The Home Video Corner: The Jungle Book (1991, Walt Disney Classics)

 Hey everyone, welcome to the Home Video Corner. No, I didn't change the name of the blog, and I didn't start a brand new one. I've decided to break the blog up into three segments that I will make blog posts for one day a week with this segment, The Home Video Corner, posting on Tuesdays. The other two segments, The Comic Book Longbox and The Book Nook, will be posted on Wednesdays and Thursdays respectively. The goal of this segment is to take a look at the movies and TV shows that I've owned on DVD, Blu-ray, and VHS over the course of my entire life. The only caveat is that they have to be tapes or discs that I've owned. It'll take me a bit longer to watch the TV season sets, so on the weeks where I'm watching one of those sets, I'll probably write about a tape I don't own anymore. Now without further ado, let's talk about the Walt Disney Classics VHS release of my favourite Disney movie of all time, The Jungle Book.

 This tape was one of the first movies I ever got when I was a kid. Prior to this I'd had TV show tapes and Disney releases such as the Disney Sing-Along Songs and the Winnie the Pooh shorts, but this was the first full length feature films I remember owning on VHS. I got rid of my original copy years ago, but back in January my friend, Katie, gave me her copy, along with the VHS releases of Lilo & Stitch and the 1996 live action version of 101 Dalmatians starring Glenn Close. I am not ashamed to admit that last night's viewing was the second viewing I had of the tape since January. 

The tape has a simple opening. There's the usual red warning cards (no FBI warning screen as this is the Canadian version), and then there's a full behind the scenes preview for Beauty and the Beast which was scheduled to be released in theatres later that same year, the home video preview for The Rescuers Down Under, and then the Walt Disney Classics logo pops up before the start of the movie. 

Watching this tape is like watching a time capsule because it shows how Disney went about promoting their movies and home video releases back in 1991. The theatrical release of Beauty and the Beast and the home video release of The Rescuers Down Under were only two things that Disney was putting out in 1991, yet they were the only things promoted on this tape. Oddly enough the promotions were more uniform on the Disney Sing-Along Songs and the other cartoon short and TV show tapes than they were on the movie tapes at this point in time. Which would start to change once the later releases in the Walt Disney Classics came out.

I love The Jungle Book. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it's my favourite Disney movie of all time. Yes, there are movies such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire that are more visually impressive and have more complex storylines, but the simplicity of this movie is why I like it so much. It feels very episodic to me.

Something that I've noticed watching this movie as an adult is that nobody asks Mowgli what he wants. There are even points in the movie where he tells Bagheera that he's not afraid of Shere Khan, but Bagheera completely ignores him. Everyone else in this movie is making the decision for Mowgli simply because they themselves are afraid of Shere Khan. Even during the Wolves's council at the beginning of the movie, the pack admits to being afraid of Shere Khan and that they as a pack don't have enough strength to defeat him should it come down to an all out fight. 

Also, I love how anytime one of the animals say Shere Khan, someone always includes "the Tiger" at the end of his name. 

Of course I sang along to the songs, particularly "The Bare Necessities" and "I Wanna Be like You". It's The Jungle Book, how could you not sing along when those songs are on? Not to mention it's the Sherman Brothers, with "The Bare Necessities" having been written by Terry Gilkyson, the only song of his that survived Walt tossing them due to them being too dark and not fitting for the tone he wanted the movie to have.

One thing that confuses me about this movie is it's timeline. It seems like everything happens in just a day or two. But to me it seems like they should've happened over the course of six or seven days given how far Bagheera and Mowgli travelled before meeting Kaa. You also have to take into account how far Mowgli must've travelled before meeting the Vultures. Speaking of the Vultures, they're pretty great.

Overall this is a great release of The Jungle Book. According to Wikipedia, it ended up being the third best selling home video release of 1991 with first and second place falling to Home Alone and Fantasia with Home Alone selling 11 million copies, Fantasia selling 9.25 million copies in 1991 alone, though by the mid '90s the release had sold 21.7 million copies worldwide, and The Jungle Book selling 7.4 million copies in 1991. So that's pretty cool. Obviously the only place you can get this tape is at thrift stores, flea markets or on eBay, but the tape's opening, complete with the Beauty and the Beast making of preview, can be found on YouTube. 

And that my friends is the end of this week's edition of The Home Video Corner. I will be back tomorrow for The Comic Book Longbox. I won't reveal what I'm going to be talking about on there. You'll have to read it to find out. Next week I'll be discussing a tape I don't have anymore because in two weeks I'll be talking about One Tree Hill: The Complete First Season and that tape will be Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode 1 & 2: Encounter at Farpoint. So until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.