The Jungle Book (G)
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streaming sites: Disney+ (other sites only if/when it's out of the Disney Vault)

Caution: spoilers!

This came out in 1967, eight years before I was born. I feel like I must have seen it sometime when I was a kid in the 80s, but when I watched it again on DVD in 2015, there wasn't much about the story that was familiar. I was only expecting to remember one song- "The Bare Necessities"- but when I watched it now, "I Wanna Be Like You" was also somewhat familiar. Anyway, the movie was inspired by Rudyard Kipling's stories, which I'm afraid I've never read. But I gather there's a great deal of difference between the stories and the movie.

It begins with a human baby (or "man cub") being found in a basket in the jungle, by a panther named Bagheera, who delivers him to the cave of a family of wolves that had recently had cubs of their own. The wolves adopt the baby, and the movie flashes forward ten years. The boy is now named Mowgli, and he's apparently quite popular among all the wolves. But when they learn that a tiger named Shere Khan has returned to the jungle (where he was, I have no idea), they decide that Mowgli will have to return to the man village just outside the jungle, which he knows nothing of. This is because Shere Khan hates all humans (because they have guns and fire), so he would surely kill the young boy if he found him. Bagheera volunteers to take Mowgli to the village, but he stubbornly resists, wanting to remain in the jungle. So Bagheera frequently gets frustrated with Mowgli, and several times he seems to abandon the boy, but ultimately he always returns whenever Mowgli seems to be in danger.

Throughout the journey, they occasionally meet other animals. There's a python named Kaa (who would be a lot more menacing if he didn't sound like Winnie the Pooh). Kaa wants to eat Mowgli, and he tries to gain an advantage by hypnotizing anyone he encounters, though I have no idea why he'd bother with this, because I'm pretty sure he could have easily just squeezed Mowgli or even Bagheera to death. But whatevs. Anyway, he's basically just comic relief, not a terribly serious threat. Later, they meet some elephants, the leader of whom is Colonel Hathi, who has the personality of a somewhat daft yet officious old British soldier. Anyway, Mowgli becomes friends with Hathi's young son, but soon Mowgli and Bagheera continue on their way. And then Mowgli meets a laid-back bear named Baloo, who becomes his new best friend/father figure. Mowgli decides he wants to be a bear now, himself, and Baloo takes an immediate liking to the boy. But before long, Mowgli gets kidnapped by monkeys, who take him to their king, an orangutan named Louie. Bagheera and Baloo stage a rescue, though it's kind of not very well organized, because Baloo gets caught up in the fun of singing and dancing with Louie and the monkeys. Still, they do finally succeed in rescuing Mowgli.

Later, Bagheera manages to convince Baloo that Mowgli would be safer in the man village, though Baloo is reluctant to let Mowgli go. And when Mowgli finds out that Baloo plans to take him there, he runs away. It's not long after that when we finally see Shere Khan for the first time, who overhears Bagheera trying to convince the elephants to help find Mowgli. So, he starts looking for the boy. There's another scene with Kaa, and then Mowgli meets some friendly vultures (who sound like the Beatles, except as a barbershop quartet). And Shere Khan finally finds Mowgli while he's singing with the vultures, but Mowgli's too stupid to be afraid of the tiger. So he winds up being saved by Baloo, with a little help from the vultures. Actually, Mowgli manages to drive Shere Khan away himself, though I won't say how. (I feel like I've said way too much already, but I'm afraid I need to say just a bit more...) Finally, Bagheera and Baloo get Mowgli to the outskirts of the man village, where he still doesn't want to go. Until he spots a pretty girl about his age fetching some water and singing a song. And Mowgli pretty quickly becomes twitterpated, a reaction that's obviously (if wordlessly) encouraged by the girl, when she spots him. (Seriously, the looks she gives him are rather shockingly sultry, for a kid her age.) So, he follows her into the village, leaving Bagheera and Baloo alone. (Those two had never gotten along very well, because Bagheera was so serious and Baloo was so not, but now that Mowgli's gone... it looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.)

Anyway. I really liked the animation, at least the background animation. The jungle looked lush and beautiful. And at least the two songs I mentioned were fun. And it's got some decent characters. And the story itself is reasonably entertaining, even if it's basically just a series of loosely connected scenes. I do sort of think of it as a classic, but not one that I care a great deal about, nor one I'd feel like watching very often. But it was really nice to finally see it again, after all these years. (Assuming I'd actually seen the whole thing as a kid; I might have just seen bits and pieces. I could well imagine a couple of the songs having been used in some animated compilation episode of The Wonderful World of Disney, and I'd be shocked if the final scene hadn't been used in a Valentine's Day episode. Oh, and Shere Khan and Kaa were apparently used in a Halloween episode. So yeah, it is possible that 2015 was the first time I saw the whole movie. Maybe.)

There was a sequel in 2003, which I haven't seen, but would probably like to check out, someday.