Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

Based on Rudyard Kipling's classic tale, this 1975 version of Riki-Tikki-Tavi is one I remember with great fondness from my childhood. You can't go wrong with a Chuck Jones cartoon narrated by Orson Welles. It's a well crafted tale exploring the meaning of friendship set in turn-of-the-century British Colonial India. At only one half hour long, the story moves quickly.

I recently had the opportunity to watch it again and was just as entranced as I was as a child, although I had remembered the "scary" and "sad" portions as being much longer and more tension filled than they turned out to be this time around. It's enough to make you want to go live in India just for the chance to have a house mongoose of your very own.

Chuck Jones took a great story and combined it with a great cast to give us an outstanding animation feature. Orson Welles narrates and supplies the voice of a cowardly muskrat as we see Rikki the orphaned mongoose become a hero to his adopted family in 19th century India. The versatile June Foray provides the voice of Rikki, the boy's mother,the mother bird, and the evil cobra Nagaeena. The text is taken largely from the Kipling story, with whole passages used verbatim. Even the tailor-bird's song is from the original story, with a catchy tune created for the story. This is Chuck Jones' other side: no slapstick. Just a touching, memorable story which captures Kipling's period feel and sentimentality seen through the eyes of the young boy who must live with his colonial family on a distant continent. If you can find this animation on video, your kids ages 5 and up will enjoy it, and you will appreciate the wonderful production and characters.

When I was growing up, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was one of those films the teachers and teacher's aides at my elementary school would pull out of the AV room and spool around on film projectors during inclement weather. I can still here the clacking of the film spools wind around even when I watch on my DVD. By middle school and high school, I had all but forgotten about Rikki-Tikki-Tavi until I saw it for sale on DVD. Now that I'm an adult (or something close to resembling one), I can appreciate the stylization Chuck Jones put into crafting Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. This animated short has chills, thrills, spills, and it has enough for the adults that won't make them sick viewing after viewing, which is why I think the teachers would pull Rikki-Tikki-Tavi out of the closet every time the weather was bad and needed to keep us indoors. I saw this film first in the early '80s, and I was somewhat astonished that it was made in the mid-70s, but that makes sense seeing as to how my elementary school was built in the late-70s. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi holds up well and looks as though it could be shown on Cartoon Network next to today's kids cartoons. It's a must see for anyone with a kid or has been one!

As a fan of cartoons, I hold "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" to a high regard. When I saw this working in day care last summer, I instantly remembered this classic cartoon, even though I hadn't seen it in over ten years.

Chuck Jones, the genius behind "Cricket in Times Squae" and "Looney Tunes" capitalizes on the popular story by Rudyard Kipling. A mongoose named Rikki-Tikki-Tavi lives with his British family in India in the 1800s, and protects his young master from two deadly cobras, who slither into the family's home in the middle of the night.

The animation, though corny, is delightful, mainly because I was young during a time when cartoons didn't need to be one in 3D on a computer to amuse me. Simple animation has always been in good taste to me. This is one of those gems that kids today may or may not appreciate, because of the recent successes of films like "Shrek" and "Toy Story 1 and 2," which rely on computer animation. Don't get me wrong, I love these computer animation-based flicks, but I also love the simple classics too.

My favorite part is when Rikki-Tikki-Tavi fights off the cobras. I loved how the cobras talked, stressing their s-es. ("And we'll attack while he's s-s-s-sleeping.")

This is a GREAT film for an educational setting, because it teaches students about culture, plus it is too much fun to watch, plus it is cute. Take it from this 19-year old, see "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," and get to know a great animator's work. Chuck Jones may be gone, but his legacy lives on in his animated classics. This is one of them!

RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI, the Indian mongoose, takes on the responsibility for keeping the big bungalow belonging to an English family safe. But with the deadly great cobras Nag & Nagaina on the prowl, how long will Rikki be safe himself?

This is a very fine adaptation of one of Rudyard Kipling's non-Mowgli tales from The Jungle Books. Directed, produced & written for the screen by master animator Chuck Jones, the story sticks quite faithfully to the original and keeps the requisite cartoon silliness to a minimum.

Much credit should go to Orson Welles, who narrates as well as voicing Nag & the nervous muskrat; also to June Foray who gives voice to all three female roles. Together, these two old pros add a great deal to the success of the film.

In order to maintain the `cuteness quotient' Rikki is not drawn exactly to scale. Any mongoose who could fit effortlessly in a child's breakfast spoon would certainly be no match for an enraged, adult cobra.

The Indian gray mongoose, or Herpestes edwardsi, can commonly live more than 20 years in captivity, with a head & body up to 26 inches long. They are indeed renowned for attacking large poisonous snakes, and they usually win these battles due to their great agility & speed, as well as their very thick coats, through which the snakes' fangs have trouble penetrating. There are many species of mongoose - among them the African meerkat.

Children enraptured by Rikki should know that mongoose importation into America as pets is prohibited, due to these little carnivores predilection for hunting & destroying useful animals & birds.