Le Livre de la jungle

It may interest readers of these reviews that the voice actor who played King Louie is not in fact black.

If you follow this helpful link right here at imdb ( http://us.imdb.com/Name?Prima,%20Louis ), you'd find that Louis Prima is in fact white, and was quite well known at the time for his musical repertoire, of which the song "I Wanna Be Like You" is a prime example. I don't think he was chosen for that role because of how 'black' he sounded, but rather for his musical abilities, and how that fit into the character of King Louie.

As with all the other voice actors chosen for this film, Walt Disney made perfect choices.... so much so that the film works perfectly: animation, voices and story all mesh together perfectly to make one of his best films, precisely because it *is* so simple, yet effective.

No need for fancy computer graphics here.

What can I say about The Jungle Book? It probably has the best songs of any Disney movie, it's full of wonderful animals such as Baloo the Bear and King Louie the ape and it has a great little character in Mowgli who was raised in the jungle (so I guess he's related to Tarzan).

This is a great story throughout and the songs were just wonderful. When I first watched this film I couldn't get the songs out of my head and just kept humming them to myself time after time.

There's plenty of creatures for fans of animals from snakes to elephants to a big bad tiger called Shere Khan (one of the best Disney villains ever).

For those who haven't seen The Jungle Book, may I suggest viewing it as soon as possible?

The Jungle Book is one of Disney's most memorable animated movies. It's based on the "Mowgli" stories by Rudyard Kipling (who also wrote the famous Just So Stories). Like in most Disney films, Mowgli is an orphan. Bagheera the panther find him and he is raised by a family of wolves. That is until Shere Khan the tiger comes back to the jungle...

One thing I love about The Jungle Book is the villains. In most Disney movies you have one villain, sometimes with stupid and funny sidekicks who get bossed around all the time. But The Jungle Book offers three villains all who want Mowgli all for themselves. There is King Louie the king of the monkeys. He kidnaps Mowgli but doesn't really want to harm him, which perhaps makes him the least cruelest of the three. All he wants is to be like man as he puts it in the wonderful song that will want to make you get up and dance: "I Wanna Be Like You". More specifically he wants to know the secret on how to make fire. Then there's Shere Khan, the tiger who comes back to the jungle and is the reason that Bagheera and the wolves (and eventually Baloo) want to take him back to the "man village". Shere Khan is very swift and cruel but also very calm about his cruelty and not the least bit temperamental. However his characteristics do change at his last screen appearance, and frankly I'd be freaking out to if I had a burning branch stuck to my tail (heck I'd freak out if I just had a tail). Shere Khan hates mankind and of course Mowgli is man. Last but definitely not least (my favorite of the three)- Kaa, the snake, and a very big one I might add. See- King Louie wants to be like Mowgli, Shere Khan wants to kill Mowgli and Kaa wants to... eat Mowgli. He has a very big mouth which would enable him to eat Mowgli but it does him bad too- he talks to much and then never gets the chance to eat Mowgli.

Other than these three memorable villains there's Mowgli himself, the man-cub (who by the way was voiced by Bruce Reitherman, son of the director of this film- and many other Disney greats: Wolfgang Reitherman). There's the elephants, the vultures (who are actually nice and quite humorous too), Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther. Songs include King Louie's (who was voiced by Louie Parma) "I Wanna Be Like You". Kaa's "Trust in Me" (which no one should... trust in Kaa that is). And of course Baloo's "The Bare Necessities".

As for the racist overtone- that's one of the silliest things I've heard. The Jungle Book can be enjoyed by anyone of any age (...and any race).

In case you're wondering, I'm 25 and my favourite films of all time include Heat, Once Upon a Time in the West and Apocalypse Now. This is just a pointer to how, considering the film I'm writing about, eclectic a true film fan's taste has to be. I'll start with one statement: this film should be compulsory viewing for every child. If, at the end of this film, you're face is not permanently disfigured from smiling, there's something wrong with you. Everything about this film is enjoyable. The characters so loving, the songs so memorable; everything is so uplifting. I first saw this as a child and right then I loved it, but not until you reach a certain age do you realise how much a film can affect you. Every character has something about them that you cannot fail to love. Baloo and King Louie are obvious - they are there for light relief, but even the sinister Kaa the snake and Sheer Khan the tiger are lovable in their own ways. Mainly I put this down to the voice cast and the way they portray their characters. Everybody with a good knowledge of film knows that Tom Hanks was the voice of Woody in Toy Story and that Mike Myers was Shrek, but who knows who provided the voice of Baloo? It shouldn't matter and, as is the case with The Jungle Book, it doesn't. The characters are what is important. Character and plot are the only things that matter in great films and this film has that theory at its bedrock. If you have a child, sit them down to watch this and I guarantee they will be transfixed. I'm 25 and I make sure I watch this every 12 months. Age wise I'm an adult, but I'm still a child when I see this on screen, and that's the way it should be.

It isn't completely faithful to the book, but for a good reason. The book has bits that you can't have in an animation. The animation is beautiful, the backgrounds rich in colour, and the characters beautifully drawn. The story is a very simple one, yet effective, and allows the songs and characters to take force. The songs and music by the Sherman Brothers perfectly match the breeziness of the film, with classics such as " Bare Neccessities" and "Wanna Be like you". Unlike some people, I liked the vulture barbershop, excellent harmonies. And what a talented voice-cast. Phil Harris was hilarious as Baloo, and Sebastian Cabot was brooding as Bagheera. Reitherman's son was good as Mowgli, and Louis Prima(who's not black so the racist overtones idea is ridiculous) was a riot as Louis. The real star was the perfectly cast George Sanders as the frightening and calculating Shere Khan. This is fantastic, if a little short, and avoid the sequel! 9/10 Bethany Cox