Why Disney’s 1967 The Jun­gle Book con­tin­ues to inspire

In our recent fea­ture on the mak­ing of Disney’s orig­i­nal adap­ta­tion of ​‘The Jun­gle Book’, vet­er­an ani­ma­tor Floyd Nor­man told us how the film came togeth­er after a shaky, false start to cement its posi­tion as a stand­out entry in the studio’s illus­tri­ous canon. Here, three oth­er film indus­try pro­fes­sion­als explain why the film has had a last­ing influ­ence on them.

“The Jun­gle Book exem­pli­fies clas­sic Dis­ney char­ac­ter ani­ma­tion, with the famed ​‘Nine Old Men’ at the peak of their pow­ers. The xerox­ed, scratchy, unashamed­ly hand-drawn style was a step down in some people’s eyes from the glo­ri­ous hand-inked cels of Sleep­ing Beau­ty and Disney’s oth­er Gold­en Age clas­sics. But for me, see­ing the ani­ma­tors’ pure, rough-drawn lines onscreen was a delight. These were draw­ings – yet they lived and breathed. As a child, I delight­ed at the char­ac­ter­ful songs, the bub­bling tem­po of the piece and the feel-good cel­e­bra­tion of tak­ing it easy, espoused in Baloo’s ​‘The Bare Necessities’.

“Mem­o­ries of the pure enter­tain­ment that hap­pens when music meets ani­ma­tion in The Jun­gle Book part­ly inspired Song of the Sea. As an ani­ma­tion stu­dent, Milt Kahl’s work on Shere Kahn seemed like some kind of voodoo that bog­gled my young mind: how could any human hand man­age the con­vinc­ing weight in how he moved – plus the men­ace and humour in his act­ing – while keep­ing track of all those stripes? To be hon­est, even after 16 years of work­ing pro­fes­sion­al­ly in hand-drawn ani­ma­tion, it still bog­gles my mind!”

“I was sev­en years old when The Jun­gle Book was re-released, and it’s still my most vivid child­hood mem­o­ry of the cin­e­ma. That was just the begin­ning of what became a Jun­gle Book-themed bed­room full of cud­dly toys, books, draw­ings and – as it lat­er turned out – a very ear­ly dose of inspi­ra­tion. The Jun­gle Book was the first ani­mat­ed film that com­plete­ly cap­tured my imag­i­na­tion, and I couldn’t get enough of it. It was one of the key influ­ences that led me to study ani­ma­tion at uni­ver­si­ty, and I do remem­ber my lec­tur­er admit­ting that it was beyond him how Milt Kahl cre­at­ed such unbe­liev­ably real­is­tic weight in Shere Kahn.

“I’ve been a pro­fes­sion­al ani­ma­tor for 16 years, but I still feel I have much to learn from look­ing at such beau­ti­ful work. To this day, I can think of few films that rival the sheer warmth, artistry and mem­o­ries that The Jun­gle Book encap­su­lates so completely.”

“Disney’s The Jun­gle Book is almost 50 years old and it more than stands the test of time. While Kipling enthu­si­asts might have felt that it moved too far from his lit­er­ary vision, it’s clas­sic Dis­ney through and through. Mem­o­rable char­ac­ters, great Sher­man Broth­ers songs and plen­ty of heart; as the last film that Walt Dis­ney over­saw direct­ly, his mag­ic touch can still be felt through­out. If the new live-action ver­sion has man­aged to embrace Kipling’s sto­ry a lit­tle clos­er, but kept the heart and soul of its ani­mat­ed pre­de­ces­sor, it has every chance of being a huge success.”