The Jungle Book (Disney) (1967)

Walt Disney Had That Special Knack For Inspiring His Creative Staff Walt Disney possessed the unique ability to excite his creative staff about a project and to instill in them the same enthusiasm that he felt. Milt Kahl, a senior animator on “The Jungle Book,” the last musical cartoon feature to be personally supervised by Walt, has been with Disney Studios since “Snow White” production days in the early thirties. No animator has worked more closely with Walt. “IT remember,” Milt said, “when we first started in on ‘Jungle Book’ and I’d been working on one of the characters, trying to develop his personality. I finally came up with a drawing that was pretty good. “So I took it up and showed it to him. He wrinkled his nose. ‘No-no,’ he said. “The forehead is too big, and the mouth is too puckered, he doesn’t have enough hair. It’s a stock character.’ “Whenever Walt didn’t like something, he’d call it stock, which was like saying it was ordinary. “After I reworked the character several times, he finally accepted it. And he did so with a minimum of praise. He would inspire us rather than praise our work. “Then one time toward the end of the picture, after we’d been on ‘Jungle Book’ for two-and-a-half years, he brought some friends into my office and said, ‘Milt, show them why it takes so long.’ “That just cracked me up. What a fabulous guy! Walt knew just how to handle us. He could push us to do things that we never thought we Stork Turned CatMouse-Bear Shows Up As A Sneaky Snake For decades comedian Sterling Holloway has made a career for himself playing the country character type with the slow, plaintive voice and built-in boyish appeal. But on the soundtracks of Walt Disney animated shorts, featurettes and full length pictures, Holloway has been the sometime voice of a stork, cat, penguin, mouse and most recently, a bear in ‘“Winnie-the-Pooh and the Honey Tree.’ His is one of the most recognized and unusual specialty voices in pictures. In Disney’s animated musical comedy feature, “The Jungle Book,” the versatile actor from Cedartown, Georgia, shows up as Kaa, a sneaky snake with hypnotic eyes. The film also features the voices of Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima and George Sanders. Holloway was the first of his family to embark on an acting career since the ever popular Lady Penelope Boothby, a distant relative, graced the English stage. Son of a wholesale grocer and cotton broker, Sterling was educated at a Georgia Military Academy in Atlanta. He knew that he wanted to be an actor from boyhood after he got his first taste of amateur theatricals. When he was 15 he enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, where his classmates included Spencer Tracy, Pat O’Brien and Allen Jenkins, all to later make names for themselves in Hollywood. could because he wouldn’t accept our first attempts. He made us work to please him. And we loved him for it.” “The Jungle Book” features the voice talents of Phil Harris as 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. Filmed in Technicolor, ‘“‘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. 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. In his late teens, Holloway toured with a company performing ‘The Shepherd of the Hills,” which played one nighters throughout the West. Back in Gotham he signed with the Theatre Guild and appeared in several of its shows and four editions of the Garrick Gaieties. He made his movie debut in a series of two-reel comedies and was featured with Wallace Beery in ‘Casey at the Bat.” Then back to New York again for a round of musical revues, vaudeville and night clubs, and a successful career in radio. At the Pasadena Playhouse he starred in a musical comedy, “Hullabaloo,” and remained in the Hollywood area to continue his screen work in such movies as “Elmer the Great,” “The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend” and “A Walk in the Sun.” Sterling, like fellow actors, Edward G. Robinson and Vincent Price, collects art for the love of it, and like them, he is a connoisseur to boot. His Laguna Beach home, overlooking the Pacific, is a veritable museum housing an exceptional collection of contemporary works. Everything from a Peruvian Indian mask to a Sumatran totem pole fills the place. And like his ancestor, Lady Boothby, he too, sat for his portrait, which was executed by Karel Appel. In color by 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. 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. Mat JB 2-K (Standard 2 column width and coarse screen) © 1967 Walt Disney Productions A trio of dim-witted branch swingers are up to no good as they get ready to move in where the action is in Walt Disney’s all-cartoon comedy adventure, “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. e screen) Mat JB 2-J (Standard 2 column width and coa It’s a nose-on collision as Mowgli gets his signals crossed while learning to march with a baby elephant in Walt Disney’s all-cartoon Technicolor comedy adventure, 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. « Mat JB 2-B (Standard 2 column width and coarse screen) alt Disney Productions Baloo finds that he has taken on more than he bargained for when he tries to hold that tiger, mean-tempered Shere Khan, 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. Page11