Highlights: Overall it’s a cute Disney movie, I liked it, but it’s not one of my favorites. There are some fun characters, like Baloo and King Louie, and two really great songs. I haven’t actually read the stories by Rudyard Kipling, but my understanding is that they are not very similar. Apparently Walt Disney told everyone involved in the movie, “Don’t read the book. I want to do this my own way.” And I think it definitely worked. The ending is a good one – it works and it’s pretty darn cute.
Low points: To be honest I really just did not like Mowgli. I mean yes, he is a child, but he’s one of those annoying children that thinks they know everything and don’t want to listen to anyone else. So the entire time I’m watching, I keep saying things like, “stop being stupid, Mowgli! You probably should be afraid of that snake, if you know what’s good for you.”
Music: This is definitely The Jungle Book‘s strong point. There are so many good songs in this movie, from a variety of genres. You can King Louie’s jazz/scat number, “I Wanna Be Like You,” Baloo’s catchy “The Bare Necessities,” and the vultures’ Beatles imitation in “That’s What Friends Are For.” Only Kaa the snake’s song was rather weak (“Trust in Me”). We learned from the making of video that the entire movie was actually written, and then re-written because it was too dark. The only song that was kept from the original was “The Bare Necessities.”
This one is all about the music for me. It is just an excuse to have one charming number after another and I like those so much it made my top 10! Kind of amazing when you think about it. I HATE the ending with the girl hypnotizing Mowgli making him abandon his friends and go after her. Such a tired demonstration of womens powers…Groan.
But I like the friendship between Mowgli, Baghera and Baloo. And I think that Kaa is a pretty great villain especially because he is Winnie the Pooh’s voice which is trippy but I also like Sher Khan so between the 2 of them I think it is strong.
Like I said though it comes down to those catchy songs! 🙂
I agree, the music is definitely the star of the show. Some of the best Disney songs (I Wanna be like You and Bare Necessities) are in it. I didn’t mention the ending but yeah, it’s just so ridiculous and stereotypical.
It’s funny that the Winnie the Pooh actor does a few voices throughout the Disney films of this era. He’s so known as Pooh that trippy is a very good word to describe it when you see him as someone else like Kaa!
This is a definite favorite of mine and Shere Khan is my #1 favorite Disney villain mainly because I love the suave villains who know they’re evil.
Even though this was the last of the animated Canon films that Walt Disney himself worked on, his “presence” or “touch” will be seen in the next few movies.
That’s true, Shere Khan is definitely one of those “mustache twirling villains,” as they say. I do love the voice too for the character.