The Jungle Book (Disney) (1967)

Disney’s “Jungle Book” Stacks Up Some Impressive Figures Walt Disney’s animated feature pictures, like great live-action movie epics take time, money and patience and in the course of production, stack up some impressive production facts and figures. The latest Disney offering, ‘The Jungle Book,” a new dimension in animated musical comedies, has been three-and-a-half years in the making and close to 250 people have been involved in putting it together, at a cost of about $4,000,000. Approximately 322,000 drawings were made by 70 animators over the years. The pencil tests for the picture, which are made before the scenes are committed to final filming, alone would ribbon from the Studio in Burbank to Disneyland, some 37 miles away. Each minute of animation requires 1,440 different pictures, even if there’s only one character moving on the screen. It would have taken a single artist 16 years to handle all the animation for the movie, at an average output of eight feet a week. The 12 sequences that make up “The Jungle Book” have 1,039 separate scenes and 760 painted backgrounds. There are 108,000 frames of film making up the picture that measures 6,825 feet. “The Jungle Book” is Disney’s seventeenth fully animated feature and marks the 30th anniversary of the release of the first all-cartoon picture, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” The film features the voice talents of Phil Harris as the voice of Baloo, the happy-go-lucky bear; 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 directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and was written for the screen by Larry Clemmons, Ralph Wright, Ken Anderson and Vance Gerry. The Oscar winning, songwriting team of 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 is raised by a lumberman in a logging camp. Growing up in this environment, the cat learns to birl logs, and works side by side with the loggers on the world’s last major river drive. Problems begin for the cougar when, fully grown, he is considered too dangerous to be allowed to roam free at the lumber mill, and is returned to the wilds. His domesticity has dulled his instincts for survival and he is unable to fend for himself. Both pictures, in Technicolor, are being released by Buena Vista. Page 10 Mat JB 2-C (Standard 2 column width and coarse screen) © 1967 Walt Disney Productions The Indian jungle is full of surprises and Mowgli and his pals, Baloo, the bear and Bagheera, the panther stumble on a new one as a young girl crosses their path in Walt Disney’s animated musical, “The Jungle Book,” with the voice talents of Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, George Sanders, Sterling Holloway, J. Pat O’Malley and Bruce Reitherman. Filmed in Technicolor, “The Jungle Book” was inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s “Mowgli” stories. Sebastian Cabot Does Voice For ‘Jungle Book” But Not At The Price Of His Prize Beard Actor Sebastian Cabot’s trademark is his beard which he has cultivated for twenty years, sacrificing it only once, and at the request of Walt Disney for a role in “Johnny Tremain.” However, of late his beard has been spared as he has been heard and not seen in a string of Disney TV shows and animated movies, in which he has acted as narrator, like ‘‘Winnie the Pooh,” and “The Sword in the Stone,” though in the latter he also doubled as the voice of the blustering Sir Ector. Sabby, as he’s known to his colleagues, is back, beard and all, as the voice of the stern panther, Bagheera in Disney’s animated musical comedy feature, “The Jungle Book.” Cabot, the son of a London photographer, attended St. Augustine School in London. He remembers that he excelled in science and was terrible at mathematics. His major accomplishment during his school years, he firmly believes, was his ability to win a place on the school’s cricket team. He earned his first money helping out in a London garage after school, then tried his talents as an apprentice chef at 14. When he discovered he had a penchant for mimicry and dialects, he put aside the culinary arts and enthusiastically pursued his newfound career with a repertory company in the provinces, and as a stage and radio actor in London. The portly Cabot gained recognition for his film role of Lord Capulet in the Anglo-Italian picture, “Romeo and Juliet,” starring Laurence Harvey. More movie and TV roles quickly followed. Then in 1953 he made his first Hollywood picture, ‘Kismet,’ with Howard Keel. Soon offers from all the top series monopolized his acting hours. Disney saw his work in ‘Romeo and Juliet” and had him try out for a role in ‘Westward Ho the Wagons!” He speedily won the assignment. Following this, Disney talked him out of his beard for the part of a clean shaven Englishman in “Johnny Tremain.” Cabot and his wife have two children, Annette Michele, 25, and Christopher Pierre, 23. Both are following in the acting footsteps of their dad. Despite his bulk, Sebastian is an enthusiastic sportsman, and loves to swim, rifle-shoot and play cricket; boating and fishing are particular favorites of his. He nicely combines all his interests on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, where he owns a home. He is also an ardent photographer, and has a great interest in sports car racing. Collecting and restoring cars like his 1937 SS-100 Jaguar, a 1956 Bentley and a 1937 Lagonda V-12 de Ville town car is a favorite hobby. Cabot is currently the butler, French, in the successful TV series, “Family Affair’ with Brian Keith. Before this he was a regular for several seasons on the “Checkmate” series and on the charade show, “Stump the Stars.” In Technicolor, ‘““‘The Jungle Book” also features the voice talents of Phil Harris, Louis Prima, George Sanders, Sterling Holloway, J. Pat O’Malley and Bruce Reitherman. “The Jungle Book” was inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s ‘‘“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 of 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. Thirty Year Association With Disney Marked By Enthusiasm & Creativity Woolie Reitherman, the director of “The Jungle Book,” the final animated feature to be personally supervised by Walt Disney, has been with Disney Studios since the beginning of production of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Whenever speaking about his work or 35-year association with Walt, Reitherman is enthusiastic and lively. “You have to believe in something,” he contends. “This job, like anything, could be a bore, or it could be something really exciting. Depends on what you make of it. “And I think that a little of Walt rubbed off on all of us. That guy was always deeply involved in his work and excited about every project. He really had a vision. And he never lost the memory of what enthused him in the beginning. He had the ability to sustain his enthusiasm and get us excited about whatever excited him. “T remember when I first came here as an animator and did the mirror sequence in ‘Snow White,’ the atmosphere in the studio was alive with creativity, a marriage of many minds and talents. “It was great to work under those conditions. We fabricated whole characters from thin air. We made life happen in cartoon form. There were no movie actors to fall back on to make the cartoon figures click. From our imagination we created frame by frame spontaneity. ‘““‘We’ve sustained that feeling through our many cartoon features from ‘Snow White’ to ‘Jungle Book’ because no picture was ever the same. We were always trying new methods, new techniques, always pioneering one thing or another. No one has ever been able to compete with Disney because of his continual forward motion. That’s why no one else has been able to produce a successful cartoon feature. “Tn ‘Jungle Book’ we tried to incorporate the personalities of the actors that do the voices into the cartoon characters and we’ve come up with something totally different. When Phil Harris did the voice for Baloo, a carefree jungle bear, he gave it a bubble of life. We didn’t coach him, just let it happen. ‘All the rest of the characters evolved the same way. And as the characters grew in dimension, the story was altered as they interacted with each other. We always leave the plot loose enough so that the personalities meshing together enhance it by their natural action. “We’re already well into another two projects: a second ‘Winnie the Pooh’ featurette and a new cartoon feature, ‘The Aristocats.’ Walt instilled in us his forward momentum, and we’re maintaining it as he would have wanted us to.” “The Jungle Book” features the voice talents of Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, George Sanders, Sterling Holloway and J. Pat O’Malley and was written for the screen by Larry Clemmons, Ralph Wright, Ken Anderson and Vance Gerry. The Oscar-winning, song-writing team of 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.