Disney's animated classic, The Jungle Book is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The story of Mowgli, a young boy raised by wolves and his adventures from the jungle to the man-village is one of the most popular in Disney's animation library. Some of Disney's most memorable characters came from The Jungle Book: King Louis the lion (voiced by Louis Prima himself), Kaa the ssssssnake, and of course, Baloo, the singing, dancing bear. The Jungle Book was also the last animated film Walt Disney was alive to work on. So of course, let's make more money off the event and release a new version! In this case, the DVD happens to be chock-full of great extras, so it makes it worthwhile. But are all these different versions really necessary?
The re-release of The Jungle Book contains some great documentaries that, because of their high production values, appear to have been shot fairly recently. The main "making of" documentary is nearly an hour long, and like all the documentaries, is jammed with insightful interviews with multitudes of animators who worked on the movie. Other animators are interviewed as well, describing the brilliance of the film and how it inspired them to go into animation.
Other documentaries focus on the transition from book to film, and a look at where Bruce Reitherman, the voice of Mowgli, is now (he now shoots nature documentaries, in part due to his exposure to The Jungle Book). You also get a look at the "lost" character Rocky the Rhino, deleted songs, and production art. For the kids, there are games and an educational look at the animals of the film.
But are all these versions really necessary? There was, of course, a video release. Then a standard DVD release. Now the 40th anniversary edition. With high-def formats on the rise, one can only guess at how many incarnations of the film we can expect in the near future.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
1 - Mighty Horse
Sleeping Beauty has been announced for 2008 on Blu-Ray.