The Jungle Book

Hello and welcome to the 32nd episode of Tooncast

brought to you by the Geekcast Radio Network.

I'm your host, TF2 and Mike, and today I am joined

once again by Kevin, Professor Boss K. Doug Thompson.

Hello. How's it going? It's going. How are you?

I am doing good. How was your Christmas? Christmas

was good. Let's see, as far as geek presents

go, I'll call them. Let's see, what did I get

that falls into that category? Revenge of the

Fallen and one, I got a DVD set that I didn't

actually know even existed. I've been asking

for years for the turtles, the three live -action

turtle movies because I've just never had them

and I always, you know, especially the first

one I really loved as a kid. So I've always had

those kind of on my list and I never got them,

but this year I got not just a three pack, it's

actually a four pack. It's the three live action

movies plus the Last Turtles that came out in

the theater. Yeah, they, because I believe it

was this year, 2009 or, I don't know, either

this year or last year is the 25th anniversary

of like four or five different things and I think

Turtles was one of them. Of course, I have no

idea how that would be the 25th anniversary seeing

as how Unless they're going by like the comics

and not the cartoon see me I would go by the

cartoon and if it was the anniversary of the

cartoon that wouldn't work because It was made

in 1987. We just passed 2007 which would be 20

years So they're probably going by the comic

and not their tune Yeah, I I have the original

three pack And that's what I was really asking

for but I'm not gonna complain about getting

all four of them. I'm actually going to be getting

the the newer version Hopefully if I eventually

get a ps3 I will be getting it on blu -ray And

I will probably be giving away or doing whatever

with the other three pack I mean it's nice to

have the three pack there really isn't a whole

hell of a lot of bonus features on there all

the trailers are there and everything else, but

Yeah There seems to be quite a bit of stuff on

this floor pack. It's got the full -screen and

widescreen versions, and then it's got a couple

things I'm not even sure what they are. It says

Sewer Maze, Pick That Foot challenges, the T

-file character bios, DVD -ROM enhanced features.

And then let's see, on the other one, as for

the fourth movie that came out recently, it's

got alternate opening. Splinter 12 is a backstory,

alternate ending, deleted scenes, side -by -side

comparisons of storyboards and CGI action, interviews

with voice talent, Patrick Stewart, Sarah Michelle

Gellar, Laurence Fishburne and filmmakers and

more. So I'm kind of interested to rip that open

and start watching some of that stuff. Yeah,

for the listeners, even though this will air

way after 2010 has started, this will air January

6th. For us, because we're actually ahead of

the recording schedule, we are actually recording

this a week after Christmas. That's why we're

actually talking about Christmas stuff in this

episode, because we talked about it when we did

the... I think we did the Aladdin record before

Christmas. Right. Yeah, and Aladdin will go up

as we... Actually, it's supposed to go up as

we're recording this. It'll be up today at some

point, of course. Those are the two presents

that would most fall into my geek categories,

I guess is what I'm going to call them, but everything

else is quite normal around house type stuff.

Yeah, Christmas was pretty light this year, but

it's alright. I got the main thing that I wanted.

I wanted that Justice League complete series

set so I could kick off the Secret Origins podcast,

another new show that I'll be starting in February.

The episode zero will launch January 2nd, but

the actual show episodes will start, when we

start talking about the cartoon, it'll start

February 2nd, 2010. Yeah, and I'm kind of, actually

I'm not too upset that I didn't have, I had some

more DVDs and whatnot on my list, but I'm kind

of glad I didn't get too many of them because

I still have to watch all of the G .I. Joe episodes,

so that'll be next on my list of watching. Other

than that, really not that much going on. Again,

by the time the listeners get to this, this will

already have been out for about six days. We

just, Steve, myself, Steve, and Michael Powers

of the Lunch Table podcast, we just recorded

Geekcast Radio episode seven, decade in review,

where we spent two hours, four minutes and such

talking about pretty much anything and everything

that had to do with the last ten years. Seeing

as now 2009 is the final year in the first decade

of the new millennium. Excellent. Yes, so we

did that. Just a whole bunch of new stuff releasing.

We've got that special super secret interview

coming up in January from Tooncast. That'll be

featured on Tooncast and the All Things Transformers

feed. Not revealing who it's with yet because

want it to be a surprise and I guess we are going

to move on into Today's topic which is Disney's

the jungle book in our animation spotlight. We'll

be right back. All you gotta do is Look for the

bare necessities The simple bare necessities

Forget about your worries and your strife I mean

the bare necessities Or Mother Nature's recipes

That bring the bare necessities of life Wherever

I wander Wherever I roam I couldn't be found

Of my big home The bees are buzzing in the tree

to make some honey just for me when you look

under the rocks and plants and take a glance

at the fancy ants then maybe try a few You better

believe it. And you're gonna love the way they

tickle. Mowgli, look out! The bare necessities

of life will come to you. Up here. They'll come

to you. Look for the bare necessities, the simple

bare necessities. Forget about your worries and

your strife. I mean the bare necessities. That's

why a bear can rest at ease with just the bare

necessities of life. Now when you pick a paw

paw, or a prickly pear, and you prick a raw paw,

well next time, beware. Don't pick the prickly

pear by the paw when you pick a pair, try to

use the claw. But you don't need to use the claw

when you pick a pair of the big paw paw. Have

I given you a clue? Golly, thanks, Blue. Oh,

boy. Oh, the silly gibberish. Come on, Baggy.

Get with the beat. The bare necessities of life

will come to you. They'll come to me. They'll

come to you. How about scratching that old left

shoulder while you're up there, Mowgli? Now,

just a hair lower. There. Right there. That's

it. Oh. This is beautiful. Oh, that's good. Shit,

we've got to get to a tree. This calls for some

big scratch. Here, let's have a little. Right

on it. Yeah. That's delicious. Oh. Oh, just a

little bit. Mm. Yeah. Oh man, this is really

living. We are back and it is time for the history

lesson. Take it away, Professor. Alright, for

today's history lesson, we're going back to 1967.

The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated feature,

obviously produced by Disney Animation Studios,

and released on October 18th of 1967. And if

you can track, it is the 19th animated feature

in the Walt Disney animated classic series. It

was inspired by the stories about the feral child

Mowgli from the book of the same name by Rudyard

Kipling. The movie contains a number of classic

songs, including The Bear Necessities and I Wanna

Be Like You. Most of the songs were written by

Richard and Robert Sherman, but we'll talk more

about that later. Directed by Wolfgang Reiderman,

it was the last to be produced by Walt Disney,

who actually died during the production of the

Jungle Book. The film grossed over 73 million

dollars in the United States, not counting the

three theatrical reissues. So that does it for

today's mystery lesson. Let's talk some Jungle

Book. Yeah, going into the general memories.

For some odd reason I always remember watching

this and Robin Hood at my aunt Judy's house up

in Massachusetts when I was still living in Massachusetts

I have no idea why but we would always watch

the Jungle Book and Robin Hood I have no clue

Jungle Book for me, I mean it came out in 1967

obviously I'm not born yet But my brother, I

have an older brother that was born in 1970,

and so it came out almost perfect timing for

him to be something he kind of grew up with.

And it was always his favorite movie, which meant

that I got, you know, I probably was exposed

to it more than some of the other Disney movies

just because he really liked it. I think the

thing I remember most about it, just off the

top of my head, is Baloo and the song. character

blue and the song, especially Bear in Necessities,

just sticks with you. It's hard to get out of

your head once you have it in there. But I just

remember Jungle Book being, to me, I don't know

if it was in the order. I obviously don't remember

the order of the Disney movies, how they were

exposed to me, which ones I saw first, etc. But

I remember thinking Jungle Book was just something

completely different than all the rest of the

Disney movies I had seen. You know, if you take

your cinderellas and your sleeping bidis and

your snow lights and you kind of have all that

type of stuff together, it was just different.

It was fun. To me, even though it wasn't new,

it was new to me and it was just fun and different

and just unique. And I think it's just fun. That's

all I can say about this. If you had to describe

every Disney movie in one word and you got to

Jungle Book, I think fun would be the word that

you describe it as. Yeah, you know, and again,

it goes back to us. you know not realizing as

kids in the eighties when we're seeing these

in the eighties you know as I've said many times

before on the show that um you know we thought

oh wow new movie you know right I mean for us

it was a new movie because we didn't know it

came out in 1967 back in 1988 you know right

I mean it was just something that was there for

me it was something that was always there and

that goes for any of the older Disney films like

anything before I would have to say 89 when Little

Mermaid came out anything before that was pretty

much oh wow it's there don't know how I got there

but it is so cool yeah I think there's only one

I've been thinking about that because since we've

been mentioning a couple times the different

episodes I think you're right I think most of

the Disney movies when you see them as a kid

that you think that they're new and you don't

necessarily realize how old they are with one

exception. I think the one thing that the one

Disney movie, and we'll get to it later, that

I watched and immediately kind of realized that

it was old was Dumbo. But we can talk more about

that in a future episode. But Dumbo to me looked

older even the first time I saw it. But Jungle

Book didn't have that. So if I'm going with my

one word analogies, we'll say disturbing for

Snow White. We'll say fun for the Jungle Book

and either awesome or adventurous for Aladdin.

That's what I'm going with. So I guess we can

get into the cast and characters. You have Bruce

Rutherven provided the voice of Mowgli, who is

the main character of the film. Mowgli is an

orphan boy, commonly referred to as Mankub by

the other characters. I mean, he's a kid in the

jungle who grew up with... He's basically Tarzan

Light, if you think of it. Yeah. Cooler than

Tarzan. Phil Harris who voiced Baloo, which is

a flock bear who leads a carefree life and believes

in letting the good things in life come about

themselves. Baloo is just a good character. I

think Baloo makes the movie. Right. And I have

to mention I was looking up the character of

Baloo on IMDB before we started this and I couldn't

remember who voiced him in Tailspin. And I knew

when we did the coverage on Tailspin with Derek

Ferguson from Better in the Dark that it wasn't

the same guy that voiced him in this. And it

was Ed Gilbert who also did the... who also did

the voice of Dormammu from the Spider -Man anime

series. Anyway, I wanted to compare the two because...

Shut up. Yeah, we're not plugging behind the

voice actors dot com right now. Anyway... Good,

because that one's not on there yet. I was going

to say, yeah, you guys are slacking. Anyways...

I wanted to compare Phil Harris and Ed Gilbert

because when I originally first saw a tailspin,

I'm like, oh, cool, it sounds like the exact

same guy that played him in the Jungle Book,

even though it isn't. But the inflection is there,

and I don't know, I always thought it was the

same person, but unfortunately it's not. Yeah,

I thought it was the same person too, but it

sounded wacko. Sebastian Cabot voiced the Bagheera,

a serious black panther who is determined to

take Mowgli back to the village and disapproves

of Baloo's carefree approach to life. Now, I

have a question, I don't know, I didn't look

at this for, I didn't look at IMDB for the animal

sounds. Wonder if Mr. Welker provided the cat

sounds and animal sounds because, I don't know.

It's probably not credited enough. I got an interesting

story actually. I always liked the character

of Bagheera in this. I just like the black panther.

I just like this intimidating, cool, I don't

know, I just liked this character. And actually

my first pet was a black cat. And I didn't actually

name it Bagheera, but I wanted to name it something

that reminded me of the character, so I actually

named my first cat Mowgli. So I kind of combined

the Vaguera and the Mowgli character for my first

cut. Anyway, side note. Yes, ladies and gentlemen.

What did you say? I said, yes, he is a geek,

ladies and gentlemen. Yes, I am. I shouldn't

continue this conversation, but I don't have

that cat anymore, obviously, a long time ago.

But I have two black cats now. I don't know,

I got a thing for black cats, I guess. And one

of them is named Jazz, which obviously is a black

transformer. I am a geek, yes. We got a Louis

Prima voice, King Louis. I wonder if they did

that on purpose. King Louis is an ape who wants

to be a human and offers to let Mowgli stay in

the jungle by bribing him with bananas if Mowgli

shows him the secret of man's red flower, which

obviously is fire. So they never really get to

say why he wants to about fire, but some people

might think it's very obvious. And George Sanders

voiced Sher Khan, the tiger, who wants to kill

Mowgli for this reason the Wolf Council votes

to send Mowgli away. Now, again, this kind of

goes back to Tailspin, because Tailspin was basically

kind of not really a direct spin off of Jungle

Book, but it took Jungle Book characters. I always

thought that Sher Khan was voiced by Tony Jay,

which he was in Tailspin. But again, same thing

with Baloo. The voices are kinda similar between

Sander's version and Tony J's version. Yeah.

We got Sterling Holloway who voiced Ka, the python,

and Ka is determined to catch and eat Mowgli

before Shere Khan does. I never like Ka. Ka was

always my least favorite character. Only time

I like Ka is when Mowgli kicks him out of the

tree both times and he slithers away. But yeah,

I definitely like snakes. I mean, it's easy to

pick a bad character as the release of your character,

but I didn't really mind Shere Khan that much,

but Khan I did not like. Yeah, Shere Khan's not...

I mean, I thought it was... I don't know, and

again, I'm not thinking as far as the actual

order of the Disney films, but outside of Sleeping

Beauty, this to me probably was the most violent

scene. At the end when share cons even though

we don't actually see him We see him clawing

at blue and we kind of see the aftermath But

we don't see you know how when you cut into it

like like if you're gonna cut somebody with a

knife They'll bleed as you're doing it. We don't

actually see that but we see you know him scratching

and clawing and and to me along with the music

and the Thunderstorm that was going on in that

scene. That was like one of the most violent

scenes I've seen so far in a Disney film with

these older ones Yeah. I don't know. That's just

me though. Pat J. O'Malley voiced Colonel Hathi,

the elephant, as well as Buzzy the Vulture. Oh,

the Dawn Patrol. We had Verna Felton voice Winifred,

which is obviously the Colonel's wife. It was

actually Felton's last film role. She died one

day. before Walt Disney did during the film's

production. So kind of a tragic production. Clint

Howard voiced Junior, Colonel Hottie's son. Chad

Stewart voiced Flaps the vulture. Lord Tim Hudson

voiced Dizzy the vulture. John Abbott voiced

Akila the wolf. A lot of these are great voice

actors, like for this film, but I don't actually

remember any of them. Right. And I think that's...

I don't know either. Yeah. I mean, just great,

great stuff. If I was to pick, like, a favorite

character... This movie is kind of actually close

to Aladdin, where it's kind of... I think Aladdin

is a little bit harder, but it's somewhat hard

to pick a favorite character in this one. Yeah.

I mean, because you have, obviously you have

Mowgli, which, you know, most... obviously is

going to be the one that humans can identify

with the most. But you have Baloo who is kind

of just this fun loving guy. You have King Louie

who is obviously crazy. There's not quite as

many characters as Aladdin has that you'd be

choosing from but it's got quite a few good characters.

Yeah, I don't know if I can pick a favorite character

but I can pick one of my favorite interactions

between characters. When the monkeys go to take

Mowgli. and they're throwing stuff at Baloo and

just teasing him with him. I really like that

scene. That was a good scene there. Yeah. I think

I'd have to go with Baloo as my favorite. I guess

if you look at it this way, if you were to take

one character out, could the movie still be as

good? Baloo is the one thing. I mean, obviously

you can't take Mulder out, but Baloo you just

can't take out of this movie and have it be as

good. Right, right. Oh yeah, no doubt. I guess

we can move on to the behind the scenes segment

where there's a bunch of differences between

the actual book and the film. When Walt Disney

Company read the Jungle Book they decided to

make it a more viewer friendly film and altered

the story. Here are some main differences. Rama

is simply Father Wolf in the book. His name in

the film is an error in the book. Rama is actually

a bull from the cattle herd Mowgli had to drive.

when he lived in the man village. I don't think

we're going to be reading all these, but... No,

but there are a couple of them that we should

probably catch on here. In the book, Shere Khan

is killed by Moby in a herd of cattle. But in

the film, he does not die, but runs away and

tries to put out the flaming branch on his tail.

So you have a little difference there. Obviously

the book is a little more violent. And then just

the way they portray some of the characters is

a little bit different. The gear of Baloo, they're

all just a little bit different take on the characters,

but I don't think any of them are as different

as what they did with Ka. In the book, there's

one of Mowgli's close friends who rescues Mowgli

from the Bander log and tells him of the Golden

Ankis and helps fight the red dogs. In the film,

he is a minor antagonist who wants to eat Mowgli.

Okay, yeah. So they just slightly changed that

from you know being his friend to wanting to

eat him But most of the other ones are kind of

kind of minor just different takes on On the

characters making them either a little more serious

or a little more fun or that type of stuff There

was a couple of characters that were absent from

the film if you were a fan of the book one is

I don't know if I'm going to say this right,

but Tabaki the Jackal, who in the book was a

Shere Khan sidekick. And then obviously the Wolfs

play a more important role in the book, when

in the film we only see them really in the beginning.

Yeah. I mean, you didn't really need a sidekick

for Shere Khan at all, and I think that's good

that they didn't put it in there. Yeah, exactly.

And then I think the last one there, there's

no girl that lures Mowgli into the village in

the book. In the book, the main female character

is a woman who adopts Mowgli. So a little bit

different take on that. But I actually have died

with Disney on that one. I'd rather have the

girl go into the village. Yeah, we'll get into

that once we get into the plot, because I've

got some serious issues with that. Oh. Yeah.

Did some of the directors and writers credits.

We have Wolfgang Retherman. I wonder, is Bruce

Retherman his son? They I don't know. I mean,

I don't know if I didn't really look up Bruce

Rutherman on this But I don't know if he was

a kid back then or if he was I mean, you know

It could be the same thing like with what Melendez

and Schultz did with Charlie Brown where they

got kids to do the voices I'm not really sure

but I noticed they have the same last name Interesting

Yes, Larry Clemens did part of the story as well

as Ralph Wright, Ken Anderson, of course Rudyard

Kipling wrote the original book, Mowgli's Stories,

and Bill Peat wrote part of the story for the

film. I guess we can get into the actual show,

because again there really isn't a lot of these

names I don't recognize as far as the people

outside of Walt Disney himself. Here we go, five

seconds in office, go. et cetera, et cetera.

And then the wolves learn that Shere Khan, which

is a man -eating tiger, is going to try to probably

kill Mowgli. So they have to try to get Mowgli

to the man village. And Bagheera's going to ask

for him back. And then this whole journey is

basically the whole movie here, where we have

a cow trying to kill him a couple different times.

We have Mowgli running to the elephants. We have

Mowgli finding Baloo. who tried to kind of kind

of committed what we're going to stay in the

jungle we have more we're going to be king louis

uh... when we have the deal that we talked about

before we were trying to learn how to make fire

uh... eventually blue realize that he should

be helping the gear again to the man village

where convulsions in there which we'll talk about

later uh... but they could just sheer cotton

and caught trying to uh... to kill more we before

you go into the manhood but eventually will be

convinced by any uh... girl from the village

when she's out getting water and lured into the

village where he will live happily ever after.

Throw in a bunch of good songs and music and

there you have the Jungle Book. Yeah, um, before

I get into the actual issues that I have with

this story or with this film, one thing I do

really enjoy is that I don't know if they really

went, like, you know, some Sometimes today they

will go after the voice actors likeness to put

them into the actual animation. Mm -hmm. Like,

take Optimus Prime from Transformers Animated.

You know, you look at his face, you look at his

mouth and his eyes, it's pretty much David Kay's

face as a robot. You know, and I think that they

did that kind of with this. I don't know if they...

You were God -free with Iago, like we talked

about with the last episode. Yeah. I don't know

if they did that with this but for some odd reason

a couple of shots like of Bagheera and of Baloo

I don't know just a couple of the expressions

on the animals faces almost made me think that

they kind of are human even though obviously

they're not but you know they were I don't know

My main issue with this film comes at the end

because I was I was paying very close attention

to this when I was watching it earlier Um, that

girl, she don't look like no little girl. She

looks like she's about six years older than Mowgli.

Mowgli likes him older. At least it's not, you

know what, it's not like that first one we talked

about. Yeah, yeah, we're not we're not we're

not going back to that, but um no, but it's like

you know she accidentally drops the water bottle

and Then of course you know she winks at him

so even back then Back in 1967 they were putting

some sort of sexual innuendo into Disney films

It is the man village and he's a man cub so it's

true He's got to have some animal -like, and

he's been raised by animals, you know, more than

we expect. Yeah, that's true, I guess. Draw your

own undertones from that. Yeah, I was not going

there. What did you think of the overall plot?

I overall, I mean, I try not to put too much

stock into plots of Disney movies with the exception

of, is it Yeah, like blaring, blatant, terrible

plot things like some of them do. Obviously it's

going to bug me, but if it just flows and there's

nothing that just like outright hits you over

the head that it's terrible, then it's going

to be fine in my book as far as Disney movies

go. And this one, I mean, the action keeps moving

for the most part. I don't necessarily think

that there's too many dead parts that make you

feel like, come on, let's go. move on with the

action. I think they do a good job of introducing

a bunch of different characters, but at the same

time giving those characters some characterization.

Like, it's not like they're just, oh, here's

this character in the jungle, and here's this

one, and here's this one, and we're moving right

along. They actually took the time and developed

all of the characters to a point where you could

find either something you liked or didn't like

about all of them. So I kind of like the amount

of characters they had with still being able

to go somewhat in depth. The music was great,

we'll get into that in a little bit. I don't

know if I really have a favorite part or a least

favorite part. My favorite part might be just

the musical numbers, actually. I agree with you,

the fact that it pretty much flows from beginning,

middle to end. But for me, I think for me where

it kind of, that last scene with the girl. I

don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into it,

but for me that was just like, really? Really?

They had done everything else, we just needed

a quick way to wrap up the movie. I understand

that, but you know, when I think of young girls

like that, let's face it, these are meant to

be kids. You're not going to see a sexual undertone

of her winking her eye, you know, whatever. at

him you know I mean it's not like it's not like

Mowgli was a teenager he was probably 10 11 years

old he was right he was close to preteen but

it's not like he it's not like a laden jasmine

where ladens a certain age say 18 19 jasmines

20 21 22 whatever it's not like that in this

it's these are supposed to be kids and I think

Maybe it's because this movie was a 60s movie.

Maybe. They did things that are back then. One

scene that I really cannot watch, I can watch

the beginning part of it, but once it gets to

the middle, is the scene in the ruins, the ancient

ruins, when they start doing that damn song.

I cannot stand that. You know what it reminds

me of? The Brian Setzer Orchestra in Jump, Jive

and Whale. Oh, jeez. That's the thing that popped

into my head when I saw it earlier when I wasn't

watching. I don't want to go, God, when is this

going to be? That's the only scene that I said,

oh, God, when is this going to be over? Because

up until the point where Baloo jumps in in his

little dress and drag thing, I really couldn't

stand it. Do you have a favorite part or a favorite

scene? I'd have to say the Dawn Patrol. That

was always really cool. I liked watching that,

you know. I liked the quote that Hottie's like,

wipe that smile off your face, soldier, this

is the army. And then the army goes... I thought

that was really fun. You don't have it in front

of you, but I have a couple of trivia things

I wanted to say. We had, obviously we had mentioned

before, this was the last film personally overseen

by Walden, which kind of makes it significant.

Gil Harris, the voice of Baloo the bear, also

played the voice of a bear in another doozy film.

Do you know what it's one? No Little John in

Robin Hood. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's so he's

played two bears in Disney movies. Um, Let's

see. We got well Disney told his animation crew

to throw away rugged creeplings book the jungle

book because The original concept storyboards

were too dark and dramatic during pre -production

Disney assigned animator Larry Clemens to head

story development on the project He gave Clemens

a copy of the jungle book and told him the first

thing I want you to do is not read it. So apparently

he didn't want it to be exactly like, or anything

like, or any different book exactly, just using

a lot of the characters. According to... Hold

on, hold on, wait, you just said that Walt Disney

told them to throw it away because it was too

dark? Too dark and dramatic. Hello, you... Alright,

I'm sorry, I'm gonna kinda go against... My not

speaking ill of the dead, but are you fucking

stupid Walt Disney? You just, your first fucking

film was dark and dramatic. So, apparently he

wanted it to be a little more fun loving than

the book was. I've never read the book, I don't

know what it was like. According to Elsie Kipling,

Rudyard Kipling's daughter, Mowgli is actually

supposed to be pronounced Mowgli, not Mowgli.

And she reportedly never forgave Walt Disney

for this gas. I think I found it in a mogul,

so oh well. Darlene Carr, who played the voice

of the girl at the end, is actually the younger

sister of Sound of Music actress Charmaine Carr,

who played Lethal Run Shrep. And this was the

last film that Darlene Carr made at the Disney

studio. She stopped working at the Disney studio

when Walt Disney died. So I thought that was

kind of interesting. The Vaulters were originally

going to be voiced by the Beatles. The band's

manager, Brian Epstein, approached the Disney

studio about having the Beatles appear in the

film and Disney had his animators create the

Vaulters specifically to be voiced by the band.

But when Epstein took the idea to the Beatles,

John Lennon vetoed the idea and told Epstein

to tell Disney he should hire Elvis Presley instead.

The look of the Vaulters with their mop -top

haircuts and Liverpool voices are a knowledge

to the Beatles. The vultures were cool. Whereas...

Yeah, the vultures were cool. I don't know if

they would have been cool if they were voiced

by the beetles, but maybe that would have been

cool. I don't know. No, I don't think so. If

they were voiced by the actual beetles, no, but

I don't mind it as an homage to them. Yeah. Whereas

the other vulture that we've seen so far in our

little spotlight here was practically useless.

These guys actually did something. Yeah. Loved

the scene. Whatcha wanna do? I don't know what

you want to do. I don't know what you... I always

loved that. That's so funny. Like we said before,

while building out of the bad end of production,

many people wondered at what the studio's fate

would be, particularly the animation division.

If the film had performed poorly, who knows,

but the film performed extremely well. The box

office ensured that the animators would not be

put out of work. Had the film failed, it was

likely the animation would have been closed down

at Disney Studios. So thanks, Jungle Book, for

giving us a lot more Disney movies in the future.

When Mowgli is attacked by his packmates and

enthusiastically welcomed home, these key frames

were actually lifted from The Sword and the Stone

when Arthur is welcomed home by the Keep Dogs.

Oh, okay. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's, you know,

they are constantly reusing animation. Which

I guess is fine. I don't know. Yeah. Ka's song,

Trust in Me, was originally written for Mary

Poppins, but not used. Oh, here's a good one.

Her role as Winifred the Elephant was the last

film role for Verna Felton before her death,

but her first role in an animated Disney film

was also an elephant. She was the elephant matriarch

in Dumbo in 1941. So talk about things coming

full circle. And Winnifred is the only female

animal to have any dialogue throughout the entire

film. So I never noticed that when I was watching

it that she was the only female animal that ever

talked. Let's see. Nineteenth Animated Feature,

last few persons to realize that. Oh, when Gregory

Peck was the president of the Academy of Motion

Pictures and Science, he tried his hardest to

get a full length animated feature film, most

notably the Jungle Book, not only nominated for

Best Picture Academy Award, but actually to win

the award. So he was really pulling for an animated

film to win the award, and he was really keen

on Jungle Book being the first one. He resigned

as president in 1970 when other members didn't

agree with him about animated films being nominated

for the award. So, kind of interesting there.

Many cultural scholars have singled out the King

Louis character as a particularly offensive racial

stereotype Especially given the political and

civil rights climate in America during the time.

Screw you guys. That's all I got for your trivia.

Moving into the music. For the most part I liked

all of these. I liked all the songs in the film

outside of the one that's done. The I wanna be

like you song. I love that song. I don't really

have a problem with the song, I have a problem

with the scene because it drags on and on and

on. Yeah. But, you know, Colonel Hardee's march,

or Hathi's march in the beginning, and then the

reprise of course, bare necessities, and then

trust in me as, I'm so glad Shere Khan interrupted

that. I would say about the music, I think it's

great. I mean, I think you notice the music a

lot during the movie, and it really helps the

movie flow. I think the difference between, well,

let me put it this way. For its time, if we're

going back to this, and I have to look at specifically

which Disney movies were out in the 50s, 50s,

70s, et cetera, and whatnot, but I think it was

one of the most musical of its time period, as

far as Disney movies that were out and about.

But I will say that You can't quite compare it

to the 90s Disney. You can't quite compare it

to Aladdin, Lion King, Little Mermaid and stuff

just for pure volume. It has some real great

songs but there's just not as many as we get

in the 90s movies. But I will say that Bear Necessities

is probably one of the single greatest Disney

songs of all time. Yeah, I have to mention here

the Jungle Book Overture, which is the instrumental

that we hear at the beginning of the film. I

was watching it back right before the recording.

I was watching just the intro of the film, and

I noticed that when Bagheera goes to drop off

Mowgli at the Wolves' cave there, he has to go

back and nudge the basket so the baby will cry.

Well as the mother and father realize okay fine.

We'll we'll take this thing in I Heard in the

instrumental the tones from the song my own home

Which is some weather girl at the end if you

go back and you listen to it as they're walking

As the as all the wolves are watching walking

back into their cave with the mother wolf carrying

Mowgli's basket it It is it is the exact same

tune that's behind the lyrics to My Own Home.

It's interesting. A couple of musical facts here.

Obviously, we'll talk about the songs a little

bit. The Terry Gokison was brought in to write

the songs for the film. Delivered several complete

songs, but Walt Disney felt that his efforts

were too dark again, so the Schirmer brothers

were brought in to do complete rewrites on the

condition that they not read Robin Kiffin's book.

The only piece of Wilkinson's work which survived

to the final film was the Bear Necessities, which

turns out probably to be the best song in the

whole movie, which is kind of ironic. Part of

Bear Necessities was remixed for the theme song

of its short -lived 1990s TV spin -off, Jungle

Crubs. I never saw that. I've never seen that

either. And you'll like this one, although I

have to be careful when I'm talking about this

one. In the scene where Bagheera, the vulture,

and Mowgli believe that Baloo is dead as well

as Bagheera, General Paul J. Smith's organ score

from the Walt Disney first film, which we won't

name, it's heard from the scene where the seven,

you know what, mourn who on her bed before she

gets put into the glass coffin. We actually have

the same organ score for both fake funerals,

well, believed funerals I guess you could call

it. Yeah, but I mean we saw, now there's a big

difference between the movie that shall not be

named Going more with the vultures and stuff,

Disney decided that the Oh, hold on. We're Your

Friends was originally conceived as a rock and

roll song sung by the quartet of vultures and

an original character, Rocky the Rhino. The vultures

were even designed like we said about the Beatles,

et cetera, et cetera. During the production,

the first Rocky was called Rocky the Rhino, which

is why they never signed. And then Disney decided

that the 60 -style rock would cause the song

to be considered dated later. So that's why We're

Your Friends has changed to a barbershop quartet,

because they said basically the barbershop quartet

is timeless so it wouldn't date the film. We

hadn't mentioned yet, but Bill Lee sung Shoe

Con's part because George Sanders was not available

and Bill Lee was a pretty famous voice. Just

good music overall, I think. I wouldn't compare

it to the 90s Disney movies, but I think at the

time it was a good musical Disney flick that

gave you a little bit of something different

that hadn't been out there before. We can mention

the fact that these songs are on the classic

Disney 60 years of musical magic. It includes

the Colonel Hottie's Moj, Bare Necessities, I

Wanna Be Like You, Trust In Me, pretty much all

the major songs. Going into the legacy segment

here, it is, let's see, critical reaction, here

we go. The Jungle Book received an outpouring

of positive reviews undoubtedly influenced by

a nostalgic reaction to the passing of Walt.

Time magazine noted the film stayed far from

the Kipling stories but the result is thoroughly

delightful and is the happiest possible way to

remember Walt Disney. The New York Times called

it a perfect dandy cartoon feature and Life magazine

referred to it as the best thing of its kind

since Dumbo. Some negative reviews came from

Judith Christ who said the film was devoid of

mood or atmosphere. Variety's review was generally

positive. But they stated that the story development

is restrained and that younger audiences may

squirm at times. How can you say the film had

no atmosphere or mood? I could see saying that

younger audience may squirm at time or that the

story development is restrained. That's fine.

I have no problem with that. But devoid of mood

or atmosphere, that movie was all about atmosphere

to me. Yeah. Well, you know, they all suck. The

film was nominated for an Academy Award nomination

in 1967 for Best Song for The Bare Necessities.

It lost against Talk to the Animals from Dr.

Doolittle. Oh, pretty good song. Oh, god. The

difference is one's an animated movie and like

we talked about it kind of briefly or alluded

to, animated movies usually get the shaft. Not

quite as much as sci -fi movies get the shaft,

but nonetheless. The Jungle Book was released

in October 1967 just 10 months after Walt's death.

It was a success earning 13 million dollars and

just a mystic release mostly due to the popularity

of its musical numbers. The film made its VHS

home video debut in Mexico on October 31st 1987.

20 years after its original release. This 1987

release was dubbed in Spanish. The Jungle Book

was released in the United States on VHS in 1991

as part of the Walt Disney Classics product line.

The American version was subsequently re -released

in 1997 as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece

collection for the film's 30th anniversary. A

limited issue DVD was released by Buena Vista

Home Video Home Entertainment in 1999. The film

was released once again as a two -disc Platinum

Edition DVD on October 2nd, 2007 to commemorate

its 40th anniversary. The Platinum Edition presents

the film for the first time in a 1 .75 colon

.1 widescreen aspect ratio. This is the first

Disney release titled Platinum Edition in the

UK instead of Special Edition. Now I do have

this, this 40th edition. It was They had brought

it out of that death trap. It actually does,

it shows you on the DVD. Meet the long lost character,

Rocky the Rhino. I've never actually watched

this feature. I don't know. Again, I think this

was kind of going back to, ooh, it's the Jungle

Book. It's probably not going to be out for like

10 years. I gotta get that DVD. And I wasn't

really thinking about it until I really started

this podcast. When I actually bought it, I was

like, oh, okay, Jungle Book, good deal. So yeah,

it is on DVD. I don't think it's gone back into

the vault yet. I gotta get that though before

it goes back into the vault, otherwise I know.

Well, maybe I should just wait until the 50th

anniversary. Move on to some legacy things. Elements

of the Jungle Book were recycled and later did

a feature film, Robin Hood, due to that film's

limited budget. Like we said, Baloo being the

inspiration for Little John and getting the same

voice actor. Like you had mentioned, many characters

appear in the 1990 -91 animated series, Tailspin.

Between 1996 and 1998, the TV series Jungle Cubs

told the stories of Baloo, Bagheera, Louie, Kai,

and Shere Khan as their children. I'm really

excited to see that now. I know I gotta see that

and see what it's like right because well You

know this is probably and you know Kevin's probably

gonna be shocked when I say this But this is

probably the only script so far out of our entire

Run on tune cast, but I've actually read some

of the information before we record. Oh my goodness

Yeah, cuz I was like I I well I wanted to find

out about Cobb because I didn't know I wanted

to know what kind of snake he was because Even

though I can't stand snakes, I honestly don't

think snakes have blue, yellow, and green hypnotizing

circles in their eyes. And I'm like, what the

hell kind of snake does that? So that's when

I started reading through this information just

to find out more about Ka. So yeah, there are

vines. I'm curious about this, though, if you've

seen any of these here. uh... did you later made

a live -action remake of the movie which was

more than a real -life action adventure film

with somewhat more adult themes. It was released

in ninety -four. It differs even more from the

book than at the anime counterpart, but it was

still a box office success. And since you love

sequels so much, have you seen them? This wasn't

actually a sequel. The live -action version...

I know. It was a remake. Don't get me wrong,

it was a remake. But it wasn't a direct sequel

to the animated thing. That would be the Jungle

Book 2. Have you seen it either? Have you seen

that live action or the Jungle Book 2? The Jungle

Book live action, it was, what's his name, Jason

Scott Lee played Mowgli. Yes, I have seen that.

It's been a very long time since I've seen that.

Is it horrible? Huh? Is the live action one horrible?

Honestly, I don't remember. The other one you're

talking about is Jungle Book 2, which was released

on 2003 in Australia, I think it was Disney Twin

Studios in Australia released it. And that one

is a sequel, and you said you haven't seen this

one? I've seen bits and pieces. I pretty much

get the jest of the plot. Basically, Mowgli runs

away from the man village, move back, and he

wants to go see the animal friends, unaware of

the danger he's facing. with the not yet dead

Shere Khan who is more determined to... It's

basically a revenge story. But I've never actually

seen it all the way through, I don't think. Okay.

I haven't either. I actually went to watch the

Jungle Book today just to refresh my memory on

things. And I went to watch it and it was Jungle

Book 2 into Jungle Book 1, so I haven't watched

it. I guess I have that option if I want to if

I'm on TV with Jungle Book 2, but I'm like, that's

not what I want to see. This is probably the

one sequel that I will agree with you that should

have never been made. It was this one. Some of

the movies, or since the movie's release, many

of the film's characters appeared in House of

Mouse, Lion King One and a Half, Who Framed Roger

Rabbit, and Aladdin and the King of Thieves.

Which characters do you know which characters

appear in Aladdin and the king of Eve? Well when

I eventually get the DVD I'll let you know another

reason for you to get the DVD exactly besides

the fact So I think we are going to take a quick

break we're gonna come back with final thoughts

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We are back and it is time for final thoughts

on Disney's The Jungle Book. What are your final

thoughts? Like I said in previous episodes, I

don't want to make too many judgments early on

I really want to be able to watch almost all

the Disney movies that we're going to talk about

before I Before I make some general statements,

but I think if you divided Disney movies into

And I don't want to sound gender Stereotyping

here, but if you divided Disney movies into the

Disney movies that are more for girls and the

Disney movies that are more for guys If you went

to that guy section, at the top of the list would

have to be things like Aladdin and the Jungle

Book. They're just, I don't know, they're just

the most classic version of just a good all -around

animated movie that, you know, girls are gonna

like it too, but that boys can just really...

get attached to and enjoy. When I think of a

Jungle Book, I think fun animals that are, you

know, having an adventure, great music, or at

least songs that are going to stick in your head,

and just all around fun, like I said before.

Fun is the word to describe Jungle Book. And,

you know, I can't say too many bad things about

it, really. I mean, if you want to get real nitpicky

and watch things and with an adult mind and try

to be critical of it. I'm sure you can come up

with stuff. But if you just want to have a good

family movie night with your kids or whatever,

A Jungle Book, you can't go wrong with it. I

mean, it's just an all -around fun movie. Yeah,

I agree with you. I mean, if I really wanted

to nitpick the film, even though I'm not going

to, we're pretty much done with the film discussion.

We're going on to final thoughts. But really,

if you look at it, what animals in real life

are going to take care of a boy. I mean, we hear,

you know, like foxes when bears attack and crap.

You know, it doesn't seem like it would have

real -world applications. But I think what it

does do is it gives, you know, when you have

kids growing up or whatever and they have animals

and they like to think of, or their pets or whatever,

it's kind of that fantasy world of... What would

it be like to talk to all my animals and to be

friends with them and go on adventures? What

would it be like to live in their world? I think

it kind of gives me a little way to just escape

and have some adventure in that sense. Would

I agree with what your main point was there?

Yeah, I agree with you in turn. Overall, it's

one of the classic Disney films. Everyone should

own the two -disc 40th anniversary platinum edition.

It's also one I will say that it is one and we're

all about you know It's a geek cast radio network,

so we're all about being geeks and we're obviously

not afraid of being geeks and being you know

Half people think we're geeks, but jungle book.

I will give it credit. It is probably one of

the Disney movies that an adult man can have

in his DVD collection and nobody will blink an

eye Like nobody will say oh my god. You have

a Disney movie Or, oh my god, you have a cartoon,

or anything like that. Those would be like, oh,

Jungle Book, that's cool. You know what I mean?

Jungle Book doesn't have any stigma to it whatsoever.

You don't have to be ashamed of loving the Jungle

Book. Oh, exactly. You shouldn't be ashamed of

owning anything that you like. But I'm just saying,

nobody's going to make fun of you for owning

the Jungle Book. Right, right. You know, I think

where, like, people getting made fun of of owning

Disney films is when it comes to say like Beauty

and the Beast or You know some of the more as

you said earlier You know Disney films can be

cat some most Disney films can be categorized

into boys films and girls films You know obviously

with that Disney princess line that they're doing

or they that they were doing at the time Yeah,

but you know overall like I said great film.

It's a must -own on DVD So, I think we're going

to close this one out. Thank you for joining

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Animation Spotlight with The Sword in the Stone.

For now, I am TFD1Mike, with... Professor BossKDog,

Kevin Hopkins. We would like to thank you for

listening until next time no animals were harmed

in the making of this podcast I Flaps what we're

gonna do. I don't know what you want to do I've

got it! Let's flap over the east side of the

jungle. They've always got a bit of action, a

bit of a swinging scene, alright? Ah, come off

it. Things are right and dead all over. You mean

you wish they were? Very funny. Okay, so what

we're gonna do? I don't know. What do you want

to do? Lock flaps! First I say, what we're gonna

do? Then you say, I don't know, what you wanna

do? Then I say, what we're gonna do? You say,

what you wanna do? What we're gonna do? What

you want? Let's do something! Okay. What do you

wanna do? Blimey. There you go again. The same

got it. So you've got it. So what we're gonna

do? Hold it, lads. Look. Look what's coming our

way. Eh, what in the world is that? What a crazy

looking bunch of bones. Yeah, they're all walking

about by themselves So what we're gonna do I

don't know hey now don't start that again