My all-time favorite Disney film

Rating: 10/10 (13 June 2010)

Off all the Disney animated movies from 1937 to the present, "The Jungle Book" has always stood out as something special. This movie is quite simply FUN. There is no romance, no attempt to break new ground with it's effects, no dramatics and none of the hokey "if you dream it, you can be it" bull. This movie succeeds in it's simple goal to bypass all that and just entertain you.
The story is inspired by the classic books written by Rudyard Kipling. We follow the man-cub Mowgli (voiced by Bruce Reitherman in an appealing performance) as he treks from the jungle to the man-village. Along the way he encounters a strange parade of figures including the sniveling Kaa (voiced by the great Sterling Holloway), the evil Shere Khan (George Sanders) and the rambunctious King Louie (Louis Prima, who gets the film's best song).
His two parental figures are Baloo the Bear and the sage Bagaheera. They are voiced by Phil Harris and Sebastian Cabot and their chemistry together really makes the triangle of Mowgli, the bear and the panther really work. It is probably the most dysfunctional family ever seen in a Disney film.
Everything else works just fine. The songs are cute and catchy, the characters interact well with each other, the setting is stylish and the ending is a departure from the clichÃ©d happy ending. This one feels more ambiguous but altogether more satisfying.
Although there are some things that will make P.C. nuts squawk (the alleged racism) and the animation buffs cringe (the reused animation) that doesn't change the fact that "The Jungle Book" is fun, unique, jolly, and full of heart.