If the favourite Disney animated film for little girls is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Cinderella, the favourite for boys has to be The Jungle Book, a fun adventure based on Rudyard Kipling’s story. It wasn’t the first adaptation – there was a live-action movie in 1942 starring Sabu – but this is the one against which all other adaptations will always be measured.
The animation isn’t that striking, but it’s the vocal performances and the songs (‘Bare Necessities’, ‘I Wanna Be Like You’) that give this movie such a large helping of charm. It’s the story, of course, of young Mowgli (Bruce Reitherman), who is raised in the jungle by wolves who decide to send him to a local ‘man tribe’ when they hear the villainous tiger Shere Khan (Sanders) is on the prowl. It’s on the journey that he meets Baloo the bear (Harris) and orang-utan King Louie (Prima).
This was the last animated movie overseen by Walt Disney, who died during production in 1966.
Is The Jungle Book (1967) suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
Shere Khan is quite scary for small kids.
If you like this, why not try: The Jungle Book 2, Madagascar, The Princess And The Frog, The Wild, Tarzan,