Shere Khan

**Shere Khan** is the main antagonist of Disney's 1967 animated feature film The Jungle Book and it's 2003 sequal. A powerful, suave Bengal tiger, Shere Khan had nothing but disdain for his victims. His reputation was such that he needed only to show himself to intimidate the inhabitants of the jungle. His only fears are guns and fire.

## Background

   Shere Khan was friends with Baloo, Bagheera, Louie, Hathi and Kaa during childhood. Shere Khan was more of a bully and cocky rather than a dangerous predator. Khan often tagged along with Baloo and friends on many adventures, usually trying to prove he's braver than they are. Shere Khan had an American accent, while now, Khan speaks with a British accent. He seems to be the oldest of the cubs. He is sometimes called **Khanny** by                                            others.

In spite of being a cub, Khan still holds his intimidating demeanor and continues to strike fear into the hearts of many of the jungle's inhabitants. However, his cocky attitude can get him and his friends into trouble with foes even he's frightened by, usually by bigger animals. Khan prefers to refer to the others as his followers rather than his friends, even though he obviously enjoys spending time with them. During the second season though, while still friends with the other cubs, he becomes less often seen with them and spends more time hunting. Much like an adult, Khan was sometimes fond with . In one episode, the duo teamed up to take advantage of Louie , after he accidentally injured them. Acting as if they were too injured to do anything themselves, they spent the day bossing the ape around.

Years later, Before Mowgli came to the jungle. Shere Khan attempted to attack Mowgli's father, Shere Khan killed the father in revenge for burning him with the red flower (fire). Shere Khan ran away in pain before noticing the baby man-cub he left behind.

## The Jungle Book

   In the jungles of India, Bagheera the panther comes across an orphaned, human child lost in the jungle. The panther takes the child and delivers him to a pack of wolves–all of whom graciously accept the boy as their own. Years later, Shere Khan returns to the wolf pack's part of the jungle, and the word of his return spreads quickly, and the wolves assemble to discuss Mowgli's fate. It is ultimately decided that the jungle is no longer safe for the boy and that he must be returned to the Man-Village for his own good. Bagheera volunteers to escort him, and the journey begins.

Shere Khan makes his first physical appearance while stalking a deer as prey. His hunt was ruined when Colonal Hathi came marching by with his herd and scared it away, much to Shere Khan's annoyance. After Bagheera stopped them, Shere Khan eavesdropped on their conversation and was delighted when he heard about Mowgli, who had managed to escape Bagheera in hopes of staying in the jungle; without the panther at his side, the boy was now devoid of protection. After Bagheera and Hathi's herd separated to locate the man-cub, Khan began his own hunt for Mowgli.

After searching for some time, he heard Kaa seducing a victim and became suspicious. He grabbed Kaa's tail and got him to come down, subsequently questioning him about Mowgli. Kaa acted strangely while answering his questions, even attempting to hypnotize him, and his suspicious behavior prompted Shere Khan to search his coils for Mowgli. When it appeared that Kaa was truthful, Khan ordered him to act as an informative should the former come across the man-cub. Kaa agreed, and Khan took his leave.

Shere Khan's travels eventually led to the wastelands, where he overhears a flock of vultures singing. After investigating the occasion, he found Mowgli and calmly approached the group. Impressed by Mowgli's courage (being that he refused to immediately run at the sight of the tiger), Shere Khan gave the boy ten seconds to run away. Khan became more and more annoyed when he didn't, and eventually lunged for the killing strike. Baloo, Mowgli's friend, intervened by grabbing Khan's tail. As Shere Khan struggled to break free of Baloo's grip, the vultures carried Mowgli to safety.

Shere Khan then became furious, battled Baloo, and nearly killed him. The vultures intervened and stalled the tiger while Mowgli tied a burning branch to his tail. Upon noticing, Khan became terrified and frantically tried to put out the fire, but to no avail, forcing him to flee the wasteland with the burning branch still tied to his tail, burning his back and greatly humiliating him in the process.

## The Jungle Book 2

    He had no luck until he heard Shanti, one of Mowgli's human friends, calling him. He then found Mowgli's house and was delighted that he would now have his chance for revenge. He became impatient when Mowgli didn't appear. All at once, Mowgli appeared in the air above the house. After Shanti started screaming about a wild animal, Khan noticed it was Baloo with Mowgli and was surprised. After the villagers responded to Shanti's calls, they saw Shere Khan instead of Baloo and chased him out of the village. Khan was attacked by the villagers with torches but they had no power over him. He escaped in rage but overjoyed to hear that Mowgli is now in the jungle. He encountered Kaa afterward, who had seen Mowgli. Kaa at first insisted he didn't know where Mowgli was, but Shere Khan knew better and intimidated him, even though Kaa was telling the truth.

Out of fear, Kaa told Khan to search by the swamp. However, when Khan arrived, Mowgli is nowhere to be found and he splashes the water in fury as he says "That snake lied to me!" The vultures return and become uneasy when their newest member Lucky begins to insanely mock him. After a few "jokes", Shere Khan tricks Lucky into revealing Mowgli's whereabouts. Before Khan leaves, he viciously mauls Lucky as revenge for the annoyance and presumably kills him. Later on, he found Shanti and Ranjan and cornered them. Mowgli then appeared to find them and Khan confronted him.

Mowgli ran away and Khan pursued him to a temple in the middle of a pool of lava. After Baloo and Shanti teamed up and started to bang gongs with Mowgli, one fell down revealing Shanti. He then said he would kill her if Mowgli wouldn't come out. Mowgli did and he pursued him and Shanti after knocking Baloo aside. Mowgli and Shanti jumped onto a tiger statue right over a pit of lava with Shere Khan right behind them. Before he could kill them, the statue's head fell off towards the lava. Baloo saved Mowgli and Shanti, while Khan fell into the pit. Rather than perishing, he landed on a slab of rock and was trapped underneath the statue's head. Lucky, still alive but lost the feathers on his body and has a bruised right eye, then flew down and started to tease Khan again, much to his annoyance.

## The Gathering

Shere Khan becomes a member of a group called The Villians whos only goal is to hunt down and kill The Goodies. Shere Khan is stillhellbent in killing Mowgli.

## Jungle Book Shonen

    Now much older and wiser, Shere Khan is still feared by the jungle animals.

Now with his lackey Tabaqui. Shere Khan is up against another man-cub (this turns out to be Mowgli's son) Mowgli Jr. Ironically, Shere Khan is defeated and killed by him.