Customer Reviews

The Jungle Book [Blu-ray] [1967] [Region B & C]

The Disney team have done a fine job of polishing up this 40 year old classic. The picture looks great but the improvement serves to highlight that this is a long way from the highpoints of artwork that was achieved in earlier animation such as "snow white & the seven dwarfs' or 'bambi'. The backgrounds are basic & the characters drawn without much detail. So too the story is extremely basic & ends quite abruptly. So how come this is seen as such a classic? Well for one the characterization is spot on but most of all the songwriting is for my money the best Disney have ever produced & the actors turned each song into a classic. Obviously Phil Harris singing 'Bear neccessities' is memorable but so too are Sterling Holloway,(also the voice of Pooh for Disney), as Kaa the snake slithering his way through 'trust in me', far funnier than you remember & superbly timed. Best of all though are the peerless Louis Prima's impromptu scat on 'King of the swingers' as king Loius which is superb right up to the point when Phil Harris joins in the pair take it to even greater heights with their competing vocals. Quite frankly the DVD is worth the entrance price for this alone.
The sound is an even greater improvement than the picture & the 5.1 mix is vibrant with great use given to the rear surrounds.
The extras are fine, especially the unusually candid commentary & doc.
This deserved a decent release & so this DVD is a pleasure to own.

It cant get any better than this. Disney beloved animated classic "The Jungle Book" finally gets the long overdue special edition treatment. This new 40th Anniversary release will include an all-new digital restoration of the film and for the very first time ever, this release will feature the movie in 1.75:1 widescreen aspect ratio (Please be aware that "Jungle Book" was filmed in 1.37:1 aspect ratio and was cropped for its theatrical screenings. The movie loses a little from top and bottom here in this restored version so think twice before selling off your old copies which featured the movie in its original fullscreen ratio). Along with a 5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix soundtrack, this edition includes a restored original theatrical soundtrack too. French and Spanish language tracks will also appear on the disc. According to dvdtimes, extras on this platinum edition will include:

Audio Commentary - Combines comments from current animators with audio from the original creative team who made the film

The Lost Character: Rocky The Rhino - For the first time ever, the near-sighted, short-tempered rhinoceros named Rocky is brought to the screen using original storyboards and original voice recordings by Frank Fontaine.

The Bare Necessities: The Making of The Jungle Book - A comprehensive look at the last animated film that Walt Disney produced using existing archival footage in addition to new interviews with Richard Sherman, Brad Bird, Glen Keane, Eric Goldberg, James Baxter, Will Fi'nn, Andreas Deja, Burny Mattinson Ted Thomas, Bruce Reitherman, John Culhane, John Canemaker and Neal Gabler--plus a never-before-seen collection of artwork and treatments from the film

Disney's Kipling: Walt's Magic Touch on A Literary Classic - A discarded film treatment from 1963 includes scenes from Kipling's "Mowgli Stories" and more are used to illustrate Walt's interpretation of the literary masterpiece

The Lure of The Jungle Book - Many of today's biggest names in animation were inspired to pursue their careers after seeing The Jungle Book; this feature examines this phenomenon and features new interviews with Brad Bird, Andreas Deja, Sergio Pablo, Will Finn and Eric Goldberg.

Mowgli's Return to the Jungle - Learn about nature filmmaking and the experience of making The Jungle Book firsthand from Bruce Reitherman, the voice of Mowgli.

Baloo's Virtual Swingin' Jungle Cruise - Join everyone's favourite bear in this set-top and DVD-ROM game on an adventure through the jungle: enjoy fun activities and musical challenges, but keep an eye out because there's no telling what's on the other side of the river bend!

English Learning Feature

Still Frame Art Gallery

This 40th Anniversary edition of Jongle Book will be available for a limited time only. So bring home Mowgli, Baghira, Baloo and Shere khan and all the lovable characters we've all grown up with, before they go back to Disney vault again!

The feature-length cartoons Disney continues to produce are fine films, but nowhere near as good as classics like The Jungle Book. Unburdened by the modern-day Disney habit of giving every film a heavy family-friendly moral message, the Jungle Book is just 100% pure fun, with a cool hero (Mowgli), entertaining friends (especially the bear Baloo) and some great villainous characters (most memorably Shere Khan the tiger). This movie was made years before Phil Collins or Elton John were drafted in as cartoon soundtrack composers, and the songs are just awesome - "The Bare Necessities", "I Wanna Be Like You" and Kaa the snake's hissed encouragement to "Trust in Me". Get this video before the distributors withdraw it again!

This is one of those films that you simply can't go wrong with.
My one year old son calls for "Jungle" on a daily basis and routinely announces the appearance of all the animals... "jungle" (Bagheera the panther), "bear" (Baloo the bear), "phunt" (Elephants), "tiger" (Shere Khan), "neck" (Kaa The Snake), "monkey" (King Louis the orang utan).
As for me, in my thirty-somethings... I just enjoy the story of friendship, loyalty, and down-right wackyness. And I can't help but love the music from the days when Disney films just made toe-tappingly catchy music instead of going for grand-scale Oscar nomination material.
I defy anyone not to have "Bear Necessities", "I Wanna Be Like You" or "Trust In Me" buzzing round their head 24 hours after watching this classic film.
Disney have produced some remarkable films over the years but this must surely feature in anyone's top ten.

Walt Disney has given us so much over the last hundred years (well, not quite...but getting there!), some of it wonderful and some - particularly of late - distinctly mediocre (though Ratatouille is a triumph).

Everyone has their favourite Disney film - his own was apparently Bambi - but I'm sure a great many of us would pick this one. It was the first film I was ever taken to see at a cinema, so for me there's no contest.

Its influence extends to this day - just the other month I bought a Louis Prima CD set, memories of his towering performance as the voice of Orang-Utang King Louie burned forever into my memory. And as for The Bear Necessities, they play it in clubs nowadays...and it fills the dancefloor!

Indeed, despite Disney often being accused of cheapening or Americanising children's classics (and none of us who live in London will ever quite forgive Dick Van Dyke's accent in Mary Poppins), this film stands up a whole lot better than the book which inspired it, Kipling having been neither even a tad politically correct nor an instinctive children's writer. In some ways, however, the film echoes the sixties in which it was made: the vultures are clearly based on The Beatles and a couple have reasonable Scouse accents. One sounds like Stanley Holloway in My Fair Lady, but there you go - at least it's not Dick Van Dyke!

And now those Vultures will be joined by a new character - a rhino Uncle Walt didn't like at the audition. It may be a gimmick but I'm a little bit intrigued. Aren't you?

A marvellous film for kids and adults alike - and what a Christmas present!

I fell in love with it when I was a child and I still love it now I'm an adult. The songs are amazing and so are the voice actors, including the amazing Phil Harris who also did Thomas O'Malley from the Aristocats and Little John from Robin Hood. A brilliant movie for all the family and a must buy.

Of course this dvd is worth the full 5 stars, nothing compares to it.

But Why do I have to sit through ten minutes of Disney trailers beforehand, a lot of which are innapropriate to the Jungle Book audience.

If I rented then maybe, but not when I've bought it.

SPoils the dvd in my view.

This is one of my many favourite Disney films. The animation is great,the characters are great and the songs are excellent.If you don't have this film as part of your Disney collection go and buy it asap and you won't regret it.

BEWARE FAKES & COPIES & CHEAP IMPORTS - Why I know.

Having previously worked for Walt Disney Company UK Management and acquired most of the original Animated Classics from source - I decided to put my collection up for sale (some 2 years ago) as I planned for my retirement and give other serious Disney enthusiasts a chance to own genuine UK DISNEY DVDs still NEW and FACTORY SEALED (yes, kept that way as a potential investment collection). In doing so I have been alerted to the obvious and numerous sellers offering illegal Disney DVDs for sale, and wanted to do something about it.

How do I know and what is being done about it... Appropriate Disney offices/management in UK are aware of problem and together with the Disney's Global Anti-Piracy team have launched investigation which is on-going (post-September 2012) and I am contributing to it. It would be hard to prosecute individual sellers so in first instance Amazon have been challenged and it has been requested that they themselves must take action.

Inspite of numerous notifications from a few honest sellers on Amazon struggling against tide of endless CHEAPER Fakes, Imports or Digitised Copies, Amazon are doing little except profiteering from numerous sales, only closing offenders down when bad feedback is unacceptable - only, to relaunch as a new seller under different name.

Sadly, all too often buyers are unaware of the unlawful item they've just purchased - and don't leave the appropriate feedback or if suspicious they ask seller who quickly offers refund and DVD for free.

Now, I get to my point. The investigation and clean-up will take time - especially as BAD SELLERS are getting more devious. So WITH INFORMATION SUPPLIED TO ME from Disney, other sources and my own knowledge (some descriptions offered by some sellers are so obvious that they are fakes) - I thought I would LIST a FEW POINTERS that would ensure you buy the GENUINE item (obviously if you happy to buy CHEAP and have poor quality reproduction which is likely to skip, be out of focus, dubbed language, etc. then my offer of help is no use). See next part of my Review - What to look out for.

BEWARE FAKES & COPIES & CHEAP IMPORTS - What to look out for.
Most of the Disney DVDs sold on Amazon as Brand New are FAKES, DOWNLOADED `DIGITISED' COPIES or FOREIGN IMPORTS and there are OBVIOUS SIGNS what to LOOK FOR to ensure you purchase a GENUINE UK DVD as originally distributed by Disney.

- Any DVD with a Release Date prior to 2011, HOLOGRAMS are a MUST. e.g. in these cases, no Hologram then NOT GENUINE.

FIRST and EARLY EDITIONS have a Round Silver Hologram with Mickey Mouse dressed in Fantasia suit on bottom right corner of back of casing. (see photos loaded in customer images for example). Later UK EDITIONS must have Gold/Silver HOLOGRAM on Spine, and occasionally on rear of casing. HOLOGRAM is in form of FILM CLIP CELL (Gold Colour) with Mickey Mouse Head and Ears in middle (Silver bit).

- DO NOT be FOOLED by POOR COPIES of holograms which use impressed tin foil or cut-out from Silver Foil Mickey Mouse holographic wrapping paper.

- UK Release WILL ALWAYS have BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) Mark dependent of Rating, U in Green Triangle, Red Circle with 12 or 15, Yellow Triangle with PG Rating. Lack of this or with Red/Yellow star means it is import. No Rating Mark - a FAKE or COPY.

- Disney ALWAYS sell their BRAND NEW DVDs FACTORY SEALED. Genuine BRAND NEW Disney DVDs have NEAT FOLDED EDGES on top and bottom and NEVER are vacuum sealed (with exception of Large Boxsets) or clingfilmed. If one you have purchased is clingfilmed or vacuum sealed or unsealed then it is likely to be a COPY, FAKE or even a reconditioned USED one.

- A lot of FAKES, COPIES are NOT in Disney Blue casings - although to be fair EARLY FIRST EDITIONS (I tried to give a date but not been able to determine accurately) were in black casings. And also, since 2010, Disney have launched Special colour-coded releases (with holograms) for their different channels, e.g. Disney Clubhouse/Junior in White, Disney Toon Releases in Yellow, and Special New Releases with different colours to suit packaging.

- Even if you buy Disney DVD in blue casing (some fakes do now are in close blue colour matched casing) it must have Disney Branded Logo on inside to be genuine, that is what fakes can not reproduce.

- Beware the quality of Packaging and colour production of printing of insert sleeves, Disney always use high quality distinctive colourful images - they are never blurring, weak outlines of print often associated with poor imitations. The cheap, highly flexible plastics used by FAKE COPIERS are a dead giveaway, Disney use high-end rigid cases, especially older versions.

- A lot of FAKES also employ use of stickers on outside of sealed casings or directly on to unsealed case, specifically to mask areas where print reproduction of underlying sleeve is flawed or to hide missing barcode or hologram. Ones Disney already aware of are SECURITY PROTECTED label on bottom left of casing (to mask no BBFC Mark) or A White sticker with Typed Barcode and Description covering the lack of Genuine barcode and Hologram underneath on sleeve as these are Imported Fakes.

- Any Disney Enthusiast knows that each release is available for a limited period and then put into 'Disney Vault' in other words taken out of production and only occasionally, re-released at specific anniversaries such as Jungle Book 40th Anniversary Edition - this was back in 2007. So obviously any seller reporting to have OVERSTOCK or have MULTIPLE ITEMS for Rare Out of Print Disney DVDs is a pretty sure way of determining that these are FAKES or COPIES and NOT GENUINE.

- PRICE is a FACTOR, CHEAPER THE PRICE less HOPEFUL I WOULD BE THAT YOU ARE BUYING GENUINE DISNEY DVD especially if buying BRAND NEW.

- Another Trick used by Megasellers not always just fraudsters is to identify the listing categories of more Expense RARE FIRST EDITIONS or OLDER SPECIAL EDITIONS and send a more recent release of same Disney DVD Title in its place which is more READILY AVAILABLE AT A LOWER PRICE under its correct listing. Therefore profiteering from deception.

THIS IS NOT AN EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF TRICKS OF THE FRAUDSTERS BUT I HOPE IT GIVES YOU RIGHT KNOWLEDGE TO BE CONFIDENT IN WHAT YOU ARE BUYING. Other ways of avoiding Fakes are to read descriptions of item by Seller (what are they saying e.g. SEALED does NOT mean FACTORY SEALED : BRAND NEW does not mean FACTORY SEALED) If no description - What are they hiding? A Good Seller with nothing to hide will always be happy to provide photos of item, check out customer images in Product Details Section for Customer Photos - Sellers can provide them for you to check.

If you have misfortune to purchase a SUSPECTED FAKE/COPY then DEMAND FULL REFUND from seller, LEAVE BAD FEEDBACK so Amazon can keep tally and take action where necessary and email Disney on both these addresses : help@disney.co.uk and tips@disneyantipiracy.com to add to their investigation, remembering to forward photos to support your claims.
THANK YOU.

Amazing! as a father who gets fed up each time the kids want to watch their programmes, I have no problems in letting them watch this one. In fact they seem to watch it more than once at a time. It is full of life. From the colourful characters to the lively tunes, I guarentee this will instantly put you in a good mood forever! The story is great. The characters are loveable and I really can't fault it. Best of all is the fact that the picture and sound that this disk gives you is the very best in quality. A must for children of all ages, especially the big ones like me!!!!!!