I have chosen Rudard Kipling’s, ‘The Jungle Book’ against Disney’s animated version to see how they are different and why. This is to see how someone would create an animation based on a book and what he or she should look and avoid.
The reason I chose, ‘The Jungle Book’ is because it is a good example of anthropomorphism and has two characters that are cats, Bajeerah and Shere Khan. I also loved the film as a child so I was interested to see what the differences are and why Disney chose to do so.
The Rudyard Kipling story, ‘The Jungle Book’, is actually part of a collection of stories about Mowgli and his friends. I had never read the story before doing this paper but had seen the Disney film so I was really surprised to find out just how different the two are.
'No one can say at this late date, but the finished Jungle Book, according to animator Eric Goldberg, “bears very little resemblance to Rudyard Kipling’s original, but I don’t think that’s what Walt wanted.”'
(http://bezalel.secured.co.il/zope/home/he/1209439536/1211516902)
For instance, the beginning of each story where Mowgli is found and rescued by the wolves it shows the different ways Kipling, Peet and Disney took it. Kipling wrote that Shere Khan attacks a camp of woodcutters and during this Mowgli wanders off and enters the wolves’ cave. Shere Khan comes to kill Mowgli but the mother wolf bravely protects him.
Peet did not seem to think this had enough drama and tension so gave this scene more action to thrill the audience. Peet had Mowgli carried off by a river clinging to a log; Bagheera tries to catch him but fails. The wolves watch him head for the edge of a waterfall when Mother Wolf saves him just as he goes over.
Personally I liked Kipling’s version and found it was an interesting start to the story although Peet’s version did have a lot of excitement, possibly too much for an opening sequence; I am sure it would have grabbed the audience though!
As you probably know Disney simplified Peet’s version and simply used some amazing paintings of a wrecked canoe with Mowgli inside. Bagheera then carries Mowgli to Mother Wolf for her to care for him.
There are actually three versions of ‘The Jungle Book’, Kipling’s, Disney’s and Peet’s. This is because Disney and Peet had a falling out over the film. Disney did not like how Peet was turning the film dark and sinister; he wanted to mainly focus on the characters and entertainment with the story coming last, which explains the poor plotline that barely exists!
‘Disney's insistence on fun and character also overrode what he discomfortingly called "the icky-sticky story stuff," meaning most of Kipling's dark, smart story elements got trounced in favor of singing, dancing, and slapstick.’
(Online Newspaper - http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/2007/10/jazz_in_the_jungle_or_if_you_d.php)
As they could not reach an agreement, the two of them fell out and Peet left the studio and Clemmons took over. It is really a sad ending as they had been friends for years and never got to make up, as Disney died of Cancer towards the end of production.
The greatest change from the book has to be the actual storyline, the journey from the jungle to the man village. This storyline that Peet created was what Disney and the story team turned to when they had difficulties after he left. Kipling did have Mowgli go back to the man village but he went back and forth from jungle, the idea of him going and staying at the village was a completely new idea by Peet and Disney.
One change that really surprised me was that Baloo and Bagheera’s personalities had almost been swapped. Baloo was sleepy and bossy to Mowgli and was a proud teacher, who taught Mowgli the law of the jungle and the secret words of the animals. Kipling’s Baloo was in every way like the serious teachers you had at school although he was still caring like Bagheera in the film. Bagheera was more of the joker in the book although he did still have some sensibility about him.
(Figure *** - http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/2007/10/jazz_in_the_jungle_or_if_you_d.php)Peet decided to make Baloo a lazy, easy-going bear but it was not until Phil Harris was cast as Baloo that they really knew what they had. Harris really made Baloo who he is and actually got Disney and their team out of the problem they had with Baloo who was originally destined to be a cameo part.
‘Phil Harris’s performance added sincerity in a colorful character that gave new interest to everything he did, but, most important, this bear suddenly had great warmth, something the picture needed.’
(Thomas and Johnston,1997,p.80)
All three versions do have a similarity; they all included the scene of Mowgli being kidnapped by the ‘Bandar-log’, Kipling’s name for the monkeys. In Kipling’s book, the monkey’s pretend to be men but without a law or a leader. They kidnap Mowgli so he can teach them to be men and to weave sticks so they can make shelters. Peet wanted to pretty much stick to the way Kipling had created the ‘Bandar-log’ but by kidnapping Mowgli to teach them how to rebuild their city and to teach them the secret to mans ‘red flower’, fire. Peet wanted to bring slapstick comedy in to this scene, as did Disney so they created an entertaining and funny sequence of Baloo and Bagheera coming to save Mowgli from the monkeys and King Louie. In Kipling’s, Kaa was a friend and mentor of Mowgli’s and came to help too!
Peet also made the story more like Kipling’s later in his version of the film but Disney did not approve of where the story was going so it was dropped. Peet had planned for Mowgli to return to the man village and be adopted by a woman called Messua, who is believed to be Mowgli’s mother. He stays in the village learning to be a man but is plagued with difficulties because of a hunter called Baldeo who thinks Mowgli is a sorcerer and a man wolf.
During the monkey scene Peet had included a bit about there being treasure under the monkey’s city and Baldeo, the hunter finds out about this and forces Mowgli to show him where it is. Once they arrive, Mowgli distracts Baldeo as he sees Shere Khan coming who eventually kills Baldeo. Mowgli then uses Baldeo’s gun to kill Shere Khan. Mowgli is then a hero to the people of the village and the animals of the jungle and decides to live in the village but visit the jungle as he pleases. As you can see this is an exciting version of the story but due to the darkness of it Disney dropped it as his film was aimed at adults, and children. He also wanted to stick to the plan of Baloo being responsible for returning Mowgli to the village and to concentrate more on the characters, something I do not understand his reasoning for. Yes, characters are important but so is the story. If Peet’s version was made less sinister then I believe ‘The Jungle Book’ would have been even better and I am sure it would have more fans, especially today where fans look back and admit to preferring Disney’s more story based films such as ‘The Lion King’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘101 Dalmations’. I believe it was mainly the catchy songs such as ‘The Bare Necessities’ that saved ‘The Jungle Book’ and made it successful.
Due to dropping Peet’s ending and him leaving, Disney and his team were stuck for an ending but Disney urged the story team to not look at Kipling’s book and to just concentrate on personality and entertainment. Disney however did not take his own advice and used the book to get ideas. He finally got his inspiration for an ending from two passages; one from the end of ‘The Jungle Book’ and the other from ‘The Second Jungle Book’. These passages are shown below.
‘So Mowgli went away and hunted with the four cubs in the jungle from that day on. But he was not always alone, because, years afterward, he became a man and married.’
Tiger! Tiger! In The Jungle Book. Page 107.
‘Mowgli was going to answer when a girl in a white cloth came down some path that led from the outskirts of the village. Gray Brother dropped out of sight at once, and Mowgli backed noiselessly into a field of high-springing crops. He could almost have touched her with his hand when the warm, green stalks closed before his face and he disappeared like a ghost. The girl screamed, for she thought she had seen a spirit, and then she gave a deep sigh. Mowgli parted the stalks with his hands and watched her till she was out of sight.’
The Second Jungle Book. Page 155.
After finding this all out I watched the film again and it is fascinating to see how much of Peet’s original work was used and inspired from. Even though Disney broke it down to the very basics it was still taught you the differences between man and animal and we should get along and be friends even if it was a basic story it was still a highly entertaining, musical journey.
From this I have learned that if you truly believe in something that you should follow it as you may be like Disney, who stood up for what he believed in and made a film that became a great success but due to people not liking the poor storyline; I have learned that you should always listen to people’s advice even if you do not take it. Also, that you should have great characters and give them time for your audience to fall in love with and be entertained by but to also have a good story. Catchy and entertaining songs also seem to be a popular way of making an audience fall in love with a film, although I already knew this from my love of ‘The Lion King’ songs. One of the most vital things I have learned though is that anthropomorphism is something that Disney uses to bring their animals to life. It makes you love the characters even more, as you can understand them, feel for them and be brought into their world; an animal kingdom filled with love, friendship and fantasy.
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