The Jungle Book

 I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this film. I have a project to try to watch all the Disney films, so far my favorite has been Cinderella, but I have to say that this film is a bit more enjoyable. There's only one part that slightly mars the overall experience and dates the film, but I'll talk about that in a moment. The animation of the characters allows them to have more personality than in a lot of the Disney animated films of the time. The background also has a depth that is lacking from other contemporary Disney productions. The color of the animation works well and give a charm to the whole thing. It's just a charming movie. The reactions of Mowgli to what happens, and his last scene of the film, just shows the heart of it. Of course, Balloo nearly steals the whole movie by being such an exuberant character, but he is balanced out by other personalities, most notably Bhagira and Shere Khan. Another great thing about the film is that it is a great adaptation of a classic book. It's not a literal adaptation of the Jungle Book, but it takes a hopeful strain from that book and tells a simple story. All the characters motivations are clear and understandable. Mowgli's friends want to protect him from Shere Khan. Shere Khan doesn't want man in the forest because he has experience with human hunters, and King Louie wants to harness the power of fire for his own purposes. I really liked the film, talk about a few problems with it. The first is a tiny detail, but orangutans never lived in India. It makes sense for the purpose of this story because it seems more natural that an ape would want to be a human rather than a monkey, but it's not realistic. Like a lot of other Disney films, this one starts out with a warning that you will watch some racist content, and I while I do think that this is one of the rare occasions where Disney is being overcautious. The characters are based on the mannerisms of their actors and king Louie's mannerisms are based on Louis Prima who is not African-American but Italian-American. The problem I had it with the film, and it's a very small problem is the characterization of the vultures, they are clearly meant to refer to the Beatles, and those characters were written with them in mind, but John Lennon decided that he didn't want to appear in any animation, which is kind of a tragedy because I think if the animators had used their personalities like with the other actors the characters would have been much more interesting and not parodies. At the time everyone would have known who the Beatles are and I think as the years go by the cultural impact of the Beatles has diminished to the point where the joke falls flat. But that's the only problem I have with this film, it's great and full of charm. You've never watched it, I would definitely recommend it.

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