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Seminararbeit
Englisch

Gymnasium Köln

2019/

Louis S. ©
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Seminararbeit

W-Seminar „Children’s Classic in Literature and Film“

Leitfach: Englisch

 

Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and Its Disney Film Adaption-A Comparative Analysis with a Special Focus on Friendship


Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction. 3

2. The Story of The Jungle Book. 4

2.1 Original book by Kipling. 4

2.2 The Disney Film 5

3. Definition of Friendship and Rivalry. 6

3.1 Friendship: 6

3.2 Rivalry. 6

4.General Differences between the two Disney’s Film and Kipling’s Book. 7

5. Relationships in the Jungle book. 13

6. Conclusion. 16

Literaturverzeichnis 17

1. Introduction

The Jungle Book. One of the most known children’s classic. But what makes this book a classic? Not every old and long existent book is automatically a classic. ‘’A classic must have something else, something that has either caused it to endure or has, in the case of modern classics, inspired the faith that it will do so.’’ And while parts of any book could date, there must be something about a true classic that remains relevant to children and adults alike across the generations.

Considering that the Jungle Book was published 124 years ago and it   has been in print ever since.

 A classic can be read and reread several times without getting boring. I, for example, read the book three times by now and I would not mind reading it again.

But what else makes a book a classic? ‘’A classic has the ability to deal with larger themes, involving eternal truths rather than just taking Tommy the dog out for a run.’’[1]

The Book has appeared in over 500 print editions and over 100 audiobooks. Additionally, the book has been translated into at least 36 languages. The book deals with topics such as the importance of rules and how a system cannot work without a law, friendship, betrayal, love and so on.[2]

The purpose of the stories was not to teach animals but to create archetypes trough the animal characters. Furthermore, Kipling’s law of the jungle was far from Darwinism.

The Jungle Book was written and published in 1893-1894 by Rudyard Kipling. The original publications contain illustrations by John Kipling, the father of the author Rudyard Kipling. Although the stories were written while living in Vermont, the author found inspiration in his childhood in India. Allegedly, the stories were dedicated to his daughter who passed away at the age of six, not long after the first edition of the book was published.

Rudyard Kipling was born on December the 30th in 1865 in Mumbai, India. On the night of   January,12th in 1936, he suffered a haemorrhage in his small intestine. He underwent surgery but died less than a week later on 18 January 1936, at the age of 70.

In the course of the time many film studios started to produce films based on ‘’The Jungle Book’’ the original book by Kipling is 124 years old, there has been a lot of time to produce films.

But why are these films, like the Disney Film of 1967, so different to the book by Kipling. For the Disney Film of 1967 Walt Disney ordered the producer: ‘’The first thing I want you to do is not to read it’’[3]

In the following part I am going to examine the differences between the book and the two films of 1967 and 2016 by Disney. Furthermore, I will have an analysis on the aspect of friendship, means that I will work out the relationships and their meaning for the plot.


2. The Story of The Jungle Book

2.1 Original book by Kipling

‘’The book consists of 14 chapters or stories about a boy named Mowgli who got lost in a jungle when he was a little boy. When the mother of the wolf pack found him and accepted as one of her own calves, Mowgli was raised among animals who were taking good care of him, taught him the laws of the jungle and how to survive. He was living happily and carefree, until the tiger Shere-Khan began to spread fear among the jungle animals, scaring Mowgli as well.’’

 The animals have high moral standards, laws which they obey to, except from tiger Shere-Khan, and teach Mowgli about them. Furthermore, they preach respect among all living beings and Nature itself. A righteousness of the animals can be used as a lesson for people’s behaviour.

Besides vicious assassin tiger Shere-Khan, humans are in the role of the leading villains in this book. Scaring the other living creatures, people are described as usurpers of nature without having any respect towards other living beings. Human are getting described acting reckless and unaware of consequences of their actions.

In the end Mowgli is successful in killing and skinning the villain, Shere Khan. After a tearful farewell Mowgli returns where he belongs, the man-village.

The book is actually a representation of modern life influenced and ruled by various politics, like laws. Book characters became extremely popular in 1967, after the book -inspired cartoon got released. Mowgli and his friends Baloo the bear, panther Bagheera, python Kaa and scary tiger Sheer-Khan became modern day icons, recognized instantly by every child.

The Jungle Book is one of the few books that got filmed twice by Disney. Apart from this the film of the Jungle Book from 1967 is the last film to be produced by Walt Disney.[4]


2.2 The Disney Film

For the Disney Company it had been a big step to produce a movie based on the Jungle book. After story man Bill Peet claimed to Walt Disney ‘’"we [the animation department] can do more interesting animal characters ’’ he suggested that Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle book could be in use for the next film for the studio. After disappointing reactions to ‘’One Hundred and One Dalmatians’’ and ‘’ The Sword in the Stone’’ Walt Disney decided to get more involved in the movie adaption of the Jungle Book.

Bill Peet wanted to follow the dark and dramatic tone of the book by Kipling but in the end the film writers decided to design the film straightforward.


3. Definition of Friendship and Rivalry

3.1 Friendship:

Before we start analysing the different relationship's, including friendship, we have to define what even friendship is.

A social being is dependent on positive relationships with others. The term friendship is a positive relationship and sensation between social beings. A friendship is based on trust and sympathy. The word ‘’friend’’ is attributable to the gothic word ‘’frijond’’ which means to love.

Friendship can be graded, after the psychologist Herb Goldberg, in three phases.

First phase is the friendship of self-interest. Friendship is being made because the participants gain profit out of each other.

The second phase is called the purpose friendship. People choose to spend time together because they follow the same purpose like football player meet to play football.


3.2 Rivalry

According to the Oxford Dictionary , a rivalry is a  ‘’competition for    the same objective or for superiority in the same field.’’[6] Sometimes rivalry is developing to hatred and detestation. In this case we mean the  ‘’enmity’’. Enmity is ‘’a state or feeling of active opposition or hostility.’’[7] According to the ‘’Duden Wörterbuch’’ enmity is the desire to harm, fight or even destroy the opposition.


4.General Differences between the two Disney’s Film and Kipling’s Book


As I mentioned before there are many differences between the films and the books.

Jon Favreau, the director of the film of 1967, took over many things from the original book. For Example, he ‘’ […] wanted to have them inform the tone and the life-or-death stakes of the story’’. He ‘’ liked the mythic quality’’ and ‘’the sense of order and the culture of the jungle with things like ‘The Law of the Jungle’ and the water truce and the peace rock.’’ Because of Bagheera, who had a kind of ‘’narrator’’ role, Jon Favreau found, it ‘’was a nice way to make the two worlds come together and also gave us a sense of cultural history that could be drawn upon as back story and to give dimension to this world. ’’But what did Disney felt they needed to change from the original book? According to Jon Favreau the cultural or social metaphors were lost on him.

There is more cultural significance, since Disney is dealing with such themes.’’ […] the enduring, mythic, simpler aspects that are more obvious to the younger audience are what seems to endure. I think that there was a contentiousness between man and nature in the Kipling that reflects the times 100 years ago and I think that our themes are cautioning more about how much impact man can have on nature’’ so Jon Favreau.

To him the cultural significance and metaphors were not mediated right, so they changed it. Favreau explains this change as follows. After him the ‘’kid’s generation need to figure out what our relationship to nature is going to be if we expect it to be […] much longer’’. That’s what their themes reflect more than Kipling does.[8]


One difference is the aspect I already mentioned. To be more precise, the meaning of the nature. ’’The Jungle Book is an allegory of Man’s relationship with nature, since it suggests that our tendency to bend and shape nature is actually instinctive, represented by Mowgli’s exhibiting the human desire of manipulating the environment through creativity, in ways animals find themselves incapable of doing, such as our hero’s abilities of staring down any creature and removing painful thorns from his brothers’ paws, and even the carving of tools in the 1967 film – or rather “tricks” as they are called’’.[9]  However, in the film the nature has a different meaning.

But now I am going to examine the characters and compare them and work out their differences. It is important to know that Mowgli is only appearing in three of the seven short stories in the book. While the film only contains the three stories about Mowgli.

The first one is Mowgli, the protagonist.

In the film of 1967 Mowgli was found by Bagheera because he had been abandoned. He is smart and fearless. Furthermore, he has absolutely no desire to leave the jungle. For the other animals Mowgli had the role to amuse them. In the book Mowgli is represented stark-bollock naked. He expresses a disdain to wear clothes. Especially when he goes to the Man-Village.

He is as fearless as in the movie, if not even more. He is cunning and fits seamlessly in the jungle environment. He is able to hunt, track and to kill like the other animals in the jungle.

In the film Bagheera is the self-appointed guardian for Mowgli and his close friend. At first, he wanted to return the cub to the Man-Village, but in the end, he decided against it. He is very wise but he does not use his powers. As mentioned before he serves as the voice of reason in the jungle. Even though he loses patience with Mowgli, he returns to him because Mowgli needs him as a companion.

In the book he is still very wise companion but their relationship is more equal this time. Bagheera is more courageous and his background is told while in the book that’s not the case. Bagheera was born in a cage in a king's palace in Odeopore. Since the death of his mother he plans for his freedom. Once he had been strong and mature enough, he broke the locks on the cages.

It is said that he still has a collar mark. He is a formidable hunter and actually more feared than Shere Khan.

He is Mowgli’s best friend and companion. Baloo is naively confident about surviving in the wild. He spends his days eating bugs, fruits and scratching his back with branches. Additionally, he takes his life at slow pace while being a slave to the beat. But he is very funny and always the reason why Mowgli is having fun and laughing. To be honest, he is not really useful in protecting Mowgli because of his size and agility.

The film represents him basically as a ten-year-old in the form of an adult bear.

His role and character in the book are completely different than in the film. Kipling portrays him like a ‘’old school teacher’’. He is very mean to Mowgli. Sometimes he smacks him, if he gets something wrong. ’’Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who loves him, then that any harm should come to him through ignorance’’ says Baloo in the book.

He really has the goal to teach him the law of jungles instead of teaching him fun things like the bare necessities of eating and sleeping. He is so brutal in dealing with Mowgli and it happens frequently so often that he smacks him that Bagheera has to step in and ask Baloo to tone down the pastoral violence. But in the end, he is as devoted to Mowgli’s as in the film.

 King Louie is an orangutan who wandered out of Borneo. He is the leader of the other jungle primates and he declares himself the ‘’the king of the swingers’’. He wants to become ‘’human’’ and rather wants to wear clothes and learn to talk. He tries to acquire human characteristics and attempted to gain knowledge of fire from Mowgli. He thinks that’s the answer to become human and because of that he captures Mowgli.

            The following character to be analysed is King Louie.

 King Louie is a character Disney invented and added to the story. King Louie doesn’t exist in the book of Rudyard Kipling but a community of monkeys known as the ‘’bandar -log’’ do exist. They act like a group of children with ADHD and they live in ruins called the ‘’Cold Lairs’’. The monkeys capture Mowgli because they want to seek his human knowledge.

Here we have a parallel. Both groups (King Louie and his primates and the ‘’bandar-log’’) try to gain human knowledge to acquire themselves human characteristics.

            When it comes to big differences you have to mention Kaa.

In the book Kaa is very important to Mowgli. He is his wisest and most helpful companion. He saved his life several times. Bagheera and Baloo went to Kaa for help after Mowgli got kidnapped. And Bagheera has a ‘’funny’’ rivalry with Kaa. A big change is that Kaa is female in the film, whereas he was male in the book.

The last character to be analysed is Mowgli’s biggest enemy or is he even his biggest enemy? Shere Khan is portrayed in the film as his biggest enemy and as the main antagonist. He is the embodiment of pure evil especially through his voice and he seeks to kill Mowgli. For the first half on the film he is only spoken about, so when he finally appears on screen there is a suitable aura of fear surrounding him.

Differently in the book. Shere Khan in the book is not exactly what many people expect                from Shere Khan when they watched the movie. He is lame on one foot and very clumsy which is not really an attribute for a brutal killer. He is kind of a trickster figure and very lazy. He is a constant shadow in the first half of the book and the fact that he tried to manipulate some of the younger wolves, so they cast out Mowgli shows his weakness and that he is not strong enough to defeat him at his own.

                                

 It seems like Disney took all the testosterone of the characters and gave it to Shere Khan so they would have a clear, fearing and threatening antagonist and a good vs evil story. The Disney film emphasises Mowgli’s awkwardness and how he doesn’t fit in the jungle with the other animals. Mowgli is at home in the jungle. That’s why there was no need for Mowgli to return to the Man-Village, which was different in the book.

Now I want to compare the stories, like ending or beginning.

I am going to start with the beginning.

Film:

One morning Bagheera finds a baby lying in a broken boat in the river. Instead of eating him he decides to give it to the wolves’ pack who recently had babies. Father and Mother wolf are still enamoured by babies so they accept him as one of them, no matter what species he has. Bagheera keeps an eye on Mowgli but after ten years Bagheera realises that the time where Mowgli has to return to his village will come.

After it has been established that Shere Khan will return they decided to dump him back in the                                      village.

The book starts with a scene of Father and Mother wolf are snoozing while they are being interrupted by Shere Khan burning his feet on the campfire. A human toddler appears (Mowgli) in the grasses of in front of their lair. He does not show any fear   towards the wolves and mother wolf allows him to enter their lair. Shere Khan comes and immediately tries to grab the child but mother wolf lays claim on Mowgli and later on she presents Mowgli to the rest of the pack.

After the law of the jungle two non- related animals must vouch for their acceptance. Baloo and Bagheera step up and vote for it.

Disney sees Mowgli as raised by wolves from being a baby so the jungle is all he knows. Differently in Kipling's version where Mowgli is an older boy whose parents got chased off by Shere Khan. Means that there is part of Mowgli which is aware of his human heritage. ‘’The film sees Mowgli’s destiny as re-joining the Man-Village as a result of Shere Khan’s threats whereas the novel points more towards his destiny of killing Shere Khan […]’’.

The second time Mowgli runs away from his guardians, he comes across a group of vultures living in a wasteland. As usual, they sing to him and welcome him into their group as an honorary vulture, and, as usual, singing distracts them from approaching danger: Shere Khan has finally tracked down Mowgli. Mowgli is not feared by Shere Khan and will not run away from the tiger.’’ This show of spirit impresses Shere Khan, who is very sportsmanlike and decides to give Mowgli a fighting chance by counting to ten before tearing him to shreds.

Mowgli grabs a stick to defend himself, but pretty much wets his pants when the tiger finally strikes.’’ Lucky for Mowgli, Baloo arrives in time and grabs the tiger’s tail so he misses, and a fight between Baloo and Shere Khan begins. The vultures fly down and whisk Mowgli to safety, but Baloo is not so lucky – as well as a meaty bite on the bum, he gets utterly mauled by the tiger Shere Khan leaves Baloo in a mess and decides to follow Mowgli, but the vultures distracts him.

Everything is peaceful again and now Shere Khan has gone for good, Mowgli is free to stay in the jungle with his friends.

In the book Mowgli faces Shere Khan twice. First time was during an altercation at the Council Rock. Because of the age and weakness of Akela, the leadership position is open and ‘’Shere Khan who has been letting the younger wolves follow him for scraps and teaching them how to snatch children’’ thought it would be the perfect chance to drive Mowgli out of the pack.

Bagheera sees it coming and commands Mowgli to steal the ‘’red flower’’ from the Man Village. Akela says that if Mowgli returns to the Man Village instead of getting driven out of the pack he will not get into a fight for the leadership.

Then Mowgli takes a burning branch out of the fire pot and smacks Shere Khan around the head before he agreed to return to the Man Village of his own will. He swears, the next time Shere Khan and Mowgli meet he will kill and skin him.

The second time the two rivals met was a few months later when he has been living as a cattle driver in the Man Village. Gray Brother and Akela visit him sometimes to hammer out a plan to get rid of the tiger once and for all. Since Shere Khan is partial to human flesh he doesn’t stray far from the Man Village. One day he is lying near a farm and with the help of wolves and buffalos Mowgli managed to organize a stampede by which Shere Khan got crushed to death.

In the film Shere Khan is humiliated by his fear of fire. He stays alive but he never returns back to the jungle where Mowgli and his friends live.’’ In the book, Shere Khan is not so immediate or unstoppable a threat, and you could argue that he was all bark and no bite – it’s Mowgli who instigates the violence towards him, and kills him to fulfil his destiny and get rid of an irritation rather than protect himself.’’ In the book Shere Khan is not the powerful and terrifying antagonist he is shown in the Disney film of 1967.

Kipling’s book is more about Mowgli’s inner conflict as he tries to work out who he is, instead of where he belongs. He is an amazing hunter and tracker and although he is known as the ‘’Master of the Jungle’’, he is still a human being and has to return to his own species, the Man Village. He knows this not only because of the distinctions between himself and his friends, ‘’but because of his connection with his real parents and how he sees the world.

Going back to the man village is largely his decision, albeit a sad one.’’ ‘’Disney’s film is about a boy going back to where he belongs, and making sure everyone is in their rightful place.’’ The jungle can be as fun and dangerous at the same time, but Mowgli can’t fit in and adapt to it as because of his race. ‘’As soon as he lays eyes on the man village, he suddenly can’t think of being anywhere else, despite the wishes of some of the animals that looked after him.’’


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