90 Fun Facts About The Jungle Book

In which year did Walt Disney die, during production of the 1967 film that was the last he produced?

The film premiered ten months after his death, and the premiere doubled as a fundraiser for a zoo founded the year before.

What kind of snake is Kaa?

In the books Kaa is a friend and mentor to Mowgli; it was Disney that turned him into a would-be predator.

Who voiced Baloo in the 2016 live-action film?

The animators even folded his signature lifted eyebrow into Baloo's facial gestures.

Which actor voiced Shere Khan in the 2016 film?

This version of the tiger is scarred and blind in his left eye, and critics compared him to Scar from The Lion King.

Kaa was rewritten as female for the 2016 film. Who voiced her?

The switch was made because the director felt the 1967 film was a little too male-oriented.

Who voiced King Louie in the 2016 film?

The effects team worked his distinctive facial lines and wrinkles into the animated ape so the director could see the actor in the creature.

In Kipling's stories, Mowgli's name is said to mean which animal, because of his lack of fur?

Kipling later admitted he made the name up and that it does not carry that meaning in any language he knew.

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, hero of one of the non-Mowgli stories, is what kind of animal?

He earns his name from his chattering call and defends a British family from a pair of cobras.

Who directed the 2016 live-action remake?

He also gave himself a cameo as Fred, a pygmy hog who lives near Baloo.

Kipling wrote The Jungle Book while living in which US state?

The house he built there was called Naulakha, and Arthur Conan Doyle once visited to play golf with him.

In the 1967 film, King Louie is what kind of ape?

The species is not native to India, which is why the 2016 remake swapped him for an extinct giant ape instead.

Which bandleader and comedian voiced Baloo in the 1967 film?

He nearly turned the part down after a test recording, then improvised many of Baloo's lines once told to just be himself.

Scout packs for younger children traditionally call their leader by the name of which Jungle Book wolf?

Kipling approved the use of his stories at the request of his friend Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Scouting.

Which child star voiced Mowgli in The Jungle Book 2 (2003)?

Jake Thomas auditioned for the part before he was cast; John Goodman voiced Baloo.

Warner Bros. sold Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) to which service before release?

The film had been delayed several times, partly to put distance between it and Disney's 2016 remake.

Baloo, as described in Kipling's book and the 1967 film, belongs to which species?

His name is simply a transliteration of the Hindustani word for bear.

The four mop-topped vultures in the 1967 film were designed to resemble which band?

The band was meant to voice them too, but John Lennon refused to work on animated films, so the plan was dropped.

How does Mowgli drive off Shere Khan at the climax of the 1967 film?

The tiger's two great fears are guns and fire, which is why Bagheera keeps insisting the man-cub belongs in the village.

In which Indian city was Rudyard Kipling born?

He spent his first six years there before being sent to England, and his birthplace is now on an art-school campus.

Which Indian-born actor played Mowgli in the Korda brothers' 1942 film?

The film is now in the public domain, though the master 35mm elements are held by ITV Studios.

Who voiced Bagheera in the 2016 film?

He described the panther's job in Mowgli's life as being to educate, to protect and to guide.

Before Prima was cast as King Louie, which jazz legend did Disney first consider?

One of the writers warned that casting a Black performer as an ape would be politically disastrous, so the idea was dropped.

Animator Ken Anderson deliberately made the 1967 Shere Khan resemble whom?

Milt Kahl based the tiger's movements on live-action felines he studied in two earlier Disney productions.

Sterling Holloway, the voice of Kaa in 1967, was also Disney's original voice of which character?

His hissing lisp was written into Kaa's song, and he was also the Cheshire Cat and Dumbo's Mr. Stork.

The 1967 premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre doubled as a fundraiser for what?

The zoo had been founded only the year before.

The 1967 Jungle Book is the biggest film of all time by ticket admissions in which country?

It sold about 27.3 million tickets there, nearly 10 million more than Titanic.

Shere Khan is named after which historical ruler?

Khan is a title meaning chief or ruler, so the Kipling Society reads the name as 'chief among tigers'.

In Kipling's stories, why do the other animals mock Shere Khan as 'Lungri'?

The nickname means 'The Lame One', and the 2018 film Mowgli restored the deformity that Disney's versions dropped.

What did Walt Disney tell writer Larry Clemmons when handing him a copy of Kipling's book?

Clemmons peeked anyway and found the stories too disjointed to film without heavy reworking.

What is unusual about the animals in Disney's 1994 live-action film?

Real trained animals played the parts: a black bear named Casey was Baloo and a panther named Shadow was Bagheera.

Who played the adult Mowgli in the 1994 film?

Disney executives called him too old for the part until the director convinced them an unknown teenager would be less believable as a leading man.

Which British comedian played Dr. Julius Plumford in the 1994 film?

Plumford helps Kitty teach the jungle-raised Mowgli the ways of mankind.

Where was principal photography for the 2016 film carried out?

Everything but the boy was computer-generated, with roughly 1,000 real jungle locations photographed as reference.

Roughly how much did the 2016 film gross worldwide?

It was the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2016 and briefly the biggest remake ever, until Beauty and the Beast the next year.

Which Academy Award did the 2016 film win?

It collected the same honour at the BAFTAs and the Critics' Choice Awards.

What discipline did Neel Sethi train in to prepare for playing Mowgli in 2016?

Thousands of children auditioned across the US, UK, New Zealand and Canada before the newcomer won the role.

Who directed Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)?

He also performed Baloo, and Ron Howard and Inarritu were among the directors approached before him.

Which actor voiced Bagheera in Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle?

Cate Blanchett narrated as Kaa and Benedict Cumberbatch snarled as Shere Khan in the same cast.

Why does King Louie not appear in The Jungle Book 2 (2003)?

He is glimpsed only as a shadow puppet, and the dispute ended after her death in 2013, clearing him for the 2016 remake.

Which rock musician voiced Lucky, the vulture who taunts Shere Khan in The Jungle Book 2?

He had recently written the songs for Disney's Tarzan.

In TaleSpin, what job does Baloo hold?

He flies for Higher for Hire, a small delivery outfit run by single mother Rebecca Cunningham.

TaleSpin is set in which fictional harbour city?

The city is guarded by towering cliffs armed with anti-aircraft guns to keep out air pirates.

In Kipling's 'Tiger! Tiger!', how does Shere Khan finally die?

Mowgli skins him, is driven out of the village as a witch, and carries the hide back to the Council Rock.

'The White Seal', the one story in the book not set in India, takes place in which sea?

Many of its names are Russian, because the Pribilof Islands had only recently been bought by the United States along with Alaska.

'Seeonee', the district named repeatedly in the Mowgli stories, lies in which modern Indian state?

Kanha and Pench reserves nearby both claim the connection, though Kipling never actually visited the area.

In 'Kaa's Hunting', the Bandar-log carry Mowgli off to which place?

Kaa breaks down the wall of the ruined building where he is held, then hypnotises the monkeys with his dance.

The Jungle Book 2 was originally produced for what?

Disney switched it to cinemas first, as it had done with Return to Never Land, and it grossed $135.7 million on a $20 million budget.

How many of the 1967 film's six songs were written by the Sherman Brothers?

The odd one out was the sole survivor of an earlier, darker score by another songwriter, which the crew liked too much to cut.

Which songwriter's only surviving contribution to the 1967 film was 'The Bare Necessities'?

The rest of his songs were dropped as too faithful to Kipling's sombre tone, but the one that stayed earned an Oscar nomination.

'The Bare Necessities' lost the Best Original Song Oscar to a song from which film?

Academy president Gregory Peck lobbied hard, without success, to get the film a Best Picture nomination too.

Which later Disney film reused animation of Baloo's dance for Little John?

Little John was also a bear voiced by the same actor, so the studio simply rotoscoped the old sequence.

The 1967 film's waterfall backgrounds were mostly built from footage of which real waterfall?

Every other background was hand-painted, with scenery layered front and back to fake depth.

The wolf cubs in the 1967 film were redrawn from puppies in which earlier Disney film?

Recycling old animation was a trademark of director Wolfgang Reitherman.

What was the 1967 film's production budget?

It returned $11.5 million in domestic rentals by 1968 and eventually became Disney's best overseas performer.

Which 2025 film finally overtook the 1967 Jungle Book as the top-selling animated film by tickets sold?

The Chinese blockbuster ended a record the Disney film had held for nearly six decades.

Rocky the rhinoceros, cut from the 1967 film, finally appeared in the 2016 remake voiced by whom?

Walt Disney had scrapped the near-sighted rhino, feeling the film already had enough action with the monkeys and vultures.

The 2016 King Louie was partly modelled on Marlon Brando's character in which film?

The director also borrowed from Shane and Goodfellas, and treated fire as a corrupting prize like the One Ring.

Under what title was the 2016 film released in China?

It grossed $150.1 million there, the biggest Walt Disney Pictures opening in the country at the time.

In the 2016 film's Hindi dub, who voiced Kaa?

Irrfan Khan was Baloo and Om Puri was Bagheera in the same star-studded dub.

Who directed the 1942 Technicolor film starring Sabu?

It was a family affair: Alexander produced and younger brother Vincent handled the art direction.

Whose score for the 1942 film became the first substantial recording of a Hollywood dramatic film score?

RCA Victor issued it as a narrated suite in the manner of Peter and the Wolf.

The Indian-born star of the 1942 film later flew as a US bomber gunner and won which medal?

He flew dozens of missions on B-24 Liberators in the Pacific after becoming a US citizen in 1944.

Where were most of the 1994 film's jungle scenes shot, since Indian jungles lacked the rainforest look?

The Jodhpur shoot in India took eight weeks, and the treasure-city interiors were built at Mehboob Studios.

Kipling's American home Naulakha took its name from a pavilion in the fort of which city?

The name was also the title of a novel he co-wrote with his brother-in-law Wolcott Balestier.

A Just So Stories first edition found at Wimpole Hall in 2010 carried Kipling's handwritten note to whom?

She died of pneumonia in 1899 at the age of six.

Who provided illustrations for the earliest editions of the book?

John Lockwood Kipling was an art teacher and museum curator in India, and two American artists also contributed drawings.

The title of the story 'Tiger! Tiger!' is borrowed from a poem by whom?

The 1794 poem is 'The Tyger', from Songs of Experience.

Which 1937 film adapted 'Toomai of the Elephants' from the book?

It was the debut of the teenage actor who would play Mowgli for the Kordas five years later.

In what year did Baden-Powell launch the Wolf Cubs, the junior scheme built on Kipling's jungle stories?

Baden-Powell wrote a Wolf Cub's Handbook for it, and the Grand Howl still opens many pack meetings.

How old is Kaa said to be in Kipling's stories?

Despite his age he is described as still in his prime, and he later helps Mowgli plan the war against the red dogs.

Which Australian composer set quotations from the book as his 'Jungle Book Cycle'?

The Frenchman Charles Koechlin also wrote several symphonic works inspired by the stories.

Which 2008 Neil Gaiman novel about a boy raised by the dead was modelled on Kipling's Mowgli stories?

Neil Gaiman kept many scenes traceable to Kipling but gave them his own dark twist.

Which sci-fi classic grew from a suggestion to retell The Jungle Book with a child raised by Martians?

Robert Heinlein's wife Virginia pitched the idea, and the result won the Hugo Award.

Who narrated Chuck Jones's 1975 television adaptation of 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi'?

A Soviet animated version had appeared ten years earlier, recasting the British family as Indian.

In 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi', what are the two cobras called?

The other names belong to a small snake, a kite, a shrew, a tailorbird and a peacock from the same book.

'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi' likely draws on Book 5 of which ancient Indian fable collection?

Kipling wrote that he had 'cribbed freely' from the tales told by native hunters in India.

Mowgli first appeared as a grown man in which Kipling story, published a year before The Jungle Book?

In it a forest ranger recruits the mysterious young hunter, and the childhood tales were written afterwards as prequels.

In 'Red Dog' from The Second Jungle Book, Mowgli and the wolves fight off a rampaging pack of what?

Kaa helps him devise the plan, luring the invaders over a cliff of wild bees.

Kipling admitted part of the Law of the Jungle was lifted from the spoils-sharing rules of which people?

In a letter around 1895 he confessed he had 'helped myself promiscuously' but could not remember from whose stories he had stolen.

'Colonel Hathi's March' borrows its tune from the chorus of which song?

Fittingly, that song is itself a setting of a Kipling poem, and the march was the first number the Sherman Brothers wrote for the film.

Who performed the hip-hop 'Bare Necessities' used as the theme for the prequel series Jungle Cubs?

The 1996 ABC series showed Baloo, Bagheera, Kaa and Shere Khan as youngsters, years before the film.

Bagheera tells Mowgli he was born and raised where, which is why he understands men?

The cages were at Oodeypore, and Bagheera sees the parallel between his own captive childhood and Mowgli's.

In the 2016 film, King Louie was changed from an orangutan to which extinct giant ape?

Favreau made the switch because orangutans are not native to India; the species has since been reclassified as Indopithecus.

Which comedian's final role was Ikki the porcupine in the 2016 film?

He died of a pulmonary embolism before the film's release; Ikki did not exist in the 1967 version.

Which 2017 Disney film took the 2016 Jungle Book's short-lived record as the biggest remake ever?

The Jungle Book had grossed $364 million domestically and $602.5 million overseas.

About how many remote jungle locations in India were photographed as reference for the 2016 film?

MPC and Weta Digital built the effects; MPC wrote new software for animating the animals' muscle structure.

Why was child actor David Bailey replaced as Mowgli during the 1967 film's production?

Director Wolfgang Reitherman brought in his son Bruce, fresh from voicing Christopher Robin.

Which Beatle's refusal to work on animated films sank the plan for the band to voice the 1967 vultures?

The four were to have sung 'That's What Friends Are For'; the mop-top look stayed anyway.

Roughly how much did the 1967 film gross worldwide on its initial release?

That made it briefly Disney's second-highest-grossing animated film in the United States and Canada.

Which story artist proposed The Jungle Book as Disney's next feature, only to be replaced for being too dark?

He had worked with little supervision on 101 Dalmatians and The Sword in the Stone; Walt found his treatment 'too dark and depressing'.