Mowgli's Brothers

1976
7| 0h25m| NR| en
Details

Mowgli's Brothers is a 1976 television animated special created by legendary animator Chuck Jones. It is based from the first chapter of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book of the same name. The special was narrated by Roddy McDowall who does all the male characters in the film. It originally aired on CBS on February 11, 1976.

Director

Producted By

Chuck Jones Enterprises

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Reviews

Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable
BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Mowgli's Brothers" is an American short film from 40 years ago and the third and final entry to Chuck Jones Rudyard Kipling trilogy. And he goes out on a high note. It is almost impossible to include the complex Jungle Book story in under 24 minutes, but Jones' approach is probably as good as it gets. Mowgli leaving everybody to live with men in the end comes a bit out of nowhere perhaps, but I have seen that storyline elaborated disappointingly on also in 100-minute movies. A difficult subject. Anyway, all before that worked pretty nicely. The animation is good and Jones' talent had gone nowhere even if the Golden Age of Animation was long over. He also got help once more from his longtime collaborator, voice actress June Foray, who is still alive today at almost 100. The characters are interesting, but also here some major characters are missing or lack screen time, most of all Kaa for example. The only thing I did not like was that Mowgli was voiced by Roddy McDowall here. He is fine as the narrator, but I have no idea why they let a grown man voice a little boy here. Yep, Mowgli does not grow up in this one and that's a major difference for example compared to the Soviet version of the tale. As a whole, this is an enjoyable watch and I recommend it.
gizmomogwai You can point to Mowgli's Brothers (1976) and say what's oft been said: No one animates 'em, writes music, or entertains a general audience, better than Disney. Mowgli's Brothers is an animated short coming only nine years after Walt Disney's last film, The Jungle Book (1967), came out to wild acclaim. I've now seen it on the Diamond Edition Blu- ray, and it looks spectacular. This short is produced by another cartoon legend, Chuck Jones (Looney Tunes, How the Grinch Stole Christmas), but the quality of the animation pales in comparison. Looking at The Grinch, you know Jones can do better than this.The story and writing are the key strength of Mowgli's Brothers, and some will say it's here where Jones succeeded in following Rudyard Kipling more closely (indeed, I recognized some of the dialogue from Kipling's writings, including the mother wolf taking much delight in baby Mowgli's nudity for whatever reason). This is poetic, and the politics of the wolf pack more complex. It's also more interesting to see the wolves in a more cynical light (unlike the cute doggies from Disney's version), and good to see Mowgli put them in their place at the end. But say what you like about Disney's changes, the stories are basically the same, and the different, easygoing tone in the 1967 film's writing has its own charm.
phillise THIS is the the best adaptation of Mowglie's Brothers. It follows the original almost exactly, with two added scenes of Mowgli dressing up in sheets to scar Tabaqui, and dropping a melon on Shere Khan.this got me to read all of the Jungle Book stories as a young child. As far as Shere Khan being white, I always thought he was supposed to be, and looked for some reference to that in the books. In "Tiger! Tiger!" the villagers DO think SHere Khan is a ghost, but it's because of his lameness, the same as "wicked old money lender, who passed away some years ago." If he were white it would have only increased their superstitions, but what I think happened was this: Chuck Jones considered doing more adaptations of Kipling; and since it wouldn't animate well to show a limping tiger, he decided on another reason the villagers believed he was a ghost--namely making him white. Unfortunately, "Tiger! Tiger!" never got made.
Stebaer4 Interesting not only to see how uncanny the Mowgli & Shere Kahn are to the ones in Disney's original adaptation of The Jungle Book but even how Shere Kahn was seen but took a back seat.The wolves look nothing like the ones in Disney's Jungle book & have an even bigger spotlight in this feature as well as that we actually get to see Mowgli grow to manhood & prepare to leave wolfdom behind.Roddy McDowall's voice doing the narration is very impressive as he is in any acting he's done in movie's & TV show's too. But all in all any time when I think of this I recall the 2 nights on which I'd seen it as a Middle School kid.Truthfully,Stephen "Steve" G. Baer a.k.a. "Ste".