stick with the 1994 movie

Rating: 5/10 (18 January 2007)

For the most part, "The Jungle Book" is another situation where Disney took a classic novel and padded it with songs. I liked the 1994 movie because it focused on colonialism. This version piques my interest nowadays because of who provided the voices: Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima and Sterling Holloway to name a few. To add to that, the vultures were a semi-tribute to the Beatles; I wouldn't have expected Disney to do a tribute to them.
But for the most part, I think that Rudyard Kipling (happy birthday, Rudyard!) wouldn't really approve of how they sanitized the story*. If we accept it as brief entertainment, then it's OK. Is it racist how they portray East Indians? Maybe, but as long as we understand that, then it's OK. After all, there are lots of bare necessities out there.
*As another example of Disney sanitizing a classic story, there's "Cinderella". In the original story, the stepsisters mutilated their own feet to fit them into the glass slipper.