Cult Classic ‘Sheena’ Starring ‘Angel’ Tanya Roberts Turns 40
The 1984 fantasy/adventure and cult classic film Sheena, based on a comic book and starring Tanya Roberts, celebrated its 40th anniversary on Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024.
In the film, Sheena was born Janet Ames, daughter of Philip and Betsy Ames, but became an orphan after her parents discovered the healing power of the soil and ventured into a cave where they believed the healing power originated. After Janet yells for her parents at the mouth of the cave, Betsy yells back, causing the cave to collapse and kill her parents. The golden girl ancient prophecy comes true, and Janet is renamed Sheena by a shaman. Sheena, Queen of the Jungle becomes the protector of Africa and all its inhabitants, and can telepathically communicate with jungle animals. Sheena was filmed entirely in Kenya, and also starred Ted Wass as Vic Casey, Donovan Scott as Fletcher Agronsky, and Princess Elizabeth of Tooro, a real life Ugandan princess who played Shaman.
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The film was a box office disaster. Its budget was $25 million, and its box office total was $5,778,353. Sheena was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actress (Tanya Roberts), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst Musical Score. After the film left theaters and landed on home video and cable, Sheena gained major viewing success and it is now considered a cult classic film.
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Tanya talked a lot about the film during her COVID chats with fans during the year that the world was locked down. “Really, I loved making it,” Tanya stated. “It was really exciting because I’m an animal fanatic, and we brought over all our own animals. We brought the white rhino, the elephant, tigers, leopards and chimpanzees that had all been trained at this training facility in California. Africa was so beautiful, and working with the animals was so great. They were just really well trained, and I wasn’t scared at all.
Horse painted like a Zebra?
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“I rode an Arabian horse painted to look like a zebra through a migration of wildebeest, and there were thousands of them. We were just riding alongside the trail they were making. I could have had a close call at any time if my horse had fallen into a pit or something. But it was OK.
On Riding Elephants
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“The baby elephant that we brought over — I was the first one who ever rode her, and no one told me that until afterward. They didn’t tell Columbia Pictures that they were going to have me ride it, and they didn’t know what the elephant was going to do.”
Was there ever a Sheena 2?
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One fan asked about a Sheena 2 film. “Yes, I’ve thought about doing it, but the film didn’t do very well,” Tanya continued. “The director screwed it up, really, and the music was wrong. It didn’t turn out the way we wanted it. But I was ready to do another one.”
Tanya was the perfect fit
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“Tanya Roberts, who plays Sheena, is a good-looking, leggy, athletic blonde who does a more than adequately convincing job on a swinging vine, wears a car polishing chamois as fetching as anyone I know, and looks terrific riding bareback on a zebra,” wrote George Robert Kimball for Reviews. “Probably the most praiseworthy things about Sheena, Queen of the Jungle are its spectacular establishing shots.”
Sheena Comics
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The character of Sheena, created by Will Eisner and S.M. “Jerry” Iger, was originally seen in the 1938 comic Wags No. 46, printed by Fiction House and was the first comic book character with her own devoted comic in 1941 (Wonder Woman’s first comic came out later that year). Marvel Comics published a movie tie-in comic in June 1984 — Marvel Comics Super Special No. 34 — and then reprinted it as Sheena, Queen of the Jungle No. 1-2 in December 1984 and February 1985.
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Sheena can be watched free via streaming for Prime Video members and is also available to order on DVD and Blu-ray. To find out more about the film, check out the in-depth look at the film from executive producer Yoram Ben-Ami, who released a behind-the-scenes book called My Adventures with Sheena, Queen of the Jungle: The Making of the Movie Sheena.
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