The Jungle Book video has been in our video collection for over two years. The cover has long been torn off the video box that is played on a daily basis in my house. I can hand the white box to my son and he knows it is The Jungle Book video.
The only thing that took some getting used to was the voice of Sterling Holloway as the snake Kaa. We have come to love him as the voice of Winnie the Pooh. At the end of the video, is a clip of the story behind the making of The Jungle Book and the discussion on Walt Disney choosing the voice of the characters and he had the final say in the ending of the video. This is the last video that he was involved with and it is a good one. He died before it was completed.
The video starts off with Mowgli as a small baby in a wicker basket that Bagheera finds and leaves at the door of the family of wolves he knows will take care of the little boy. He has to give the basket a nudge for the wolves to hear him and then they all lick him and in their cave they go.
There is a quick minute or two of the man cub playing with the wolf family and then it is ten years later and a discussion among the pack making plans for where Mowgli should go since Shere Khan the tiger has arrived in the jungle.
It is decided that Mowgli will go back to the man village with Bagheera. This is the story of The Jungle Book. Along the way they meet up with the Elephant herd. The leader of the elephants tells a story and he has his wife and son in the herd as well as others. We learn that an Elephant never forgets and you must always say HALT before coming to a stop.
Kaa, the snake wraps himself up in Mowgli and he sees what happens when you look into the eyes of the snake when he is talking. Mowgli is saved from the snake by Bagheera and off they go to the man village. Mowgli decides he wants to be alone and they part ways.
Mowgli runs into Baloo, who is a bear they nickname, the jungle bum. The bear loves to sing and eats bananas. Baloo and Mowgli get along great and off they go to live in the jungle. Playing in the water and starting to dose off, the bear is surprised to see a monkey on him instead of Mowgli. The monkeys kidnap Mowgli and take him to their King, Louie. Here we have a wild monkey of a time while Mowgli learns all about being a monkey.
Baloo and Bagheera team up to save Mowgli from the monkeys. Baloo does a disguise and enters the monkey house dancing to the silly beat. The music in this segment is very good and my kids always like to dance when the bear enters the monkeys place. Well after a song and a dance, the bear is discovered by the King and they end up destroying the monkey place and Baloo, Mowgli and Bagheera are safe once again.
Mowgli at this point decides he wants to stay with Baloo and after a night of talking between Baloo and Bagheera, it is decided that Baloo will take Mowgli back to the man village. Mowgli runs away from Baloo when he learns the truth.
This is the part where the singing birds fly in and they are similar to the musical foursome of yesteryear. Mowgli does not want to join their band and walks away. At this point, the tiger enters the picture and the birds fly away scared and tell Mowgli to run. He decides there is no running to be done, and stays to stand up to the tiger. A fight ensues and the tiger runs away in the end.
There are other segments of the story that you will find as well. The elephants are doing their march in the jungle and help in finding Mowgli when he was missing. There is a segment where Baloo fought too hard and needed a rest that Bagheera thought was the end for the bear.
The snake encounters the tiger also. This is where Mowgli actually was being held captive by the snake and his snoring almost gave him away. The tiger takes his one sharp claw and inserts it into the snake and that is the end for Kaa. The sounds that Kaa make are hysterical and funny to watch.
The Jungle Book ends with Mowgli going back to the man village and a girl makes that possible. My four-year old son wants to watch this video everyday. His favorite character is the bear, Baloo. I cannot turn the video off until the last song is over. This is after the Making of The Jungle Book.
Since finding this video, we now have some videos that the characters on this video are in as well. The bear is also the voice of a cat in The Aristocats. Besides Winnie the Pooh, Sterling Holloway is also a voice in Dumbo.
The one thing I would of liked to see more of in this video would be the wolves and more details to the first ten years of Mowgli's life. Once they leave for the man village, there is no mention of the wolf family anymore, therefore I am giving this movie four stars. For kids who are used to watching Winnie the Pooh, there might be that adjustment to the voice of Kaa. Adults might use this chance to explain the various characters connected to the voices on these videos and television shows. A lesson is in there. Once you see it a few times, you forget the connection.
The Jungle Book is the 19th animated feature of Walt Disney. The video is digitally mastered, Hi-Fi stereo, color and 78 minutes. The Jungle Book is filled with songs, animation and dancing. The most important lesson from this movie is the friendship between the man cub, the bear and the jaguar. You will want to go back to the jungle time and again to revisit these old friends.
The lush and lively jungle comes alive in this exciting 40th Anniversary Platinum Edition of The Jungle Book, brilliantly restored with enhanced pictu...More at eCOST.com
The lush and lively jungle comes alive in this exciting 40th Anniversary Platinum Edition of The Jungle Book, brilliantly restored with enhanced pictu...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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