should likely appeal to kids right now, and adults grew up with it

Rating: 10/10 (1 May 2006)

The Jungle Book was of a nice crop of Disney films I would watch numerous times as a kid, to the point where I would have not even the songs, but full passages of dialog, memorized to heart. It's the last film Walt Disney himself was involved in, and it shows, sort of. But it also shows Disney moving along on its legs into its quiet, and under-appreciated, period of films in the immediately post-Disney's death world of the 70's.
If you read the book it's not much like this one aside from the same characters and some plot points. But what it is is a film that survives well on its own feats of strength- catchy songs (including the very popular "Bare Necessities, though Louis Prima's song is the best of the bunch and the Vulture's song the funniest), and a lot of fun action thrown in with some good, everlasting pathos. Obviously, kids wont need to take lessons on how to escape from the monkeys or from a Bengal Tiger.
It does carry enough of parts from real life that kids can take as piece of mind; the coming-of-age idea is in there with the "man-village" to be sure. And throughout the film itself is a technical knockout, with great visuals and animation, colorful characters (in more ways than one), and spectacular voice talent that's rarely gotten this good in just pure ensemble form. I mean, where else will you get Clint Howard as a baby elephant and Sterling Holloway as a snake? Phil Harris is also indispensable and about as memorable as possibly can be here.
Maybe its best quality is that it isn't too much stuck in its time and place (save for the vultures being like the Beatles crosses with Marty- "what do you wanna do"). It's all in an exuberant, only-out-to-entertain-you style and in solid storytelling that the film is successful, as a family film and as just a terrific piece of entertainment in and of itself. Probably among the best in that crossover period of Disney's from the traditional "9 Old Men" animation period and its later renaissance.