Synopsis of Movie

“Forget about your worries and your strife…”

The final Disney animated film produced during the Walt years, The Jungle Book was a loose adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s “Mowgli” stories. Rollicking and funny, the film bore little resemblance to Kipling’s original, but very few people seemed to mind.

Young Indian boy Mowgli enters the jungle as a shipwrecked orphaned baby, picked up by a kindly panther named Bagheera and adopted by a pack of wolves. After the boy is raised to young manhood, Bagheera decides it’s time the man-cub was returned to his own kind. But spunky little Mowgli still thinks he'd be happier among the beasts.

After run-ins with a hypnotic snake and a herd of military elephants, Mowgli runs away from Bagheera, taking up with a freewheeling bear named Baloo. The two pals’ idyllic existence is interrupted when Mowgli is captured by King Louie, an orangutan who wants the secret of man’s fire. Mowgli’s friends come to his aid, but the greatest danger still lurks hidden in the jungle: a man-eating tiger named Shere Khan.

With rousing tunes from Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman (“Trust in Me,” “I Wanna Be Like You” and more) and the Terry Gilkyson-penned “Bare Necessities,” The Jungle Book was a true crowd pleaser. The film was also one of Disney's first to feature an all-star cast, with Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima and George Sanders lending their famous voices to the jungle characters.

An immediate success, The Jungle Book grew even more popular over years of reissues, becoming one of the most well-loved Disney animated films of all time.

Movie Release History

1967 - The Jungle Book

Movie Sub Categories

animated
action/adventure
comedy
musical
disney

Movie Studio

Disney

Cast

Baloo the Bear Phil Harris
Bagheera the Panther Sebastian Cabot
King Louie of the Apes Louis Prima
Shere Khan the Tiger George Sanders
Kaa the Snake Sterling Holloway
Col. Hathi the Elephant J. Pat O'Malley
Mowgli the Man Cub Bruce Reitherman
Elephant Verna Felton
Elephant Clint Howard
Vulture Chad Stuart
Vulture Lord Tim Hudson
Wolf John Abbott
Wolf Ben Wright
The Girl Darleen Carr

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