Movie Project – Day 13: The Jungle Book (1967)

Not every movie is artful and inspiring like Fantasia, but Disney can convey some simple stories to the screen in a very intriguing and memorable way. The animated adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's collection of stories is one of my earliest purchases, if you could call it that. I received this movie free with my purchase of the Platinum Edition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I was considering getting 101 Dalmations instead, and I knew there were some people buying multiple copies of Snow White just to get all the movies they could. There were eight possible movies to choose from when you pre-ordered the Platinum Edition, Disney Store exclusive offer. I'm assuming they don't do the free movies anymore because of the demand they had for the first one. I could be wrong.

Regardless of what Disney decided to do, the disc is very limited in features. The special features are reduced to film recommendations, and the only other audio tracks are the French and Spanish versions. I was pleased that they did have the English subtitles, but that was all. It is a very bare bones disc, but I got what I paid for I suppose.

Not to say that Erini didn't like the movie, quite the contrary. She enjoyed it thoroughly, and even got up and danced during "I Wanna Be Like You." Go figure that my little monkey of a girl enjoyed the monkeys the most. Baloo was also one of her favourites, and who doesn't like "The Bare Necessities," I ask you? Most especially Baloo bore a strong resemblance to Grandpa Tolley, and this wasn't just my imagining. When we informed him later on that we watched this movie, he put on a short performance of petulance that we did not invite him to watch. He then told us that he and Baloo were kindred spirits, or something of that sort, and he did a bit of Baloo's back scratching dance that was spot on.

Will Rini ask to watch this movie again? Maybe. If we mention the monkeys, I can see her asking again, and if we leave the disc out, I'm sure she would remember it.

Though the disc does not have a lot of special features, I'm not that sore about it. The audio is Dolby 2.0, as opposed to the 5.1 remastered track for the 40th Anniversary Edition released in 2003, but the music and performance of the characters still rings true and was quite level for the entirety of the film.

I still find the vultures to be my favourite part of the film.