Classic Animation Theater : "Heavy Metal" (Part 3)

Heavy Metal

Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Studio: Guardian Trust Company, Canadian

Film Development Corporation and Famous Players

Individual Segments Created By TV Cartoons, Halas and

Batchelor Cartoon Films, Atkinson Film Arts, Haines-Camron,

Votetone, Boxcar Films and Wally Bulloch-Anicam

Director: Gerald Potterton

Producer: Ivan Reitman

Original Release Date: August 7, 1981

It seems that Heavy Metal is... Well... Problematic... We know that it isn't trying to be anything special, yet the film is bogged down by the poor side of its animation, some of the writing and the overall juvenile tone of the picture. We know that some of the animation is also very good including some then-groundbreaking special effects that either work well ("So Beautiful, So Dangerous") or don't. ("Soft Landing", "Taarna") So we're now down to the last thing about this film, and this is what really works... The soundtrack!

The film is called Heavy Metal because of the magazine it's based on, but that doesn't mean it can't have a hard rocking soundtrack now can it? If you love classic rock and animation, this is a dream come true. The individual songs are very good, making this one of the best soundtracks for an animated film. Regardless of what scenes the songs play on, they often show up out of nowhere. Elmer Bernstein's score is also good, adding that fantasy element to the picture and it suits the art direction very well.

Some tracks actually qualify as heavy metal, while the rest is actually just really good hard rock. The title track, sung by Sammy Hagar, is awesome. It's loud, it's ear-shattering and it just rocks... Don Felder of the Eagles (not Don Henley, mind you) provides two songs, one of which being titled "Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride)", a great rock song with a chugging riff. This song plays over the first minute of the "B-17" segment, and it suits it perfectly. His other contribution, "All of You", is a slower piece that still works and it's just as good as "Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride)".

Black Sabbath (with Ronnie James Dio as the lead vocalist) contributes two songs, one of which isn't on the soundtrack itself but in the film only. "E5150" and "The Mob Rules" are used in the "Taarna" segment. "E5150" is a strange instrumental that leads up to "The Mob Rules", and that's the way they're sequenced on Black Sabbath's Mob Rules, which came out the same year. "E5150" is left off of the film's official soundtrack. This baffles me, why did they leave it off the original soundtrack? Perhaps there wasn't enough space on the vinyl? Okay I can understand that, but how come it's not on the CD? Anyways, "The Mob Rules" is another hard rocking song that works well with the scene it's used on. To me, it beats the version on Black Sabbath's Mob Rules album.

We also have a contribution from Journey, a song that already appeared on their 1981 hit album, Escape: "Open Arms". Cheap Trick contributes two energetic rockers, "Reach Out" and "You Must Be Dreamin'". (Which has an incredibly cool intro) Blue Öyster Cult was to offer two songs, but only one made it. "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" is a fine song that's a little lengthy. The other song was unfortunately left off, "Vengeance (The Pact)". The producers turned the song down because they felt that the lyrics summarized the "Taarna" segment in just a matter of minutes. The song appeared on their 1981 album, Fire of Unknown Origins.

Devo had two songs for the film. "Working in the Coal Mine" is used for the end credits, "Through Being Cool" is played by an animatronic band in the bar during the "Taarna" segment. Unfortunately, that great song wasn't on the LP or CD of the soundtrack, just like "E5150". It was instead included on their 1981 album New Traditionalists. Stevie Nicks contributes a lovely song called "Blue Light", which was a Bella Donna outtake, one of many songs that didn't make it to Nicks' debut album.

Nazareth offered "Crazy (A Suitable Case for Treatment)", a solid rocker. Donald Fagen's "True Companion" is a beautiful piece, although it takes a while for the song to get to the vocals. This must've been recorded before or after the recording sessions for Steely Dan's Gaucho. Grand Funk Railroad's "Queen Bee" can also be found on their 1981 album Grand Funk Lives. It's a lot harder than their usual songs, but it's good. Riggs, the band founded by Jerry Riggs (who go on to be co-lead guitarist of the Pat Travers Band), offers two energetic rockers: "Radar Rider" and "Heartbeat". Last but not least is "Prefabricated" by Trust, a French hard rock band. There's also the original French version, as they had to record the song in English for the soundtrack. It's another gem.

What about the score? It's composed by none other than Elmer Bernstein, the perfect choice for this kind of film. You can hear a little Ghostbusters throughout the film, even this came out three years before that film, which coincidentally was directed and produced by Ivan Reitman. Bernstein's score captures the settings of the different segments' atmospheres, and it's definitely one of the film's stronger points. Stand out moments in the score include "B-17", "Den" and "Taarna". It's also notable that Bernstein later composed the score for Disney's The Black Cauldron, which was arguably influenced by this film during production.

So basically, the film has a great soundtrack. The music goes very well with the setting and the tone of the film. While the film does have a lot of flaws, the soundtrack is one of its saving graces. Now that we've covered the story, the soundtrack, the animation and the writing, let's take a look at the production history and what happened after the release of the film.

Work on a feature film based on the magazine began after the success of National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978. Ivan Reitman, the producer of Animal House, became the film's producer. Mogel would also produce the film. The film would feature six stories, two of which were original stories that were true to the spirit of the magazine. They would be linked together with a main plot to make an omnibus anthology film, all set to contemporary hard rock artists and bands. A rock and roll Fantasia if you will, except with a storyline.

The individual stories would be animated by various studios in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Gerald Potterton, who worked on projects such as George Dunning's Yellow Submarine and Richard Williams' Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure, would direct the film. With that, and a $9 million budget, this was shaping up to be an ambitious project. It was also the perfect time to make an adult animated film, as many of those came about after Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic. The Bakshi influence can be seen all over this film.

This was an ambitious idea on its own. While Fantasia's segments were all done at the Walt Disney Studios, Heavy Metal's individual segments would be handled by multiple animation houses in the states, Canada and the UK, thus each one has their own unique style. I may have criticized the work on some of the segments, but at least the segments are visually different from each other. I personally love it when animated films have what TV Tropes calls "art shifts".

During production, there was going to be a segment called "Neverwhere Land" (written by Cornelius Cole), a look into the Loc-Nar and it's influences throughout time. It starts at the beginning of mankind, showing examples of evil all throughout the centuries, and it works its way up to World War II, where it was supposed to segue into "B-17". That would've been a very effective transition, but unfortunately, this segment had to go because of time constraints.

After three years of work, the film was completed and released on August 7, 1981. The film was a success, taking in $20 million at the North American box office while receiving mixed reviews. A couple months later, the soundtrack LP hit stores and reached #12 on the Billboard 200 chart. Elmer Bernstein's score was also released on LP alongside the soundtrack. While the film was a success, it was more of a hit with midnight movie crowd much like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, thus it became a cult classic.

Unfortunately, there were legal issues over the rights to the music in the film, which resulted in the film being kept from being released on home video. If you wanted to watch Heavy Metal after its initial release, you either had to see a midnight movie screening or it wait for it to show up on HBO. Bootlegs surfaced shortly after. Kevin Eastman, the publisher of the magazine, finally settled all of this in 1995. Heavy Metalreceived a brief theatrical re-release on March 8, 1996 and was then released on home video for the first time in October. (With a subtitle, "Louder and nastier than ever!") The soundtrack was also released on CD for the first time.

3 years later, the film was released on DVD with loads of bonus features, including a workprint of the film that's probably from late 1980 or early 1981. Containing unfinished animation, the deleted "Neverwhere Land" sequence and some scenes that got cut, this workprint is definitely worth watching. Carl Macek provides an informative commentary, which is the way to view the workprint since the only thing you'll hear in the workprint is the dialogue and a couple sound effects. Another version of "Neverwhere Land" appears as its own features on the DVD.

The initial home video release of the film was very successful, as one million units were sold. Production on a sequel began shortly after. The sequel ended up being a direct-to-video release, Heavy Metal 2000, which was poorly received.

Plans to make another Heavy Metal film surfaced around 2008, which was to be directed by David Fincher. This sequel would feature segments directed by James Cameron and Kevin Eastman, and it was revealed that Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski and Guillermo del Toro wanted to direct some segments. Mark Osborne and Jack Black (Tenacious D) were also set to direct a segment. Sadly, this project was canned. Apparently no distributor was interested in it. Paramount rejected it because they felt it was too risque for mainstream audiences. Are you kidding me?

Robert Rodriguez purchased the rights and announced that he will be developing a Heavy Metalfilm at his new studio, Quick Draw Studios. He launched a website that encouraged fans to submit ideas and contributions. When this film will ever hit theaters is unknown, but it's nice to know that the project is not dead. If it stays true to the spirit of the original with great production values, it should be something worth seeing.

It's no doubt that Heavy Metal was a notable film in animation history. It was certainly influential in some areas, inspiring studios to do films in a similar fashion. Nelvana's Rock and Rule, which was originally going to be a family friendly film called Drats!, was revamped as an adult-oriented rock and roll sci-fi tale. Released in 1983, it was a critical and commercial failure and like Heavy Metal, it became a cult classic. Disney's The Black Cauldron might've borrowed from it as well, being a high fantasy story with dark imagery and a score composed by Elmer Bernstein, not to mention those infamous deleted scenes that were very violent. Something tells me that the Disney animators were definitely influenced by Heavy Metal during production of that film (and the adult animation boom in general), and the studio clearly was aiming for the teen fantasy audience.

Heavy Metal may be a problematic, sophomoric film that hasn't aged well, but why do I find it so fascinating today, 31 years after it first came out? Looking at it as an ambitious, experimental film, I give it credit. I also give it credit for it being an anthology film, something you don't normally see in the world of mainstream animated feature filmmaking. The soundtrack rocks, yes. Is it a good work of storytelling? No. Is the animation good? At times, yes. It's a film that I probably would've considered "the best ever" when I was fourteen years old.

Overall, this film isn't a misfire. It's an enjoyable guilty pleasure with a lot of ambition in it. Definitely worth seeking out, not for the quality, but for something different in the world of feature animation.

Film Grade: C+

Next Up: Another experimental animated film set to the music of one of the world's greatest bands. What is it you might ask? Find on the next episode of "Classic Animation Theater"!

Classic Animation Theater : "Heavy Metal" (Part 2)

Heavy Metal

Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Studio: Guardian Trust Company, Canadian

Film Development Corporation and Famous Players

Individual Segments Created By TV Cartoons, Halas and

Batchelor Cartoon Films, Atkinson Film Arts, Haines-Camron,

Votetone, Boxcar Films and Wally Bulloch-Anicam

Director: Gerald Potterton

Producer: Ivan Reitman

Original Release Date: August 7, 1981

Since I went over the storyline and the history of the film, let's take a look at the individual segments and their qualities. First off, "Soft Landing". All we really see in this segment is a poorly rotoscoped Corvette. I can tell that was a real Vette they shot, the rotoscoping can't hide that. Next up, "Grimaldi", the story that strings the segments together. Like I said, Heavy Metal's story is nothing special. It's uneven and it just serves as a crutch for the novelty: The sexual content, the effects and the overall experience. Turn your mind off and enjoy the ride. "Grimaldi" features unspectacular animation and art direction, but criticizing this is a bit unnecessary, as it's only there just to tie these stories together. The filmmakers could've done the film in the same way Fantasia was done, but without someone introducing the segments. That would be a bit awkward and uneven, but it would've been an interesting experiment none-the-less. Perhaps tying all of these segments together with a simple story was the best thing to do.

"Harry Canyon" is brought down by poor character animation and scratchy art direction. I understand that they were going for a gritty look for a dystopian New York City, but the art direction lacks any excitement. It's bland. Most of the character animation... Well, I should say the rotoscoping makes the character movements stiff and sometime laggy. To me, rotoscoping is a no-no when it comes to character animation. Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Ringscertainly proved this three years before this film hit theaters. Snow White and the Blue Fairy taught the Disney animators a lesson, though rotoscoping would be used for other things (such as vehicles, effects, etc.) in Disney films while not looking unconvincing.

Yet rotoscoping was the big thing in the adult animation world. (Or should I say animated films that got R ratings without actually being "mature") Don Bluth seemed to love rotoscoping as well. It was a rather unhealthy trend to say the least, and it plagues Heavy Metal, big time! The "Harry Canyon" segment is one of the worst offenders. Aside from the animation/rotoscoping work on the human characters, the animation on everything else is laggy such as a car chase, which should be exciting. Unfortunately, the stiff animation holds it back from being thrilling and just ruins it. Poor animation quality aside, "Harry Canyon" is a good segment because of the storytelling. It's a short, simple noir story set in the future with decent writing and acting.

The character animation is slightly better in "Den", but still unconvincing. It seems like that $9 million budget (a huge budget for a non-Disney animated film at the time) was only used on the special effects and art direction, since "Den" and most of the other segments boast these qualities. "Den" has colorful art direction, far better than the work seen in "Harry Canyon". Some of the effects look fake today, such as the psychedelic skies, but I bet they looked cool in 1981.

"Captain Sternn" doesn't go for a realistic look, but a rather cartoony one. The characters have very cool designs. Sternn has a big square jaw, his lawyer looks like a rat, and Hannover's gimpy nature is captured perfectly. The character animation here is better than most of the segments in the film, but the movements are still laggy. A scene where some of the space station crushes flows just as badly as the car chase in "Harry Canyon".

"B-17" is jam-packed with rotoscoping. The bombers were models, and you can tell, but I do admire the work that went into making the models since they were big. (The DVD bonus features shows how big they were!) This short works because of the shear creep factor of it, Elmer Bernstein's score and the writing. It's pure horror, and it would work as a horror short. The battle scene that kicks off the segment is almost intense, the only thing that holds it back is again... The stiff animation and movements.

"So Beautiful, So Dangerous" contains the best animation and art direction in the whole film. Everything looks top notch here, close to being simply good. The animation never lags here, now slowing down or speeding up. The special effects are convincing, particularly when the aliens trip out on Plutonian Nyborg. It's a very colorful segment, with loads of small details. Some backgrounds had holes cut in them and put colored gels behind them to make them look like they were actually lit up. One issue I have with the story is that there really isn't any, although the segment was meant to be a lot longer. The segment opens with Dr. Anrack, who enters the Pentagon to discuss extraterrestrial life with the politicians. It turns out that he's a robot sent there by the aliens, that's why Gloria gets sucked into the ship. Then the story pretty much takes a back seat to the aliens' hallucinations and robot sex.

The only big problem with this sequence, technically, is the huge editing error at the end. The sequence plays out like this. Gloria and the robot exit the spaceship, but the next scene shows the aliens crash-landing at a space station. In the rough cut of the film (which is on the DVD and Blu-ray), the aliens crash-land first, then Gloria and the robot exit the ship. What the hell happened there?! Aside from the technicalities and the animation, "So Beautiful, So Dangerous" is the funniest segment in the film.

"Taarna" is an epic segment, the basic revenge story with some bloody fight scenes. Unfortunately, this segment is ruined by, yet again, the animation. Taarna herself is an actress that was rotoscoped, and it doesn't look good. The art direction on the other hand is alright, but the rotoscoping and the movements are bad. The whole fight between Taarna and the barbarian leader loses a lot of its potential due to the laggy movement. Also, look at the scene where the barbarians invade the city. At times they're running like they're in slow motion, then in the next scene, it looks like everything was sped up. It takes away any intensity that this scene should have. It. Just. Does. Not. Work. The effects animation is a whole other story.

When Taarna flies around on her giant bird, we are treated to a three-dimensional flight through the realm. Models of these canyons and deserts were built. The animators traced over the footage. I admire the work that went into these models, but unfortunately, it's choppy on screen. Still, the fact that they went through all of this just to make a three-dimensional flight scene is still fascinating, especially before computer animation was used in hand-drawn films. Then watch Richard Williams' The Thief and the Cobbler, which has several scenes that look like they were done with computer animation but weren't from the 1960s and early 1990s, that look better than this scene in the film. Still, it was a rather groundbreaking idea that did not really work. Hey, at least they tried! Even worse is the final scene where the Loc-Nar explodes and destroys the little girl's mansion. Since they didn't have enough to time to finish the scene, they didn't trace over the footage of the model house exploding.

Heavy Metal's animation is a definite mixed bag. Where it works, it works incredibly well. Some of the effects are great, some look fake. I can only imagine how audiences reacted to these effects in 1981, unless they just didn't think much of the work that goes into making animated films. The animation in "So Beautiful, So Dangerous" is very good for a non-Disney animated film, it's lively and colorful. Other scenes have great art direction. Where it doesn't succeed is... Well... Not very good. There's a lot of slow, lagging animation, as if someone slowed the film down. The rotoscoping is not good to begin with.

You'd think with the budget this film had, they'd produce some very high quality animation. Instead, most of the animation houses fell back on rotoscoping. I apologize to the animators and the artists, but I firmly believe that using rotoscoping for character animation just doesn't work! It didn't work in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, it didn't work in the Fleischer Brothers' works, it didn't work in Ralph Bakshi's films... I'll even say the same thing about performance and motion capture films! (Though Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin is the best looking performance capture film I've seen) It seems like that budget was just used on the special effects, though I imagine it was a big budget because of all the studios working on it.

So the character animation is hit-or-miss, but the art direction mostly isn't. "Harry Canyon" may look unexciting and bland, but the segments have their own unique style. "Den" borrows from fantasy artwork while still being trippy, "Captain Sternn" looks like a classic cartoon, "B-17" is dark and gritty, "So Beautiful, So Dangerous" is loaded with details and "Taarna" has a nice sci-fi/fantasy style.

The writing is also uneven, but it's mostly juvenile and it plays to the crowd who assumes mindless violence and cartoon breasts equals adult animation. Some of the dialogue is just downright campy as hell, in other scenes it's good enough. It's an average screenplay, that's pretty much it.

In part three, we'll look into what really elevates this film... You can probably guess what that is.

Classic Animation Theater : "Heavy Metal" (Part 1)

 

Heavy Metal

Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Studio: Guardian Trust Company, Canadian

Film Development Corporation and Famous Players

Individual Segments Created By TV Cartoons, Halas and

Batchelor Cartoon Films, Atkinson Film Arts, Haines-Camron,

Votetone, Boxcar Films and Wally Bulloch-Anicam

Director: Gerald Potterton

Producer: Ivan Reitman

Original Release Date: August 7, 1981

What happens when you throw science fiction, fantasy, animated erotica, a soundtrack filled with late 1970s hard rock, poor rotoscoping and bloody violence into a blender? You get Heavy Metal, an omnibus animated anthology film from 1981 that went from a success to a cult classic over the years.

Heavy Metal is based on various stories that appeared in the magazine of the same name, a magazine that was the American version of a French science fiction anthology magazine called Metal Hurlant. It was discovered by publisher Leonard Mogel, as he was launching National Lampoon in France. The first issue hit shelves in April of 1977. Combining compelling stories with great artwork, Heavy Metal seemed perfect for an animated film adaptation. Animation could tell stories like this in ways a live action film couldn't. Just think, an adult animated film featuring six science fiction/fantasy segments all set to a hard rockin' soundtrack...

By the way, did I say "adult" animation? Well, Heavy Metal isn't really "adult". Sure, it's R-rated and it's got loads of violence, nudity and language in it, but it's not necessarily a mature animated film. This is basically an Adult Swim cartoon, but in the early 1980s. It's juvenile as hell, and the film certainly doesn't hold up today, but why is this an important film in animation history? How could a mindless, sophomoric film be such a notable work in animation history?

One must remember that the late 1970s and early 1980s weren't exactly a great time for animation. Sure, Disney had blown up the box office with The Rescuers and The Fox and the Hound, but other studios' efforts came and went at the North American box office. What's interesting about some of these efforts was that they were unique. Films like Watership Down, Metamorphoses and Allegro Non Troppo were experimental and unlike anything else at the time of their release and tried to prove to audiences that animation is an art form for adults.

As Disney fell back on repeating themselves after Walt Disney's passing in 1966 and until Don Bluth came along in the mid-1970s, it was time for other studios to compete with the Mouse House. Films like Yellow Submarine and Ralph Bakshi's films started getting adults into animation again, at a time when adults were viewing animation as "kiddy stuff". These films were successful at the box office, thus giving Disney some competition. The adult interest in animation also made the 1969 re-release of Walt Disney's Fantasia a success, as the film finally turned a profit nearly 30 years after its initial release. Disney ultimately wised up later on, but the adult animation boom somewhat kept the art form alive in the 1970s along with the success of their films. Animation wasn't going to die, even if the public who once admired animation had turned their backs on the medium. So, with that said, does Heavy Metal succeed as a film? Or is it just an experimental piece worth remembering for the ambition alone?

Heavy Metal begins with a story called "Soft Landing". An astronaut, Grimaldi, flies through space in a badly rotoscoped 1960 Corvette and lands on Earth. He comes home to show his daughter something he found on his journey. As he opens the case containing that "something", his daughter watches in excitement. All of a sudden, that "something" kills Grimaldi and corners the little girl. It's a floating green sphere... Actually, it's the sum of all evil: The Loc-Nar. It speaks to the girl in an eerie voice provided by Percy Rodriguez.

The Loc-Nar tells the little girl six stories about its influence on societies in the past, the future and all over the universe. Why? We'll find out at the end of the film. Basically, this storyline functions as a mere string to connect the six different stories. The writers did not go the Fantasia route with this anthology film. Again, the story isn't anything special here, thus you can just ignore it and enjoy the individual segments.

The first story the Loc-Nar tells is the dystopian crime story, "Harry Canyon", an original story written by the film's screenwriters, Daniel Goldberg and Len Blum. The title character is a cabbie (voiced by Richard Romanus) in New York City in 2031. New York has become "the scum center of the Earth", as Canyon puts it. We get a taste of Canyon's everyday life, and all is the way it usually is until Harry picks up an attractive woman (voiced by prolific voice actress Susan Roman) who is being chased by thugs. He takes her to his place, has sex with her, and the next day she's gone. The girl is the daughter of a man who discovers the Loc-Nar, only to be killed by thugs who are after it, lead by a man named Rudnick. (Voiced by another prolific actor, the late Al Waxman) The girl offers to sell the Loc-Nar to Rudnick, but she fears the gangster. Canyon offers to go with her and keep her covered if he gets 50% of the take. All goes well. The girl sells the Loc-Nar to Rudnick and returns to the cab. The Loc-Nar kills Rudnick. Then she reveals that she's going to kill him and take all the money. Harry kills her with the backseat disintegrator (which he uses to kill those who try to take his money) and takes off.

The Loc-Nar then tells the story of "Den", based on Richard Corben's stories of the same name. A geeky boy named Den (voiced by John Candy, who provides a lot of voices in this film) finds the Loc-Nar in his backyard and experiments with it. The experiment sends him to a fantasy world, where he becomes a muscular man. He saves a young girl named Katherine (voiced by Jackie Burroughs) from being sacrificed to the Loc-Nar, who was also from Earth and has sex with her. That was inevitable. A gang of creatures show up and take Den and Katherine to their ruler, but the two are split up.

The ruler, Ard, has Katherine encased in glass in a deep sleep. Ard wants Den to get the Loc-Nar for him, and in return he'll get the girl. If he refuses, he and the girl will die. He travels with some of Ard's freakish goons to the queen's castle where the Loc-Nar is, only to  get caught by the queen herself. Instead of having Den killed, the queen allows Den to have sex with her in order to satisfy her. The queen plans on letting him live if he does so, which he does. ("18 years of nothing and now... Twice in one day!")

To the queen's horror, the Loc-Nar is stolen. She tries to have Den killed, but Den escapes. Ard has the Loc-Nar and attempts to perform a sacrifice, on Katherine! Den arrives and saves her. The queen and Ard fight over the Loc-Nar, until lightning strikes. Den gets a chain and gets the lightning to kill Ard and the queen. Den rejects being a ruler of the world and just rides away on a giant insect with Katherine.

The third story is "Captain Sternn" (based on stories by Bernie Wrightston), set in outer space, where the Loc-Nar is picked up by a gimpy man named Hanover Fiste. (Voiced by prolific voice actor Rodger Bumpass) The criminal Captain Lincoln F. Sternn (voiced by Eugene Levy) pleads "not guilty". He tells his lawyer he has an angle, and that angle is Hannover Fiste. He has the man glorify him in the court, but the Loc-Nar makes him say the opposite. Hannover then turns into a gigantic Hulk-like monster and gives chase to Sternn. Sternn ultimately reaches a dead end, until he decides to pay Hanover. Hanover goes back to his normal shape and loses his rage, but the sleazy captain pulls a lever and sends Hanover to his death.

Next up is my favorite segment, "B-17". Based on Dan O'Bannon's original story, "B-17" is more of a horror tale than a fantasy. It has a very eerie Twilight Zone-esque feel to it. We see B-17 Bombers at night, bombing Germany. A damaged B-17 bomber with two surviving pilots (Skip and Holden) heads back home, but the Loc-Nar hits it. This happens when Holden checks on the crew, only to find them dead. As he works his way back to the front of the bomber, he is killed. Skip overhears the chaos and realizes that the dead pilots have become zombies. Skip evacuates the bomber and lands on an island. Thinking he's safe, Skip walks around until he finds himself surrounded by zombies as the island is covered with destroyed aircraft.

After this segment comes one of the funniest in the film, "So Beautiful, So Dangerous". (Based on the story by Angus McKie) Essentially a stoner comedy told through animation, a Pentagon stenographer named Gloria (voiced by the late Alice Playten, who has provided voices in several other animated projects like most of the cast in this film) has the Loc-Nar, but she is sucked up into an alien airship. A robot (voiced by John Candy) on board the ship walks off with her with the two alien pilots take off. (Named Zeke and Edsel, voiced by Harold Ramis and Eugene Levy) There really isn't much of a story in this one. The aliens get high off of Plutonian Nyborg and the robot has sex with Gloria. Then the segment ends where the aliens reach a space station and Gloria tells the robot she will only marry him if they have a Jewish wedding.

Last but not least is "Taarna". Here, the Loc-Nar reveals that he is telling the girl these stories because she might be the future that could destroy him. Like "Harry Canyon", it's an original story but it's very much like the stories in the magazine. A volcano in another world erupts (due to the Loc-Nar) and turns a nearby tribe into a race of barbarians that sack a nearby city. The elders of the city summon Taarna, the last of the Taarakians. Taarna eventually arrives, but the city is pretty much done for.

Taarna and her bird are then captured. They are to be killed by the leader of the barbarians, but Taarna escapes and faces the leader in a climactic duel. After she defeats the barbarian leader, she sacrifices herself to the Loc-Nar. (Whose is inside the volcano) The Loc-Nar is defeated, in all its forms. As the Loc-Nar is about to explode, the young girl escapes from her house. The Loc-Nar's demise destroys the entire house. The girl is now alone, but Taarna's mount shows up out of nowhere. She happily rides the giant bird away. Taarna's spirit has been transferred to her.

In the next part, I'll pick apart the different segments of this film and analyze the animation, the writing and the overall quality of the segments.

Classic Animation Theater : "The Jungle Book" (Part 3)

The Jungle Book

Distributor: Buena Vista Distribution Co.

Studio: Walt Disney Productions

Director: Wolfgang Reitherman

Producer: Walt Disney

Original Release Date: October 18, 1967

Bill Peet

Disney story man Bill Peet's original treatment for The Jungle Book was certainly interesting, and had Walt approved of his version of the story, who knows what the film would've been like. The Sword in the Stone, the previous animated film, suffered from a story that was little more than just a couple episodes of Arthur and Merlin's adventures that was strung together with a nonexistent plot with a lazy ending. Walt had barely any involvement with that film, and it was the first Disney animated film to be handled by a single director since The Three Caballeros. This would continue until the late 1970s, with the influx of new animators.

Peet wanted the story to be faithful to Kipling's stories, taking plots and ideas from The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book. As I mentioned in the last part, there was going to be another villain named Buldeo. He was a manipulative hunter from the man village who wanted Mowgli to take him to the home of the monkeys. Underneath the palace is treasure. Mowgli, being clever, leads Buldeo to Shere Khan. The tiger kills the nasty hunter, and Mowgli takes the dead hunter's gun and shoots Khan with it. Imagine that ending for a Disney animated film...

Rocky the Rhino

A rhinoceros character made it into the revised version, only to be scrapped. In Peet's version, the rhino is a minor character who wants to kill Mowgli. In the revised version, he was made into a near-sighted character named Rocky and was supposed to sing with the vultures, back when the song was supposed to sound like a British Invasion pop rock song. He was to be voiced by Frank Fontaine (Crazy Guggenheim), but the character was scrapped because Walt believed there was a little too much action in the film.

The beginning was also re-tooled. In Peet's treatment, an infant Mowgli was stuck to a log going down the river as Bagheera tries to save him. Bagheera fails, but the mother wolf saves the infant. In the finished film, we see Mowgli in the wrecked canoe in the film's first scene. In the original books, Mowgli often went to the man village and then back to the jungle, which probably lead to the scrapped songs "I Knew I Belonged To Her", "In a Day's Work" and "The Mighty Hunters".

Peet essentially wanted to stay true to the Kipling story while adding to it. Peet had always wanted to do a film adaptation of the books since the 1930s, and if Walt had bought the rights to the books back then, perhaps something like this version would've been the finished film. Walt had a different mindset back in the late 1930s. He hungered for ambitious projects, great works of storytelling. In the mid 1960s, Walt stayed away from ambitious animated films for good. He stayed away from them for the most part after World War II, but he tried again with Sleeping Beauty, which ultimately failed. The reduction of the staff and the introduction of Xerography made matters worse. Walt wanted a simpler story.

Walt focused more on the characters themselves, as he was more involved with this film than he was with One Hundred and One Dalmatians and The Sword in the Stone. Under Walt's guidance, the characters were changed and became some of the best in a Disney film with great personalities. Unfortunately, Walt seemed to have forgotten about the story, which does smack of the flaws that were present in The Sword in the Stone.

Then again, perhaps Peet's version suffered from similar problems. Perhaps Peet focused more on the story itself than the characters and their personalities. Perhaps it was another string of episodes much like The Sword in the Stone with no focus. We will never know how that version would've turned out. What if Walt bought the rights to the books back in the 1930s? Would we have seen a darker, more ambitious version of The Jungle Book alongside Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi in the early 1940s with elaborate animation? That said, the finished film is good the way it is. Certainly not an excellent work of storytelling, but a film with a lot of heart and very appealing characters.

The Jungle Book's animation is a mixed bag to say the least. While the character animation from Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, John Lounsberry and Milt Kahl shines, the animation is plagued with a few problems. For starters, the film recycles animation from several Disney animated films. This was a rather unhealthy trend that started at Disney in the early 1960s, though animation had been recycled a few times before that. Mowgli playing with his wolf brothers is the same animation of Arthur being greeted by Tiger and Talbot in The Sword in the Stone. The chase at the ruins is taken from the Wind in the Willows segment of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. The elephants crashing into each other was taken straight from the 1960 short subject, Goliath II. The deer that Shere Khan is hunting when he is first introduced? That's Bambi's mother. That same scene of her was used in The Sword in the Stone, The Rescuers and Beauty and the Beast. Also, Kaa is off model during the "Trust in Me" sequence since that was an eleventh hour addition to the film.

The Xerox lines are everywhere on the animals, but the overall look of the film is still good. The art direction is a little more detailed, though it's no Bambi. The very sketchy background designs didn't work for The Sword in the Stone, thus the artists corrected their mistakes for this film. That sketchy background designs were more suited for One Hundred and One Dalmatians and The Aristocats, given their big city settings. The jungles have a nice look with lots of colors and details. In addition to the good art direction, the character animation is fine. The character designs are bursting with personality and emotion, while also looking like the celebrities who provided their voices.

The Jungle Book was still in production when Walt Disney passed away. He did not live to see the finished ending of the film. He passed away on December 15, 1966. The film was finished shortly after and released in theaters in the United States on October 18, 1967 on a double-bill with the live action Disney film, Charlie the Lonesome Cougar. Critics gave the film positive reviews, and audiences ate the film up. It was one of the biggest films of the year. Adjusted for inflation, it is one of the highest grossing animated films of all time. It also had an influence on notable animators, such as Richard Williams (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and Disney animator Andreas Deja. The success of the film gave Walt Disney Productions confidence, as work began on the next film, The Aristocats.

What's also interesting is that in 1968, an album called More Jungle Book was released, a continuation of the film's story featuring Phil Harris and Louis Prima reprising their roles as Baloo and King Louie. The album's storyline was written by Larry Clemmons, one of the film's writers.

Like all of the other Disney animated films, the film would be theatrically re-released multiple times. The film was first re-released on June 9, 1978, on a double-bill with Disney's live action comedy The Cat From Outer Space. Check out the TV spot for this release.

The second re-release followed on July 27, 1984. It was a small success, grossing $23 million domestically.

The film received its last theatrical re-release on July 13, 1990. It grossed $44 million domestically.

Right before the 1990 re-release, characters from the film became the main stars of the Disney Afternoon television series TaleSpin. The series premiered on May 5, 1990 and ran until August 8, 1991 with a total of 65 episodes, not making it past Disney's infamous 65-episode limit. Not to mention, it had a rather catchy theme song, much like the theme songs for DuckTales and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.

On May 3, 1991, the film debuted on home video in the Walt Disney Classics line. Over 10 million units were sold, another huge success for Walt Disney Home Video. The video release went back in the vault the year after, but the LaserDisc version was issued in 1992. The film hit home video in the UK in 1993, part the UK equivalent of the Walt Disney Classics line. Around the same time, Disney revisited Kipling's story, which resulted in a live action take on the classic. Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book came out on Christmas Day in 1994. It wasn't much of a success.

The 1994 live action film

The Jungle Book was re-released on home video on October 14, 1997 as a part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection for its 30th Anniversary. The film debuted on DVD on December 7, 1999 as a part of the Limited Issue series. Like the other titles in that series, it was a bare bones disc with a bad transfer of the film. In 2003, a lousy sequel was released, which really should've been a direct-to-video product, or better yet... It shouldn't have been made. It was a critical and commercial dud.

The film was given the 2-Disc set treatment on October 2, 2007 in the Platinum Edition series for the film's 40th Anniversary. Unfortunately, the aspect ratio was all wrong, the sound quality was questionable and the wrong Buena Vista logo was used for the film's opening. At least the bare bones DVD from 1999 had it in the correct aspect ration and used the correct opening logo.

We don't know when this film will hit Blu-ray (which will be a Diamond Edition), but here's hoping that Disney corrects the problems present on the Platinum Edition DVD while keeping all of the great bonus features. I'd say the Diamond Edition will come out sometime in 2014, since Aladdin is coming in spring 2013 and The Little Mermaid should be a fall 2013 release since the 3D re-release is coming in September 2013. It'll be like The Lion King all over again. So, that means we'll probably get The Jungle Book sometime after Mermaid, or maybe it won't come after Mermaid.

In conclusion, The Jungle Book is one of Disney's more entertaining films that has a lot of heart. It was a huge success for the Disney studios and is still a popular film to this day.

Film Grade: B-

Next Up: An animated film that's a cult classic in many ways, an animated film that has a lot of rotoscoping in it, and a hard rocking soundtrack... Can you guess what it is? Find out in the next episode of "Classic Animation Theater"!

Classic Animation Theater : "The Jungle Book" (Part 2)

The Jungle Book

Distributor: Buena Vista Distribution Co.

Studio: Walt Disney Productions

Director: Wolfgang Reitherman

Producer: Walt Disney

Original Release Date: October 18, 1967

Phil Harris, the voice of Baloo.

The story in The Jungle Book is certainly not one of Disney's best. It's messy, it's episodic and it lacks deep themes and the darkness that made the Golden Age films work. What it does have is wonderful characters, excellent songs and a fun tone that elevates the film from being average. The characters are the strongest element of the film, and they make up for the story. They all have wonderful personalities. Baloo is a lovable bum, and Phil Harris gives him the perfect laid-back voice. He wants to get with the beat, he's a fun-loving bear that seems to ignore responsibility. When he has to bring Mowgli to the man village, his character changes and you can feel his frustrations. He can't be happy-go-lucky anymore, thus he has to say goodbye to his friend that he made a promise to, while Mowgli doesn't seem to notice why he's not happy. It's a great scene in terms of the writing and the acting.

Sebastian Cabot, the voice of Bagheera.

Mowgli himself is a likable character (voiced by director Woolie Reitherman's son, Bruce Reitherman), he's not particularly a strong protagonist, but you can root for him. He is a little ignorant, but he's just a young boy who wants to live in the jungle. Bagheera is a very serious character. Sebastian Cabot was perfect, as he gives Bagheera an authority figure-esque attitude. ("You have the word of Bagheera!") He's not entirely humorless, though. At the end of the film, he becomes less stern and a little more loose as he happily sings "The Bare Necessities" with Baloo at the end.

King Louie steals the show. Originally, Disney wanted Louis Armstrong to do the voice. I can only imagine how that would've worked out, and what his song would've sounded like. Casting Armstrong ultimately didn't work out, thus they got Louis Prima to do the voice. A legend in big band, swing and jazz, Louis Prima was the perfect choice for this swinging, jazzy ape. Speaking of which, this would be the first animated film where the cast would be filled to the brim with celebrities. It wasn't the first time celebrities provided the voices in an animated film, as Disney cast Cliff Edwards (Ukelele Ike) as Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio over 27 years prior to this film. The characters were also modeled after the celebrities who played them, which was new for an animated film at the time. Anyways, King Louie is an incredibly cool character. He wants to know the secret to man's fire, which he wants to get from Mowgli in the great song sequence, "I Wan'na Be Like You".

Then there's Colonel Hahti and his army of elephants. J. Pat O'Malley provided the voice for this character, as he has provided the voices for several other characters in past Disney films. He's a bumbling old elephant that forgets, contrary to elephants never forgetting. His wife (voiced by Verna Felton, another actress who has provided voices in several Disney animated films) keeps him in line, while his son (voiced by Clint Howard, Ron Howard's brother, and the voice of Roo in the first two Winnie the Pooh shorts) is adventurous and immediately befriends Mowgli.

George Sanders, the voice of Shere Khan.

Shere Khan is not one of Disney's best villains, but he's certainly one of the coolest. George Sanders gives Khan a suave, sly demeanor with a touch of arrogance. Khan is essentially a mad man who is keeping his "killer side" in check. When he lets it out in the film's final act, he's incredibly vicious while still keeping his suave voice. He's an intimidating villain, that's for sure. He hates humans for a legitimate reason, so he's a good villain overall. The other villain, Kaa, is played by Sterling Holloway. Of course, Holloway has provided the voices of several characters in several Disney animated films. Kaa is a snake with sinus problems, and Holloway gives the snake the perfect aching voice with a hiss on every word with an "s" in it. As a kid, I loved Kaa because of how goofy he was. Whenever Mowgli got the better of him, I thought it was hilarious.

The other actors and actresses do a fine job. The vultures are voiced by Chad Stewart, Lord Tim Hudson, J. Pat O'Malley and Digby Wolfe. Chad Stewart was part of the British Invasion duo Chad & Jeremy (pictured on the left), Lord Tim Hudson was the producer for bands such as The Seeds and The Lollipop Shoppe. He also claimed to know The Beatles personally and had helped The Moody Blues get off the ground. He would later provide the voice of the Hip Cat in The Aristocats, the next animated feature. Digby Wolfe appeared in several famous TV shows at the time. John Abbot provides the voice of Akela the wolf, but the wolves aren't in the film for very long, but the actors did a fine job none-the-less. The voice of Spook and Brain from Hanna-Barbera's Top Cat, Leo D. Lyon, provided the voice of Flunkie, the baboon that rocks out with the big leaf during "I Wan'na Be Like You". Darleen Carr provides the voice of the girl from the man village, and she does a fine job. (I know she's called Shanti in the sequel, but the sequel shall not be acknowledged)

Aside from the characters, the songs are what also make the film work. Originally, the songs were written by Terry Gilkyson. His songs are radically different from the ones that the Sherman Brothers eventually wrote, but I'd say they're equal. Gilkyson's songs have a different feel altogether, since they were written when Bill Peet came up with his treatment of the classic story. The Sherman Brothers' songs reflect what Walt wanted, a fun, upbeat comedy. Thus the songs are fun and upbeat, and they certainly work.

Of course the only song from the original treatment that made it into the final film was "The Bare Neccesities", as the Sherman Brothers' version is different from Gilkyson's version. The Sherman Brothers' version is a classic, and one that is probably drilled into everyone's heads. "I Wan'na Be Like You"? That's a wonderful song, and certainly the wildest one in the film. It's a real show-stopper. "Trust in Me" is a lazy, laid-back song that sounds almost like a hallucination. Well, Kaa's eyes in hypnotize mode are trippy anyway. It was added to the film later on during production since test audiences liked Kaa. Hathi's march song, simply called "Col. Hathi's March", is also catchy. The final song, "My Own Home", is beautiful and it's a nice finale to the film's collection of upbeat songs. It complements the film's bittersweet ending. Adding to the brilliant songs is George Bruns' wonderful score, which captures the mood of the Indian jungle setting. It's very calm and tranquil, but still conventional and inviting.

Let's take a look at the songs that didn't make it. In order to hear these songs, you have to pop in disc one of the Platinum Edition DVD. They're all demos, so who knows what the final versions would've sounded like. "Brothers All" was meant to be the opening to the film, a rather dreary song with very ominous vocals. "The Song of the Seeonee" was going to be sung by the wolves, so I assume the wolves were more important in Bill Peet's treatment of the story. It's another eerie song, but it is interesting nonetheless.

The original version of "The Bare Necessities" isn't as upbeat as the Sherman Brothers' version, but it certainly doesn't pale in comparison. The rather poppy, silly-sounding "Monkey See, Monkey Do" was going to be the apes' song. Mowgli was to sing a nice ballad called "I Knew I Belonged To Her", and judging by the demo recording, he was supposed to grow up in this earlier version of the film. "In a Day's Work" was apparently a song that was to be sung by the folks in the man village. Last but not least was "The Mighty Hunters", Shere Khan's song, a pretty dark song at that and the perfect villain song for this character. This song is also sung by a scrapped character named Buldeo. Buldeo was a manipulative hunter from the man village who wanted Mowgli to take him to the treasure located under the palace at the bandar-log where the monkeys lived. It's too bad that this subplot had to go.

Buldeo the Hunter, from Peet's original treatment.

In the next part, we'll take a look at Bill Peet's original treatment of the story, the animation and the film's legacy.

Classic Animation Theater : "The Jungle Book" (Part 1)

The Jungle Book

Distributor: Buena Vista Distribution Co.

Studio: Walt Disney Productions

Director: Wolfgang Reitherman

Producer: Walt Disney

Original Release Date: October 18, 1967

This review of The Jungle Book is dedicated to the great Robert Sherman (December 19, 1925-March 5, 2012), who co-wrote several songs for wonderful Disney films with his brother Richard Sherman. This phenomenal songwriting duo wrote the songs for films such as The Parent Trap!, The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins and several other Disney productions. Thanks for the memories and the music.

Regarding the first "Classic Animation Theater" review, let's just forget that happened. That was a bust. This is my attempt to re-boot this series, so here's hoping this trial is no error. Today, I'll be reviewing Walt Disney's animated classic, The Jungle Book.

The Jungle Book is one of the most popular Disney animated features, but it's also known for the fact that it was the final animated film that was personally supervised by Walt Disney himself. Is Walt's last animated film a good film? Did Walt go out with a bang? The answer is yes, although some may feel that The Jungle Book suffers from the same problems that plague the post-Sleeping Beauty animated output. Others may feel that it's yet another bowdlerization of classic literature. My take? It's a fun romp that isn't one of Disney's more serious efforts, but there's a lot of good in it.

After Sleeping Beauty failed to recoup its massive budget, Walt seemed to give up on animation. Production on the animated short films came to a halt in 1961 (theatrical short films were on their way out by this time, thanks to Saturday morning cartoons) and staff reduced from 500 to just a little over 100 people. His involvement with the animated features dwindled, as he focused more on the Disneyland television show, Disneyland itself and the live-action films. The studio pioneered Xerography for the animated features, making the production process quicker without inking and painting. It was experimented with during production of Sleeping Beauty, but it would be used for the studio's animated output, instead of being used for certain scenes. The process would be used for the entire short or feature film. The first of which was Goliath II, an interesting short subject that was initially attached to the 1960 live-action Disney film, Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus.

The first film done in the Xerox process was One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which would garner critical praise and become the highest grossing animated film at the box office at the time. Walt himself hated the rough look of the film. The Xerox process would also be used on The Sword in the Stone, a weak work of storytelling that still did reasonable business at the box office. Walt himself was disappointed, so he expected story man Bill Peet to step up his game for The Jungle Book, which Disney acquired the rights to in 1962.

Bill Peet's original treatment of the story was faithful to Kipling's books, it was a dark and complex story. Unfortunately, Walt didn't approve of it. He felt that the story was brooding, and he felt that everything was complicated. He also remarked that it was "too dark, like Batman". I can only imagine what could've happened if Bill Peet wrote this treatment back in the 1930s. Perhaps Walt would've approved of it, considering that the early Disney films are decidedly darker than the post-war films.

A lot of work was scrapped. Lyricist Terry Gilkyson (who wrote the songs for the three-part Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color special The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh) provided seven songs for the film, all of which were left out except for "The Bare Necessities", which would be re-tooled. Songwriting duo Robert and Richard Sherman ended up writing a new batch of songs to go along with the revamped project.

Afterwards, Bill Peet left the studio and became a children's author. Walt told his story team to have fun with Kipling's story and to not read the book. Thus The Jungle Book is loosely based on Kipling's story. Time Magazine commented on this in their review back when the film came out, as they stated "The Jungle Book is based on Kipling in the same way that a fox hunt is based on foxes." The story was changed completely, a story about Mowgli's adventures in the jungle, the animals he meets, and his eventual return to where he belongs.

The Jungle Book has the same episodic structure as The Sword in the Stone, but unlike that film, the story is front-and-center and it has a suitable ending. Sure, the film is a series of episodes where Mowgli meets the different characters, but it's still tied together with a main plot: Mowgli has to go back to the Man Village, and he also must avoid the deadly tiger Shere Khan.

The film opens with the panther Bagheera (voiced by Sebastian Cabot, who also did the narration for the three Winnie the Pooh short subjects) finding the infant Mowgli in a wrecked boat on the river. He decides to bring the "man cub" to the wolves, so they can raise him. The wolves name him Mowgli. When the boy gets older, Bagheera realizes that it's time to bring the boy back to where he belongs. Mowgli wants to live in the jungle. Bagheera explains to Mowgli that Shere Khan will kill him since he has a hatred of humans. Khan fears man's gun and man's fire, thus he is sworn to kill any human being.

Mowgli is ignorant and doesn't listen to Bagheera, even after nearly getting eaten by a hungry snake named Kaa. (Voiced by Disney veteran Sterling Holloway) Mowgli isn't scared, because he outsmarts the snake. The next morning, Mowgli encounters Col. Hathi and his troop of elephants. Hathi is a bumbling elephant who goes on and on about how an elephant never forgets, yet he forgets all the time. He's definitely a fun character, and the song sequence is certainly enjoyable.

Bagheera grows tired of Mowgli's attitude and threatens to take him back to the man village. He gives up, and tells the boy that he's on his own from this point on. Mowgli then meets Baloo, a sloth bear who is a fun-loving bum voiced by Phil Harris. The friendship between the two develops from there, and it's immediately heartwarming, thanks to the animation legends Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Baloo ultimately tells Bagheera off and teaches Mowgli about "The Bare Necessities". A delightful, upbeat song, "The Bare Necessities" is one of Disney's most famous songs.

As Mowgli and Baloo go down a calm river, a band of monkeys kidnap Mowgli and take him off to the ancient ruins. Baloo finds Bagheera and the two go after Mowgli. At the ruins, Mowgli is introduced to King Louie, a jazzy orangutan voiced by jazz singer Louis Prima. His song sequence ("I Wan'na Be Like You") is certainly the wildest scene in the film, which gets even better when Baloo dresses in drag and joins in on the fun. Baloo and King Louie deliver a hilarious jitterbug, animated by John Lounsbery. Then all of a sudden, Baloo's disguise comes off and a chase ensues. They escape just as the ruins towers come down.

That night, Bagheera and Baloo argue about Mowgli. Bagheera tells Baloo that Mowgli must go back to the man-village because of Shere Khan, and ultimately Baloo agrees to take Mowgli back. It's not as easy as it sounds, though. Baloo has a hard time explaining this to Mowgli, and when he does, the boy loses all of his trust in the bear and runs away. Baloo tries to find him.

We are then introduced to Shere Khan, voiced by George Sanders. He is easily one of the most exciting Disney villains, as Sanders brings out the menace in the tiger. Shere Khan knows how powerful he is, and he's confident about that. He's sly, he's suave and he's scary. The tiger eavesdrops on a conversation between Bagheera and Col. Hathi about Mowgli. Khan goes to find Mowgli. Where is Mowgli? Alone, without a friend and ultimately without any one to turn to. All of a sudden, he finds himself in the coils of Kaa.


Kaa sings a slow song called "Trust in Me" (a rewrite of a discarded Mary Poppins song, "The Land of Sand") as he hypnotizes the boy. He is interrupted by Shere Khan, who suspects that someone is up there in the tree. Kaa does his best to convince Khan that Mowgli isn't up there in a magnificent scene. Kaa finally gets Shere Khan to leave, but Mowgli outsmarts the snake once again. He runs away, which leads into the film's climax.

Mowgli then encounters four vultures, who are based on The Beatles and the other British Invasion bands at the time. The original plan was to have The Beatles themselves record the voices for the vultures and provide the song they were going to sing. Unfortunately, John Lennon angrily denied Walt's request and suggested that Walt would get Elvis Presley to do a voice and song instead. The idea of a British Invasion pop rock song was scrapped, thus the vultures were given a barbershop quartet song instead. Walt felt this was for the better, as he felt it would be timeless.

To think, The Beatles and Disney? That would be a match made in heaven. Who doesn't love The Beatles? (There's a lot of people who don't, so what am I saying?) Still, they managed to get Chad Stuart to provide one of the voices, the Chad of the British Invasion duo Chad & Jeremy. Still, if Disney stuck with a Beatle-y 60s pop rock song, it would've already seemed dated by October 1967 when the film came out. By that time, The Beatles were already far ahead of their early work with Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the soundtrack to Magical Mystery Tour and singles like "Strawberry Fields Forever".

Anyways, the vultures want to be Mowgli's friends and they sing their song to him. ("That's What Friends are For") Everything is interrupted by Shere Khan, who ends the song on an epic note with that baritone voice. Shere Khan threatens to kill Mowgli, though Mowgli shows no fear. Before Khan can kill Mowgli, Baloo stops him. The vultures also help stop the maniacal tiger, but Mowgli ultimately gets the better of the beast by tying a fiery branch to his tail, knowing Khan's fears. Khan runs away, and then the rains come.

During the fight, Khan delivers a deadly blow to Baloo. Mowgli assumes his friend is dead. (As the same George Bruns music we've heard in the sad scenes in Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians and The Sword in the Stone cues up) Bagheera tries to help Mowgli accept this. Baloo turns out to be alive and humorously mocks Bagheera's lengthy speech. All is fine, as the three of them are back together. Mowgli is then distracted by something.

He sees a young village girl, right outside of the man village, collecting water. Voiced by Darleen Carr, the girl sings a lovely song ("My Own Home") that entices Mowgli. He follows her back to the man village. Baloo accepts the fact that Mowgli is where he belongs, so he and Bagheera go back to where they belong, as the film ends with a reprise of "The Bare Necessities".

Continued in Part 2...