Of course, everyone knows the story, the unforgettable characters and the equally unforgettable songs - my favourite HAS to be "The Bare Necessities". They are the knd of songs that you can't help singing along to and therefore get stuck inside your head for the rest of the day.


Jungle book   May 16, 2005
 3 out of 13 found this review helpful

I'm looking forward to seeing this. Haven't seen Jungle book for years.


Orangs are still the only fruit   April 12, 2005
 8 out of 14 found this review helpful

Along with Beauty and the Beast, probably the greatest of the Disney cartoons. Affectionate, exciting, sad - but never mawkish - and with three marvellous tunes. It's a cartoon that my (then 2-year-old) little boy took to right away, and it's still his favourite.

Sometimes a little dark in colour; and sometimes a little dark in subject matter - Baloo's death and the tiger wanting to eat/get Mowgli - yet somehow our kid seems to get over that without a problem. Ah, the resilience of absolute youth.

Has it dated? Not in my view. I know it has been accused of racism, but it's worth considering the following.

Prima was from the Deep South (New Orleans) of Italian immigrant parentage - rather than actually being Italian. His voice had therefore some local characteristics.

Second, was he was imitating a black singer because he was playing an ape (not a monkey); or was he imitating because he was a swing singer - as he most definitely was and that was the style of swing singers of the period when he was at his peak.

Women. Contrary to what has been already stated, Mowgli lives most of his life in the care of the wolf mother, who is seen at the start of the film. Nor, to be honest, are most of the other animals gendered - exceptions include Shere Khan, Hathi, his son and Hathi's wife; King Louis/Louie (who, although visually with most of the characteristics of a female orang is clearly male because of his name). Are the vultures/Kaa/the monkeys male or female? Only close investigation of pronouns would show.

It's easy to place modern values on such a film and interpret them as we want. Are Shere Khan and Bagheera upper class because of their dignity and power - or did Disney want one good guy and one bad guy to speak in English accents?

What Disney did was take source material and make an excellent cartoon out of them that still captivates today. And that's an achievement in itself. Any other approach is churlish and as futile as worrying about who will fix the Noo noo in Tellytubbies.