low-budget houses like Cal Vista or Video X Pix), Tarzan: Shame of Jane is exactly what the title implies: a tongue-in-cheek, adults-only retelling of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic.
Let’s be honest: this was made on a budget that might have bought a used car. The animation is stiff, with lots of panning over still images, repeated frames, and characters who move like wooden puppets. The jungle backgrounds are surprisingly lush—almost rotoscoped from stock footage—but the character designs are pure 90s adult comic: exaggerated proportions, pouty lips, and vines that conveniently wrap around everything at cinematic moments.
If you ever find a dusty VHS copy at a garage sale, grab it. Not because it’s valuable, but because you’ll never look at a loincloth the same way again. tarzan shame of jane 1995
Is it entertaining? In a so-bad-it’s-hilarious way, absolutely. The dialogue is pure cheese (“Jane shame. Tarzan no shame. Tarzan… free.”). The musical interludes are bizarre Casio-keyboard ballads. And the voice acting ranges from “overly dramatic” to “sounds like they recorded this in a closet between sandwiches.”
Before you rush to Google, let me save you the trouble: No, this is not a lost Disney sequel. It’s not a Filmation classic, nor is it related to the 1999 animated Tarzan . Instead, Shame of Jane occupies a strange, forgotten corner of the adult animated parody boom—specifically, the “erotic parody” boom that followed the success of Ralph Bakshi and the underground comix movement. Released in 1995 by a now-defunct studio (often
Is Tarzan: Shame of Jane good? No. Not by any traditional metric.
But even by those standards, is a head-scratcher. Is it entertaining
The plot is loose. Jane, an explorer from Victorian England, finds herself alone in the deep jungle. Tarzan (voiced by an actor who sounds suspiciously like a mid-tier impressionist) is less “Lord of the Apes” and more “himbo with a loincloth.” The “shame” in the title refers to the social embarrassment Jane feels as she slowly abandons her corsets and stiff-upper-lip propriety for jungle freedom.
