Customer Reviews

Disney's The Jungle Book (Fully Restored 30th Anniversary Limited Editon)

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THE JUNGLE BOOK was the last movie that Walt Disney directly oversaw. The finished picture in no way resembles Rudyard Kipling's original story, as Disney felt this was too dark for a cartoon. With top notch songs like "The Bear Necessities" and "I Wanna Be Like You," talented performers and animation that was part Xerox, part hand drawn, "The Jungle Book" is a fitting career closer from the greatest name in family motion picture entertainment, Walt Disney.


This movie is also available on DVD.

After "Jungle Book," the next Disney animated feature was THE ARISTOCATS (1970). (VHS edition) (DVD edition)


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(7.6) The Jungle Book (1967) - voices of: Phil Harris/Sebastian Cabot/Louis Prima/George Sanders/Sterling Holloway/J. Pat O'Malley/Bruce Reitherman/Verna Felton/Clint Howard/Chad Stuart/Lord Tim Hudson/John Abbott/Ben Wright/Darleen Carr


JUNGLE BOOK TRIVIA--

The Beatles were to record voiceovers for "The Vultures," but conflicting schedules made it impossible.

The song "Trust in Me," originally called "Sands of Time," was almost used in MARY POPPINS (1964). (VHS edition) (widescreen DVD edition)

The elephant Winifred is the only female with dialogue.

According to Kipling's widow, the name "Mowgli" is actually pronounced "MAU-glee."

"Baloo" means "bear" in Hindi.

The Jungle Book is one hour and one hour and eighteen minutes and was released in theaters on October 18, 1967. This would be the last movie that Walt Disney personally oversaw. Basically the movie tells the story about a boy, Mowgli, who is raised by wolves in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is ten years later and the tribe of wolves feels that the man cub must be sent to the human village because Shere Khan, a tiger, has return and they feel that they cannot protect the boy. Bagheera, a black leopard, offers to take the boy cub to the man village and that where the adventure begins. Mowgli does not want to live in the man village and wants to stay in the jungle.

Bagheera tries to explain to Mowgli, but he does not listen. Mowgli finds several different animals who would like to get closer to him for different reasons. Mowgli first meet Kaa, a giant Indian Python, and Kaa wants nothing more then to eat the child. Kaa fails in the two attempts when he is with the boy. Next he is met by Baloo, a sloth bear, and Baloo is a care free, fun loving bear who lives one day at a time. Baloo immediately takes a liking to Mowgli and wants to raise him a bear also. Later on in the movie Bagheera informs Baloo the truth as to why he can't raise him because of Shere Khan. While Mowgli and Baloo are enjoying life, Mowgli is kidnapped by a group of orangutans and is brought back to their leader - King Louie. King Louie wants the boy cub to teach on how to acquire the red flower (fire). King Louie plans are crushed when Baloo and Bagheera comes to rescue Mowgli. It is about ' into the movie that the main villain appears - Shere Khan. Shere Khan wants to kill the boy because he hates man and that includes women also. I will not go into how the story ends because of the criticism I have gotten in the past, but I will tell you that the movie had no ended and it was Walt Disney himself that came up with the ended himself.

The movie version of the Jungle Book differs greatly from the book version. In the book version there is no King Louie no vultures and the only resemblance to the book is the names used in the movie. Walt thought the book was too dark for children and instructed his animation department not to read the book. The Jungle Book was nominate for an Academy Award in 1967 for Best Song, The Bare Necessities, but lost out to Doctor Dolittle for Talk to the Animals. Gregory Peck tried to get the movie nominated and win for the Best Picture category, but the members of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Science felt that animation films did not belong in that category. It would not be until 1992 when Beauty and the Beast would be nominated for an Academy in the Best Picture category. The Jungle Book is a delightful movie for all ages and gets an AAAAA+++++.

VHS EXTRAS

Previews
1. The Little Mermaid
2. Flubber
3. Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas
4. Peter Pan
5. Hercules
6. The Toys Who Saved Christmas
The Jungle Book: The Making of a Musical Classic