_________________________________
-Who is it?
-It's me, Shere Khan.
_________________________________
-Colonel Hathi, if you please, sir.
-It's Baloo!
_________________________________
-You better believe it.
-Crazy!
_________________________________
ANNOUNCER: It swings.
_________________________________
-It sings.
-Ooh-be-doo
_________________________________
-Oop-dee-wee
-I wanna be like you
_________________________________
The jungle is jumpin' with
the behind-the-scenes story...
_________________________________
of Walt Disney's masterpiece...
_________________________________
The Jungle Book.
_________________________________
Rudyard Kipling's 1894 classic
first caught Walt's attention...
_________________________________
in the late 1930s,
_________________________________
but Disney didn't acquire
the film rights until 1962.
_________________________________
The Jungle Book was
the last animated feature...
_________________________________
that Walt Disney
personally supervised.
_________________________________
As was often the case
with his animated features,
_________________________________
Walt's first approach
to the story was through music.
_________________________________
When I think
of The Jungle Book,
_________________________________
one of the first things
I think about is the songs.
_________________________________
MALTIN: There have been hit songs
in Disney films before,
_________________________________
many, many, many times.
_________________________________
But it's not so much
that these were hits...
_________________________________
as that they really created
kind of like centerpiece in the film.
_________________________________
They're high points, and they're things
you take with you and remember.
_________________________________
The music is part and parcel of the
film. They're wedded to each other.
_________________________________
The characters, the personalities that
sprang from the songs.
_________________________________
The music that we know today
wasn't the first score written for the film.
_________________________________
For an early version of
The Jungle Book,
_________________________________
composer Terry Gilkyson created
a dark and mysterious song score.
_________________________________
Freedom or soon
_________________________________
We die
_________________________________
At the same time,
veteran story man, Bill Peet...
_________________________________
created a lush and moody visual
approach to the classic story,
_________________________________
firmly based in Kipling,
_________________________________
but it seemed that this
literal approach to the story
_________________________________
wasn't what Walt had in mind.
_________________________________
All the initial development
was abandoned, except for one song.
_________________________________
(SINGING)
Look for the bare necessities
_________________________________
The simple bare necessities
_________________________________
Forget about your worries
and your strife
_________________________________
Walt called on staff songwriters
Robert and Richard Sherman...
_________________________________
for a fresh musical start.
_________________________________
SHERMAN: We have one wonderful
song called "The Bare Necessities..."
_________________________________
that Terry Gilkyson wrote.
_________________________________
We said, "Great. So what do you
want us to do?" He said,
_________________________________
"I want you to do all the
other songs in the picture.
_________________________________
But there's one very good song
in there." And it's a wonderful song.
_________________________________
So that's the one remaining
song from the original version.
_________________________________
All the other five were
written by Bob and myself.
_________________________________
(SINGING) For to march and
drill over field and hill
_________________________________
(SQUEAKY TRUMPETING)
_________________________________
In the military style
_________________________________
With The Jungle Book,
what most interested Walt...
_________________________________
were the memorable characters
and exotic settings.
_________________________________
In reapproaching
the story development...
_________________________________
Walt gave an unusual
instruction to his staff.
_________________________________
Called me in his office
to give me the assignment,
_________________________________
and he held up the book
by Rudyard Kipling and said,
_________________________________
"First thing I want you to do
is not read the book."
_________________________________
The first question was, "Have you read
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling?"
_________________________________
I said, "God, no. Not for ages. I saw
a movie years ago with sabu in it."
_________________________________
He says, "Yeah,
but have you read it?" "No."
_________________________________
He says, "That's good. I don't
ever want you to read it.
_________________________________
"This is the story about a kid
who gets raised by wolves...
_________________________________
"And he's brought back to a man
village; that's the basic story line...
_________________________________
and we wanna have fun with it."
_________________________________
(SINGING IN GIBBERISH)
_________________________________
Since it was Walt's idea to disregard
the original Kipling story,
_________________________________
he became personally involved
in solving story problems...
_________________________________
for the Disney version
of The Jungle Book.
_________________________________
Walt says to us,
"Leave that story business to me.
_________________________________
"You guys just get the
personally relationships...
_________________________________
"between the bear and Mowgli
and so forth.
_________________________________
"I'll take care of the rest of that."
_________________________________
Following these instructions
from the boss,
_________________________________
director Wolfgang Reitherman
began developing the characters.
_________________________________
REITHERMAN: I went for personality,
_________________________________
strong characterizations,
strong voices that fit the character.
_________________________________
ANNOUNCER: But selecting
a credible voice for a character...
_________________________________
wasn't as easy as simply casting
the latest popular actor.
_________________________________
You want a voice which...
_________________________________
sounds real, sincere.
_________________________________
ANNOUNCER: While discussing voice
casting with his team,
_________________________________
Walt had an inspiration.
_________________________________
Walt was in a meeting and
we were trying to get this bear,
_________________________________
get this character of Baloo the bear,
_________________________________
and Walt said,
"Why don't you get Phil Harris?"
_________________________________
Well, this was sort of a new idea.
_________________________________
It's a lot easier when you get a built-in
personality that Harris brought to us.
_________________________________
HARRIS: I get this call and they said,
"We want you to come out to the studio."
_________________________________
And they said, "We want you to play
the part of the bear,
_________________________________
Baloo, in The Jungle Book."
_________________________________
I said, "I can't do it.
It just doesn't feel natural." And I left.
_________________________________
About a week later I get
a call again and they said,
_________________________________
"Phil, Mr. Disney says you're
the guy he wants for that bear.
_________________________________
Will you please try it again?"
_________________________________
And I said, "Do you mind if I do
it the way I would do it?"
_________________________________
They said, "Go ahead and try it."
I said, "Look, kid,
_________________________________
"you keep foolin' around in here with
these animals, that monkey'll eat you.
_________________________________
You know,
you'll get your roof knocked in."
_________________________________
I want you to keep circlin',
or I'm gonna knock your roof in again.
_________________________________
You'd better keep movin'... Ooh!
_________________________________
And the guy said,
"That's exactly what we want."
_________________________________
Hey! Right on the button.
_________________________________
He's always doin'
this kind of stuff, you know.
_________________________________
Snappin' his fingers and joggin' up
and down, always workin' to the beat.
_________________________________
Yeah!
_________________________________
Well, man, what a beat.
_________________________________
So that really proved to be
the key thing to that character.
_________________________________
From then on,
wherever we could,
_________________________________
we had him working
to music and to a beat.
_________________________________
I mean, the bare necessities
_________________________________
Or Mother Nature's recipes
_________________________________
That bring the
bare necessities of life
_________________________________
ANNOUNCER: Another inspiration
in the casting of King Louie.
_________________________________
We said, "Let's do Dixieland. You know,
a wild, way-out Dixieland beat,
_________________________________
"all kinds of funny jive talk, make a
whole crazy, King of the Swingers.
_________________________________
The ape would be the
King of the Swingers."
_________________________________
Now, I'm the king of the swingers, whoa
_________________________________
The jungle VIP
_________________________________
Who would be the right person?
Someone suggested Louis Prima...
_________________________________
'cause he was this wild, swinging cat
who played in Las Vegas and Tahoe.
_________________________________
So we went out to Las Vegas.
_________________________________
I remember we sat down
with these wild characters...
_________________________________
in this little room where we were playing
this song, Bob and I were singing away:
_________________________________
(SINGING) Ooh-oo-oo
I wanna be like you-oo-oo
_________________________________
They were just listening
very intently,
_________________________________
and when it was all over,
Louis Prima says,
_________________________________
"What do you want to do,
make a monkey out of me?"
_________________________________
(LAUGHING) And so we said, "Yes."
He says, "Ya got me."
_________________________________
ANNOUNCER: In this rare film footage
shot during the recording session...
_________________________________
for "I Wanna Be Like You,"
_________________________________
Louis Prima and his band display
their trademark eccentricity.
_________________________________
Director Woolie Reitherman
recalled the spark of an idea.
_________________________________
REITHERMAN: Louie would always
bring his band down in a serpentine...
_________________________________
and walk down through the audience
and in between the aisles, even.
_________________________________
He'd do the horn at the lead of it
and the musicians all following him.
_________________________________
It was always a grand finale to his act.
_________________________________
ANNOUNCER: Inspired by Prima's
band, the animators took over.
_________________________________
(OFF-KEY TRUMPETING)
_________________________________
-Ooh-be-doo
-Oop-dee-wee
_________________________________
-I wanna be like you
-Hop-dee-doo-bee-do-bow
_________________________________
I wanna walk like you
Talk like you
_________________________________
-Too
-Wee-bee-dee-bee-dee-boo
_________________________________
-You see it's true
-Shoo-be-dee-doo
_________________________________
-An ape like me
-Scooby-doo-bee-doo-bee
_________________________________
Can learn to be
_________________________________
Human, too
_________________________________
The unconventional approach
to voice casting continued...
_________________________________
with the villainous tiger,
Shere Khan.
_________________________________
An extraordinary performance.
_________________________________
Well, we wanted
a sinister-type character,
_________________________________
a menace, to help build our story,
and a boy getting in trouble with him.
_________________________________
They were thinking of a kind of
Jack Palance type, you know,
_________________________________
of a straight, evil character
who was going to kill this kid.
_________________________________
You know?
And maybe enjoy him for dinner.
_________________________________
Ken Anderson made one drawing,
he was thinking...
_________________________________
of a Basil Rathbone kind of a
supercilious above-it-all tiger.
_________________________________
How interesting.
_________________________________
So I made these drawings
of the tiger with that attitude:
_________________________________
Supercilious,
so confident of his power,
_________________________________
so confident of his ability...
_________________________________
that he didn't need to rant and roar.
_________________________________
I showed them to Walt the next day
and he said, "Hey, that's it."
_________________________________
He said, "I know who that is.
That's George Sanders.
_________________________________
He's a friend of mine.
He'll do it.
_________________________________
Who better than George Sanders,
who was the master of urbane,
_________________________________
suave,
subtle villain on screen?
_________________________________
KAA:
Let me show you how it works.
_________________________________
(MUFFLED COUGHS)
_________________________________
SHERE KHAN:
I can't be bothered with that.
_________________________________
I have no time for that sort of nonsense.
_________________________________
-(HISSES) Some other time, perhaps?
-Perhaps.
_________________________________
He grabs him by the throat and then
scratches him with his claw, up his nose.
_________________________________
Up his nostril, you know?
It's just terrible.
_________________________________
But he's being so terribly
polite and sympathetic.
_________________________________
The voice of Kaa
_________________________________
was provided by veteran
Disney voice actor Sterling Holloway,
_________________________________
who had played Mr. Stork
in Dumbo...
_________________________________
Which one of you ladies is expecting?
_________________________________
...the Cheshire Cat
in Alice in Wonderland...
_________________________________
If you'd really to know,
he went that way.
_________________________________
...and the beloved
Winnie the Pooh.
_________________________________
Oh, yes. I'm rumbly in my tumbly.
_________________________________
Walt came to me, and said, he was
such a stickler for voices.
_________________________________
He said, "When you've finished what
you're doin' today on Winnie the Pooh,
_________________________________
fiddle around, see what
you can do with a snake."
_________________________________
He said,
"I can't get the right voice."
_________________________________
So I thought, wouldn't it be funny
to have a snake with an aching back...
_________________________________
because it would be such
a long ache.
_________________________________
(GRUNTING)
_________________________________
(MOANING) This is going to slow down
_________________________________
my s-s-s-slithering.
_________________________________
Filling out the voice cast
were Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera...
_________________________________
You have the word of Bagheera.
_________________________________
...J. Pat O'Malley as Colonel Hathi...
_________________________________
And remember,
an elephant never forgets.
_________________________________
...Verna Felton as Mrs. Hathi...
_________________________________
Now, just a minute,
you pompous old windbag!
_________________________________
...and director Woolie Reitherman's son,
Bruce Reitherman,
_________________________________
was cast as the voice
of Mowgli.
_________________________________
I'm not as crazy as you are.
Put me down!
_________________________________
Some people thought that perhaps
Disney was taking a shortcut...
_________________________________
to creating these characters
by having established voices,
_________________________________
that is to say, established
personalities, behind them.
_________________________________
But enough time has passed, now that
there are so many young people...
_________________________________
who don't know anything
of who those actors are,
_________________________________
that it doesn't matter anymore.
_________________________________
The characters now live
on their own.
_________________________________
I still like this one better.
_________________________________
Bringing friendship to the screen seemed
natural for two of Walt's top animators...
_________________________________
and lifelong best friends,
Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.
_________________________________
It's also impressive to me
that Frank and Ollie animated...
_________________________________
more than half
of the picture themselves.
_________________________________
Practically all of the sequences
of Baloo and Mowgli,
_________________________________
that wonderful relationship that develops
and changes throughout the picture,
_________________________________
was Frank and Ollie's work.
_________________________________
I think I'm most proud of the fact
that, between the two of us,
_________________________________
we got that real warm friendship
to come through.
_________________________________
That's what we wanted;
we were both striving for that.
_________________________________
We both did practically
all of the bear and Mowgli.
_________________________________
We felt it would be the heart of the
picture, and the warmth in a picture...
_________________________________
is what Walt always
wanted us to get.
_________________________________
When his team was stumped
for an ending to the film,
_________________________________
Walt again stepped in,
suggesting the final sequence.
_________________________________
He came up and improvised
this ending,
_________________________________
which is the one in the reel now
where the boy meets the girl...
_________________________________
and this is what makes him
go back to the man village.
_________________________________
Oh!
_________________________________
-She did that on purpose!
-Obviously.
_________________________________
We all agreed that if he sees a beautiful
little girl from the man village...
_________________________________
that eternal siren song
would pull him in.
_________________________________
And as soon as we said,
"The eternal siren song,"
_________________________________
We said, "We're gonna
write a song for this."
_________________________________
(SINGING) I must go to fetch the water
_________________________________
Till the day that I am grown
_________________________________
We had a meeting,
_________________________________
and Walt Disney and all the
other wonderful people were there.
_________________________________
We played it and showed
the storyboards, and Walt said,
_________________________________
-That's the way it was.
-"That's the ending of the picture."
_________________________________
And that was it.
_________________________________
I first heard him talk about that,
I thought, "Gee, that's tacked-on.
_________________________________
I could... I don't know, that's..."
But they gave it to me to do.
_________________________________
And the more I fooled with it
the more I thought,
_________________________________
"God, this is a great idea."
You know?
_________________________________
I loved the little girl. I loved the way
she would entice him.
_________________________________
So the whole thing worked great
as far as I was concerned.
_________________________________
It gave a wonderful ending
to the picture.
_________________________________
ANNOUNCER: Sadly, Walt Disney
would not live to see this happy ending.
_________________________________
He passed away shortly after
making this final story suggestion.
_________________________________
Jungle Book, of course, was a very
important and pivotal picture.
_________________________________
Walt Disney died during
the making of it,
_________________________________
so the Nine Old Men
were on their own.
_________________________________
Had that film failed,
_________________________________
I think Disney animation might very
well have gone down the tubes.
_________________________________
Executives were talking about
phasing it out.
_________________________________
It cost too much money. Anyway,
there's nobody to take over.
_________________________________
You'd have to rebuild
the whole team.
_________________________________
Disney executives took notice
when The Jungle Book premiered...
_________________________________
and was an immediate
blockbuster hit.
_________________________________
The management starting
getting on us and saying,
_________________________________
"What are you guys doin'
sitting around?
_________________________________
"Why aren't you gettin'
some new guys in here?
_________________________________
Not gonna be anybody
to animate this next picture."
_________________________________
ANNOUNCER: Though it was the
end of an era at the Disney studio,
_________________________________
in many ways
it was a new beginning.
_________________________________
Because of the success of
The Jungle Book,
_________________________________
the Disney studio began its first formal
recruiting and training programs...
_________________________________
for a new generation
of Disney animators,
_________________________________
and a triumphant future
lay ahead.
_________________________________
BOTH: The bare necessities
_________________________________
Or Mother Nature's recipes
_________________________________
That bring the
bare necessities of life
_________________________________
_________________________________
