The Jungle Book Trivia and Goofs

Trivia

The last film personally overseen by Walt Disney.

Phil Harris, the voice of Baloo the bear in Disney's "The Jungle Book," also played the voice of a bear in another Disney film: he was Little John in Robin Hood (1973).

Baloo means bear in Hindi, 'Shere' as in Shere Khan means Tiger in Hindi, Bagheera means panther in Hindi, Hathi in 'Colonel Hathi' means elephant in Hindi.

This film was the last performance for actress Verna Felton who died the day before Walt Disney himself died.

Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman were hired as songwriters after Terry Gilkyson wouldn't distance himself from the "darker" side of The Jungle Book. His song "The Bare Necessities" was included in the film, and was the only song from the film to be nominated for an Academy Award. Two other songs written for the film (by Gilkyson) can be heard on the soundtrack CD: "Brothers All" and "The Song of the Seeonee."

Walt Disney told his animation crew to "throw away" Rudyard Kipling's book, "The Jungle Book" because the resulting storyboards were too dark and dramatic. "Bare Necessities", was the only song he liked and kept because the music along with the draft was also too dark and dramatic.

According to Caroline Balestier, Rudyard Kipling's widow, "Mowgli" is pronounced "MAU-glee", not "MOH-glee". She reportedly never forgave Walt Disney for the gaffe.

Darleen Carr who played the voice of The Girl (Shanti) is the younger sister of The Sound of Music (1965) actress Charmian Carr (Liesl von Trapp).

The Vultures were originally going to be voiced by The Beatles. However, due to a change in schedule, they dropped out at the last minute. The look of The Vultures and the voices are now an homage to The Beatles.

Walt Disney died during production of this film. Many people wondered at what the studio's fate would be, particularly the animation division. The film performed extremely well at the box office, ensuring that the animators would not be put out of work. Had the film failed, it is likely that animation would have been closed down at the Disney studio.

Kaa's song "Trust in me" was originally written for Mary Poppins (1964) as "Land of sand" but not used.

The laughing heard from King Louie when he is tickled by Baloo was originally used in Song of the South (1946) as Brer Rabbit's laughing heard during the Laughing Place sequence.

The Vultures song "That's What Friends Are For" was originally written with Beatles-style beat, but Disney insisted it was changed, so as not to date it to the Sixties. It was rewritten as a barbershop quartet, to make it timeless.

Goofs

Colonel Hathi breaks his stick; in the next scene it is intact, then broken again.

When Baloo and Bagheera are trying to rescue Mowgli from the monkeys, Baloo opens a door smashing it against Bagheera. The door has no handle. The next shot is a close-up of Bagheera's head with the door behind it; the door has now a handle.

Baloo asks Mowgli to scratch his left shoulder, however when Mowgli scratches him, he scratches his right

The story takes place in India, yet King Louie is an orangutan - they live in Borneo and Sumatra.

During the "The Bare Necessities" song, Baloo is shown picking the fruit off Prickly Pear cacti - a type of plant that only grows in North America and nowhere near India

Wolves do not wag their tails yet several times wolf cubs are seen doing so.