The Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli

If you've like the Disney adaptations of Rudyard Kiplings works but wish they had delved deeper, this series is for you. It takes it to the next level, opening up a depth in the various characters that makes one wonder why this series in English has remained so rare and hard to find. Young Mowgli, adopted by the wolves and never knowing anything of himself save as a wolf, learns to live according to the Laws of the Jungle; struggling with the fact that he is also "a hateful human". A fact apparently backed up in the few humans he encounters. Yet are all humans mean and hateful? Mowgli is a human with a human heart that the animals often don't understand and he lives in peace with the Jungle according to its laws. He finds that his lack of claws and fangs and speed is more than made up for by his inventiveness and ingenuity as he rises to become one of the Jungle's greatest hunters and champions.

A wonderful tale of self-discovery, community, honour, duty, coming of age, and coming to terms with the darker sides of the Human Condition. A warning to parents of younger children: the show depicts fluffy animals being taken down in hunts, main characters getting hurt, and even the death of a beloved main character. But it is skillfully done. The intent is to gently teach young minds and not to shock or sensationalize/desensitize. While it does come out of a different time and culture that is very patriarchal and the series is most definitely "shonen" it is wonderful to see a female wolf as one of the pack's most promising hunters and a female wolf leading one of the packs encountered. I heartily recommend to both the young and the young-at-heart.

It's authentic storytelling which everyone as a kid should watch, it's a classic series which drag us to the life of the forest animals and humans, where everything is inner connected . For kids it's much watch to understand love, friends family and move on with our lives where change is constantly adaptive.

This show first came into my life in 1990 here in Canada... yea, about 16 years ago. But as the years went by I never forgot it completely, however it's a hard-to-finder. I've got 12 of the video tapes in no particular order but I'd like to have all 52 episodes. About in the era of a decade ago... 1995-ish I discovered the next best thing which became a favorite, The Animals Of Farthing Wood, I'm probably not the only one who followed this trend if you found both shows you'd see the same eye-catching criteria between them. They had both aired before school, early in the morning so it made for a never-miss-an-episode system because there was nothing else you could be doing at that time of day and not be home for it. it worked perfectly. Anyway, I ramble a bit but if anybody finds a source to purchase The Jungle Book series in it's entirety, post something up here.

It took some time to locate the original series on IMDb. I watched few episodes recently in Hindi and wanted to get the whole series but did not know what was the original version. Then I searched with director's name viz Fumio Karakoa and found this and verified with run time. I loved the series in school days around year 1995 when it was showed dubbed in Hindi on Doordarshan at morning hours on every Sunday. With "Sindbad the Sailor" this was a favorite watch on Sunday mornings. I have read the text by Rudyard Kipling as well but I really enjoyed this version more. With the opening sound track "Jungle Jungle baat chali hai pata chala hai, chaddi pahan ke phool khila hai" written by Gulzar this show has been one of the most popular among kids. With advent of Cartoon Network we have got access to other popular cartoon series in India but for me this series holds a special place.

We all know what a gem Rudyard Kipling has created with 'The Jungle Book'! And when someone take this gem and turn it into a precious diamond, you get this series!! Whoever has watched this series in their childhood, I am sure they will have at least one good memory to share. Watching this again at the age of 28 makes me yearn to go back to those early childhood days. So much pain, agony, innocence, fun, lessons, laughter, celebration, sadness, love, cuteness have been poured into this series that it's impossible to get out of the magical jungle world it created. If Rudyard Kipling would have seen this series, he definitely would have changed his story to adapt the series.

Coming to the technical aspects, this series is flawless in all its aspects. The Direction, Storytelling, Script, Music, Editing, Animation all are above par. The visual animation has ability to touch you deeply. Music is soulful. Story and script for each episode are so well thought and written that inner child of yours grows with each episode. 'As Mowgli learns the law of Jungle, we learn the way of life', and this I think is the greatest teaching anyone can get from a book - in this case 'The Jungle Book'.

I am not sure how well versed a director must be to adapt a foreign story of a foreign land about foreign characters, this much relevantly. Being an Indian, I was always able to relate myself with each of its characters. The trees, animals, houses, caves, temples were all very familiar looking and it was not until 22, I learned that the original series was made in Japanese and we watched the dubbed version of it. The first question which arose in mind then was 'how can someone depict our culture so much aptly, that no one can ever raise a question of its authenticity?' We Indians still treat this as an Indian series. Of course the credit also goes to opening song composed by Vishal Bhardwaj sir and the jaunty lyrics by Gulzar sir which never drops off your tongue. Who can also forget Nana Patekar sir's versatile voice talent as Shere Khan.

If there is a word to describe this series it would be 'true'. It remains true to it story, it's characters, it's art and it's audience. And that's why people love this show and it will remain etched forever in their hearts.