The Jungle Book (1967)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The jungle Book |
| Original title | The Jungle Book |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1967 |
| length | 75 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Wolfgang Reitherman |
| script |
Larry Clemmons , Ralph Wright , Ken Anderson , Vance Gerry |
| production | Walt Disney |
| music | Film music: George Bruns Songs: Robert B. Sherman Richard M. Sherman Terry Gilkyson Orchestration: Walter Sheets German lyrics: Heinrich Riethmüller |
| cut |
Tom Acosta , Norman Carlisle |
| chronology | |
|
Successor → |
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The Jungle Book (original title: The Jungle Book ) is the 19th full-length animated film from the Walt Disney Studios . It is based on motifs from the jungle book stories by Rudyard Kipling , but freely processes them into a completely different story. The film was released on October 18, 1967 and was the last full-length animated film to be produced by Walt Disney himself.
Not least because of the soundtrack , the film became hugely popular, especially in Europe. In Germany it is even the most successful film in terms of the number of moviegoers. In 2003, the Federal Agency for Civic Education, in cooperation with numerous filmmakers, created a film canon for work in schools comprising 35 films and included The Jungle Book on the list.
action
The story of the foundling Mowgli is told from the perspective of the panther Baghira , who finds the "human boy" in the jungle and places it with a wolf family. Mowgli lived happily ever after in the jungle for ten years.
But then danger threatens: The tiger Shir Khan wants to kill Mowgli before he is old enough to kill Shir Khan himself, because only humans can handle fire - and that is the only thing the tiger fears. The wolves and Baghira want to bring Mowgli to a human settlement to safety, but Mowgli is not at all enthusiastic about that. Nevertheless, he and Baghira leave. You spend the first night in the jungle on a tree. Shortly before Baghira falls asleep, the human boy falls into the trap of Kaa, the giant python . While Kaa is busy hypnotizing Baghira, Mowgli is able to free himself and throw Kaa down from the tree. The next morning they are woken up by an elephant company (jungle patrol), which Mowgli joins for a short time. He befriends the young elephant "Junior". However, Mowgli cannot stay with the elephants because the elephant colonel Hathi does not like people. Baghira continues the journey with Mowgli.
In the jungle, Mowgli refuses to go on. He doesn't see enough of leaving the jungle and clings to a tree. Baghira tries to pull Mowgli away by the pants; Mowgli defends himself and can free himself from the predicament. The panther leaves Mowgli angry, but keeps an eye on the human boy. But instead of avoiding the dangers of the jungle, Mowgli goes on his own and meets the cozy, carefree and naive bear Balu. He "adopts" the carefree Mowgli and becomes his teacher in matters of cosiness .
But a little later a horde of monkeys seized the human child because their king, King Louie, wanted to find out the secret of fire with his help. After Balu and Baghira help Mowgli to escape from the monkeys, Balu also has to realize that his protégé is not safe in the jungle and should go to the people. Mowgli feels betrayed and sets off on his own again. Baghira then asks the jungle patrol to help find Mowgli. But Shir Khan can eavesdrop on the plans and also goes on a search. Meanwhile, Mowgli falls again into the clutches of Kaa, who manages to pull the boy under his spell. Distracted by the sudden appearance of Shir Khan, Kaa escapes how Mowgli frees himself and flees.
Mowgli meets new friends, the four vultures Buzzy, Dizzy, Ziggy and Flaps. During a sudden thunderstorm, the dreaded tiger attacks Mowgli. With the help of the vultures, Baloo can barely step in and saves Mowgli from Shir Khan's claws, but is knocked unconscious by the tiger. Mowgli defeats the tiger by attaching a branch set on fire to Shir Khan's tail - the enemy flees in panic. Baghira and Mowgli think the Baloo, who is still lying motionless on the ground, is dead and Baghira gives a poignant funeral speech for the bear. Baloo, however, is alive, is again conscious and enjoys the hymn of praise for his person.
The end of the journey seems to have come when Mowgli hears a girl's voice singing from the human settlement. He follows her ecstatically and leaves his friends behind. They are surprised, but are happy that everyone is now where they belong. Balu and Baghira sing arm in arm: Try some coziness .
characters
- Mowgli (Mowgli)
- Mowgli is a person who was abandoned in the jungle as a baby and who is accepted into their circle by the animals of the jungle.
- Baloo (Baloo)
- Balu is a cozy bear who enjoys life to the fullest.
- Baghira (Bagheera)
- The black panther found Mowgli as a baby in the jungle and brought it to the wolf family. He takes good care of his little friend and ultimately ensures that he finds his way back to the human settlement.
- Shir Khan (Shere Khan)
- The tiger that the whole jungle fears. He hates people profoundly, and so Mowgli is also in danger. However, he is afraid of fire.
- King Louie
- The monkey king who would like to be like a human.
- Kaa
- The giant snake ( tiger python ), who knows the art of hypnotizing.
- Colonel Hathi
- The head of the elephant patrol and commander of the jungle patrol.
- Winifred
- The courageous female elephant of Colonel Hathi and mother of Junior.
- Junior
- A little elephant boy who introduces Mowgli to the elephant herd.
- Akela
- Head of the wolf pack that Mowgli takes in.
- Rama
- A wolf whose family takes care of the human boy Mowgli.
- Raschka (Raksha)
- Rama's wife. She raises Mowgli with her young.
- Buzzy, Dizzy, Ziggy and Flaps
- The four vultures.
- Shanti
- A girl Mowgli is interested in and who in the end leads him back into the human world. Your name will only be mentioned in the sequel.
Production history
The Jungle Book was the last film that could bear the signature of Walt Disney, who died in December 1966. Though some critics doubt that Disney had much of an impact on the film - after all, at the time it was just a financier and more focused on its TV shows and Disneyland - it influenced the end result more than its predecessor The Witch and the Wizard . Disney was not as much involved in the creative development process of the jungle book as it was in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Pinocchio , but his decisions were crucial for the style of the film.
Originally, The Jungle Book was stylistically close to Rudyard Kipling's original and accordingly dark. This can still be seen today in the pictures and the music of the opening credits, which are less cheerful than the actual film. Even the songs written by Terry Gilkyson for the film were too dark for Walt Disney. Only "The Bare Necessities" (The Bare Necessities) found his consent and was used later. When Gilkyson made it clear that he did not want to distance himself from the dark side of the film, Walt Disney replaced him with the brothers Robert and Richard Sherman, who had already written the songs for Mary Poppins and Disney seemed the right choice for the material cheer up.
Disney recommended the next step to its team to ignore the previous storyboards and stop using the template or, if necessary, only use it as a rough template. The new storyboard was designed around the music and ideas of the Shermans. The character of some characters has also been changed. For example, in Rudyard Kipling's book, Balu is an old, very serious bear, and Kaa, the snake, is dangerous not because it eats children, but because it is so smart. The style of electrophotography spurned by Walt Disney was scaled back, selected elements - including the mouth of the Indian girl - were washed again by hand. Walt Disney liked the new storyboard much better than the original, but he had a scene deleted. After the sequence with the song “ I would like to be like you ”, a comedy-action scene with an irritable myopic rhino named Rocky was originally planned to attack Mowgli, Baloo and Baghira. However, Disney found that having two quick and funny scenes in a row was a bad narrative style.
The creative process on The Jungle Book was already over when Walt Disney passed away. The animation was completed without him, and the film was released on October 18, 1967, almost 30 years after the first full-length Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . However, it is not the last animated film commissioned by Walt Disney. Shortly before his death, he gave the green light to Aristocats .
The Monkey King King Louis was originally intended to be spoken and sung by Louis Armstrong and is designed accordingly. An example of this is King Louis' Scat passage in the song "I would like to be like you": The first sound recording of this type of song is attributed to Armstrong. Ultimately, however, Louis Prima got the speaking and singing role because Disney feared that the king of the apes would be cast as the king of jazz as an affront to Armstrong and African-Americans in general.
Voice actor
The German setting was created in 1967 in the Simoton Film studios in Berlin . Heinrich Riethmüller was responsible for the dialogue script, direction and the lyrics to the songs.
| Role name | English speaker | German speaker | animal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mowgli | Bruce Reitherman | Stefan Sczodrok | human |
| Baghira | Sebastian Cabot | Joachim Cadenbach | Black Panther |
| Baloo | Phil Harris | Edgar Ott | Sloth bear |
| Shir Khan | George Sanders | Siegfried Schürenberg | Bengal tiger |
| King Louie | Louis Great | Klaus Havenstein | orangutan |
| Kaa | Sterling Holloway | Erich Kestin | Tiger python |
| Colonel Hathi | J. Pat O'Malley | Martin Hirthe | elephant |
| Winifred | Verna Felton | Ursula War | elephant |
| Junior | Clint Howard | Steffen Müller | elephant |
| Buzzy | J. Pat O'Malley | Karl Hellmer | vulture |
| Dizzy | Lord Tim Hudson | Erich Fiedler | vulture |
| Ziggy | Digby Wolfe | Achim Strietzel | vulture |
| Flaps | Chad Stuart | Hugo Schrader | vulture |
| Akela | John Abbott | Jochen Schröder | wolf |
| Rama | Ben Wright | Joachim Nottke | wolf |
| Shanti | Loan Carr | Susanne Tremper | human |
music
The songs that were written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman were responsible for the popularity of the film. Including I Wanna Be Like You (German: “ I would like to be like you ”), the quartet of vultures That's What Friends Are For (German: “Your friends”) and “Colonel Hathis March”. Probably the most popular song is The Bare Necessities , composed by Terry Gilkyson and sung by Balu spokesman Edgar Ott in German dubbing as " Try it out with comfort ".
publication
The film was released on October 18, 1967. In the following decades the film was repeatedly shown in the cinema. It was first released on DVD in 2000 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment . On the 40th anniversary of the premiere, a Platinum Edition was released in October 2007 , which offers many extras on two discs and also deals with the character of the rhino Rocky, which was dropped during the pre-production of the film on Walt Disney's intervention. However, this edition is available in 16: 9 format, in which the film was also shown in cinemas. He was drawn, however, in 4: 3. A Diamond Edition was published in September 2013 . The film was released on DVD and for the first time on Blu-ray . A Blu-ray edition including bookends followed in December 2013.
The film was first broadcast on German free TV on April 18, 2014 ( Good Friday ), after almost 47 years, on RTL during prime time . There were 5.30 million viewers, which corresponds to a market share of 16.1%.
The film music was released on CD in both the original and German versions.
reception
success
Contrary to the criticism , The Jungle Book was an incredible success at the US box office . It was the sixth most successful Disney film to date and the most successful film of the year in the USA. In addition, the song was The Bare Necessities (The Bare Necessities) an Oscar nomination. Nevertheless, The Jungle Book has not achieved cult status in the USA to this day . There is no large amount of merchandising, nor is the film represented in the US Disney parks. The film is also rarely featured in fan and critic lists.
In Europe, however, the jungle book celebrated even greater success. The film is often represented in the top visitor number lists in various European countries and regularly lands in the best lists. It was voted the best animated film of all time by a British entertainment magazine in 2004, ahead of Toy Story , Finding Nemo and The Lion King . In addition to the high level of praise from the critics, The Jungle Book has achieved cult status in Europe . Therefore, merchandising works much better on the European market than in the USA. There's also a jungle book-themed restaurant at Disneyland Resort Paris, and the stars from the movie regularly host the carnival season.
The jungle book celebrated the greatest success in the world in Germany. Not only is it the most successful Disney film to date, but it is also one of the most successful cinema films ever. This is justified primarily with the celebrated synchronization by Heinrich Riethmüller , who translated the English texts into German quite freely. The songs received even greater praise than the dialogues and have long been considered evergreens .
One of the success factors is that the boy scouts' Wölfling system is based on the novel (Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Books ) and that this steadily growing age group is a target group for this cartoon.
Grossing results
The Jungle Book grossed 13 million US dollars in the US when it was first shown in cinema in 1967 . Together with all other screenings, the film attracted more than 62 million people to cinemas in the USA. Thanks to word of mouth and mostly good reviews, the film advanced to become the most successful film of 1967 with worldwide box-office earnings of more than 141.8 million US dollars. If the re-screenings in the following years are taken into account, the film even brings it to more than 400 million US dollars in revenue, earning it 36th place on an inflation-adjusted list of top- grossing films .
The Jungle Book was no less popular in Europe, with almost 15.3 million visitors in France alone, making the film the most successful cartoon in the country. Germany even had around 23.6 million moviegoers. The film saw 19.8 million visitors in Great Britain , making The Jungle Book the second most successful animated film in the UK. To date , The Jungle Book has had 335 million visitors worldwide, placing it ahead of Snow White in fifth place among the most popular films of all time.
criticism
The jungle book polarized US critics in particular. Some hymns of praise celebrated the film because it had made something completely independent from the original, the songs were catchy tunes and the animations and backgrounds were brilliant achievements. But there were also harsh reviews that accused the film of a lack of atmosphere and tension. There were hardly any mediocre reviews.
“The last full-length animated film made during Walt Disney's lifetime is a triumph for Disney storyteller. The story (...) is a timelessly exciting musical full of wit and humor. (...) and you can hear some of the most beautiful Disney songs, including "Try it comfortably" and "I would like to be like you". "
"Disney cartoon classics with legendary characters, amusing, with acceptable depictions of violence [...] Rating: 3 stars = very good"
“A classic among the successful Disney works. [...] The German synchronization is very successful. "
"The German dubbing is in a class of which one can mostly only dream nowadays."
“The fact that the film achieved cult status in Germany (...) is also due not least to the excellent dubbing: the excellent speakers (...) and then also the witty dialogues, each of which is inferred to a youth jargon avoid."
“ The Jungle Book ... is a film tailored precisely to the target audience, light and smooth, which relies exclusively on the effect of its humanized animal characters. But anyone who makes comparisons with earlier films has to think back a little wistfully to the old masterpieces. The impact of the column of elephants in The Jungle Book - in which the chaos of the pachyderms shifted into one another is simply shown by cutting - is just a tired reflection of that grandiose scene in Dumbo with the collapsing elephant pyramid. "
The Wiesbaden film evaluation agency awarded the production the title valuable .
Awards
- 1968 : Nomination of the song The Bare Necessities by Terry Gilkyson for the Oscar for the best song
- 1979: Jupiter (Category: Best Film )
Adaptations and sequels
In 1990 Disney produced the series Käpt'n Balu and his daring crew . The main character in the series is Balu, who is now a pilot, but still has the same character as in the film. Louie (as a bar owner) and Shir Khan (as a wealthy corporate mogul) also appear in the series.
In 1996, the short-lived series Die Dschungelbuch-Kids was published , which is about the childhood of the jungle book animals. In 2003, The Jungle Book 2 was a sequel to the film. In 2016 a real film was released.
Radio play adaptations
- Jungle Book - The large long-playing record with a colorful picture book from Disneyland Records (1967). Radio play version of the original film dialogues that has been edited and supplemented with narrative texts. Actors: Mogli ( Stephan Sczodrok ), Baghira ( Joachim Cadenbach ; narrator), Balu ( Edgar Ott ), King Loui ( Klaus Havenstein ), Kaa ( Erich Kestin ) and Shir Khan ( Siegfried Schürenberg ).
- The Jungle Book - the original radio play for the film by Walt Disney Records (reworking of the original dialogues; 1997; length: 59:09 min.). Speaker: Nick Benjamin . Mogli (S. Sczodrok), Baghira (J. Cadenbach), Balu (E. Ott), King Loui (K. Havenstein), Kaa (E. Kestin), Shir Khan (S. Schürenberg) and Hathi ( Martin Hirthe ).
- Sequels: There were two sequels with the German speakers for the film. The radio plays take up motifs from the cinema and implement them in a child-friendly manner. The plot also differs from the plot of the film sequel: in the first sequel, Baghira and King Louie organize a reunion between Baloo and Mowgli (Baloo is captured by people and has to be freed); in the second Mowgli, Balu, Baghira, Kaa and King Louie celebrate a banana festival.
- Jungle Book and Jungle Book II - original radio play with music for the film by Disneyland Records (1978/1979; lengths: 32: 51/31: 38 min.). Mogli ( Jens Wawrczeck ), Baghira ( Walter Giller ; narrator), Balu ( Henry König , episode 1; Mathias Grimm , episode 2), King Loui ( Karl-Friedrich Gerster ), Kaa ( Rüdiger Schulzki ), Shir Khan ( Günter Flesch ) , Hathi ( Lothar Grützner ) and Dizzy ( Heidi Schaffrath , episode 1). Singing: K. Havenstein (episodes 1 and 2), E. Ott, Susanne Tremper , M. Hirthe (all episode 1) and Wolfgang Kubach (episode 2). Director: Petra Schmidt-Decker ; Musical director Heinrich Riethmüller .
literature
- Leonard Maltin : The Disney Films . Hyperion , New York 1995, ISBN 0-7868-8137-2 .
- Elmar Biebl, Dirk Manthey, Jörg Altendorf et al .: The films of Walt Disney. The magical world of animation . Milchstraße, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-89324-117-5 .
- Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston : Disney Animation. The Illusion of Life . Abbeville Press, New York 1981, 575 pages, ISBN 0-89659-698-2 .
- Christopher Finch : Walt Disney. His life - his art (Original title: The Art of Walt Disney. From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms ). German by Renate Witting. (Limited exclusive edition.) Ehapa-Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, 457 pages, ISBN 3-7704-0171-9 (current English-language edition: The Art of Walt Disney. From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms . Abrams, New York 2004, 504 S., ISBN 0-8109-4964-4 )
Web links
- The Jungle Book in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The jungle book in the online film database
- The Jungle Book atRotten Tomatoes(English)
- Further sound carriers with the film music at Soundtrack-Collector
- Official film website
- trickfilmstimmen.de Illustrated overview of the English and German voice actors
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interview with Richard Sherman in Galore . 10, 2008, p. 52
- ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | The jungle Book. Retrieved February 23, 2018 .
- ↑ The greatest movie hits EVER ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
