The Jungle Book is the nineteenth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was first released on October 18, 1967, and was the last animated feature produced by Walt Disney, who died during its production. It is based, rather loosely, on the stories about the feral child Mowgli from the book The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. The movie remains one of Disney's most popular, and contained a number of classic songs, including "The Bare Necessities" and "I Wan'na Be Like You". Most of the songs are by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The film was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, and Mowgli was voiced by his son, Bruce Reitherman.

Its characters include:

• Bagheera (panther) (voiced by Sebastian Cabot)
• Several wolves
• Mowgli (human being)
• Hathi (elephant) (voiced by J. Pat O'Malley)
• Baloo (bear) (voiced by Phil Harris)
• King Louie (orang-utan) (voiced by Louis Prima)
• Four vultures (with characterizations inspired by The Beatles and other British invasion-era bands)

There are two villains, Kaa (voiced by Sterling Holloway), a hypnotizing snake; and Shere Khan (voiced by George Sanders), a tiger. In the original stories by Kipling, Kaa was a hero.

The song "Trust in Me" is based upon a song entitled "Land of Sand" which had been written for, but not used in, Mary Poppins.

External links

• The Big Cartoon DataBase entry for The Jungle Book