The Jungle Book (1967)

 

Genre: Family/ Adventure

Time: 1h 20mins

Director: Wolfgang Reitherman

Quick Summary: Mowgli is a young boy who has been raised by wolves. When a man-eating tiger threatens his life, his animal family tries to convince him to leave the jungle and live in the human village.

"Nothing will get between us"

*a woman enters the scene*

Seriously, that is how the ending goes. It felt so out of nowhere and I found it more funny than anything else because of how on the nose it was. That is what this film is mostly. Funny. I was laughing at some sort of silly thing like Bagheera's over-dramatic reactions, moans, groans, faces; Baloo just being a big old goofy bear; Monkeys; and Mowgli interacting with things in the jungle. Mowgli was such a goofy little guy. I don't think there were many brain cells going on up there, but it made him so funny to watch. Pulling faces, mimicking other animals, pulling shenanigans to Kaa the Snake, and just generally mucking around.

The music in this has more of a Jazz focus and I love that, it's certainly a different pace for Disney back then. Funky dance moves that I would most certainly accompany these beats, little Mowgli trying to copy them was so adorable and funny to watch as it was like a toddler trying to copy their parents. Baloo reminds me of that typical uncle who would head straight to the dancefloor. I know that this will be a hot take but I do find "I wanna be like You" a much better song than "Bear Necessities", but please don't get me wrong as I still find it a lyrically fun song and watching Mowgli getting thrown about or failing to copy his bear idol was really enjoyable. "I Wanna Be Like You" just has so much more jazz and things going on, my attention was glued to it all the way through. Mostly because I am a sucker for Monkeys trying to do human things. 

All that said, there isn't too much of a story. I expected a bigger showdown with the villain, Sheer Kan a huge Tiger that commands the Jungle with terror. For how much he's hyped up to be this big bad guy who will tear you down the instant you disobey him, the actual confrontation was extremely lacklustre. Maybe I expected too much from this. There isn't much else, it's just Mowgli in the jungle before he's converted to go to the man village. That isn't a bad thing, since this is funny enough to keep itself interesting.

Another thing that actually really annoyed me is how much they reused animation from earlier in the film. Almost shot for shot, they reuse the scene of Kaa being pushed out of the tree twice. There were quite a few moments like that and honestly, it feels so lazy, especially for Disney. At least there's a funny little insert about these vultures that look like the Beatles that I may have laughed at way too hard.

While this is charming and funny, the lazy animation is hard for me to look over as well as it is a little boring. Still, this is enjoyable all the way through. 

7/10

"Baloo: Ha ha! Man, that's what I call a swinging party."

"Bagheera: Baloo, birds of a feather should flock together. You wouldn't marry a panther now, would you?

Baloo: I don't know.

[laughs]

Baloo: Come to think of it, no panther has ever asked me. Ha-ha."