The Jungle Book (Disney) (1967)

“Jungle Book’’ Musical Is The Pinnacle Of Disney Animation The wonderful and special world of Walt Disney animation reaches its pinnacle with the musical comedy, “The Jungle Book,” inspired by Rud— yard Kipling’s “Mowgli” stories about a boy who wants to live his life in the jungle among the animals he knows and loves. The final animated feature to be personally produced by the master showman, it represents thirty years of cartooning experience, incorporating the tried, the proven and the new in style, design and concept, and realistically capturing the inhabitants of the jungle and their lush, colorful and adventurous world. And in like no other Disney animated feature have the voices and personalities of its principle vocal talent, such as the indomitable Phil Harris, as Baloo, the bear; Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera, the panther; Louis Prima as King Louie of the apes; George Sanders, as the tiger; Sterling Holloway as Kaa, the python, and J. Pat O’Malley as Colonel Hathi, the elephant, influenced the development of its characters so perfectly. Consequently, the results are more lifelike and believable than anything that has gone before. Disney, whose name has become synonymous with the cartoon process, was instrumental in perfecting the highly complex medium through determination, creative imagination and the highest degree of quality. His achievements, first in the field of the short subject, helped develop artist man’s long-standing dream of creating fluid motion in the drawn picture ever since they began to flicker across the movie screen in 1906. Disney’s fascination with this new means of expression was a result of his seeing it as an unlimited storytelling instrument. It became to him, not merely a medium for cartooning broad caricatures, gags and comic situations, but also a means of bringing life and motion to fine illustration. But it was the universal appeal of Mickey Mouse that paved the way for expansion and new ideas. Later the Silly Symphonies were the artistic proving ground and the springboard to the first animated feature, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Its success proved animation was becoming a fine art. The years that followed found Disney and his creative staff searching for new ways to improve their techniques with each successive and diversified picture, from those such as “Pinocchio,” “Fantasia” and “Bambi” to “Lady and the Tramp,” “Sleeping Beauty” and “One Hundred and One Dalmatians.” Now, thirty years after ‘“‘Snow White” and some seventeen animated movies later, the last being ‘“‘The Swofd in the Stone,” four years ago, comes “The Jungle Book,” which has been three and a half years in the making. “The Jungle Book” was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and was written for the screen by Larry Clemmons, Ralph Wright, Ken Anderson and Vance Gerry. Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman composed five songs for the picture and Terry Gilkyson has contributed an additional song. George Bruns composed the background score. Mat JB 2-A (Standard 2 column width and coarse screen) Walt Disney and Louis Prima, happily view a drawing of King Louie the Most, ape potentate, whose voice is brought to life by Prima in Walt Disney’s full length animated musical, “The Jungle Book,” and also features the voice talents of Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, George Sanders, Sterling Holloway, J. Pat O’Malley and Bruce Reitherman. “The Jungle Book” inspired by the “Mowgli” stories of Rudyard Kipling, was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, an Technicolor. Phil Harris Makes The Voice Of One Swell Bear In Disney’s “The Jungle Book” Right from the first Walt Disney felt that there was only one man in Hollywood who came up to the casual kind of character that he had in mind for the voice of Baloo, the happy-golucky bear in his animated musical feature, ‘The Jungle Book.” “It calls for a Phil Harris type, so why not try and get Harris,” he informed his staff. Phil was game to give it a go and worked up a sock vocal routine on what he thought a bear should sound like, but the results were disappointing. Even Harris felt that this act was not for him. Disney simply suggested to Phil that the bear was a casual kind of Wallace Beery figure, not unlike the part that Harris had played for so long on the old Jack Benny radio show. Phil gave it another reading, with this intention, and sealed the role when Disney felt that he made one swell bear. Harris was born in Linton, Indiana on June 24, 1906, but grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, where he acquired his famous southern drawl, and where he also started his musical career as a drummer. His mother and father were performers with tent stock companies, and when the circus was in season, his dad played in the band. It was he who taught Phil the fundamentals of music. Working for a time as a trap drummer after leaving school, Phil and several other Nashville youths formed the “Dixie Syncopaters.” After two years of barnstorming around the country, the group disbanded and Phil received a contract to play a dance palace in Melbourne, Australia. In 1932, he again formed his own band which was an immediate hit, and so was its leader. For many years, during the summers, he played one nighters, and, at one stretch, he kept 45 consecutive evening dates. During this period, Phil made a number of musical film shorts and appeared in some half dozen features. Harris signed with Jack Benny to appear on his radio program in 1936 and up until 1952 was a permanent meraber of the cast. In 1946, Phil, along with his wife, Alice Faye, started his own radio show over NBC. They make their home at the famous desert resort of Palm Springs, alongside the sixth hole of the Thunderbird Golf Course, with their two daughters, Alice, 23 and Phyllis, 22. And the only things that will lure him away from Alice, the girls and the links, is an occasional club date, a TV guesting, a benefit, or an African safari for wild game. “The Jungle Book”’ also features the voice talents of Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera, the stern panther ; Louis Prima, as King Louie the Most, the addled ape potentate; George Sanders as Shere Khan, a sophisticated tiger heavy; Sterling Holloway as Kaa, the sneaky snake; J. Pat O’Malley as the pompous elephant Colonel Hathi, and Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli, the mancub. In Technicolor, ‘The Jungle Book’”’ was inspired by the Rudyard Kipling “Mowgli” stories and was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman. It was written for the screen by Larry Clemmons, Ralph Wright, Ken Anderson and Vance Gerry. The Oscar-winning, songwriting team ef Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman composed five songs for the picture and Terry Gilkyson has contributed an additional song. George Bruns composed the background score. Buena Vista releases. “The Jungle Book’’ is being screened locally on an all-Disney program with the animal-adventure film, ‘‘Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar.”’ Filmed in the breathtaking mountain country of the Pacific Northwest, “Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar’ tells the story of a playful cougar kitten which grows up to work side by side with loggers on the world’s last major river drive. Both pictures, in Technicolor, are being released by Buena Vista. © 1967 Walt Disney Productions Mat JB 1-C (Standard width and coarse screen) When is a bear not a bear? When he’s posing as an ape ona secret mission. And eccentric King Louie is not only taken in by the guise but becomes quite smitten with his new dancing partner in Walt Disney’s all-cartoon comedy adventure, “The Jungle Book,” in Technicolor. “tity © 1967 Walt Disney Productions Mat JB 1-D (Standard width and coarse screen) Jungle boy Mowgli goes out on a limb to take a closer look at a young girl who has just entered his life in Walt Disney’s all-cartoon comedy adventure, “The Jungle Book,” in Technicolor. © 1967 Walt Disney Productions Mat JB 1-F (Standard width and coarse screen) Girl sees boy and love comes into bloom in the Indian jungle in Walt Disney’s all-cartoon comedy adventure, “The Jungle Book,” in Technicolor. Page 5