Mowgli and the Hunter

"Mowgli and the Hunter" is a long-lost alternate ending from of the 1967 Disney film The Jungle Book. It was storyboarded by Raymond S. Persi.
==Synopsis==
Mowgli and Bagheera arrive at the Man Village and find it guarded by a hunter named Buldeo. Buldeo attempts to shoot the two but misses and Mowgli runs near the entrance to the village. Buldeo tries to shoot the boy, but a younger man saves Mowgli and rebukes Buldeo for almost killing him, but Buldeo thinks Mowgli is bewitched by changing from a leopard to a boy. A woman and her husband asks to see Mowgli, recognizing him as their long-lost son Nathoo who was lost in the floods since he was a baby, thus he is accepted into the village and Bagheera goes back into the jungle.
After learning the ways of man for three months and becoming restless and anxious, Mowgli ventures into the village, but overhears Buldeo telling a false story to a group of children that he shot the evil tiger Shere Khan to death. Knowing that Shere Khan is still alive, Mowgli angrily refutes Buldeo's story while explaining about the story of treasure hidden inside the ancient ruins. However, this prompted an angry Buldeo to claim to the villagers that Mowgli is a feral child, leading to a fight between the two, but Mowgli's father breaks up the fight. That night, Mowgli's parents tries to comfort Mowgli that it's okay that he made up a tall tale about seeing Shere Khan, but Mowgli, troubled and depressed, leaves the village and returns to the jungle while carrying a fire torch to protect himself and scaring animals, who call it "man's red flower", including the Jungle Patrol, Rocky the Rhino, and the Seeonee pack, with Mowgli challenging Akela to face him.
In a different part of the jungle, Mowgli chases Shere Khan with his torch, cornering him in a ravine and taunting him before running off. Later, Mowgli sits in a clearing with a bonfire when Baloo and Bagheera appear, wondering why he's back with the red flower. Mowgli responds that they didn't want him in the village and explains that he has come back to live in the jungle with the fire as protection. Disgusted by Mowgli's choice, Baloo and Bagheera walk off, saying that he only succeeded in making more enemies. Shere Khan waits patiently for Mowgli's fire to go out, and prepares to ambush him, but before he can, he sees Buldeo, (who knew that Mowgli was telling the truth) who secretly follows Mowgli into the jungle and forcing him at gunpoint to lead him to the treasure under the ruins while Shere Khan beings stalking them.
Upon arriving in the ruins and after scaring off King Louie and the Bandar-log with the red flower, they get to the treasure with Buldeo forcing Mowgli to fill a chest with all the the treasure he can carry and to carry the overflowing chest back to the village. Later, Mowgli notices that Shere Khan is secretly following him and Buldeo from behind and Buldeo spitefully reveals his plan to use the fire torch to set the entire jungle on fire to kill Shere Khan, even if it means killing the other jungle animals in the process as well. Buldeo turns traitor on Mowgli and plans to leave him in the jungle to die, but Mowgli grabs the torch and throws it into the water. Enraged, Buldeo prepares to shoot Mowgli to death with his gun with Mowgli pointing out out that Buldeo will lose his chance taking down Shere Khan if he wastes his bullet on Mowgli. At the same time, Shere Khan furiously reveals himself and mauls a screaming Buldeo to death. Following Buldeo's death, Mowgli searches for the gun Buldeo dropped in the ambush. He finds it just before Shere Khan spots him and ends up being shot to death by Mowgli using the gun in self-defense, and Shere Khan's corpse ends up on top of Buldeo's corpse.
The next morning, Mowgli proves his claims to Bagheera and Baloo, who believe him and see Shere Khan and Buldeo's corpses as evidence, and ends up being praised as a hero by both the jungle animals and the villagers, not only for freeing the jungle from Shere Khan's tyranny, but also for exposing Buldeo as a deceitful fraud. Akela also makes Mowgli the new leader of the Seeonee pack.
Category:Deleted scenes
Category:Unused concepts
Category:The Jungle Book