The Jungle Book

Dir: Wolfgang Reitherman

1967

*****

After the release of 1963's The Sword in the Stone Disney illustrator Bill Peet convinced Uncle Walt that 'animals' was their strength and they should continue along this route, Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book being an obvious and opportunistic example. Walt agreed but decided to be far more hands on than he had been during the last couple of films as The Sword in the Stone really didn't do as well as was expected. Disney 'Disnified' Kipling's literary classic like it had with many a literary classic before, added music, dancing, new characters etc and steered quite far from the source material. This is something I usually detest about the Disney Company, however, I believe this is the rare exception where it both works and is exceptionable. Bill Peet was right, Disney were good at animals and they were also very good at songs too. The original Jungle Book was a series of stories, Disney took the all the best bits in my opinion and put them together rather well. The seriousness of the stories is completely lost but 60s Disney is all about the jazz. The songs are irresistibly catchy and remain a classic and are easily Disney's best to date. It was directed by one of Disney's original nine old men Wolfgang Reitherman and the main character of Mowgli was voiced by his young son Bruce. Its memorable characters were voiced by a group of Disney regulars who were all musicians, comics and actors and each is perfect in their role. Sebastian Cabot's deep and well-spoken accent was perfect for Bagheera, the Black Panther that takes Mowgli under his wing and Jazz singer and trumpeter Louis Prima played King Louie perfectly, breaking into the occasional scat along the way. Sterling Holloway's slippery lisp provided the perfect voice for the hypnotic python Kaa but it is Phil Harris' role as the lovable Baloo, who teaches Mowgli about the easy life, who really steals the show. Disney is known for its brilliant characters but no other film contains as many as memorable. You're probably humming one of the many songs as you read this review. It's a classic, impossible not to love and thanks to Disney's re-release habit it was the first film I, and many other who were born after the 60s, first saw in the cinema. What an experience it was. Disney was passionate about the film but sadly died during its production. His last may well have been his best and a fitting tribute.