So I went to go see the new disney Jungle Book movie last saturday, and while it was okay, I would give my left arm for an actual adaptation that's true to the books. (STOP. MAKING. KAA. A. VILLAIN. AUUUUGH) So I'm settling on the next best thing - are there any peeps out there who loved the Jungle Books vol 1 and 2 as much as me, as well as the Just So Stories? I understand Kipling himself is a bit of a problematic fav, as well as all the issues to do with colonial India and all that, but man, I just really love those stories. Anyone else out there who grew up with them as the backbone of their fictional universes?
I didn't read The Jungle Book and the Just So Stories until I was in my teens but OH BOY. I loved them. I'm sorry to hear that the new movie isn't a faithful adaption 'cause I saw the trailer and from one bit I was thinking I might finally get to see a live-action Red Dog, which would be my absolute favourite Mowgli story except that I love Letting in the Jungle equally. I've read all of the Just So Stories to my siblings, some of them multiple times. I've read How the Whale Got His Throat so many times that we've memorised the funniest bits and quote them at each other whenever an opportunity arises. We have a book that has the Jungle Books, the Just So Stories, Kim, and Puck of Pook's Hill, and I read everything in it probably two or three times over when I was in my mid-teens, and have gone back to re-read a bit here and a bit there ever since. I don't know much about Kipling himself, but I sure do love his writing. I loved what he did with mythological figures in Puck of Pook's Hill. And this has just reminded me that I should probably do a re-read. So ... tell me about the movie? I don't mind spoilers 'cause I probably won't see it in theatres and I've read the book anyway.
i grew up on just so stories, they were my jam, i remember sitting in bed as a wee baby and looking at all the pretty art and rolling the words around in my head
dkfs;ll this makes me so happy that other people love these stories but I am about to go to work so I will be more coherent when come back, promise <3
okay yes I am here - FIRSTLY HELLO FELLOW FANS :D And yeah, that bit where he jumps off the cliff in the trailer made me think of Red Dog as well, but alas, it was some bullshit remix of escaping Shere Khan via buffalo stampede (NOT the cause of death in this one, either D: And that kitty, for all he was badass voiced by Idris Elba, was not Lungri, the Lame One - he had a fucked-up eye, thanks to Mowgli's (pilgrim?? def not woodcutter) blood father, and he didn't even limp. Because god forbid we depict a maneater as a coward. No sign of Tabaqui, either, even though they managed to turn Ikki the Porcupine into a character :/ I WANT MY DISHLICKER.) 'Kaa's Hunting' is definitely up there, but I love all the Mowgli stories equally, really. (I was given some vague hope in the trailer when Kaa's gender was changed to female, but nope, still a villain. More like a dragon this time, which is something, but she didn't get nearly enough screen-time and what there was was spent trying to eat Mowgli. ) (Disney, can u not. I know herpetophobia is a real thing, but way to go demonizing pythons so every little kid and their mother will have nightmares of being eaten. At least she was far too big to be anywhere near realistic... :/) 'Letting In The Jungle' is terrifying. Seriously, Mowgli scared me to death in that one. Don't fuck with the loved ones of the kid with the entire jungle at his disposal. @TwoBrokenMirrors and @rats - 'The Cat Who Walked By Himself' is always, always my favourite Just-So story, probably closely followed by 'The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo' (I had a good portion of my childhood in Australia, and I know most of that one off by heart because of it.) I really like the Crab That Played With The Sea, too - it's got a weird mythic quality to it that I can never quite shake XD
I messed up and posted a half-finished post, then panicked and deleted it, so if you get two notifications for this, that's why. Sorry! Bummer. I'm pretty sure they're trying to capitalise on the popularity of the animated version, so it's cool that anything from the books that wasn't already in the animated version made it in, but still.... And Shere Khan is such a good villain in the book. I mean, he's an Umbridge-level antagonist, in that he's just a bully and most people have probably met someone like him. ...When you put it like that, it makes me realise that that's the exact reason I love it. People who can utterly destroy you but don't care enough to do anything until you touch someone they like are my favourite. (House bias. I'm a Slytherin primary by the Sorting Hat Chat method and now I'm 99% sure Mowgli is, too.)
When I was very small, I had a VHS tape of How the Rhino Got His Skin & How the Camel Got His Hump as recorded off the Disney channel. It's illustrated by Tim Raglan, narrated by Jack Nicholson, and has music done by Bobby McFerrin, and is my childhood in a small and convenient package. I watched it constantly, and while I read more of the Just So stories when I was older, I do read those two in Jack Nicholson's voice. One could listen to the audio from it, if one were so inclined, here:
I grew up on SO much Kipling! The Jungle Books and the Just So Stories, and a bit later Kim and Captains Courageous and so, so many more - Land and Sea Tales for Scouts And Scout Masters, The Day's Work, Puck of Pook's Hill, Rewards and Fairies, the poems... so many things! I think my favorite Jungle Books story is the King's Ankus, and I'm not even entirely sure why, although Red Dog is certainly up there. Michael "Duke Moonwulf" Longcor has done some really good musical settings of some of his poems, if anyone's interested:
