Jess Franco never seemed satisfied. How else do you explain not only making Vaya luna de miel in 1980 as an adaption of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Gold Bug yet also making a movie for kids with the same inspiration?

A child movie from Franco? I’m as surprised as you.

Also, not surprising: Franco would try to make this again in 1993 as Jungle of Fear!

What can we say about a movie where Franco is the wise ascetic who advises our young heroes and gives them assistance in the form of a Bruce Lee look-a-like? There’s also a chimp, a map-stealing tortoise and Antonio Mayans’ kids getting to star in a movie and facing off with stock footage jungle horrors.

Stephen Thrower has mainlined more Franco than anyone — I’m trying but he’s walked the same steps that Jess was once in and his lifetime of expertise is one to be in awe of, not one to challenge — and he said of this film, “If you’re so deep into your Jess Franco safari that you no longer need sex, violence or the vestiges of storytelling, En Busca Del Dragon Dorado possesses much to tickle the senses.”

There are no CGI cartoons in the Jess Franco Cinematic Universe, but there is this movie, one where Mayans and Lina Romay are the voices of other characters and that’s the best we’re going to get. I can’t believe that this movie exists and am awash in the wonder that it is real, that I’ve seen it and that I am telling you about it.

You can watch this on YouTube.