Baloo

### **Voice**

A.J. Henderson (English, The Jungle Book) )Richard Dumont (Simba the King Lion and Simba Jr. Goes to New York) (English)

Dan Green (English, *Winner and the Golden Child*)

Banjou Ginga (Japanese)

### **Inspiration**

The character from the 1894 novel by Rudyard Kipling

## Character information

### **Personality**

Friendly, nice, stern, mischievous (while stealing the bees' honey), joyful, silly, wise (while telling tales), good-hearted, strong-minded, brave, selfless, enthusiastic, gentle

### **Appearance**

Obese, black (in the anime series) or brown (in the animated series) sloth bear with a matching nose and eyes

### **Occupation**

Ally
Storyteller (*The Great Book of Nature*), Ari's guardian

### **Goal**

To coach Simba and Buckshot the ways of the Jungle and the Black Forest.(succeeded)

### **Allies**

Mother Wolf, Simba, Buckshot, Kaa, Bagheera, Ludwig, Augustine, Thin and XL, Canary, Winner, Flash, Fox, Olech and Alex, Ari, Cordall, Luce, Cricket, Lennywig

### **Enemies**

Shere Khan, Kurdy, Alba and the Monkeys (Bandar-log), King and White Cobras, Sewer Rats

### **Likes**

Honey, friendship, telling stories, Simba and his friends, the Jungle and the Black Forest

### **Dislikes**

Danger, Shere Khan, predators, Bees, Math, being made fun with his weight/losing wieght

### **Weapons**

Teeth and claws

**Baloo** is one of the main and supporting characters of the Japanese anime series, *The Jungle Book* and the Italian animated series, *Simba the King Lion*, *Simba Jr. Goes to N.Y. and the World Cup*, *Winner and the Golden Child* & *The Great Book of Nature* as a storyteller.

## Background

In the anime series, he is a black sloth bear, and one of Mowgli's friends. He also serves as one of Mowgli's teachers, though he is more enthusiastic and has a gentler approach in some of his lessons. Despite this, he is also a very brave and selfless crusader, fighting to defend Mowgli from a hungry mugger. Though he was thought to have been slain, he was revealed to be alive and well shortly afterward. He has a strong fondness for honey.

In the animated series, Baloo is a very nice bear endlessly starved for honey. For this reason, Olech has helped him to heal from the bee-stings many times. He teaches Buckshot to defend himself and he is always ready with his friend Bagheera, to defend the community from the sly attacks of Shere Khan. Plus, in *The Great Book of Nature*, he is also a storyteller of the series.

He later became a bumbling brute in Winner and the Golden Child as he's one of Ari's guardians protecting him from the resurrected Shere Khan and the evil forces from the sorceress, Maya. At one time, he was spying on them in a bush, then he became a massive goalie for the Jungle Team. He was pressured for his weight, then he ran away and later met up with a mouse named Lennywig, as well as eavesdropping on Khan's new alliance with Maya. Thanks to the assistance of the Rock Monsters and their abilities on teleportation through wood, he was able to help Ari win over Maya and the soccer tournament.

### **Personality**

He's a friendly bear but seems to be protective of his friends. He also happens to be on the stern side, especially when he confronts the bees as he steals their honey, and when he established a summer camp for young Simba and his friends.

### **Appearance**

In the anime series, Baloo is a large wild, black bear with matching eyes and nose. Also, in the animated series, he is a brown bear with a black nose and tan fur on his face and body.

## Trivia

* He was inspired by the bear of the same name in the 1894 novel by Rudyard Kipling.