A Fan Like You

Live action or animated, very few films can be called watershed events. Orson Wells’ masterwork Citizen Kane is one such film, and Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book is another.

The last Disney Studio animated film Walt Disney took an active roll in the production of, The Jungle Book marks the successful transition from the classic “rounded” Disney style of the ‘30s and ‘40s to modern contemporary straight-line design, while at the same time preserving and showcasing Disney storytelling at its best.

Preoccupied by Disneyland and later the Florida project that would become Walt Disney World, Walt had not been as involved as he would have liked to have been in the studio’s two earlier “modern” animated films, 101 Dalmatians and The Sword and the Stone. As a result he didn’t really care for either of these films, despite the former being a hit with audiences.

Disney was determined that The Jungle Book would not have the same lapses in story he believed seriously flawed the other two films. As a result, despite an increasingly hectic work schedule he made the time to be involved in film’s story development. And, he assigned much of the studio’s top talent to bring the story to the screen.

Walt Disney and bandleader Louis Prima, the voice of King Louie in Disney's The Jungle Book
Image copyright© Disney Enterprises all rights reserved.

Additionally, after years of mastering complex tracking shots, the use of multiplane camera work in The Jungle Book brilliantly foreshadows the coming of computer animation.

Don’t take my word for it. Get a copy of the 2-disc Platinum Edition DVD of The Jungle Book and watch it with the sound off. It’s a master class in the art and craft of animated storytelling.

The Jungle Book features background art, scene, and character work from some of the greatest names in Disney animation: Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl, Eric Larson, Bill Lounsbery, and Al Dempster, just to name a few.

You are, however, going to want to keep the sound on for the once-in-a-lifetime vocal performances of The Jungle Book’s superb voice cast.

The jazzy tone of the film is set by the remarkably laid-back beat of Phil Harris’ incomparable performance as Baloo the bear and the hip, hepcat stylings of Louis Prima as orangutan King Louie. Sebastian Cabot as the wise panther Bagheera, Sterling Holloway as Kaa the snake, and George Sanders as the villainous tiger Shere Khan infuse each of their characters with just the right emotional touch. They are ably supported by veteran Disney performers J. Pat O’Malley as elephant-Colonel Hathi/Buzzie and Verna Felton as his wife Winifred.

Bruce Reitherman, son of The Jungle Book director Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman, is the voice of Mowgli. Despite being the director’s son, the young Reitherman had to audition to get the part, although it probably didn’t hurt that he had previously done the voice of Christopher Robin in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.

Another piece of Jungle Book trivia that even die-hard Disney fans occasionally get wrong is the origins of the film’s two hit songs, The Bare Necessities and I Wan’na Be Like You.

“It’s our most famous song that we never wrote,” says composer Richard M. Sherman during The Jungle Book commentary of the hit song The Bare Necessities. Sherman and his brother Robert did write the rest of the films songs, including the Louis Prima, Phil Harris duet, I Wan’na Be Like You.

What many people don’t know is that there had been an earlier version of The Jungle Book prepared by Disney story man Bill Peet. That version of the film had made it far enough through production that an entire score had been written for it by longtime Disney collaborator Terry Gilkyson.

Walt Disney, however, did not like Peet’s interpretation of the Kipling stories that comprised The Jungle Book. He thought it too dark and unnecessarily complex, and took the production back to square one, discarding nearly all the work that had already been done on the project.

He did like one thing from the first version, however. After assigning the Sherman brothers to write the music and songs for the new version of The Jungle Book, he told Richard Sherman to, “save that one song Gilkyson wrote,” The Bare Necessities.

Bonus Features

The new bonus features include the story of a long-lost character created for Disney’s version of the film: Rocky, a near-sighted and short-tempered, but funny rhinoceros. Walt ultimately cut Rocky’s scene from the film. Rocky is brought back to the screen by Disney artists using original storyboard artwork and recordings of comedian Frank Fontaine—best known for his work in the early ‘60s as Crazy Guggenheim on Jackie Gleason’s variety show—as the voice of Rocky.

The long lost Rocky the Rhino makes his on screen debut in the 2-Disc Platinum Edition of Disney's The Jungle Book
Image copyright© Disney Enterprises all rights reserved.

The Bare Necessities: The Making of The Jungle Book is a look at the last animated film that Walt Disney produced using existing archival footage, in addition to new interviews with Richard Sherman, Brad Bird, Glen Keane, Eric Goldberg, James Baxter, Will Fi’nn, Andreas Deja, Burny Mattinson, Ted Thomas, Bruce Reitherman, John Culhane, John Canemaker, and Neal Gabler—plus a never-before-seen collection of artwork and treatments from the film

Disney’s Kipling: Walt’s Magic Touch on A Literary Classic is a discarded film treatment from 1963. Scenes from Kipling’s Mowgli Stories and more are used to illustrate Walt’s interpretation of the literary masterpiece

In The Lure of The Jungle Book, many of today’s biggest names in animation talk about how they were inspired to pursue their careers after seeing The Jungle Book. This feature examines the chain of events and features new interviews with Brad Bird, Andreas Deja, Sergio Pablo, Will Finn, and Eric Goldberg.

In Mowgli’s Return to the Jungle, Bruce Reitherman, the voice of Mowgli and now a nature filmmaker, talks firsthand about the experience of making The Jungle Book.

The Audio Commentary for this edition of The Jungle Book is provide by current Disney animator Andreas Deja, Bruce Reitherman (Mowgli), and composer Richard M. Sherman. Additionally, recorded comments by director Wolfgang Reitherman, animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, and other members from the original creative team are included.

Based on Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli Stories, The Jungle Book is the final film Walt Disney produced. It was his 19th.  A+

Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book

Feature run time: 78 min.

Rated: “G.” Bonus materials not rated.

Aspect ratio: 1.75:1—The film is presented in its original aspect ratio.

Sound: All-new 5.1 Disney-enhanced Home Theater Mix.  Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Languages: French, Spanish audio tracks.  Close Captioned in English

The Jungle Book: Platinum Edition DVD is available only for a limited time, with a suggested retail price of $29.99 in the U.S. ($36.99 in Canada) before making the safari back into the vault.

The cast of Disney's The Jungle Book
Image copyright© Disney Enterprises all rights reserved.