Movie Thoughts: The Jungle Book (1967)

• Released: 18 October 1967
• Directed by: Wolfgang Reitherman
• Running time: 1 h 18 min
• Rating 1.5/5

Synopsis

A boy raised in the Indian jungle must make his way to the human village before a mean tiger hunts him down.

My Thoughts

My problem with The Jungle Book (1967) can honestly be summarized with one word: boring. I just find this movie to be such a slog to get through, which is weird because it definitely has elements I'd like. A wild setting, talking animals (including felines and wolves), a father-son relationship, etc. But it's just the execution that feels botched to me. I'm also not going to be comparing the movie to the book in this one since I've read the novel only once and honestly retain little to no memory from it.

So, let's first get some positives out of the way: the animation is still good (although it still has that sketchy style I really don't like) and the backgrounds and colors are obviously beautiful. The character designs for the wolves were also great. However, that's where my compliments for this movie really ends.

First things first: the plot. I just... do not care for this plot. It's so repetitive. Mowgli is told he has to leave the jungle, he refuses and ends up in trouble, Bagheera and/or Baloo come to his rescue, Mowgli refuses to leave the jungle, rinse and repeat. And if the obstacles in the movie were anything I remotely cared about, that'd be a positive, but I just genuinely couldn't care less where he ends up.

What else? The characters. Our leads are just so boring and I just do not like them. Mowgli is just your generic rebellious kid, Bagheera has a cool character design but is no fun whatsoever, and Baloo is probably my least favorite out of the three. I just don't care for his attitude and characterization. It also just felt so weird that he instantly wanted to adopt Mowgli after spending like only an afternoon with him. Just gives me bad vibes, he's still practically a stranger at that point. The other characters are usually there so briefly that you don't get a good impression of them. I guess I could bring up Shere Khan, who plays the villain role decently, but there's still so many better Disney villains out there. I guess the only thing I really like about him is his voice, which is pretty badass.

There's also the complete lack of a bond we feel between Mowgli and his original wolf family that raised him. After he leaves the wolves with Bagheera a few minutes in, there's absolutely no mention of his wolf family anymore. Doesn't Mowgli miss the pups he grew up with? His mother or father? Clearly not, since he never mentions them and even flat out denies having parents to Baloo later on. 

I also usually don't bring up recycled animation that much, but man, this movie is chock-full of it. And not just the recycled animation from other Disney films, I'm mildly okay with that. But just even in this film itself it reuses so damn many shots and scenes it becomes really distracting. 

The songs were also just some of my absolute least favorite from Disney. They're catchy, yes, but I don't like having these stuck in my head. At all.

So, yeah, I'm sorry, but I'm just not a fan. This is also one of those rare Disney movies where I genuinely appreciate the modern remake much more than the original. This is one I definitely recommend one skip.