THE JUNGLE BOOK: Of An Orphaned Human, Concerned Animals, and the Bare Necessities

The Jungle Book (1967) – The 19th Walt Disney Animated Feature – Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman – Starring Bruce Reitherman, Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, George Sanders, Sterling Holloway, and Clint Howard.

Of all the Disney films I watched as a kid – and we must have seen darn near all of them – THE JUNGLE BOOK that was always my favorite. Full of great songs, great animation, and great characters, there were few scenes that didn’t make an impression on me.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen THE JUNGLE BOOK and I was a bit nervous giving it a spin after all this time. Heck, it’s been so long since I’ve seen JUNGLE that the last time I saw Baloo, Louie, and Shere Khan was on the excellent Disney afternoon cartoon TaleSpin.

I needn’t have worried. THE JUNGLE BOOK is a phenomenally good movie, and one of the very best in the Disney catalog. It’s still got great songs, great animation, and great characters, and it was every bit as enjoyable now as it was 30 years ago when I was a kid. What struck me this time around was how complex a character Bagheera is throughout the film: he’s incredibly caring for Mowgli’s condition, but he also struggles in the caregiver role, often times acting as much the petulant child as Mowgli.

Mowgli (Bruce Reitherman) has life because of Bagheera (Sebastian Cabot), as it’s the serious-minded black panther that discovers the orphaned baby inside a basket inside a broken canoe inside the jungles of India. Believing that he is not qualified to raise the human baby, Bagheera leaves him at the cave-step of a wolf family who has recently expanded with a new litter. The mother wolf instantly takes the child in, and when the father agrees Mowgli has a chance to live and a family with which to grow.

A decade or so later, Mowgli has grown up with the wolves and all is well until the rumored return of Shere Khan, a bengal tiger and man killer. The council of wolves tells Mowgli’s father the boy can no longer stay in the jungle. Mowgli’s father is incredulous, insisting that Mowgli is his son and thus should get the protection of the pack. The wolf leader would like to help, but this is Shere Khan and Shere Khan clearly scares the alpha out of him.

For the second time, Bagheera steps in and offers a solution; he’s willing to take Mowgli to a human village several days walk from here, and this meets with approval from the wolf pack.

Now, I love this movie from start-to-finish, but there are some wobbles in the narrative. Among them is that Mowgli’s family is an almost complete non-factor. They do the business of raising him, but the film is more interested in Bagheera’s guardian angel role. It would have been nice to see more of the family but we barely feel their presence. Even when Bagheera takes Mowgli away for one of their jungle walks and finally reveals to the young boy that they’re not going back, Mowgli’s desire to return feels like it’s less about reuniting with his family and more about not having to change his status-quo.

Bagheera is insistent that they keep going even when Mowgli insists he’s not afraid of Shere Khan. They spend the night in a tree when they’re set upon by Kaa (Sterling Holloway), a python with hypnotic capabilities. Kaa puts Mowgli under and then Bagheera under, but doesn’t get to eat either of them. While Kaa’s threat is serious, he’s played more for comic relief.

The following morning, Bagheera and Mowgli’s rest is interrupted by Colonel Hathi (J. Pat O’Malley) and his herd of elephants. Mowgli tries to join the procession, befriending Hathi’s son Junior (Clint Howard), but Hathi isn’t having it. What struck me this time was that while this film is set in India, and the elephants are native to India, the elephants are clearly inspired by the British military. Noticing this, I went looking for some kind of pro-colonial sentiment, but it’s just not there. Casting Euros and Americans to voice most of the character simply seems a stylistic choice, and while you can’t completely ignore the implications of using non-native voices, it doesn’t feel wrong, either.

Post-elephants, Bagheera and Mowgli run across the real star of JUNGLE: Baloo the Bear (Phil Harris).

Baloo is one of the very best Disney characters to ever grace the silver screen. A bit lazy but also completely in love with the leisurely life, Baloo is instantly taken with Mowgli. Bagheera is beside himself at Mowgli bonding with Baloo, and even more beside himself that Baloo wants the young man cub to stay with him. Baloo sings his legendary, “Bare Necessities” song, and it, too, is one of Disney’s all-time bests. “Necessities” is a wonderful ode to finding satisfaction in the simple things in life; as great as the song sounded when I was a kid, it still sounds equally great now.

Mowgli, Bagheera, and Baloo form the real family unit in JUNGLE BOOK. Where Bagheera is like the over-concerned aunt who drops in once every few months, Baloo is like the cool uncle who’s always willing to tell you that the only thing dumber than chores is homework. Bagheera’s insistence that Mowgli be taken to the Man Village is complete brushed aside by Baloo, and thus Mowgli is drawn to the bear just as he was drawn to the elephants. Mowgli is clearly just looking for a port in the storm to keep him away from going to live with humans, and Bagheera has had it, slinking off to leave Mowgli and Baloo to the fates.

Almost instantly Mowgli is stolen away from Baloo by some monkeys, who take the boy to King Louie (Louis Prima). Louie is willing to let Mowgli stay with him, as long as Mowgli gives the King the secret of “man’s red flower,” by which he means fire. Mowgli doesn’t know how to give him that, which doesn’t make Louie thrilled. We get another excellent musical number from Louie with “I Wanna Be Like You,” and a raid by Bagheera and Baloo to rescue Mowgli.

This kidnapping experience teaches Baloo that he wouldn’t make a good parent for Mowgli, and he decides to tell the boy that Bagheera is right and he should go to the man village. Mowgli does not react well to this, and runs away. Baloo and Bagheera split up to search for the boy, but Shere Khan (George Sanders) gets there first, coming upon Mowgli when he’s singing with some vultures who are modeled on the Beatles.

Shere Khan is a wonderful bad guy. Full of intelligence and speaking with an air of sophistication, Shere Khan is also the baddest animal in the jungle, and everyone knows it. JUNGLE does an excellent job of building Shere Khan up without really using him all that much. He plays everything understated but laced with menace, which makes Baloo’s decision to insert himself in the Shere Khan vs. Mowgli fight all the more heroic. Mowgli ends up defeating Shere Khan by using fire against the tiger, and it’s a bit of a quick ending to an otherwise good fight.

Ultimately, the idea of a Bagheera, Baloo, and Mowgli family is broken up when Mowgli spots a human girl about his age getting water from a river. He’s instantly struck dumb by the sight of the girl, and leaves Baloo and Bagheera behind for a chance to follow the girl back into the village. The seeming eternal bachelor Baloo is horrified by this, but Bagheera feels this was both inevitable and right.

It’s a bit unfortunate that the film drives home the point that “everyone belongs with their own kind,” though the full impact of that idea is mitigated by presenting only two worlds: the human world and the jungle world. Shere Khan is still out there, after all, and thus Mowgli’s life is every bit in danger at the end of the film as it was back near the beginning. He probably is safer with the humans, but it’s important that this is a decision Mowgli makes absent of Shere Khan’s influence. He sees a girl, he falls instantly in love, he decides to follow her and ditch his friends.

Been there. Done that.

THE JUNGLE BOOK is a fantastic movie. While there are some narrative burps along the way, this is a thoroughly enjoyable film from the opening frame to the last and one of Disney’s absolute bests.

THE BLACK CAULDRON: Of An Assistant Pig Keeper, An Atypical Disney Princess, and a Horned King

The Black Cauldron (1985) – The 25th Walt Disney Animated Feature – Directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich – Starring Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones, Nigel Hawthorne, John Hurt, and John Byner.

I read all of Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain books as a kid and remember enjoying them but don’t remember much about them. What I do remember is that the image of the Horned King resonated rather strongly.

That’s creepy.

I don’t get too worked up about movies that don’t replicate their source material – the source material exists and isn’t going anywhere, so what I want more than anything is for the movie to entertain me, and if that means some aspects of a book get tossed or some new details are added, well, so be it. Sometimes authors get too possessive and don’t understand that movies and novels are different beasts. Alexander isn’t one of these authors, and I find his take honest and refreshing; he told scholastic.com: “First, I have to say, there is no resemblance between the movie and the book. Having said that, the movie in itself, purely as a movie, I found to be very enjoyable. I had fun watching it. What I would hope is that anyone who sees the movie would certainly enjoy it, but I’d also hope that they’d actually read the book. The book is quite different. It’s a very powerful, very moving story, and I think people would find a lot more depth in the book.”

It is perhaps Alexander just being nice, or an indication at how dark the Prydain books are that he considers the animated version a fun watch. THE BLACK CAULDRON is one of the very darkest of all Disney animated features. There’s a cute pig who can see the future and a small, furry … dog-like creature to add a bit of levity, but the story here and the animation that goes along with it is decidedly dark and somber compared to not only other Disney films, but other kids’ movies.

And that’s really the problem with BLACK CAULDRON, because while it is dark, it’s not dark enough. For all the effort made to make a grounded, no singing, no dancing, anti fairy tale, CAULDRON doesn’t go all the way with it. We still get the cutesy pig Hen Wen, we still get the talking animal sidekick Gurgi (John Byner), we still get the brightly-colored magical beings in the Fair Folk.

CAULDRON constantly feels conflicted between its darker heart and Disney’s traditions. It’s the first Disney animated film to get a PG rating.

We start in brighter territory as Taran (Grant Bardsley) is an assistant pig keeper for Dalben (Freddie Jones), a sorcerer. Taran dreams big dreams of being a famous warrior, dissatisfied with his lot as pig keeper for Hen Wen, the piglet. What Taran doesn’t realize is that Hen Wen is a very special pig because she can foretell the future. Hen Wen freaks out, Dalben does a vision reading, and discovers that the Horned King (John Hurt) is looking for the pig because he believes the pig can show him where the Black Cauldron is located. The Horned King wants the Cauldron to raise his army of the dead.

Dalben orders Taran to take Hen Wen to a hidden cottage, but Taran’s daydreaming leads to Hen Wen getting captured by the Horned King’s dragons. Taran goes after Hen Wen, meets the shifty Gurgi, and ends up getting captured by the Horned King and stuffed in the dungeon. All of this happens in the seeming blink of an eye, as CAULDRON doesn’t waste any time getting where it’s going.

Taran isn’t in the dungeon for even one scene before Princess Eilonwy (Susan Sheridan) busts him out so they can go wandering around the castle’s catacombs. Eilonwy is not your typical Disney princess and it’s nice to see her and Taran act like the young teenagers they are. They fight about small things but then come together when they realize they’re all they’ve got. Well, they’ve got Gurgi and the terrible bard Fflewddur Fflam (Nigel Hawthorne).

When the three of them escape the Horned King’s castle, thanks in large part to the stolen, magical sword Taran steals from a corpse, you’d think this is where the wacky adventure begins, but through their visit to the Fair Folk and then to the Three Witches, CAULDRON stays dark and serious more than bright and escapist.

Taran trades his magical sword to get the actual Black Cauldron so they can destroy it, but the Horned King’s men grab it, which leads to the dead rising and the big final action sequence, which sees Gurgi sacrificing himself to destroy the Cauldron.

Don’t worry, he gets better.

THE BLACK CAULDRON certainly isn’t a bad film, but neither is it a great film. Unfortunately, it serves as a Disney curiosity more than anything else, as we see in this film a company conflicted about just what to do with this darker story. It’s a shame. THE BLACK CAULDRON is Disney’s 25th animated feature but unlike Tangled, the 50th animated feature, CAULDRON doesn’t have the confidence to push the company forward, and instead reveals a company unwilling to make the movie that the story demands.

THE RESCUERS: Of Two Little Mice, A Girl in Trouble, and a Message in a Bottle

The Rescuers (1977) – The 23rd Walt Disney Animated Feature – Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, John Lounsbery, and Art Stevens – Starring Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor, Michelle Stacy, Geraldine Page, Joe Flynn, Jim Jordan, John McIntire, Jeanette Nolan, Pat Buttram, and Bernard Fox.

THE RESCUERS is a tidy, simple, wonderful treat of an animated film.

A little orphan girl named Penny is in bad straits down in Devil’s Bayou. She’s being kept on a riverboat by some bad people who are forcing her to look for a large diamond. Desperate for help, she drops a message in a bottle and hopes for the best.

The bottle makes its way up the Atlantic seaboard to New York City where it comes to the attention of the Rescue Aid Society, an international secret society of mice. Delegates come in from all over the world (apparently, each country gets a delegate, which makes sense since they hold court inside the United Nations) and Penny’s bottle is the business of the day. The Chairman gets Bernard (Bob Newhart), a mildly nervous janitor to get the bottle open and remove the note. After reading Penny’s plea for help, Miss Bianca (Eva Gabor), the representative from Hungary, steps forward and asks for the mission. The Chairman is a bit flummoxed by the idea of a woman wanting the assignment (especially one that caught the eye of every male mouse when she entered the room), and even more perplexed when she chooses Bernard to come with her.

The main reason THE RESCUERS works is because of the charming chemistry between Bernard and Miss Bianca. Newhart and Gabor are simply wonderful together here, and one of the ways this film feels decidedly different from our contemporary animated films is that the actors are allowed to play their parts in an understated, subtle manner. Newhart and Gabor are playing roles here, not just cashing in on their personalities. Gabor’s Bianca is the more confident of the two, but Newhart’s Bernard has his moments, as well, and they combine to form an fantastic duo. Watching them fall in love over the course of the film complements the rescue narrative as much as their personalities complement each other.

Bianca and Bernard begin their investigation by visiting the orphanage where Penny had been staying. They talk to Rufus (John McIntire), an old cat who “protects” the orphanage. Rufus is so old that he doesn’t even pretend to try and scare the two mice away, instead asking them to leave to save him from being fired. Rufus is a really key character; not only does he establish that Bianca and Bernard are two decent, well-meaning people, but he provides the emotional core of the film by relating what a truly good person Penny is, as well. From this interview forward, THE RESCUERS gains characters I’m rooting for. Yeah, Disney defines this one rather simply – the good guys are all really good and the bad guys are all really bad, but there is an earnestness here that wins me over, and Rufus is the key to it.

Penny gives him some ginger snaps she snuck away from the dinner table for him and you have to be completely cold to not feel for this little girl; the narrative makes you root for her when she relates to Rufus how she was passed over for adoption by a couple who chose another orphan, and then immediately doubles your emotional attachment to her by having her be so nice to Rufus, and then triples it by having Rufus, this been-here-forever old cat be so touched by her plight.

The interview with Rufus leads them to the pawn shop of Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page), which sends them to Devil’s Bayou. To get there they hop aboard Orville (Jim Jordan), an albatross who flies them to their destination. THE RESCUERS is paced really well, and Bernard and Bernice get a brief respite on the flight that helps show us and them that they’ve already grown closer together as Bianca falls asleep on Bernard’s shoulder. There’s a really great shot from behind them as Bianca snuggles next to Bernard, and Bernard’s arm hesitates from wrapping around her shoulder. It’s a small moment but a really symbolic one for their relationship.

When the action shifts to Devil’s Bayou we get to see Penny’s bad situation. Medusa has two pet alligators and a schlub trying to keep Penny in line. The rest of the film has a fair amount of action. The local swamp folk that Bernard and Bianca encounter don’t bring much to the film, but Evinrude the dragonfly’s time spent with them in the swamp makes his return scene at the end work really well. Bernard, Bianca, and Penny escape through a mix of brains and guts and they come back to New York to put a big, happy bow on the adventure for everyone.

In the context of the extended Disney Animation catalog, THE RESCUERS is understated, simple, and heartfelt.