The Jungle book – This Disney film follows Mowgli, a young boy who is an orphan. After being found in a basket by a black panther in the middle of an Indian jungle, He is taken to a mother wolf who raises him as her own. He then spends most of his life in the jungle with several animals.
The Story of Mowgli you know is from the movie but there are lot more to know.
Released in 1967 the film was met with positive review, but media professors from Syracuse University found it to be racist. They claim that the apes in the film are clearly meant to demean black people. In an interview they said that in a scene in which the apes are singing a song title “I wanna be like you” the ape explains how he want to be like a human. Professors claim this is really a racist metaphor for black people’s efforts to be more like white people. However these are just the opinions of the professors.
The real story of Jungle Book
The real shock comes when you learn what the movie was based on. It was based on a short story by Rudyard Kipling, In the Disney version the ending shows Mowgli coming across a village full of people, he then enters the village and the animals sing a happy tune and movie ends. However in the original version when Mowgli enters the village the villagers do not accept him into their society due to this he asks an elephant for help, in the movie the elephant is portrayed as an helpful, forgetful old elephant, but in the short story he is a blood thirsty savage. Due to the rejection of the villagers Mowgli gets upset and rounds up a gang of animals and destroys the whole village. To sum it up, in the original ending Mowgli is one ruthless kid.
Now you know the real story of “The Jungle Book”. Let’s see what the director is going to show us in the upcoming release of The Jungle Book on 7th April (Australia).