Why the Jungle book facination?

So, most people visiting from SitePoint will want to know or have already asked about the whole disney JungleBook avatar thing.

Well there are a number of reasons why actually. It wouldn’t have escaped the casual sitepointer that both avatars have been the cats from the book/cartoon. I do like cats, yes it is true. In fact, they are the best pets, but not if you have a large hungry one. Those are best in the wild, and not in zoos. Average cats, the kind that are too arrogant to go looking for food themselves make good pets. I’m preparing myself for getting a pair of them actually, and do you know you can buy special poop-palaces for them nowadays? Oh yes, your cat must have a private place to do their business, plus it comes with a air filter so that few oudors escape. Perrrfect.

So back to the disney Jungle Book. It was one of the very first films I can remember watching, and I think it sparked a life long interest not just in cats, but in adventure and far flung places of the world. I still find adventure literature really engaging, same for documentaries also. Actually finding usable stills to make avatars of, and vectorising them is a problem. I usually resort to a google image search.

So I was using the good old Bagheera avatar on sitepoint for quite a while, but when I became a mentor it just didn’t seem to fit with the colour orange, and on a passing suggestion from Raffles in my congrats thread, I started to think about using Shere Khan. So I did, and no doubt any sitepointer visiting this ere blog will already have seen it.

I watched the flick again just recently, and I have to say I really still do enjoy it. The animation was actually quite ahead of its time when it was produced, and was the last Disney film to get the real Walt Disney touch. The backgrounds are incredibly detailed and have an almost watercolour-like property to them. Although, the animation of water has come along way since they did it in Jungle Book. But, I don’t think they ever got better songs for a flick than what they achieved in JB. You have to admit, (Or at least, I will admit) that the groove to “I wanna be like you” is one dandy fine jazzy number.. and who could not love the scatting from King Louie and Baloo?

And, you gotta admit, the voices of Sebastian Cabot as Bagheera and George Sanders as Shere Khan is absolute genius.

I also have to point out that King Louie didn’t feature in the book but the similarity to how the monkey people are portrayed in the book is still evident in the film. Louis Prima, the voice and singer of the classic “I wanna be like you” was probably the inspiration behind the character.

So anyway, having deleted alot of stuff unnecessary to this post, I conclude it. That’s the most abrupt ending I can think of. Now go read something more interesting. lol.