The Jungle Book Trivia
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This Jungle Book trivia quiz has 140 free questions with answers and covers every version of the story worth arguing about. There are questions on Rudyard Kipling's 1894 book and its sequel, from Mowgli's wolf pack and the Cold Lairs to Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the White Seal, and on the Vermont house where Kipling wrote it all. Then it moves through the films: the Korda brothers' 1942 Technicolor adventure with Sabu, Walt Disney's 1967 animated classic and its voice cast, songs and box-office records, the 1994 live-action film, Jon Favreau's 2016 remake, Andy Serkis's Mowgli, The Jungle Book 2 and the aviation spin-off TaleSpin. It starts gently enough for anyone who has hummed along to Baloo, and works up to production stories, casting near-misses and Kipling details that will separate casual fans from the true jungle experts. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries and primary references before publishing, so you can trust the results when you share your score.
30 of 140 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year did Walt Disney die, during production of the 1967 film that was the last he produced?
1966
The film premiered ten months after his death, and the premiere doubled as a fundraiser for a zoo founded the year before.
Q 02What kind of snake is Kaa?
Indian python
In the books Kaa is a friend and mentor to Mowgli; it was Disney that turned him into a would-be predator.
Q 03Who voiced Baloo in the 2016 live-action film?
Bill Murray
The animators even folded his signature lifted eyebrow into Baloo's facial gestures.
Q 04Which actor voiced Shere Khan in the 2016 film?
Idris Elba
This version of the tiger is scarred and blind in his left eye, and critics compared him to Scar from The Lion King.
Q 05Kaa was rewritten as female for the 2016 film. Who voiced her?
Scarlett Johansson
The switch was made because the director felt the 1967 film was a little too male-oriented.
Q 06Who voiced King Louie in the 2016 film?
Christopher Walken
The effects team worked his distinctive facial lines and wrinkles into the animated ape so the director could see the actor in the creature.
Q 07In Kipling's stories, Mowgli's name is said to mean which animal, because of his lack of fur?
Frog
Kipling later admitted he made the name up and that it does not carry that meaning in any language he knew.
Q 08Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, hero of one of the non-Mowgli stories, is what kind of animal?
Mongoose
He earns his name from his chattering call and defends a British family from a pair of cobras.
Q 09Who directed the 2016 live-action remake?
Jon Favreau
He also gave himself a cameo as Fred, a pygmy hog who lives near Baloo.
Q 10Kipling wrote The Jungle Book while living in which US state?
Vermont
The house he built there was called Naulakha, and Arthur Conan Doyle once visited to play golf with him.
Q 11In the 1967 film, King Louie is what kind of ape?
Orangutan
The species is not native to India, which is why the 2016 remake swapped him for an extinct giant ape instead.
Q 12Which bandleader and comedian voiced Baloo in the 1967 film?
Phil Harris
He nearly turned the part down after a test recording, then improvised many of Baloo's lines once told to just be himself.
Q 13Scout packs for younger children traditionally call their leader by the name of which Jungle Book wolf?
Akela
Kipling approved the use of his stories at the request of his friend Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Scouting.
Q 21Who voiced Bagheera in the 2016 film?
Ben Kingsley
He described the panther's job in Mowgli's life as being to educate, to protect and to guide.
Q 22Before Prima was cast as King Louie, which jazz legend did Disney first consider?
Louis Armstrong
One of the writers warned that casting a Black performer as an ape would be politically disastrous, so the idea was dropped.
Q 23Animator Ken Anderson deliberately made the 1967 Shere Khan resemble whom?
George Sanders, his voice
Milt Kahl based the tiger's movements on live-action felines he studied in two earlier Disney productions.
Q 14Which child star voiced Mowgli in The Jungle Book 2 (2003)?
Haley Joel Osment
Jake Thomas auditioned for the part before he was cast; John Goodman voiced Baloo.
Q 15Warner Bros. sold Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) to which service before release?
Netflix
The film had been delayed several times, partly to put distance between it and Disney's 2016 remake.
Q 16Baloo, as described in Kipling's book and the 1967 film, belongs to which species?
Sloth bear
His name is simply a transliteration of the Hindustani word for bear.
Q 17The four mop-topped vultures in the 1967 film were designed to resemble which band?
The Beatles
The band was meant to voice them too, but John Lennon refused to work on animated films, so the plan was dropped.
Q 18How does Mowgli drive off Shere Khan at the climax of the 1967 film?
Ties a burning branch to his tail
The tiger's two great fears are guns and fire, which is why Bagheera keeps insisting the man-cub belongs in the village.
Q 19In which Indian city was Rudyard Kipling born?
Bombay
He spent his first six years there before being sent to England, and his birthplace is now on an art-school campus.
Q 20Which Indian-born actor played Mowgli in the Korda brothers' 1942 film?
Sabu
The film is now in the public domain, though the master 35mm elements are held by ITV Studios.
Q 24Sterling Holloway, the voice of Kaa in 1967, was also Disney's original voice of which character?
Winnie the Pooh
His hissing lisp was written into Kaa's song, and he was also the Cheshire Cat and Dumbo's Mr. Stork.
Q 25The 1967 premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre doubled as a fundraiser for what?
The Los Angeles Zoo
The zoo had been founded only the year before.
Q 26The 1967 Jungle Book is the biggest film of all time by ticket admissions in which country?
Germany
It sold about 27.3 million tickets there, nearly 10 million more than Titanic.
Q 27Shere Khan is named after which historical ruler?
Sher Shah Suri
Khan is a title meaning chief or ruler, so the Kipling Society reads the name as 'chief among tigers'.
Q 28In Kipling's stories, why do the other animals mock Shere Khan as 'Lungri'?
He was born with a crippled leg
The nickname means 'The Lame One', and the 2018 film Mowgli restored the deformity that Disney's versions dropped.
Q 29What did Walt Disney tell writer Larry Clemmons when handing him a copy of Kipling's book?
Not to read it
Clemmons peeked anyway and found the stories too disjointed to film without heavy reworking.
Q 30What is unusual about the animals in Disney's 1994 live-action film?
They do not talk
Real trained animals played the parts: a black bear named Casey was Baloo and a panther named Shadow was Bagheera.