Journey Through the Jungle of Words

***Journey Through the Jungle of Words*** *(Working with Words)* is a Golden Step-Ahead Video that teaches kids the basic concepts of letters, words, and sentences.

It was released on June 15, 1987, according to the Copyright Catalog website.

## Plot

Olivia Ostrich and her best friend Groucho Barx the dog are on their way to the Jungle of Words to search for their friend, the famous explorer Schnoz Ali the elephant and his hidden treasure with a piece of the map that leads to them. After their plane has a rough landing on the landing strip, they find not Schnoz Ali, but a zebra who fears that judging by the noises, there is a jungle monster chasing after him, but Olivia and Groucho show him that the noise is actually coming from the local jungle animals (a lion, a parrot, a gorilla, and an elephant).

Suddenly, the trio hears a loud cacophony of noises which is coming from a menagerie of animals that are all drinking from the watering hole at once. After Olivia stops their struggle, she, along with Groucho and Zebra, sort all of the animals by the first letter of their species' names so they can drink from the watering hole in a more organized manner. After the animals clear the watering hole, the crocodile (one of the animals that Groucho, Olivia, and Zebra helped) swims up to give Olivia and Groucho a ride. Before Olivia and Groucho board on the crocodile's back, they invite Zebra to come with them, but Zebra declines the invitation, as he wants to find more letters of animals' names. During a rather long ride on the crocodile, Olivia and Groucho find a lost piece of the map that takes them to a ruin called King Tut's Hut. When they arrive to the hut, they are spooked when they see the ghost of King Tut, but after learning that he doesn't know how to clean up his home, Olivia and Groucho help him sort his things where they belong by combining letters with word endings. King Tut expresses his gratitude to Olivia and Groucho by giving them the final piece of the map.

Olivia and Groucho are not sure about which direction their next destination, King Solomon's Mind, is, so they decide to go right, but it results in them falling down a steep cliff, before they end up landing in a muddy pool. Just then, they meet a Tarzan-like panther named Dualot, along with her monkey companion named Seealot. After Olivia and Groucho get out of the mud, they ask Dualot to take them to the right direction to King Solomon's Mind. She obliges, and the four all vine-swing their way to the grounds of the cave. When they go in, they go through the entire set of obstacles before them by reading the action words on the cave paintings. When they get out of the cave, they find the Readers' Palace.

After Dualot and Seealot bid them farewell, Olivia and Groucho go to the Readers' Palace, where they find their friend Schnoz Ali, who, much to their shock, tells them that he took a bus to the Readers' Palace instead of going on the long journey that Olivia and Groucho went on. He even reveals that he left the message, "Take the bus to the Readers' Palace" on the back of the map. He also explains that he did go on the same journey that Olivia and Groucho went through several years ago. When he invites Olivia and Groucho into the palace, they are amazed to find all of the letter and word games that are inside. They meet up again with Dualot, King Tut, and Zebra, who all have them play games that involve combining words to make sentences. After they play the last game, they are given two tickets to a show called, The Readers' Palace Extravaganza. When they get to the stage, they meet up with Schnoz Ali, who tells them that their treasure was the spirit of the adventure, the love of learning, and the knowledge of words. The video ends with their friends, Dualot, Seealot, King Tut, and Zebra all giving a performance to the audience, and Olivia and Groucho bidding the viewers farewell.

## Characters

* Olivia Ostrich
* Groucho Barx
* Schnoz Ali
* Zebra
* King Tut
* Dualot
* Seealot
* Animals
* Cavepeople

## Songs

* Monster in the Jungle
* You're In a Rut
* Word Makers
* Working On Our Word Skills
* Learn Your Letters
* A Musical Tribute to Words

## Trivia

* While the voice actors in the video aren't credited, it's possible that Olivia Ostrich and Dualot were voiced by the same actress.
	+ Also, according to a letter from Bob Chimbel, one of the voice actors was Ron Marshall who may have voiced Groucho Barx and possibly other characters.
* There were two songs during the King Tut's Hut sequence that has tunes which are similar to already existing tunes:
	+ The tune of "You're in a Rut" is similar to "Monster Mash" by Bobby Pickett.
	+ The tune of "Word Makers" is similar to the theme song to *Ghostbusters* by Ray Parker, Jr.
	+ Also, Groucho, Olivia, and Dualot's song in the King Solomon's Mind scene is similar to the nursery rhyme, "I've Been Working on the Railroad".
* Most of the characters have black bead eyes, except for Dualot, as well as the moose, the donkey, and the turtle at the watering hole.
* King Solomon's Mind is a reference to the novel *King Solomon's Mines*.
* Even if the target demographic was mostly being referred to, it's implied that this was Olivia and Groucho's first time learning how to read words and sentences, especially judging by the dialogue throughout the last act, which is ironic, since they should be old enough to how to do that already. What makes it even more ironic is that Olivia and Groucho already *do* know how to read certain things, like the map and the signs.
* Bob Chimbel has stated that the tunes to most of the songs were actually stock songs. The song-writers simply wrote lyrics for these stock tunes.

## Goofs

* In the shot when Groucho introduces Zebra to Olivia, her eyes have visible white sclera, when she's supposed to have black bead eyes.
* When the animals are drinking from the watering hole, it appears as a small pond. After all the animals have gone, it becomes a huge lake.
* Despite having to cross the watering hole to get to King Tut's Hut, the lake doesn't appear on the map.
* At first, King Tut's Hut has "Tut's Hut" written above the entrance, and yellow structures are in the background. However, when the trapdoor opens, no writing is seen and the structures are gone.
* When Olivia and Groucho fall down the trapdoor at King Tut's Hut, they appear to fall straight down a shaft. We later see them at the bottom of a previously unseen ramp.
* While falling down the trapdoor and being pulled of the cliff by Groucho, Olivia has white tail feathers, despite them usually being grey.
* Olivia has entirely gray wings while Groucho is trying to escape the hut, despite usually having white feathers on her wing tips.
* When Olivia gets the piece of the map from King Tut, it appears as a white paper airplane. However, we later see the piece to be irregular-shaped, yellow paper.
* When Olivia and Groucho are at the top of the cliff, Groucho is to the left of Olivia. While falling, Groucho is still on the left even though our view has flipped. In the mud, Olivia is on the left as she should be, based on their positions at the top.
	+ Also, when the two first slip down the cliff, the map appears completely blank.
* When Groucho introduces Dualot to Olivia, purple mountains can be seen in the distance. Later on, these mountains are nowhere to be seen.
* While stuck in the mud, Olivia's tail points towards Dualot. But when Groucho introduces her, her wings face back towards the cliff.
* Groucho has no eyebrows while Olivia gets her foot out of the mud.
* Before exiting King Solomon's Mind, a stop sign is seen on a solid stone wall. This later appears as a gray door with a visible edge.
* When King Tut first talks to Olivia and Groucho at the Reader's Palace, he appears to be sad, when he's meant to be happy at that moment.
* In the Readers' Palace, King Tut shuffles a deck of gray cards. These cards are later seen to be blue on one side and white on the other.
* When Zebra inserts the "in" chip, his hand is floating.
* When Schnoz Ali is with Zebra, Groucho, and Olivia at Zebra's word ball machine, his pants are grey, like his skin.

## Gallery

*Main article: Journey Through the Jungle of Words/Gallery*
## Transcript

*Main article: Journey Through the Jungle of Words/Transcript*