Enjoy a few tidbits of The Jungle Book trivia before the film opens in April!
On April 15, director Jon Favreau’s remake of Disney’s The Jungle Book is hitting the big screen with an all-star voice cast and previously-unknown young actor Neel Sethi as Mowgli. This film is a remake of Disney’s 1967 animated Jungle Book movie, and it probably won’t be the last!
Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book has proven to have a timeless quality, as Mowgli, the boy raised by wolves, is forced to abandon his jungle home to escape the wrath of the tiger Shere Khan. For this film, Idris Elba is voicing Shere Khan, with Giancarlo Esposito and Lupita Nyong’o as Mowgli’s adoptive wolf parents, Akela and Raksha. The incomparable Bill Murray will voice Baloo the Bear opposite Ben Kingsley’s Bagheera, the black panther that has vowed to protect Mowgli on his journey out of the jungle. Christopher Walken also lent his vocal talents to this film as King Louie, while Scarlett Johansson is offering a new take on Kaa, the giant python.
Ahead of The Jungle Book’s return to theaters, ComingSoon.net is looking back at some trivia and fun facts about the new movie, its competition, and its previous adaptations! Only the Bear Necessities are here!
The Jungle Book Trivia and Fun Facts: The Jungle Book
Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book was originally serialized in magazines beginning in 1893 with illustrations by his father, John Lockwood Kipling. The younger Kipling lived in India for 12 years of his life, and used the stories he heard there as his eventual inspiration for The Jungle Book.
There are 14 short stories in The Jungle Book, but Mowgli isn’t the main character in all of them. Mowgli actually made his first appearance in a short story called “In the Rukh,” which came out before The Jungle Book was collected in 1894. Kipling went on to use Mowgli in five additional stories which were collected in The Second Jungle Book.
Because both of the books are now in the public domain, you can read them both online! Click to check out the full text of The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book.
The Jungle Book Trivia and Fun Facts: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
Perhaps the most famous character in The Jungle Book who wasn’t in the Disney film is Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a mongoose who starred in his own short story within Kipling’s first Jungle Book. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was later published as a standalone short book, which legendary animator Chuck Jones adapted for television in 1975.
Another short story from The Jungle Book, Toomai of the Elephants was also spun out into its own short book. That story was about a young elephant handler who wanted to see the elephants “dance.”
The Jungle Book Trivia and Fun Facts: A More Friendly Kaa
While the Disney movie used Kaa as a secondary comic relief villain, the Kaa of Kipling’s Jungle Book was actually an ally to Mowgli who helped save him from monkeys and aided Mowgli’s wolf pack against the Red Dogs during The Second Jungle Book.
The Jungle Book Trivia and Fun Facts: Not Disney’s First Live-Action Attempt
Jon Favreau’s Jungle Book is reportedly a little more faithful to Kipling’s original stories than the first Disney film. But 22 years ago, Disney really strayed from the source material in director Stephen Sommers’ The Jungle Book, a live-action film with Jason Scott Lee as a much older Mowgli and future Game of Thrones star Lena Headey as Mowgli’s love interest, Kitty.
While the famous Jungle Book animals are in the film, they don’t speak as they did in the animated movie. This movie was also criticized for not being true to the spirit of Kipling’s story despite drawing upon elements from both Jungle Book novels.
The Jungle Book Trivia and Fun Facts: Richard M. Sherman
For the original animated version of The Jungle Book, Richard M. Sherman and his late brother Robert wrote all of the songs except for “The Bare Necessities.” Nearly 50 years later, Richard M. Sherman is contributing new songs for the latest version of The Jungle Book.
During their peak in Hollywood, the Sherman brothers were responsible for the music in several Disney hits, including Mary Poppins, The Aristocats, The Parent Trap, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Bedknobs And Broomsticks. Outside of Disney, their greatest hits included Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Slipper and the Rose, and Charlotte’s Web. But their most played song is still “It’s a Small World (After All).”
The Jungle Book Trivia and Fun Facts: Mowgli vs. Mowgli
Warner Bros. has its own Jungle Book movie slated to come out in 2017, with Mr. Motion Capture himself Andy Serkis slated to direct the film and star as Baloo. And this movie also has an impressive voice cast, including Benedict Cumberbatch as Shere Khan, Christian Bale as Bagheera, Cate Blanchett as Kaa, and Rohan Chand as Mowgli. But after Disney’s big budget remake, it remains to be seen if moviegoers are ready for two Jungle Book movies in back-to-back years.
The Jungle Book Trivia and Fun Facts: A One Boy Show
Neel Sethi is reportedly the only actor who will appear in person during the new Jungle Book movie. Most of the film’s sets and characters were created with greenscreen and CGI, with occasional practical elements included as well. But ultimately, this film is going to come down to Sethi. It’s on his shoulders to convince audiences to buy into the illusion of the movie.
The Jungle Book Trivia and Fun Facts: Louie, Louie
King Louie was created for Disney’s animated Jungle Book, and therefore he was not in the original novel. Kipling probably could have told Disney’s animators that orangutans aren’t native to India.
For the new film, Christopher Walken’s King Louie is being reimagined as a gigantopithecus, a very large ancestor of orangutans who are believed to have lived in parts of India. It’s still a bit of a stretch, but it’s slightly more accurate than the first Disney film.
The Jungle Book Trivia and Fun Facts: The Bill Necessities
The Jungle Book is said to be Bill Murray’s first Disney film, but only if his roles in Disney’s live-action Touchstone Pictures aren’t counted. Murray’s previous voiceover roles include Garfield and the Fantastic Four’s Human Torch (seriously). For the new Jungle Book, Murray is voicing Baloo the bear, a role his older brother, Brian Doyle-Murray already played in The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story, a live-action, direct-to-video film produced by Disney in 1998.
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