Channel J: The Second Disney Jungle Book

It’s safe to say that The Jungle Book is one of Disney’s most popular classic movies, enduring for nearly 50 years.  The tale of Mowgli being forced to move away from the only home he’s known is something a lot of us identify with.  That it in no way comforts him to know that he can make new friends where he’s going illustrates how lost we feel when we have to pack up and make the trip to a new city ourselves.  Granted, he only lives there for about a minute or two of screen time, but in universe, he’s spent years with the wolves and it’s obvious why he wouldn’t want to leave.

Live action versions based on Rudyard Kipling’s original book already existed as far back as the 1942 version directed by Zoltan Korda, so it seemed like a no-brainer when Disney released a live action version as well.  It features John Cleese and Sam Neill as well as several actors at the beginning of their careers.

Wait, you don’t remember seeing John Cleese in this?  Here he is near the start of the film when Shere Khan attacks the encampment:

You still seem to be confused.  Did you think I was referring to “The Jungle Book” which was released in 2016 not long after a certain human-free animated film from Disney?  Nope, I’m referring to “Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book” which was released in 1994 not long after a certain other human-free animated film from Disney.  Yep, it turns out that there are several versions of The Jungle Book made by Disney.

In the early 90s, TaleSpin proved that there was still enough interest in characters like Baloo and King Louie and Shere Khan to carry a series for 65 episodes.  The publication of The Third Jungle Book also proved that people were still willing to write about Mowgli as long as people were still willing to read about him.  A live action film was inevitable.

The movie opens as a tour group is making its way through India.  The roars of a tiger echo around them, for Shere Khan is angry.  He has come to find out that three among the tour group broke jungle law.  That night, he attacks the camp and through a series of unfortunate incidents, Mowgli, the son of the tour guide Nathoo, finds himself lost in the jungle with only his pet wolf pup, Grey Brother, for company.

As an origin story, it’s quite different from Disney’s other versions and even the original Kipling tale.  Both this version and the one released in 2016 show Shere Khan killing Mowgli’s father, but the original source material did not.  In fact, Shere Khan claims, and the book never says to the contrary, that Mowgli’s parents ran off when he attacked.  At least it’s better than the animated version, where Mowgli’s found with no context to how he came to be lost in the jungle in the first place.

As in the animated version, Bagheera is the one who discovers Mowgli.  Upon hearing Shere Khan’s roars in the distance, the panther decides to lead the young child to a wolf pack for safety.  Initially, the wolves are cautious and yet curious as they behold this new arrival in the jungle.

The wolves in Kipling’s version have a very structured society.  Mowgli’s adoptive parents live by themselves but regularly go to Council Rock for their Pack meetings.  At one such meeting, Mowgli is brought in front of the pack and after Baloo speaks for him and Bagheera purchases the boy’s life with a freshly killed bull, he is made a member of the pack.  The book gives the impression that the wolf pack is large and the 2016 version confirms this, but the pack in the 1994 version numbers ten individuals, total.  Including pups.

Baloo was there from the beginning, teaching the wolf pups in the book, and even in the animated and 2016 versions, he is full grown when Mowgli first meets him, but in the 1994 version, he’s found as a young cub, stuck in a log.  He befriends Mowgli when the boy pulls him out, and they both grow up together.

The book and animated film also employ a time skip to allow for Mowgli to grow, but the skip only covers about a decade or so, meaning he’s still young when interesting things start to happen in his life: being stolen away by monkeys, defeating and killing Shere Khan, leaving his pack to make the journey to the village of man, and more.  The 2016 version doesn’t even bother with a time skip, introducing him at the age when he starts having his adventures.

The animated and 2016 versions differ in regards to Mowgli’s return to man, with the animated version showing him being lured away by a girl who’s being too flirty for her own good, whereas the 2016 version ends with Mowgli living with all his animal friends in the jungle, one big family.  In both, Mowgli is still a boy when the movie ends.

Mowgli also remains young in most of Kipling’s original stories, but here in the 1994 version, he is allowed to grow up.  In this version, his conflict with the primates living in the jungle happens when a monkey steals a bracelet he received when he was a boy, and it is very precious to him, so he gives chase.  Given that he’s too big to be carried away, which is exactly what had happened to him in other versions of the story, this is the best the movie can do.

So Mowgli pursues the thief until he finds the city of the monkeys, where the king of the city, an orangutan, taunts him while holding the bracelet.  It’s interesting that this orangutan is supposed to be King Louie, because while Louie is also present in the animated and 2016 films as well as shows like TaleSpin and Jungle Cubs, he never appears in the original book.  He is completely a Disney creation, a fact which isn’t widely known; Bill Willingham, co-creator and writer of Fables, wrote King Louie into the series in issue 7 before finding out that he isn’t a public domain character.

Out of his three appearances in film, the 1994 movie is the only one where King Louie isn’t after Mowgli for the secret of fire.  In fact, he doesn’t seem to be after Mowgli at all.  He wants to be like human in the animated version and also in the 2016 version and so demands the secret of fire, but in the 1994 version, he just seems content with what he has.  He is especially fond of a crown he often wears.

The motivations of the monkeys in the original Kipling version are similarly unclear, given how less than organized they are with no king to guide them, but they swipe Mowgli and then hold him prisoner.  It is up to his friends Bagheera and Baloo to save him and they enlist the help of Kaa to do so.  As was mentioned last week, the original version of Kaa is an ally to Bagheera and Baloo and later one to Mowgli as well.

This version of Kaa lives in the monkey city in what I assume to be a tenuous relationship with the monkeys and tries to kill Mowgli, but the large anaconda is fought off with a dagger Mowgli finds, and the man earns enough respect from Louie that he wins back the jewelry that was stolen from him.

Meanwhile, the girl who had given the jewelry to him has also grown up.  Katherine, the daughter of Colonel Geoffrey Brydon, still accompanies her father’s friend, Dr. Julius Plumford, on his tours and mocks him openly whenever possible, but with an obvious friendliness to it.  During one such tour, she reunites with Mowgli in a scene that feels more like Tarzan than The Jungle Book.  The only thing it lacks is a “Me Mowgli, you Kitty” line.  Katherine witnesses Mowgli and Baloo playing and having mistaken the playing for a real fight, runs away and directly into the arms of her lover, a soldier named William Boone.  Mowgli follows and mistakes Boone’s advances as an attack and tries to defend her.  He defeats Boone and two of his fellow soldiers and pushes them into the river, but when a third is being ordered to shoot him, Bagheera and Baloo come to his aid.

That night, he spends time with his friends but resolves to enter the nearby village, where he sews some chaos as he makes his way through in search of Katherine.  She recognizes the bracelet that he’s wearing as the one she gave him and realizes that this man is Mowgli, the little child that was presumed dead so many years before.  Boone, however, thinks he means Katherine harm and captures him.  When Katherine finds out where Mowgli is being held, she convinces her father and the doctor of his identity and they resolve to teach Mowgli and to study him.

In Kipling’s original stories, only “In The Rukh” details any aspect of Mowgli’s adult life.  Mowgli meets a ranger working for the Department of Woods and Forests and in recognition of his unique skill set, he’s asked to join the service.

By that time in his life, he had been living in both the human and animal worlds long enough to learn to speak English.  In the 1994 movie, he has forgotten everything he’d learned about English during his early childhood, so even the alphabet is initially beyond him.  During these lessons, he picks up the language very quickly and grows closer to Katherine.  Close enough to trust that she won’t run in fear when he introduces her to Baloo, Bagheera and Grey Brother.

Driven by jealousy, Boone wastes no time proposing marriage to Katherine.  He then attempts to get Mowgli to tell him about the city of monkeys, so he can get at the treasure there.  But Boone is denied because he doesn’t keep the Jungle Law.  Mowgli is upset because he has seen the trophies Boone keeps and realizes that the human doesn’t hunt for food but for pleasure.

In revenge, Boone’s friends humiliate Mowgli that night and so Mowgli realizes his place is in the jungle with the wolves and not in human society.  But this loses Boone any affection Katherine had left for him, as she realizes her relationship with him is a mistake and rejects him and his marriage proposal.

In the jungle, Mowgli is ambushed by bandits and when Baloo tries to defend him, the bear is shot for his efforts.  It’s interesting that Disney is constantly showing Baloo being gravely injured in defence of Mowgli, but he is not so badly scathed in the original stories, especially “Kaa’s Hunting” where he fights with the monkeys for Mowgli’s life.  In fact, Baloo grows old and survives to see Mowgli eventually leave his childhood home for good.

But I digress.  Mowgli proves less than willing to be captured, so the bandits instead find and attack Katherine and her father, taking them prisoner instead and delivering them to Boone.  Boone uses Katherine as a hostage to secure Mowgli’s help in finding the city of monkeys.  Mowgli agrees to take them, but his friends in the forest make the trip as miserable as possible for the villains.

With Bagheera’s help, Mowgli escapes again (he told Katherine to stay with them because she’s safer there, having been made aware of Shere Khan’s presence).  With directions Mowgli had previously given them, Boone and the bandits make their way towards the city of monkeys, but they leave Katherine’s father behind for dead, for he was injured severely when he was taken.  Mowgli helps him and then as he tracks the group, he’s attacked by Tabaqui, one of the bandits, whom he pushes off a cliff to his death.

Tabaqui, in the original stories, was a jackal who kept company with Shere Khan until he was killed by Grey Brother.  Having not appeared in the original animated movie, a version of the jackal was developed for Disney’s animated sequel, The Jungle Book 2, but was ultimately dropped.  As a result of his not appearing in either animated movie, he also doesn’t appear in the 2016 film.

The rest of the antagonists are picked off one by one in various traps and fatal encounters with animals (including the fierce Shere Khan), until Boone makes it to the monkey city alone with Katherine.  After Mowgli defeats the other bandit Buldeo, who made it to the city independent of Boone, he defeats Boone in combat using the treasure Boone had sought.  He and Katherine leave Boone behind to be killed by Kaa.

Shere Khan confronts Mowgli outside the city of monkeys.  This is my favourite scene out of all of the versions of The Jungle Book, as Mowgli stares down Shere Khan and earns the tiger’s respect.  The tiger is not an antagonist in this version, unlike the animated version, where he is chased off by Mowgli after the tiger tries to kill him and the 2016 version, where he is killed by Mowgli after making several attempts on the young man-cub’s life.

Baloo earned his injuries in both the animated and 2016 versions in mortal combat with Shere Khan, but despite that, he’s able to pick himself up off the ground and recover.  But having been shot in the 1994 version, he needed more than just a moment to regain his strength.  Fortunately, Mowgli knew someone who could help and upon returning from the city of monkeys with Katherine, he’s reunited with Baloo and Katherine is reunited with her father, both of whom have been treated and recovered from their injuries.

It is presumed that Katherine and Mowgli live happily ever after, as the final scene shows them sharing a kiss surrounded by the wolves he was raised by.  Interestingly, Mowgli does take a wife in Kipling’s story “In The Rukh” and they do go and live in the jungle with a pack of wolves.  Mowgli even has a child with her.

So that was Disney’s first live action adaptation of The Jungle Book.  Next week, I take a look at Disney’s second live action adaptation of The Jungle Book.

Just kidding.  Next week I’ll be posting something completely different.

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Stay tuned for more Channel J!  In our next episode: my least favourite reason to end a relationship.