The Jungle Book (Disney film)/Trivia

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"Here's the novel. Now the first thing I want you to do is not read it." —Walt Disney to his writing staff

• The Danza: King Louie.
• Hey, It's That Voice!:
  • Sterling Holloway provided the voice for Kaa. That's the original Winnie the Pooh, folks. Enjoy that image in your nightmares.
  • This pattern was continued when Holloway was replaced by Jim Cummings who is the modern VA for both characters. Cummings also provides the voices for Hathi and King Louie (and occasionally shares the role of Bagheera with Bob Joles) in their later animated appearances.
  • Shere Khan is Addison Dewitt.
  • Phil Harris later went on to voice Thomas O'Malley from The Aristocats, Little John in Robin Hood, and finally Patou in Don Bluth's Rock-a-Doodle. In the sequel, he is voiced by John Goodman.
  • Sebastian Cabot also voiced Sir Ector in The Sword in the Stone and was the original Narrator for the Winnie the Pooh cartoons.
  • Bruce Reitherman, son of director Wolfgang Reitherman, also starred as the original voice of Christopher Robin.
  • J. Pat O'Malley uses his Colonel voice, appropriately, for Colonel Hathi, and his Jasper Baddun voice for Buzzie the Vulture.
  • Finally, a very young Clint Howard as the voice of the young elephant.
  • Verna Felton as Hathi's wife, Winifred, also voiced another elephant in Dumbo, the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, Flora in Sleeping Beauty, Aunt Sarah in Lady and the Tramp and the Queen of Hearts.
  • Some people watch the sequel just to hear Mae Whitman voice a rather precocious young girl who is both the best friend and love interest of the fun-loving, free-spirited protagonist.
  • Tony Jay's performance as the villain Shere Khan is considered to be the only good thing about the sequel.
• What Could Have Been: The Vultures were originally planned to be voiced by The Beatles and sing a rock song, but John Lennon refused on the grounds that he hated the Walt Disney Company. The Beatles-inspired character designs for the Vultures were kept in the finished film, however.
  • Before that, the film was a closer and much darker adaptation of the book.
  • According to Amy Mebberson, one of the animators for Jungle Book 2, there were ideas for a third Jungle Book. One idea was about Baloo and Shere Khan getting captured by hunters and sent a Russian circus, Mowgli and Shanti going after them to save Baloo, and Shere Khan possibly getting over his desire to kill Mowgli through the course of the film.
  • Long before The Jungle Book 2, development for a sequel had already been planned in 1968. It was initially pitched as a record story (entitled More Jungle Book) however it was rejected as an animation out of respect for Walt's dislike of sequels. The record featured original tunes provided by Phil Harris and Louis Prima (who reprised their roles as Baloo and Louie respectively), a snippet of which can be found here.

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