The Jungle Book

  

History and Review by Michael J. Ruhland

Year Released: 1967
Michael's Movie Grade: A-

History

The Jungle Book marked the last animated feature film that Walt Disney would personally work on. However, he would not live to see the film completed. 

This movie did not come about easily. Boxoffice magazine reported in an issue dated April 23rd, 1962, "After lengthy negotiations Walt Disney has purchased all of Rudyard Kipling's famous stories compiled in 'The Jungle Book' - Volume I and II - with plans to produce a multi-million-dollar motion picture. The Disney production will include Kipling's classic stories of Mowgli, the Jungle Boy, who learns the laws and life of the jungle from the family of wolves the adopts him." The idea to adapt Rudyard Kipling's classic book came from Disney story artist Bill Peet, who been trying to convince Walt for years. After Peet did the screenplay for Sword and the Stone (1963), Walt set him to work on The Jungle Book. Peet's original treatment (dated April 23, 1963) incorporated many elements from the classic story that would not make it to the final film. For instance, in his original treatment Mowgli would go to the man village and return to the jungle. This treatment had a much darker and serious tone than the average Disney animated film of this time and Walt not liking this approach felt it had to be changed a great deal. While this treatment may differ greatly from the final film, there are glimmers of the movie it would become. Peet's sketches of the characters greatly resemble how the characters would look in the actual movie. These sketches also gave the characters a little personality, which again resembles the characters in the film. It has been said that Peet even played around with the phrase, "bare necessities." Peet's treatment also included characters that didn't make it to the final film such as Ishtar the vulture (though four different vultures would appear in the movie) and a nearsighted rhinoceros. Bill Peet would not stay at the studio until the film was complete. He left the Disney studio on November 18, 1964, so that he could concentrate on writing and illustrating children's books.

Afterwards former radio gag writer, Larry Cleamons would be in charge of the story. He would work with Ralph Wright, Ken Anderson and Vance Gerry on the store. Vance Gerry recalled working with Cleamons stating, "We got a writer named Larry Cleamons. We worked with him on a script, which we would send to Walt and he would say yes or no. When we got the script down, we'd make the storyboards which was absolutely the wrong way to do it, but Walt was very busy, I guess. Cleamons was very good at getting voices and talent and very good at writing. But everyone accused him of being a radio writer, because he was a radio writer. He wrote in terms of radio, and it was difficult to make cartoons that way." 

This film spent years in development as the Disney team had a hard time adapting the book's episodic story to a plot that would work for a movie. Walt would eventually just tell the Disney crew to "throw the book away." Despite this, Disney's version was not the first film adaption of Rudyard Kipling's classic book. There had previously been a wonderful live action film version released in 1942 and directed by Zoltan Korda. 

Showman's Trade Review, 1942
An advertisement for the 1942 film version of The Jungle Book. 

Songwriter Richard Sherman later remembered the first time he and his songwriting partner (and brother), Robert Sherman, had heard about this film. He stated, “We were called into Walt’s office with several other people: Woolie Reitherman, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Larry Clemmons, and a whole bunch of the regulars at the studio. We were all staff people with our own specialties. Walt sat us all down in his office and he looked at us and said, ‘How many of you guys have read Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling?’ And of course nobody raised their hand. So I, sort of sheepishly said, ‘I saw a movie with Sabu.’ He said, ‘Yeah, yeah, but you didn’t read the book, did you?’ I said, ‘No, I didn’t read the book.’ ‘Good.’ He said, ‘We’re going to tell the story of The Jungle Book the Disney way.'”

 

While previous Disney animated features had used some celebrity voices, The Jungle Book started a trend in Disney animated movies to base characters off of the actors voicing them. Baloo the Bear is voiced by comedian and singer Phil Harris with the character's personality being that of Harris' persona. Harris would later voice characters in The Aristocats (1970) and Robin Hood (1973). In both of those films, he essentially voices an animated animal version of himself the way he did in The Jungle Book. Despite the character of Baloo ending up being strongly based off Phil Harris, he was not the first actor planned for the role. Harry von Zell, Jim Backus (the voice of Mr. Magoo) and Thurl Ravenscroft (the singer of You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch) were considered for the role. Walt Disney suggested Phil Harris after seeing him perform at a benefit. When the role was given to Phil Harris, Baloo's personality became more and more like Harris. Singer Louis Prima is the voice of King Louie, and his persona is the basis of the character's personality. However, it was originally planned to have Louis Armstrong as the voice and basis for the character. Louis Prima enjoyed voicing the character so much, that he was very disappointed that he didn't get to work on another Disney film.  The great character actor, George Sanders plays the villain Shere Khan. However, George Sanders was not especially excited about voicing an animated Disney character. When he was given a drawing of Shere Khan autographed by Walt Disney, he handing back and stated, "What am I to do with it? This is absurd." Other characters were voiced by Disney veterans. Sterling Hollway (who had previously voiced such Disney characters as the Cheshire Cat, Mr. Stork (from Dumbo (1941)) and many characters in the Disney short films (including Pooh in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966)) voices Kaa the snake. Verna Felton (who had previously voiced Dumbo's mom, The Fairy Godmother (in Cinderella (1950)) the Queen of Hearts (in Alice in Wonderland (1951)), Aunt Sarah (in Lady and the Tramp (1955)) and Flora in Sleeping Beauty (1959))) voices a female elephant. J. Pat O'Maley (who previously voiced Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (in Alice in Wonderland)) voices Colonel Hathi. Mowgli is voiced by Bruce Reitherman. Bruce Reitherman was the son of the film's director Wolfgang Reitherman and had previously voiced Chistopher Robin in the short film, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. Bagheera was voiced by Sebastian Cabot, who had previously been the narrator for the Disney feature, The Sword and the Stone and the Disney short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. Previously considered for the voice of the character were Hans Conrid (who voiced Captain Hook in Disney's Peter Pan (1953)), Sabu (Who played Mowgli in the 1942 live action film version of The Jungle Book) and Frank Gorshin (The Riddler in TV's Batman). 

Terry Gilkyson was originally going to be the songwriter for this film, but as the picture moved away from the original darker treatment, he was replaced by the Sherman Brothers. However, one Terry Gilkyson song was kept and that became the most famous in the film, The Bare Necessities. Kaa's song, Trust in Me began as a song titled The Land of Sand. The Land of Sand was a song that had been written for Mary Poppins (1964) but not used in that movie. In an unused scene Mary Poppins would have taken the kids to the Sahara Desert and sang a song about the mirages and strange visions you see in the desert. Though that song was never used, the Sherman Brothers remained very fond of the song and reworked it for The Jungle Book. 

Milt Kahl (the supervising animator for Shere Khan) spoke about the relationship between his animation and George Sanders' voice work. He stated, "Shere Khan isn't really a caricature of Sanders, but if you have a voice like that and know Sanders, you can't help having a resemblance - there's no way to avoid it. When we started the picture, we were thinking about a more two-dimensional villain, like Jack Plance. Then Ken Anderson did a drawing of a tiger with Basil Rathborne in mind - a supercilious character, who was kind of above it all. He became quite a powerful character - so polite and understated." 

The character of Baloo was a minor character in Peet's original treatment (just as he was in the book). However after seeing Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson's animation of this character, Walt felt that this character's role should be extended. Thomas and Johnson spoke about this stating, "Once Baloo had become a definite individual, he was so entertaining that it was impossible to keep him out of the rest of the picture. Instead of the little cameo part that had been planned, he was built into the story more and more until he was the force that made it work. Phil Harris' performance added sincerity in a colorful character that gave new interest to everything he did, but, most important, this bear suddenly had great warmth, something the picture had needed." 

This also marked the first animated Disney feature to reuse animation (something that would become more common in the 1970's). Quite a bit of the animation of the elephant herd was taken from the Disney short film, Goliath II (1960). The rescue of Mowgli from King Louie was taken from a scene in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). Animator John Ewing talked about the latter of these scenes stating, "Woolie [director Wolfgang Reitherman] wanted the sequence to be fast paced and funny. 'You know like the chase sequence from Wind and the Willows?' he asked. 'Uh yes,' I replied, recalling only vaguely the scene he was referring to. 'Well all you have to do is redraw the weasels into monkeys,' Woolie said, 'and Mole and Rat into Baloo and Bagheera.' 'Right.' I said trying to sound confident. 'And the rolled-up paper can be Mowgli.' 'Right.' 'Well get the drawings from the morgue' said Woolie, 'and good luck.' It was very, very hard work. Weasels into monkeys wasn't too difficult. But Rat in Baloo was virtually impossible, and the deed to Toad Hall into Mowgli was impossible. But I did it and it worked." 

Even as the animation was being done, the story had not been clear even to the people working on it. Milt Kahl would state, "We had four sequences in this picture animated before we knew where the hell we were going with the story at all ... I don't think anyone else could make a picture like this except Walt ... Frank Thomas and I did the first night in the forest when the leopard was taking the boy home. We developed Bagheera, the boy and the snake ... Meanwhile Ollie Johnson was getting into the Baloo thing and Phil Harris got in on it. The boy is kidnapped by the Bandar-log (monkeys), and we had the King Louie sequence. Yes, from the middle out: we didn't have any story. We didn't have a beginning or any ending or anything."  Many of those working on the film credited Walt with combining these seemingly unrelated sequences into an easy-to-follow story.


This film premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on October 18, 1967. The event also served as a fundraiser for the Los Angeles Zoo, which was only founded a year earlier. Mrs. Reese Hale Taylor, president of the zoo was there and called the film a “swinging safari that will amuse the young and old.” This was a star-studded evening. Big time movie stars including Bob Hope, Charlton Heston, and Fred MacMurray were there, along with their own families. However, they were not the first audience to see the film. That afternoon more than 1,200 under-privileged children attended the first real screening of the movie. Buses named after well-known Disney characters picked the kids up. They were met at the theater by various Disney cartoon stars including Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Art Linkletter, host of the TV's Kids Say the Darndest Things!, interviewed some of the kids for the local TV station KTTV, which did live coverage of the event. This film was released to many theaters as half of a double bill with Charlie the Lonesome Cougar (1967), which was the first feature length Disney film made without Walt's involvement. The Jungle Book was a huge success and earned $13 million. Critics were mixed on the film with some finding it incredibly charming, while others felt it was too light on story and lacked the magic of earlier animated Disney features. Howard Thompson from the New York Times called it, "a perfectly dandy cartoon feature ... grand fun for all ages." Richard Schickel called it, "the best thing of its kind since Dumbo." Judith Crist said it was "completely devoid of mood or atmosphere ... a middle brow cartoon of middling quality." In his landmark book, The Disney Films, Leonard Maltin stated, "The Jungle Book is a very easygoing film. The trouble is it's too easygoing. Though it has a lot of to offers and the characters are very likable, the film is singularly lacking in excitement. It ambles through in a genial fashion but keeps one waiting for something to happen." The song The Bare Necessities was nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars. According to Gregory Peck it was considered for Best Picture but ended up not being nominated for that category. If it was it would have been the first animated movie with such a distinction. This film was reissued to theaters three times (1978, 1984, and 1990). Because the film was viewed with such prestige it never aired on Disney's anthology TV show.  



This movie has a major legacy in Disney history. The 1990's Disney animated TV series Tale Spin would feature Baloo, King Louie, and Shere Khan as major characters. Also in the 1990's was another animated Disney TV show, Jungle Cubs which featured child versions of various Jungle Book characters. In 1993 Disney would make a video game based off the film simply called The Jungle Book. Disney would distribute a live action film version, The Jungle Book (1994). A few years later Disney would make a direct to video live action movie entitled The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (1998). Disney would make a theatrically released animated sequel to their 1967 film entitled The Jungle Book 2 (2003). The sequel was intended as a direct to video movie but ended up being released theatrically instead. The Disney studio would remake their 1967 movie as a combination live action and CGI film, The Jungle Book (2016). 

An image from Tale Spin.

An image from Jungle Cubs.

For any film nerds reading this (which should be many of you), the Buena Vista Distribution Pressbook for this movie is available to read for free online. For anyone interested you can click here. If you want to see who animated what in this film click this link.

Below is a video of Disney legend Floyd Norman talking about working on this movie as a storyboard artist.

Review

A very charming movie.

This is one of the most leisurely and laid-back Disney animated features. However, this is what makes this film so charming. This is a movie that is simply relaxing to watch, and it is this slower pace that makes it so engrossing. For 78 minutes we are transported to this place and with these characters. This movie has the same charm as spending a nice relaxing day with good friends. It doesn't hurt that these characters are so charming as well. Baloo and Bagheera feel completely real to us, and we simply enjoy spending time with them. This is a film that brings even a little personality to even the most minor characters, something that can be especially felt in the scenes with the elephants. This relaxed and leisurely feel also comes from the fact that this movie is in many ways composed of various set pieces placed together by a loose story. While some other Disney animated features also attempted this, none of them pulled it off with the skill and charm that this one does. One of the main reasons for this is that every one of these set pieces is very charming and does something to further set up the film's atmosphere. 

This film also features one of the best animated Disney villains, Shere Khan. There is a lot of great buildup for him before he appears that sets up how major of a threat he is. Yet when we finally see him, he completely lives up to all this build up. This character is a lot of fun with his pompous and outwardly laid-back attitude. Yet he is also an incredible threat to our heroes. Though most of this film is laid back, the big confrontation with him is a fantastic suspense scene that ranks among Disney's best. 

This movie also benefits from a great sense of humor and wonderful songs. There were many moments that made me laugh out loud and there was not one weak song in the whole film. Though the most attention goes to the fun numbers of Bare Necessities and I Want to be Like You, I have a very soft spot for the hauntingly lovely song the human girl sings at the end of the movie.  

This is simply a wonderful movie. 

Film Credits

Director: Wolfgang Reitherman.

Writers: Larry Clemmons, Ralph Wright, Ken Anderson, Vance Gerry, Bill Peet.

Based on the Mowgli stories by Rudyard Kipling.

Voices: Phil Harris (Baloo), Sebastian Cabot (Bagheera), Bruce Reitherman (Mowgli), George Sanders (Shere Khan), Sterling Holloway (Kaa), Louis Prima (King Louie), J. Pat O'Malley (Col. Hathi, Buzzie), Verna Felton (Elephant), Clint Howard (Elephant), Chad Stuart (Vulture), Lord Tim Hudson (Vulture), John Abbott (Wolf), Ben Wright (Wolf), Darleen Carr (Human Girl).

Producer: Walt Disney

Music: George Bruns.

Music Editor: Evelyn Kennedy.

Orchestrator: Walter Sheets.

Songwriters: Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, Terry Gilkyson.

Editors: Tom Acosta, Norman Carlisle.

Layout Artists: Dale Barnhart, Tom Codrick, Basil Davidovich, Don Griffith, Sylvia Roemer.

Background Artists: Frank Armitage, Al Dempster, Ralph Hulett, Bill Layne, Art Riley, Thelma Witmer.

Supervising Animators: Frank Thomas, Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston, John Lounsbery

Animators: Eric Cleworth, John Ewing, Fred Hellmich, Hal King, Eric Larson, Dick Lucas, Walt Stanchfield

Effects Animator: Dan MacManus.

Sound Artist: Robert O. Cook.

Production Manager: Don Duckwall.

Resources Used

The Disney Films by Leonard Maltin

The Animated Movie Guide edited by Jerry Beck (Jungle Book section written by Martin Goodman)

The Walt Disney Film Archives: The Animated Movies 1921-1968 edited by Daniel Kothenschulte (Jungle Book section written by Charles Solomon). 

http://www.thedisneyfilms.com/search/label/Jungle%20Book%20%28The%29

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061852/?ref_=ttsnd_ov_i

https://mediahistoryproject.org/

https://afilmla.blogspot.com/search/label/JungleBook

https://d23.com/this-day/the-jungle-book-premieres/

https://d23.com/the-1967-premiere-of-the-jungle-book-was-a-swinging-star-studded-safari/

-Michael J. Ruhland