he Jungle Book will always hold a special place in my cinematic heart, as it's the first movie I ever saw in a theatre. Not on its original run, of course, but during a 1990 re-release, when I was six years old. I hadn't seen the movie since then and its remarkable how much of that early experience came back. I guess I have thing for remembering movies I see.
What I remember most about the movie was how I got creeped out by the python, Kaa (voice of Sterling Halloway). The snake has the ability to hypnotize anyone who looks into its eyes, and I was more frightened that the young protagonist, Mowgli (Bruce Reitherman) would forever fall asleep under his influence than be mauled to death by the movie's real antagonist, the tiger Shere Kahn (George Sanders). Not that I wasn't a little disturbed by Shere Kahn as well, but I remember congratulating myself for not getting too scared and running out of the theatre.
Had you asked me immediately after I saw the movie in 1990, I surely would have given The Jungle Book four stars (if I knew what a star rating was back then, of course). But it is a good movie if you're not six years old?
Well, maybe it's good at seven, eight, or nine, but beyond that the picture has limited value. For those who don't know, it's based on a series of short stories by super racist Rudyard Kipling about the feral child Mowgli, who is raised by wolves in the jungles of India. The wise panther Bagheera (Sebastian Cabot), recognizes that Mowgli must leave the jungle and return to his fellow humans if he is to escape the wrath of Shere Kahn, and he sets out with the boy on the journey to the man village.
The setup to the movie is quite well done. There is a real sense of really being the jungle at the character and animation is also strong. It seems the Ralph Bakshi was paying close attention here. But after awile the movie becomes essentially a road film, with one episode after another. The "star" of the film is supposed to be Baloo the bear (Phil Harris), but the character is just annoying. Once the movie abandoned its somewhat serious, naturalistic tone (reminiscent of Bambi) it has a lot of kid stuff in it, which gets grating, long with Baloo, pretty fast.
Okay, okay, it's a kids movie, but all of the great Disney films, from Pinocchio to Aladdin are great because they can be enjoyed by people of all ages. The Jungle Book is definitely not in the above films league. Although the animation is excellent, the characters are poorly written, the structure lazy, the songs forgettable. Unless you were me at six, and you just can't get that snake out of your head.
The Jungle Book (1967)