The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated musical adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution.

Based very loosely on the "Mowgli" stories from Rudyard Kipling's 1894 book of the same name, it is the final animated feature film to be produced by Walt Disney, who died during its production.

The early versions of both the screenplay and the soundtrack followed Kipling's work more closely, with a dramatic, dark, and sinister tone, which Disney did not want in his family film, leading to writer Bill Peet and songwriter Terry Gilkyson being replaced.

The Jungle Book was released on October 18, 1967, to positive reception, with acclaim for its soundtrack, featuring five songs by the Sherman Brothers and one by Gilkyson, "The Bare Necessities".

[37] Disney originally intended to closely follow Kipling's work, planning to make a film that would be "both naturalistic and fantastic, suggestive of the compelling stag fight in Bambi".

[43] One of the few major departures from Kipling's works was the character of Baloo, whom Peet rewrote into a "big playful buffoon of a bear", with the role of Mowgli's serious-minded mentor given to Bagheera.

[11][44] Peet created an original character for the film – King Louie, the leader of the Bandar-log, who would kidnap Mowgli and try to get him to teach them how to make fire and rebuild the ancient city.

[43][45] After the box-office underperformance of The Sword in the Stone, Walt Disney decided to get more involved in the story development of The Jungle Book than he had been with the past two films.

[47][48] Upon reviewing the storyboards, Disney felt that Peet's approach was too dark and depressing, and held a meeting, insisting on making the story lighter and more aimed at the family demographic.

The Sherman Brothers re-imagined Peet's darker and more sinister version of King Louie as a more comedic character based around jazz and swing music.

[60] Walt Disney wanted to bring in more well-known performers to voice the key characters of The Jungle Book (which was a rarity in his past works).

[48] Disney initially considered Louis Armstrong for the role of King Louie;[13] according to Richard M. Sherman, the idea was discarded after one of the writers said that "'NAACP is going to jump all over it having a black man playing an ape – it would be politically terrible'.

[36] Several of the studio's voice regulars were cast in the film, including Sterling Holloway as Kaa, J. Pat O'Malley as both Colonel Hathi and Buzzie the Vulture, and Verna Felton as Winifred.

[16] Animator Milt Kahl based Bagheera and Shere Khan's movements on live-action felines, which he saw in two Disney productions, A Tiger Walks and the True-Life Adventure film Jungle Cat.

[73] The monkeys' dance during "I Wan'na Be Like You" was partially inspired by a performance Louis Prima did with his band on a Las Vegas soundstage that convinced Disney to cast him.

[103] Its release was accompanied by a limited 18-day run at Disney's own El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, with the opening night featuring a panel with composer Richard Sherman and voice actors Bruce Reitherman, Darlene Carr, and Chad Stuart.

[61] Time magazine noted the film strayed far from the Kipling stories, but "[n]evertheless, the result is thoroughly delightful...it is the happiest possible way to remember Walt Disney".

[109] Howard Thompson of The New York Times praised the film as "simple, uncluttered, straight-forward fun, as put together by the director, Wolfgang Reitherman, four screen writers and the usual small army of technicians.

[78] Richard Schickel, reviewing for Life magazine, referred to it as "the best thing of its kind since Dumbo, another short, bright, unscary and blessedly uncultivated cartoon".

[111] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety gave the film a favorable review while noting that "the story development is restrained" and that younger audiences "may squirm at times".

The site's critical consensus reads: "With expressive animation, fun characters, and catchy songs, The Jungle Book endures as a crowd-pleasing Disney classic".

[114] Colin Greenland reviewed The Jungle Book for Imagine magazine, and stated that "the last film the old boy worked on himself and I reckon the last good animated feature in his traditional mode - not least because of some rather jolly jazz which, legend has it, Walt himself resisted, and was added after his death".

[119] However, this was not the filmmakers' intention as the character and mannerisms of King Louie were largely based on his voice actor, Louis Prima, a well-known Italian American jazz musician and performer, who would have been instantly recognizable to audiences during the late 1960s.

[119] In January 2021, Disney removed access to the film for child profiles in Disney+, and strengthened the warning message to read: This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures.

The sketch starred Danny Rolnick as Mowgli, Derek Griffiths as Bagheera, Eric Morecambe as Baloo and Ernie Wise as King Louie.

[133] A new live-action version of The Jungle Book was released by Disney in 2016, which even reused most of the songs of the animated film, with some lyrical reworking by original composer Richard M.

[141] Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo, Shere Khan and King Louie appear as playable characters in the video game Disney Magic Kingdoms.

[146] In December 2010, a piece of artwork by British artist Banksy featuring The Jungle Book characters which had been commissioned by Greenpeace to help raise awareness of deforestation went on sale for the sum of £80,000.

The event celebrated the film's 55th anniversary by displaying over 600 pieces of rare artwork, manuscripts, photos, animation drawings and cels as well as ephemera.

[148][149][150] A Members Only Preview which included a special talk with Andreas Deja, Bruce Reitherman, Darleen Carr and Floyd Norman took place on June 22, 2022.