The Need for a Revolutionary Cinema in the Belly of the Empire

THE JUNGLE BOOK (1967)

Hey, everybody! It’s time for another Throwback Thursday! In honor of Jon Favreau’s new Jungle Book film being released on April 15, I am going to dedicate two consecutive throwback reviews to two of my favorite feature-length Jungle Book adaptations, after which I will post a review of Favreau’s The Jungle Book when it comes out. This week, we shall be looking at the 1967 Disney animated classic that we all know and love. Next week, we shall be looking at Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, which came out in 1994 and was directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, The Mummy Returns). With that said, let’s get started.

I think it’s a safe bet you guys already know the story. But just in case: while out traversing the jungle one day, a panther named Bagheera (Sebastian Cabot) finds an orphaned baby (or man-cub, as the animals call him) named Mowgli. Bagheera takes the baby to a family of wolves, who raise Mowgli and serve as his adoptive parents. Ten years later, Mowgli grows into a young boy and loves his home in the jungle. However, Shere Khan (George Sanders), the tiger, is on the prowl and the wolves surmise that because of his hatred for man, the jungle is no safe place for Mowgli. Bagheera volunteers to guide the young boy back to the man-village where he’ll be safe from harm. However, Mowgli doesn’t want to leave the jungle and tries everything he can to stay, much to the chagrin of Bagheera. On the journey, he comes across some colorful characters such as the easygoing bear named Baloo (Phil Harris), a cool, swinger orangutan named King Louie (Louis Prima), and a quartet of Beatle-looking, Liverpudlian-accent touting vultures (trivia: the vultures were originally supposed to be played by the Beatles, but they could not make it due to schedule conflicts).

One of the most noteworthy aspects about this film was that it was the last animated film that Disney personally supervised before he died. In fact, Disney passed away ten months before the film was even released. Another noteworthy aspect is its production history. Originally, The Jungle Book was intended to be much darker. Bill Peet, Disney’s top story-man at the time, intended to tell a story that was much closer to Kipling’s original stories in tone and plot. Peet’s story involved a treasure in the Ancient Ruins where the monkeys dwelled and a secondary villain named Buldeo, who was a hunter from the man-village (oddly enough, both of these elements would make their way into the 1994 adaptation which we shall examine next week). But Disney didn’t want this film to be dark and wanted to avoid the “icky, sticky stuff”. Because of the dispute over the story (along with a few other reasons), Peet decided to depart the Disney Animation Studios, leaving Disney and company to start from scratch with the story, with the intent to make it more lighthearted and fun. (Kipling purists, take this anecdote as a warning. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, it’s nothing like the book.)

My favorite aspect about the film is the look and the animation. Jungle Book was made during the period where Disney was using a cheaper animation process after the financial failure of Sleeping Beauty rendered their traditional process economically unfeasible (this process would not be seen again until 1989 with The Little Mermaid). The downside of the cheaper process (Xeroxing, as it was called) is that the animation looked more dirty and “sketchy”, for lack of a better term. Here’s a visual example of what I’m talking about.

 

Notice how the still from Sleeping Beauty looks more polished than the still from The Jungle Book. And while some people may see the cheaper animation as distracting, I actually really enjoy it. Maybe it’s because of the nostalgia factor or because I am a big fan of art that is off-kilter and unusual. Either way, it’s what makes the film enjoyable for me. But it’s not the only good thing about the movie.

The characters are all really likeable. Mowgli is an adventurous wild child who displays admirable amounts of bravery. He even stands up to Shere Khan, ready to take him on with just a stick. Dude, that takes guts! Baloo is also a lot of fun. He’s just the kind of guy with whom you’d wanna sit down, have a big bowl of popcorn and some drinks, and just shoot the breeze. But, he also displays a certain amount of responsibility when it’s necessary. Bagheera is stern but caring, and King Louie is fun and hilarious (one of my favorite moments is when he says “Have two bananas”, but he holds up three fingers; classic!).

The antagonists are pretty good, too. Shere Khan is easily one of Disney’s best villains. He just has this great air of confidence and class about him that manages to be pretty intimidating. And even though he doesn’t directly feature in the movie until the last third, he’s still pretty cool. Kaa is also pretty good. He’s not really intimidating as much as he is funny. Sure, he has the power to hypnotize people, but he always gets thwarted by someone pushing his long coils off something (which results in hilarity, as you might have guessed).

What can I say about the songs that people haven’t already said? They were written by the Sherman brothers, Disney’s top songwriting team, so you know they’re all gonna be good. “Bare Necessities” (which actually wasn’t written by the Sherman Brothers, but rather Terry Gilkyson), “I Wanna Be Like You”, “Trust in Me”, “That’s What Friends Are For”, “Colonel Hathi’s March”, and “My Own Home”. Actually, my favorite out of all these songs is “My Own Home”, which is sung by the girl who lures Mowgli back into the man-village (we learn in the sequel that her name is Shanti, but the less said about that movie, the better). The song just has a nice Indian theme to it and is very soothing. I’m even considering doing my own arrangement of it someday.

In terms of things that are wrong with this film, I really can’t think of any downsides. The only one I can think of is not sticking to the book. And while I do consider the books to be a little more interesting, this doesn’t really bother me all that much because all the bare necessities (pun definitely intended) needed for a good film are still there and they work very well. The Jungle Book not only serves as a great swansong for Walt Disney, but also as a great classic that can be enjoyed by adults and especially kids…the 1994 version, on the other hand, is a bit of a different story. But, we’ll get to that next week on another Throwback Thursday!

Stay tuned for my Soundtrack Review for Hulk, coming out on Friday!