The Jungle Book

What’s it about?

Bagheera, a panther, finds a baby boy who’s been left alone in the jungle and so he takes the ‘man-cub’ to a family of wolves to look after. The wolves name him Mowgli and raise him to the age of 10. Mowgli loves his life in the jungle and has many friends but Shere Khan, an evil tiger who hates men, has found out that he lives with the wolves and is coming to find him.

His wolf family decide it’s time for him to return to a human village and Bagheera offers to take him. On their way they meet many dangers including Kaa the python. They also make new friends such as the care free bear Bahloo and a band of monkeys led by an orang-utan named King Louie. Before they reach the village they have to face Shere Kahn and Mowgli’s life is very much in danger.

What to look out for

There is some fighting in this movie, some of it done for laughs, but  Mowgli and Bagheera are often in danger in scenes such as:

• Kaa wraps his body around Mowgli and is about to eat him but is stopped just in time.
• Bahloo and Bagheera fight with a band of monkeys.
• Bahloo, Bagheera and Mowgli all have to fight Shere Khan. Mowgli hits Shere Khan with a stick; Shere Khan claws Bahloo and a flaming tree branch is tied to Shere Khan’s tail.

There are also several other scenes that would frighten younger kids such as:

• Kaa the python has eyes that swirl like spirals and is a very scary character.
• Shere Khan is also very scary with long, sharp claws.
• Bahloo runs headfirst into a tree knocking himself out. Later he falls down a cliff and a boulder lands on his head.

Moral of the Story

The message of the story is that friends and family are the most important things of life.