26 September 2023

The Jungle Book

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Reviewed by Rama Gaind.

Director: Wolfgang Reitherman, Disney.

Even after more than five decades, this animated classic remains an evergreen celebration of the true meaning of friendship – for young and old.

The last film produced by Walt Disney, The Jungle Book, was first released in 1967, but this digitally restored version bursts with some crystal clear, crazy fun, toe-tapping music and treasured characters.

The plot follows Mowgli, a feral child raised in the Indian jungle by wolves, as his friends Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear try to convince him to leave the jungle before the evil tiger Shere Khan arrives.

It can be described as a coming-of-age parable about carefree childhood and adult responsibility, embodied respectively by Mowgli’s two mentors, Baloo and Bagheera. Despite his wish to live as a beast of the forest, Mowgli finally claims his birthright as a man by taking up fire against Shere Khan.

The film’s score, which was composed by George Bruns and orchestrated by Walter Sheets, features eight original songs: seven by the Sherman Brothers, and one by Terry Gilkyson which was an upbeat tune titled The Bare Necessities. The other noticeable rendition is I Wanna Be Like You.

It was inspired by stories from the book by English Nobel Laureate Rudyard Kipling where fables use animals in an ‘anthropomorphic’ way to provide moral lessons.

The cast of voices is impressive and includes Phil Harris as Baloo, a sloth bear who leads a carefree life and believes in letting the good things in life come by themselves; Sebastian Cabot is Bagheera, a serious black panther who is determined to take Mowgli back to the village and disapproves of Baloo’s carefree approach to life; Bruce Reitherman is Mowgli, an orphaned boy; George Sanders is Shere Khan, an intelligent and sophisticated yet merciless Bengal tiger who hates all humans for fear of their guns and fire.

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