How to say "I didn't read the book"...
...in one image.
Boy and wolves, yes.
Boy and bear, yes.
Boy and black panther, yes.
Boy and python, yes. (For that, forget about Disney and read "Kaa's Hunting", "The King's Ankus", "Red Dog" and "The Spring Running".)
But boy and tiger?
No and never.
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Here are Gutenberg links to "The Jungle Book" and "The Second Jungle Book".
Advance warning to the sensitive - the "Second" link is to a facsimile of the 1895 / 1905 edition, and there's A Certain Symbol as Kipling's cartouche. It was an innocent symbol of good luck back then. Treat it as such.
If you find the room gets dusty near the end of the final story, I won't be at all surprised.
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I don't think there'll ever be a Proper Jungle Book movie.
As happened with Kipling's lucky-symbol cartouche, Disney's clammy hand has corrupted it, and besides, screenwriters invariably think they can do better than using prose, plot, story and speech that have stood the test of well over a century.
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For a good example of how to do this properly, track down the Charlton Heston / Oliver Reed / Christopher Lee / Christian Bale version of "Treasure Island". It's excellent and in @dduane's and my opinion, the best so far. Soundtrack music by The Chieftains does it No Harm At All.
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Here's what I posted about 10 years ago when the last Mouse-House Jungle Book was imminent. The thing was box-office successful, though we didn't contribute to that, waiting - not very long - until it appeared on TV since despite the way it was talked up in advance, the end result was no more than a "live-action" reworking of the cartoon.
(How is something "live-action" when every character except Mowgli is mo-cap CGI?)
The current "Snow White" nonsense and everything associated with it suggests that nothing's been learned since then.
Good Hunting!
