Sheena (film)

While investigating rumors of a mystical "healing earth" whose powers are said to flow forth from the sacred Gudjara Mountain, geologists Philip and Betsy Ames are killed in a cave-in, leaving their young daughter, Janet, an orphan. Janet is adopted by Shaman, a woman of the native Zambouli tribe, and because of a prophecy about the cave-in ("when the sacred mountain cries out"), she is viewed as a child of the gods and renamed Sheena, "Queen of the Jungle". As Sheena grows up, she learns much from Shaman about the lore of the jungle and the ways of all its creatures. She is even entrusted with the secret of telepathic communication with the animals. Outsiders rarely disturb their territory, since that part of Tigora is under the special protection of King Jabalani. Trouble is brewing in Tigora. King Jabalani's ex-football champion younger brother, Prince Otwani is conspiring with his brother's fiancée, Countess Zanda to have Jabalani assassinated so they can exploit the titanium-rich Zambouli land. Experiencing a vision foretelling Jabalani's death, Shaman hastens to Tigora's capital of Azan to try to warn him, but is arrested by corrupt police officers working for Zanda. Otwani's old friend, reporter Vic Casey and his cameraman, Fletch Agronsky are in Tigora to do a story on Otwani. When Jabalani is killed and Shaman is framed for it, Vic and Fletch realize that they are on to a much bigger story than they had anticipated. Heading to a remote prison compound to interview Shaman, they bear witness to her rescue by Sheena and her animal friends; Chango the elephant, Marika the zebra and Tiki the chimpanzee. As they escape back into the jungle after destroying the prison, Vic and Fletch follow. However, Shaman soon dies from her injuries. Otwani obtains the services of Colonel Jorgensen and his small army of soldier mercenaries, the Black Berets. Their mission is to eradicate the Zambouli people so their territory will be open for strip-mining. Vic join forces with Sheena to stop the evil prince and his army, along the way, Vic and Sheena fall in love. The climax takes place on the African Serengeti. Zanda captures Sheena on a helicopter and attempts to shove her down the Zambuli Falls, but Sheena connects telepathically to a flock of flamingos that attack the helicopter and throw Zanda down the waterfalls to her death. Sheena leads her people against the mercenaries and Otwani. Sheena successfully shoots Otwani in the heart with her arrow and fulfills the prophecy, but she is also positioned to be hit by Otwani's vehicle. Vic saves her life by crashing into Otwani's vehicle; resulting in severe burn wounds. Vic is healed with the earth and wants to stay with Sheena, but realizes that if he tells his story to the outside world, then other corporations will destroy Sheena's home. Vic and Sheena have sex before parting ways. Later, he and Fletch leave on an airplane back to New York. Before leaving, Sheena records a farewell message on his tape recorder wishing him a safe journey. At the end the film, Sheena takes a ride on Marika through the Serengeti. ==Cast==

Les Ballets Africains performed the tribal dance sequences, which were choreographed by the troupe's director Italo Zambo. ==Production==

Development In 1974, a friend of documentary filmmaker Paul Aratow suggested to him that the comic book Sheena would make a good film. Aratow thought, "Something went off in my head – I realised that it was a most commercial idea, it had action and a sexy, mythic Earth goddess type who was actually one of the true comic-book heroines." Aratow bought the rights, set up a production company with Alan Rinzler, and succeeded in interesting Universal Pictures with Raquel Welch attached to play the lead role of Sheena. "At first it looked incredibly easy", Aratow says in the interview. "After only two months I had an office at the studio and Raquel Welch was going to play Sheena." Feldman had a poster designed illustrating his idea and showed it to Mike Medavoy of United Artists, who agreed to finance a new script. Michael Scheff and David Spector did a screenplay. Raquel Welch, who had been Universal's choice for the role, was still a possibility, but Feldman said, "at this point we have no actress in mind. I wouldn't say we wouldn't go to Raquel Welch, but I wouldn't want to rule out a worldwide search, either." "Girls today need superheroes", said Aratow. "I have a daughter, who is six, who needs someone to look up to. And I want Sheena to be that superhero. I also want Sheena to be a character that parents will want to send their kids to see, and the type of picture that parents can go see with their children." The first writer at Columbia was Leslie Stevens. "Leslie took the story in a fantasy direction, involving a Chariots of the Gods concept," said Aratow. "It was an interesting job, but it didn't meet with studio enthusiasm. Columbia didn't want to deal with Sheena as a magical phenomenon. The execs felt the basic material was already so fantastic, that the best way to play it was naturalistic. But they believed in the property enough to commission yet another script, and start all over again." Tanya Roberts, who would play the role, said David Newman came up with the basis of the story. "I preferred his script, because it was the best in terms of character development," she said. The script was rewritten by Dean Riesner, whom Roberts says, "totally changed David's script. It lost all its charm and romance. It was a mistake; it didn't work at all. Riesner may be good at action, but he isn't good at character development." Roberts says Semple "went back to David's original script. He switched things around a bit, added excitement, and speeded up the pace to make it more intense, but he never changed any of David's characters." Roberts said she tested against "about 15 models. They were very beautiful, but they couldn't act. Their tests were horrendous— they couldn't cry, they couldn't shout, they couldn't do anything...I felt very confident about getting the role. I have been in this business for 14 years, and have paid a lot of dues. I know what I'm capable of. I was the only one who could act, who looked right, who could do the stunts. I tested again in a blonde wig, and I got the part." The producer said they tested over 2,000 actresses, adding that Farrah Fawcett and Cheryl Ladd "were discussed years ago, but they would be ridiculous in the role now. We never gave serious thought to Bergman. Mechsner's casting was entirely her own invention. And Danning was never seriously considered. She is wrong in terms of age and physical appearance. Frankly, I think Tanya is hotter than all of them — in addition to being stunningly beautiful and having the world's greatest body." Roberts' casting was announced in May 1983. She says she trained for 10 months for the role, but did not read any of the comic books in preparation, as she felt they were too campy. "I wanted her to be a real person in a real situation." she said. Shooting Filming began August 21, 1983. ==Reception==

Box office Sheena was a box-office bomb, grossing less than $6 million, against a $25 million budget. Critical response Critical reviews of the film were generally negative. On the television program At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, Sheena received two thumbs down. Ebert commented that "This movie is rated PG, not PG-13. It's probably the only PG-rated movie that will play continuously on the Playboy Channel—you see more of Tanya Roberts than you did of last month's playmate." They later listed Sheena as one of the "Stinkers of 1984". Film critic and historian Leonard Maltin seemed to agree, rating the film as a bomb and stating: "Tanya definitely swings as W. Morgan Thomas's comic-book jungle-queen, but Mother Nature forgot to endow her with a script. Supposed to be campy, but it doesn't work even on that level; both the cinematography and the music belong in a much better picture." The New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael was among the very few critics who liked the film. Calling it a "lighthearted, slightly loony adventure film, there are some good silly gags, and the animals look relaxed even in their dizziest slapstick scenes. And the picture certainly never starves the eye; the cinematography is by the celebrated Pasqualino De Santis." DeSantis had previously won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo & Juliet. Kael even had some (qualified) kind words for the star: "Tanya Roberts is too tense and earnest for her blond-goddess, queen-of-the-jungle role. Yet she has the face of a ballerina, with a prodigious slim and muscular form. She also gazes into space with exquisitely-blank, pale-blue eyes. She's pretty funny when she presses her fingers against the center of her forehead, in order to summon legions of waterbucks or swarms of tall birds." Neil Gaiman reviewed Sheena, Queen of the Jungle for Imagine magazine, and called it an abomination, and stated that "The dialogue is laughable, the acting appalling, and the special effects outstandingly ordinary." FilmInk argued "it's terrific. It looks gorgeous, was beautifully shot on location, has a wonderful score, the script flies along, and Guillermin's direction is excellent. Tanya Roberts’ method-like intensity takes some getting used to but once you tune in, she's great fun and has the body of an athlete; Ted Wass is an engaging hero, handsome and a bit klutzy, but an ideal partner (as in King Kong, Guillermin never loses sight of the central love story)." On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a score of 11% based on reviews from 9 critics. ==Soundtrack==

A soundtrack album of music composed and conducted by Richard Hartley for the film was released in 1984. It was reissued on CD by Varèse Sarabande in 2004, separating the first track into two parts ("Theme" and "Interlude"). • Sheena's Theme (Main Title) (2:52) • Interlude (0:40) • Introduction/One Way Ticket (6:15) • Climb!/Young Sheena (5:58) • Marika and the Water Deer (2:14) • African Ballet (1:53) • The Encounter (3:36) • Shaman Taught Me (1:58) • The Circle (1:13) • Come on Vic Casey (2:20) • May I (1:43) • End Title (2:59) ==Home media==

Sheena has been released on Region 1 DVD three times by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. A dual-sided DVD with anamorphic widescreen and "full screen" presentations in 2001, and a single-sided DVD with only the full screen presentation in 2004. Both releases have the same and SKU 0-43396-06535-2 and can be distinguished from each other only by the discs themselves or by the date and "Special Features" list on the back cover. The packaging does not indicate if the full-screen presentation is pan and scan or open matte. The single-sided full-screen DVD was also included in a 2008 "Triple Feature" release, along with You Light Up My Life and Princess Caraboo. A high-definition digital version of Sheena is available through various services. The film was released as part of the Sheena: Queen of the Jungle Collection DVD set by Mill Creek Entertainment on August 15, 2017, that contained that along with both seasons of Sheena, as well as 5 bonus episodes of the 1950s TV series. Mill Creek also released the film's individual Blu-ray on March 26, 2019. Medium Rare released the Blu-ray for the 1st time in the UK on October 16, 2023. ==Comic adaptation==

Around the time the film came out, Marvel Comics published an adaptation of the film as Marvel Super Special #34, written by Cary Burkett and illustrated by Gray Morrow. It followed the story of the film very closely, and developed the character of Fletch the cameraman quite a bit more than in the film, in particular revealing his surname to be "Agronsky". The comic also had several pages in the back about the making of the film. One noteworthy difference between the film and the comic concerns the ethnicity of Otwani's troops. In the film, they are all white. In the comic, the only white soldiers are Colonel Jorgenson and the helicopter pilot (identified as Joe), while all of the others are of African descent, including the featured soldiers. New editions of the comic books were first published by Devil's Due, then the comic book publication was licensed to Moonstone by Galaxy Publishing, Inc. This latest version of the comic book was published in 2012. ==Remake==

In 2017, it was reported that Millennium Films was planning a Sheena reboot. ==Notes==