The Jungle Book/The Aristocats

Is everyone ready to go back into the jungle today? Well, get ready because we are going to look at “The Jungle Book,” released in 1967. This was the final film that Walt Disney produced since he died a year before this film was released, in 1966. As with others that were released post-war, this is one of the best around that time, even though this is an adaptation of Kipling’s stories about the wolf-boy Mowgli is more Disneyfied and not really so much like the source material than “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” or “Sleeping Beauty.”

Steven D. Greydanus stated in his review: “This was no accident: Disney believed (probably rightly) that Kipling’s tone was too dark and serious for a Disney film, and actually kept the source material out of the hands of his team. Longtime Disney collaborator Terry Gilkyson was originally contracted to write the songs, but his efforts were “too Kipling” according to Disney, who brought in the Sherman Brothers to do new songs — with the proviso that they not read the source material.”

End result: this is a really upbeat soundtrack that is up there as one of the best Disney soundtracks, as this film’s main reason for fame. Just look at the film’s tagline: “The Jungle is Jumpin!” Undeniably, the film’s signature song is the one Gilkyson song that Disney kept: “The Bare Necessities,” sung by Phil Harris (his first role in three consecutive Disney performances), who voiced Baloo the bear. The other song is “I Wanna Be Like You,” which is done by jazz star Louis Prima, who voiced King Louie the orangutan.

As made by Disney and director Wolfgang Reitherman, “The Jungle Book” is the basic coming-of-age story about lighthearted childhood and adult responsibility, respectively shown by Mowgli’s two mentors, Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther, voiced by Sebastian Cabot. Even though he wants to live in the forest forever as a bear, Mowgli (Bruce Reitherman) finally gets his heritage as a man by setting the tale of Shere Khan the tiger (George Sanders) on fire, and is taken to live with civilized life thanks to the battling eyelids and melodic singing of a young village girl (Darleen Carr). 

Greydanus ended his review by saying, “Visually, The Jungle Book is unremarkable Disney, although the animation benefits from nice naturalistic flourishes, especially in the movements of Mowgli and Bagheera: the loping, ambling walk of the boy as he swishes a stick in the grass; the feline grace of the panther’s silent, gliding movement through interlacing tree branches and mid-river stepping stones.”

The one complaint that I share with everyone is that Shere Khan only comes in the last half-hour and that's pretty weak for a villain. How can you talk about him throughout the movie and then make him show up 45 minutes in the movie? However, this movie is still good and kids will love it.

Ok, let’s step out of the jungle now and go to a film that I think cat lovers will absolutely adore, “The AristoCats,” released in 1970, which is also up there with the good Disney movies. It is light and pleasant and fun, the characterization is strong, and the voices of Phil Harris (Thomas O’Malley the Alley Cat) and the late Eva Gabor (Duchess, the mother cat) are charming in their own rightness. “The AristoCats” is also somewhat like a musical, and when O’Malley comes walking along the riverbank singing his personal song about his stunning qualities, you can’t be anything else than amused.

Here’s the issue with so many “family movies:” they are painfully boring for anyone that is over the age of 12. However, Roger Ebert said, “I think I can safely say that "The Aristocats" is not one of those dreadful exercises in simplicity; if you find it necessary to take the kids, you won't suffer.”

Obviously there is a lot of laughter that adults will have watching this. That’s a tribute to the creators, Wolfgang Reitherman and Winston Hibler, who have told their story only for children, and yet with a high portion of visual style. The movements of these animated felines are “real,” and stylized enough to express different personalities. O’Malley struts, Duchess Slinks, and her three little kittens (Gary Dublin, Liz English and Dean Clark) are elegant, athletic and contentious by turns.  Ebert admits that, “It seems kind of silly to be writing about how the kittens walk, it just occurred to me, but it's in details like those that "The Aristocats" becomes delightful.”

This is one of those Disney soundtracks from the early-1960s that tried to say that Haley Mills is the new Shirley Temple, and, from what I heard, John Mills plays a shriveled old sea dog that is out sailing for treasure.

Ebert ended his review by saying, “I'm not quite sure memory serves, though. I mentioned "Castaways" to Mills when he was in town recently, and dang if he hadn't completely forgotten it. After I reconstructed a hazy plot outline, he did seem to remember it slightly: "It was a bloody awful bore, is all I remember," he said, correctly.”

My advice is to go see this movie, especially if you love cats, or own cats. You will absolutely adore this movie. Stay tuned tomorrow to see what else is in store for “Disney Month.”