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At-A-Glance Film Reviews

The Jungle Book (1967)

Rating

[4.0]

Reviews and Comments

The Jungle Book was the last Disney animated feature film that Walt Disney himself was personally involved in. It wasn't a bad film to go out on, though budget cuts are evident in the final product. Save for some beautiful panoramic establishing shots of the jungle, for instance, most of the backgrounds are drab, sometimes even blank. The story is based on Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book novels, but very loosely (Kaa the boa constrictor, for instance, was one of Mowgli's best friends in the books, but a comic yet deadly enemy in the film). If you can accept the sweeping changes the characters made in the transformation to the screen, they are rich and effective. Baloo is lovably jovial; Bagheera is the noble, refined, put-upon parent figure; and Shere Khan, as voiced by George Sanders, is an utterly terrifying villain, oozing confidence and raw power. Good family entertainment.

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