Maugli

The Soviets released a cartoon version of "The Jungle Book" in 1973. I was made up of five short films released in the 60s-70s. Then, more than two decades later, the film was released on video in the USA with American voice actors and Charlton Heston (as the narrator) instead of the original Russian actors. My review is for this English language version.

The first thing you are bound to notice about this film is the art style...and it's absolutely nothing like the 1960s Disney film. This is NOT a complaint so much as pointing out that the art style is simpler but more artsy. Some will like it, some won't. I personally didn't mind it, though objectively the Disney artwork is more pleasing to see.

The next thing you'll likely notice is that the story of Mowgli is quite a bit different...with a much larger cast of animals and a much more complicated story.

Finally, more thing you'll probably notice.... Bagheera the panther is a female! This is apparently because the Kipling stories turned him into a girl when translated into Russian. This is neither a good nor bad thing and doesn't change the story significantly.

So is it any good? Well, the voice actors are nice and the songs pretty good. To me, it's not at all fair to really compare it to the Disney film. Both are very good but tell very different stories. I personally think the average kid would prefer the Disney film...but the Soviet version is nothing to look down on and is quite entertaining and well made.