Aaron Dartnell

12 BES
27 September 2017

Media Essay
Comparing the old and new The Jungle Book films

22 years after the second world war, on the 18th of October 1967, the world renowned
childrens film and television programme creators, Disney, released one of its most loved and
remembered film: The Jungle Book. This cartoon movie brought in over $100,000,000 for
the American company, it was then later remade in 2016 but using a more modern approach
to things, from the graphics to the storyline. This movie also did well reeling in over
$960,000,000. There were many aspects of the film that were changed in the new version
from the older film, some due to social aspects and some for political reasons or issues.

Throughout the entirety of both of the versions of the film, many social issues and
attitudes are challenged, this can be as simple as the formality of the speech. In the 1967 film,
the characters speak extremely formally to one another due to the the social standings of the
time, as this has changed over the years, people speak with less of a formal tone, this is
shown when the 2016 version uses much more informal language, emphasising its
modernism. Furthermore, other aspects of the films are changed dramatically to fit with
modern social standards, such as sexism towards women, one example is the fact that there
are almost no female actors in the older film.

On many occasions inside if the 1967 version of the film, there are pieces of dialogue
and actions used that would not be acceptable today; the reason is that they would be seen as
sexist. The older film contains instances such as adoption of Mogli by the wolves, in this
scene the mother wolf inspects the baby but waits for her husband to come home and approve
before she takes him in, implying that the female is not powerful enough or is dominated by
the male. This is opposed in many areas of the new film where the mother wolf speaks a lot
more and ends up becoming the leader of the pack, portraying how women are now more
commonly higher in the rankings of society compared to how they were treated before.

The theme of sexism and male dominance is carried on further in the older film from
the beginning where Mogli is names the man-cub and that he needs to return to the man
village, the use of the word man and not human again strikes the chord of sexism and the
view of the higher authority of men that was perceived in those times. These terms are still

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used in the newer version of the film but most likely for the purposes of keeping it close to
the original other than the reason for use inside of it.

Additionally, during the first film, there is a scene where a heard of elephants is
marching through the forest and a female elephant decides to try and take responsibility for
leading the others, the male elephant replies with A woman taking over my ranks? Utterly
preposterous! This comment was overlooked by the generations that grew up around this
film but would definitely not make it past critics in todays standings as it is horribly sexist.

One final point about sexism inside of the first jThe Jungle Book film is in the final
scene where our protagonist spots a girl in the man village and a song is heard being sung
by her, lines from this song consist of things like father is hunting in the forest and mother
is cooking inside and the daughter is fetching the water, these are gender stereotypes of
men women and girls. The girl is also sexualised as well as mogul being portrayed as a
crazed animalistic man after becoming attracted to her.

Nevertheless, there are many more instances where social issues or attitudes are
presented in the films, such as the owner ship of Mogul contrasting with his independence. In
the first film, Mogli imitates and becomes attached to the animal that takes him into their
care, the ones that take temporary ownership of the boy. It is an ongoing theme of mystery,
wether he belongs to the humans in the man village, to the wolves, to other animals he
meets or only to himself. In the second film, Moglis independence is evident in the scenes
in which he runs away at night and becomes isolated more often.

Moving on to the cultural attitudes and issues, it is quite obvious that there are many
tribal influences within the films, with rules about peace and different groups of animals.
This is acknowledged when the animals gather at an area they call peace rock to all drink.
There is also a very interesting divide between how the elephants are presented as the
military, due to the elephants roles in WW2, in the 1967 version, and how they are
represented as gods in the new version due to their high level of endangerment. There is also
a pop culture reference to the Beatles in the first film using them as moles for characters, the
vultures.

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 The political aspects of the films are both shown in almost identical ways by using a
government with the wolf pack that uses a law and a sense of unity and a dictatorship or
monarchy with the monkey and ape castle and region of the jungle.

To conclude, the 2016 version of The Jungle Book shows how it has revamped the
original film to help it come to terms with todays social constructs and political views, by
doing so, the major comedy element of the film has seemed to have deteriorated.

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