Trailer
Plot summary
In the Indian jungle during the British Raj, Mowgli is orphaned as a small boy and grows up among the wolves, with the panther Bagheera and the bear Baloo close by. A rhesus macaque steals a bracelet that Kitty Brydon gave him when they were children, and Mowgli follows the monkey to an abandoned city built in honor of Hanuman, where treasure lies piled and an orangutan, King Louie, rules the monkeys. He wins the bracelet back and subdues Kaa, a python, with a dagger. Kitty, who lives in India with her father, Colonel Geoffrey Brydon, meets the grown Mowgli in the jungle and does not recognize him. Captain William Boone, Kitty's suitor, sees Mowgli as a threat and wants the treasure of the city, which only Mowgli can find.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Jungle Book (1994)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- To get the shot of Shere Khan roaring at Mowgli, the film's tiger was filmed yawning on set, and a prerecorded roar was dubbed over the yawn in post-production.
- Jason Scott Lee was Stephen Sommers's only choice for Mowgli, but Disney executives called him "too old" for the part until Sommers convinced them he would be a more believable leading man than an unknown teenager; the animals also reacted to him best.
- Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg replaced writers Ronald Yonver and Mark Geldman after their scripts dissatisfied him, one of them running 180 pages with no dialogue for the first 70, and handed the project to Stephen Sommers.
- The role of Dr. Julius Plumford was always written for John Cleese, but Stephen Sommers doubted he would ever accept it; Cleese took the part after reading the script and falling in love with it.
- Because India's jungles did not have the rainforest look the filmmakers wanted, the jungle scenes were mostly shot on Fripp Island, South Carolina, for Bagheera and Shere Khan, and at Ozone Falls and Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee for Baloo and the wolf pack.
- The sounds used for the film's monkeys were actually recordings of chimpanzees and siamangs, and KNB FX Group crew member Shannon Shea doubled for Baloo in certain shots inside an animatronic bear suit.
