The Jungle Book (No, not that one! But we do have it...)
There’s a new Disney film out this week, called The Jungle Book. No, you’re not experiencing deja vu; it is indeed 2016 and there is a new one. It is part of Disney’s work to create live-action renditions of their animated canon, mostly in order, and often with enormous changes and twists (Maleficent, anyone?).
While many people hearken to the 1967 cartoon as the source material, Disney is actually going much farther back.
The Jungle Book, followed by a second and third volume, was first published in 1894 by Rudyard Kipling. It is considered a classic collection of stories about Jungle Life and the Law of the Jungle in the wilds of India. If your only experience with the collection is any of the Disney versions (or one of most other related media from the twentieth century), then you’ll be surprised to discover that Mowgli, the “main character” of The Jungle Book, is very often not present in the stories that make up the full volume. His stories will be familiar, as may a few others like the story of Riki-Tiki-Tavi, but the rest are more about the jungle than the man-cub. These stories, written for children, tell tales of jungle animals and the Law, extolling the moral ideals of Kipling and his contemporaries. Some are more subtle, while others are very deliberate in their expression.
Experts in Cultural Criticism and other literary theory often look to Kipling as the prime example of British Imperialism in written form, as a person whose most known works are stories of India and Indians from the point of view of someone who, while born in India, would never have considered himself Indian. His most well known novel, Kim, is heavily analyzed in literary criticism for its misrepresentation of native people in India and anything at all about the culture itself, which is not surprising for the time period and Kipling’s own assertion that anyone not of Good British Stock is somehow a lesser being—and he even included Americans and continental Europeans in this group. Find out everything you never thought you wanted to know about Kipling here.
Have you seen the new film? Do you feel that it touched more on the other parts of the stories? Or would you rather have the Bare Necessities?