Product Details

• Actors: Orson Welles, June Foray, Les Tremayne, Michael LeClair, Shepard Menken
• Directors: Chuck Jones
• Writers: Chuck Jones, Rudyard Kipling
• Producers: Chuck Jones, Joseph Aidlin, Oscar Dufau
• Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Family Home Entertainment
• VHS Release Date: July 28, 1998
• Run Time: 30 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300154041
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,854 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Rudyard Kipling's classic story comes to delightful life with this wonderful animated short combining the estimable talents of narrator Orson Welles and director Chuck Jones (the genius behind many of the best Warner Bros. cartoons). Blending action, humor, and a few (thankfully noncloying) songs, this daydream of an adventure from the author of The Jungle Book details the efforts of a frisky mongoose sworn to defend his adopted family from a garden full of cobras. This is bound to fascinate and entertain both kids and adults who are interested in nature's struggles, although parents may wish to watch it with younger children who possess a fear of snakes. --Andrew Wright

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars still as great as when I was a child, February 19, 2002

By 

Magdalene Meretrix (Idaho) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rikki Tikki Tavi [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I first saw this movie when I was eight years old and it captured my fancy so strongly that I just had to have it when I realized it was available on video. I wasn't disappointed at all -- it was still as great to me as it was twenty-seven years ago. In watching it now, I realize that it's a movie that will appeal to both children and their parents. If you sometimes dread sitting through children's videos with your little ones, get a copy of this video (and the White Seal!) and you'll enjoy watching it as much as the kids.

Rikki is a mongoose who is rescued by a British family living in India after the rodent nearly dies. They nurse him back to health and in gratitude, he becomes their house mongoose, saving all their lives on more than one occasion.

While most children these days are jaded by violence, be careful about showing this movie to very young children or sensitive children who are prone to nightmares because the snakes are portrayed as pure evil. There is no gore or bloodshed, but the snakes hiss and whisper about death and killing and plot to kill the whole family by sneaking into their house while they are sleeping. I don't remember this bothering me at age eight, but I think some two year olds might need their parents to explain to them that the story is set in a different place and time and that snakes do not hide in their own bathroom!

The animation for this film is lovely. It's simple, but it's a little more elaborate than the Bugs Bunny cartoons Chuck Jones directed and not that flat computer-generated stuff seen so often today. There is a song in the movie, but it's not a musical. The song is still stuck in my head today and it's as good as it is catchy.

Finally, the video is only half an hour long. It's short enough to leave an adult wanting to see more (again, get the White Seal!) but also to keep the children's interest without too much fidgeting. The story is delightful and will stay in your heart for years.

89 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This contains the following specials produced in 1973 + 1975 +1976, January 25, 2008

By 

Fortean Anomalie (way way way out there) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chuck Jones Collection (DVD)

1: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
2: The White Seal
3: Mowgli's Brothers
4: Cricket in Times Square
5: Very Merry Cricket
6: Yankee Doodle Cricket

These are all beautifully animated.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Chuck Jones cartoon, September 16, 2002

By 

Strategos "The Guardian of Time" (In Space above Planet Earth) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rikki Tikki Tavi [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is my favorite chuck jones animated feature. That's saying something, as I have seen tons of his cartoons in my short 20 year life-span ranging from the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie to his awesome animated version of The Phantom Tollbooth. All of his cartoons are highly recommended, blending excellent storytelling, sweet background animation, hilarious humor, and the overall greatness with makes him a legend among cartoon makers. But this cartoon is my favorite work of his. I first saw it as a young child and it has improved with age. The voices are perfect, the pacing is perfect, the music is great, the animation is Chuck Jones' best. But what makes this movie for me is the way a house in India is made into an entire world for the hero of the story, a brave Mongoose called Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. He a cute furry creature, yet by fighting snakes who would harm his human masters he is (to me at least) like a knight protecting his kingdom from monsters. Everything in the movie is seen from his eyes, and he possesses an extreme sense of loyalty which makes him a very admirable character. I'm a hardcore animation collector, and I say if you take animation seriously at all you MUST own this animated film.