The Jungle Book (1967)

The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated movie produced by Walt Disney Productions and was released on October 18, 1967. It is the 19th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was inspired by the stories about the feral child Mowgli from this book of the same name by Rudyard Kipling. Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, it was the last to be produced by Walt Disney, who died during its production.
The early versions of both the screenplay and the soundtrack followed Kipling's work more closely, with the dramatic, dark, and sinister tone which Disney did not want in his family film, leading to writer Bill Peet and composer Terry Gilkyson being replaced. The casting employed famous actors and musicians Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, George Sanders and Louis Prima, as well as Disney regulars such as Sterling Holloway, J. Pat O'Malley and Verna Felton, and the director's son, Bruce Reitherman, as Mowgli. The Jungle Book was released to positive reception, with much acclaim to its soundtrack, featuring five songs by the Sherman Brothers and one by Gilkyson, "The Bare Necessities". This film grossed over $73 million in the United States in its first release, and as much again from two re-releases.
After the film's success, Disney later released a live-action remake and a theatrical sequel, The Jungle Book 2.
==Plot==
Mowgli, the young orphan boy, is found in a basket in the deep jungles of Madhya Pradesh, India. Bagheera, a black panther who discovers this baby, promptly takes him to the mother Indian Wolf who has just had cubs. She raises him along with her own cubs and Mowgli soon becomes well acquainted with jungle life. Mowgli is shown ten years later, playing with his wolf siblings.
One night, when the wolf tribe learns that Shere Khan, the man-eating Bengal tiger, has returned to the jungle, they realize that Mowgli must be taken to the "man village" for his own safety. Bagheera volunteers to escort him back.
They leave that very night, but Mowgli is determined to stay in the jungle. He and Bagheera rest in the tree for the night, when Kaa, the hungry Indian Python, appears and hypnotizes Mowgli into a deep and peaceful sleep, traps him tightly in his coils and tries to devour him, but fails when Bagheera intervenes. The next morning, Mowgli tries to join the elephant patrol led by Colonel Hathi and his wife Winifred. Bagheera finds Mowgli and they argue which results in Bagheera leaving Mowgli on his own. Mowgli soon meets up with the laid-back, fun-loving sloth bear Baloo, who shows Mowgli the fun of having a care-free life and promises to raise Mowgli himself and never take him back to the Man-Village.
Mowgli now wants to stay in the jungle more than ever. Shortly afterwards, Baloo is tricked and outsmarted by the gang of monkeys who kidnap Mowgli and take him to their leader, King Louie the orangutan, who makes the deal with Mowgli that if he tells him the secret of making fire like a human, then he will make it so he can stay in the jungle. However, since he was not raised by humans, Mowgli does not know how to make fire. Bagheera and Baloo arrive to rescue Mowgli and in the ensuing chaos, King Louie's palace is demolished to rubble. Bagheera speaks to Baloo that night and convinces him that the jungle will never be safe for Mowgli so long as Shere Khan is there. In the morning, Baloo reluctantly explains to Mowgli that the man village is best for this boy, but Mowgli accuses him of breaking his promise and runs away. As Baloo sets off on foot in search of Mowgli, Bagheera rallies the help of Hathi and his patrol to make the search party. However, Shere Khan himself, who was eavesdropping on Bagheera and Hathi's conversation, is now determined to hunt and kill Mowgli himself. Meanwhile, Mowgli has encountered Kaa once again in a different tree and the hungry python exacts his revenge by hypnotizing Mowgli again, and tries to eat him, but thanks to the unwitting intervention of the suspicious Shere Khan, Mowgli awakens again, tricks the snake again, and escapes.
As the storm gathers, the depressed Mowgli encounters the group of puckish but friendly vultures who closely resemble The Beatles, and they agree to be his friends as they too are outcasts, and feel that everyone has to have friends. Shere Khan appears shortly after, scaring off the Vultures and confronting Mowgli. Baloo rushes to the rescue and tries to keep Shere Khan away from Mowgli, but is injured. When lightning strikes a nearby tree and sets it ablaze, the vultures swoop in to distract Shere Khan while Mowgli gathers flaming branches and ties them to Shere Khan's tail. As fire is his only fear, the tiger panics and runs off.
Bagheera and Baloo take Mowgli to the edge of the Man-Village, but Mowgli is still hesitant to go there. His mind soon changes when he is smitten by a beautiful young girl from the village who is coming down by the riverside to fetch water. After noticing Mowgli, she "accidentally" drops her water pot, and Mowgli retrieves it for her and follows her into the man village. After Mowgli chooses to stay in the man village, Baloo and Bagheera decide to head home, content that Mowgli is safe and happy with his own kind.
== Cast ==
*Bruce Reitherman provided the voice of Mowgli, who is the main character of this film. Mowgli is the orphaned boy, commonly referred to as "man-cub" by the other characters.
*Phil Harris voiced Baloo, the sloth bear who leads the Mowgli's labeled life and believes in letting the good things in life come by themselves.
*Sebastian Cabot voiced Bagheera, the serious black panther (melanistic leopard) who is determined to take Mowgli's carefree back to the village and disapproves of Baloo's carefree approach to life.
*Louis Prima voiced King Louie. King Louie is an ape who wants to be the human, and offers to let Mowgli stay in the jungle (by bribing him with bananas) if Mowgli shows him the secret of "Man's Red Flower" (fire), though why he wants it is unknown.
*George Sanders voiced Shere Khan a bengal tiger, who wants to kill Mowgli. For this reason the Wolf Council votes to send Mowgli away.
*Sterling Holloway voiced Kaa the Indian python. Shere Khan's victim, tree Kaa is determined to catch and eat Mowgli before does.
*J. Pat O'Malley...Colonel Hathi the Indian elephant/Buzzie the Vulture
*Verna Felton voiced Winifred, Colonel Hathi's wife. It was Felton's last film role, with her dying one day before the death of Walt Disney, during the film's production.
*Clint Howard voiced Junior, Colonel Hathi's son.
*Chad Stuart...Flaps the Vulture
*Lord Tim Hudson...Dizzie the Vulture
*John Abbott...Akela the Indian Wolf
*Ben Wright...Father Wolf
*Darleen Carr...Shanti
*Leo De Lyon...Flunkey the Baboon
*Bill Lee...Shere Khan's singing voice
*Hal Smith...The Slob Elephant
*Terry-Thomas...Elephants' singing voices
*Digby Wolfe...Ziggy the Vulture
*Mel Blanc…Wolf Pups
== Medvirkende ==
* Preben Uglebjerg - Bagheera
* Carl Ottosen - Baloo
* Joachim Clausen - Mowgli
* Svend Asmussen - Kong Louie
* Ulrik Neumann - Kaa
* Kjeld Jacobsen - Shere Khan
* Gert Bastian - Oberst Hathi
* Sniff Neumann - Menneske Pige
* Kirsten Rolffes - Winnifred
Ulv
* Ole Monty
* Ove Sprogøe
Elefant
* Ole Monty
* Ove Sprogøe
* Sniff Neumann
* Peter Kitter
Abe
* Ole Monty
* Ove Sprogøe
* Peter Kitter
Grib
* Ole Monty
* Ove Sprogøe
* Peter Kitter
==Music==
The instrumental music was written by George Bruns and orchestrated by Walter Sheets. Two of the cues were reused from previous Disney films. The scene where Mowgli wakes up after escaping King Louie used one of Bruns' themes for Sleeping Beauty; and the scene where Bagheera gives the eulogy to Baloo when he mistakenly thinks the bear was killed by Shere Khan used Paul J. Smith's organ score from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The score features eight original songs: seven by the Sherman Brothers and one by Terry Gilkyson. Longtime Disney collaborator Gilkyson was the first songwriter to bring several complete songs which followed the book closely but Walt Disney felt that his efforts were too dark. The only piece of Gilkyson's work which survived to the final film was his upbeat tune "The Bare Necessities", which was liked by the rest of this film crew. The Sherman Brothers were then brought in to do the complete rewrite."The Bare Necessities: The Making of The Jungle Book", The Jungle Book Platinum Edition Disc 2 Disney asked the siblings if they had read Kipling's book and they replied that they had done so "a long, long time ago" and that they had also seen the 1942 version by Alexander Korda. Disney said the "nice, mysterious, heavy stuff" from both works was not what he aimed for, instead going for the "lightness, a Disney touch". Disney frequently brought the composers to the storyline sessions.
He asked them to "find scary places and write fun songs" for their compositions that fit in with the story and advanced the plot instead of being interruptive.
==Release and reception==
===Theatrical run===
The Jungle Book was released in October 1967, just 10 months after Walt's death. Some copies were in the double feature with Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar. This film was the success, earning $73 million in just its domestic release, mostly due to the popularity of its musical numbers, and finished 1967 as the fourth highest-grossing movie of the year. The Jungle Book was re-released theatrically in North America three times, 1978, 1984, and 1990, and also in Europe throughout the 1980s. The total gross is $141 million in the United States and $205 million worldwide. The North American total, after adjustments for inflation, is estimated to be the 29th highest grossing film of all time in the United States.
===Critical reception===
The Jungle Book received an outpouring of positive reviews upon release, undoubtedly influenced by the nostalgic reaction to the passing of Disney. Time noted that this film strayed far from the Kipling stories, but "the result is thoroughly delightful...it is the happiest possible way to remember Walt Disney." The New York Times called in "the perfectly dandy cartoon feature," and Life magazine referred to it as "the best thing of its kind since Bambi another short, bright, unscary and blessedly uncultivated cartoon." Some negative reviews came from Judith Crist, who said the film was "devoid of mood or atmosphere." Variety's review was generally positive, but they stated that "the story development is restrained" and that younger audiences "may squirm at times."
Retrospective reviews were also positive, with the film's animation, characters and music receiving much praise throughout the years. In 1990, when this film had its last theatrical re-release, Entertainment Weekly considered that The Jungle Book "isn't the classic Walt Disney film on the order of, say, Cinderella or Pinocchio, but it's one of Disney's liveliest and funniest", while the Los Angeles Times thought the film's crew was "near the height of their talents" and the resulting film "remains the high-spirited romp that will delight children--and parents weary of action films with body counts that exceed their box-office grosses." In 2010, Empire described this film as one that "gets pretty much everything right", regarding that the vibrant animation and catchy songs overcame the plot deficiencies.
===Awards===
The song "The Bare Necessities" was nominated for Best Song at the 40th Academy Awards, losing to "Talk to the Animals" from Doctor Dolittle.Oscars Database http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1215147249619 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Gregory Peck lobbied extensively for this film to be nominated for Best Picture, but was unsuccessful.http://www.empireonline.com/features/50-disney-films/default.asp?film=19
It was not until 1991 when Disney's Beauty and the Beast that an animated movie would be nominated for Best Picture.
;American Film Institute Lists
*AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - Nominated
*AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
**"The Bare Necessities" - NominatedAFI's 100 Years...100 Songs Nominees
**"I Wanna Be Like You" - Nominated
*AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals - NominatedAFI's Greatest Movie Musicals Nominees
*AFI's 10 Top 10 - Nominated Animated MovieAFI's 10 Top 10 Ballot
==Legacy==
In 1968, Disneyland Records released the album More Jungle Book, the unofficial sequel also written by screenwriter Larry Simmons, which continued the story of this film, and included Phil Harris and Louis Prima voicing their film roles. In the record, Baloo (Harris) is missing Mowgli (Ginny Tyler), so he teams up with King Louie (Prima) and Bagheera (Dal McKennon) to take him from the man village.Hollis, Ehrbar; 116 On February 14, 2003, DisneyToon Studios in Australia released this film sequel, The Jungle Book 2, in which Mowgli runs away from the man village to see his animal friends, unaware that Shere Khan is more determined to kill him than ever. In 2005, screenwriter Robert Reece pitched Jungle Book 3 to Disney execs. However, the project never materialized.
Elements of The Jungle Book were recycled in the later Disney feature film Robin Hood due to that film's limited budget, such as Baloo being inspiration for Little John (who not only was a bear, but also voiced by Phil Harris). In particular, the dance sequence between Baloo and King Louie was simply rotoscoped for Little John and Lady Cluck's dance.Toon of a kind, The Sun, April 21, 2009 It has been widely acclaimed by animators, with Eric Goldberg declaring The Jungle Book "boasts possibly the best character animation the studio has ever done". The other animators of Aladdin, The Lion King and Lilo & Stitch claimed to have taken some inspiration from the design and animation of this film, and four people involved with Disney's animations, director Brad Bird and animators Andreas Deja, Glen Keane and Sergio Pablos, have declared the film to be their inspiration for entering the business.The Lure of The Jungle Book. The Jungle Book, Platinum Edition, Disc 2. 2007.
Many characters appear in the 1990-91 animated series TaleSpin. Between 1996 and 1998, the TV series Jungle Cubs told the stories of Baloo, Hahti, Bagheera, Louie, Kaa, and Shere Khan when they were children.Reading, Writing and Reinventing Heroes, The Los Angeles Times
Disney later made the live-action remake of the film, which was more of the realistic action-adventure film with somewhat-more adult themes. This film, released in 1994, differs even more from this book than its animated counterpart, but was still a box-office success. In 1998, Disney released the direct to video film entitled The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story.
There are two video games based on this film: The Jungle Book was the platformer released in 1993-4 for Master System, Mega Drive, Game Gear, Super NES, Game Boy and PC. A version for the Game Boy Advance was later released in 2003. The Jungle Book Groove Party was a dance mat game released in 2000 for PlayStation and PlayStation 2. Kaa and Shere Khan have also made cameo appearances in another Disney video game, Quackshot. A world based on this film was intended to appear more than once in the Square Enix-Disney Kingdom Hearts video game series, but was omitted both times, first in the first game because it featured a similar world based on Tarzan, and second in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, presumably due to time constraints, although areas of the world are accessible via hacking codes in the latter.
Since this film's release, many of this film's characters appeared in House of Mouse, The Lion King 1½, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Aladdin and the King of Thieves.
An artwork by British artist Banksy featuring the jungle book characters which had been commissioned by Greenpeace to help raise awareness of deforestation has gone on sale for the sum of £80,000 pounds sterling.
==References==
==External links==
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