A Disney Villains Retrospective, Part 18: The Jungle Book Villains 

Talespin feels like a concept a kid who is playing with his Jungle Book plush toys would come up with and that´s surprisingly pretty refreshing. I used to watch this show when I was very very little.

I’ll say this: as bad as Jungle Book 2 is, having Shere Khan want revenge against Mowgli, while seemingly a generic motivation makes a lot of sense for Khan. Tigers are known for retaliating against those who did them wrong and even tracking down specific hunters for revenge and killing them.

Fun Fact: Disney Legend animator Andreas Deja credits seeing The Jungle Book when he was 11 with inspiring him to become an animator, which may explain why some of Scar's animation and mannerisms (while completely different in many respects) do vaguely resemble Shere Khan in some areas

Fun fact: In the books, Baghera the panther was born in captivity, and raised by humans. He eventually got free, but he chose to watch over Mowgali to repay his debt.

My cousin was afraid of Winnie the Pooh because of Kaa. The funny thing was my uncle and aunt had NO possible link as to why winnie the pooh scared her so much. Until that was, an episode of Twilight Zone with STerling Holloway came on (you know the one), and my cousin walks by, hears Holloway talk, and screams "IT'S KAA!"

King Louie may be a party animal, but if you REALLY watch his body language, he's still subtly intimidating. He's very hands-on, always grabbing Mowgli and turning him around in ways that keep him off balance so he can't get a hold of the situation. His "I'll do a favor for you if you do a favor for me," has a very mob boss undertone to it, which the lyrics make more apparent when Mowgli says he doesn't know how to make fire and Louie assumes that the kid is lying. Personally, I think the "I want to be like you" is a lie. What he really wants is the power and he's just saying what he thinks Mowgli will sympathize with.

21:23 I was not ready to hear the phrase "Baloo has gone into a deep depression", that almost killed me.

Fun Fact: George Sanders and Vincent Price share three striking similarities in terms of playing villains: They both voiced Disney villains (Sanders voiced Shere Khan and Price voiced Professor Ratigan), they both played villains in Cecil B. DeMille biblical epics (Sanders played the Saran of Gaza in Samson and Delilah (1949) and Price played Baka in The Ten Commandments (1956)), and both played Batman villains in the Adam West Batman series (Sanders played Mr. Freeze and Price played Egghead).

I've always seen Louie's desire for fire as him thinking it's what made apes evolve into men. I think he somehow knows human and apes have a common ancestor and if he knows how to make fire, he'll evolve into a human.

I usually hate shows that babify existing characters, but Jungle Cubs is extremely underrated. I loved some of the character dynamics and I could easily believe that they were all friends at one point. If you ask me, it definitely adds more depth to the characters of the original movie.

"Of all the villains, the remake has the most fun with King Luie. Ironic, this is done by making him less funny" Christopher Walken way of acting in nutshell. If it is for him to play a funny character he plays serious. If he has to play serious character, he plays funny.

Although I’ve always preferred Kaa from the books, where he was a kind, wise friend to Mowgli, I can’t help but love the Disney version of the character. He’s creepy, cute, funny and charming at the same time. Which is amazing given his limited screentime in which he only serves as a reason for Mowgli to leave the jungle. He still manages to display a lot of personality. For example, he shows a mild form of sadism by gloating to his victims about the total dominion he has over them when he puts them in a trance, but he has his limits as he shows by giving Mowgli a merciful death instead of constricting the life out of him. Furthermore, the deeper meaning of the scene with Kaa and Shere Khan is often overlooked. It shows that Kaa’s ultimate goal is simply to survive like any other animal. While Shere Khan hunts for sport and pleasure to assert himself as the ruler of the jungle. In addition to that, I also really loved how creative the animators were with Kaa. Especially with how he used his coils in such an expressive way, like they were an extension of his personality. I also find Disney's take on Shere Khan very interesting. In the books he was more like Scar from Lion King in terms of personality. That is, he was primarily an intellectual threat rather than a physical threat. But Disney made Shere Khan more of an English governor type and the whole jungle has fearful respect for him. As for King Louie, who was not in the books, he is one of the most entertaining villains out there. He acts a lot like a night club owner and his sinister nature is very subtle.

Ah Kaa, one of the many Disney characters you should never google

The 1967 Jungle Book was where my phobia of snakes originated and it made me afraid to look my own grandmother in the eye. Why? Because she sounded exactly like Sterling Holloway's voice for Kaa, so in my 5-year-old mind, I honestly thought Kaa was impersonating my grandma like the wolf in Red Riding Hood, so I would not make eye contact with her for the longest time. In 2010, I discovered that not only did she sound like Sterling Holloway she even looked like Sterling Holloway in his old age and I could not have known this at the time when I was 5. It's like my paranoia was not too far off base. You gotta admit that's kinda funnny.

Glad to know I'm not the only one who found Jungle Cubs depressing as a kid. They were such good friends, what could've gone so wrong? You know I heard somewhere that Jungle Book 3 would have revealed that the reason Shere Khan hated man so much was because hunters shot his mom who we see is still alive in Jungle Cubs. Headcanon: being confronted by the sudden death of one of their friends' parents was the inciting incident that broke the group with Shere Khan becoming bitter and hard, Kaa running to hide in the trees, Bagera trying to become more mature and accidentally pushing everyone further apart, Haiti adopts a more militaristic mindset to protect himself and his herd, Baloo lives in denial, while Louie decides to try learning more about man to prevent a similar tragedy in the future eventually becoming so obsessed he forgets why he wants to be more like man and just wants the power of man’s red flower. Or maybe I'm also overthinking a kid's cartoon 😁

My head canon is that the more unhinged the villains got the more their friendship crumbled

1:24 - Thank you for acknowledging Soyuzmultfilm's adaptation of The Jungle Book. I consider this and Disney's not only my favourite adaptations of the same source material, but also my favourite animated films.

Something to note about Louie making more appearances recently that likely has to do with Prima’s widow passing away in 2012, and I think she was the only one in her family championing for royalties. Great work Colin!

Kaa was everyone’s introduction to the hypnosis kink. And he’s pretty much the mascot of it too.

I recall reading that Walt’s push for having the film be a lighter adaptation of the novel might’ve had something to do with his declining health at the time. It’s easy to see why he wanted to move away from a darker story if he knew that he didn’t have much time left to live - not exactly the sort of note you’d want to end your career on.

Let's not forget how Kaa started the Hypno craze on the internet.

Always loved the Disney version of Kaa the snake. Even if he is a creepy predatory python, there is something important when it comes to teaching kids about Stranger Danger these days and I think Kaa has a perfect villain role to be a caution to never trust everyone no matter how they first appear to be. Still an important and timeless message regardless of how others who are easily offended might think of it.

As entertaining as Winnie the Snake is, Kaa really got a raw deal in the movie, going from a character that even Shere Khan would have been wary if not outright fearful of to being the butt of the joke. Kipling's description of Kaa includes something along the lines of "imagine a hammer weighing a quarter of a ton driven by a cool, quiet mind in the handle of it."

If you were to ask me why Shere Khan works so well as the villain in The Jungle Book (on top of the gorgeous animation and George Sanders) It's the build up to him showing up. I mean, how many other Disney villains are hinted at from the very beginning and then through the whole movie there's this sense of dread and then fade to black then bam there he is in all his power.

The jungle book is one of my favorite Disney films, I even enjoyed the 2016 remake! Also did you know Shere Khan was a nightmare to animate because of his stripes? Each scene he’s in his stripes are different

I don't think Disney quite understands how much potential a TaleSpin reboot has. They seem to be sticking with the duck characters of their Disney Afternoon universe for now, but it's not like they don't have the characters with designs for the modern day. They already have Don Karnage, Kit, and Molly, and we have had cameo mentions of Baloo and Cape Suzette. It wouldn't be difficult to do a good show with a serialized plot and a lot of fun episodes. I never really saw much of the original show and I would still adore a reboot.

I could never take the python seriously when he was voiced by Winnie the Pooh

Not gonna lie, for years I was wondering why an orangutan in The Jungle Book; after seeing the live-action remake, I actually like the idea they had to make Louie a Gigantopithecus instead of an orangutan. I learned shortly after I saw the film that the giant ape actually did once exist in India, which would put the storyline at least 2000 years ago. Also, Shere Kahn hating humans is actually based off real behavioral patterns in tigers; tigers are among the only animals that will kill out of revenge (ex. Siegfried and Roy, any tiger attack that takes place in a zoo)

I'm one of the biggest Jungle Book fans there is, and I've gotta say this video blows all other Jungle Book retrospectives out of the water in terms of the breadth and depth of the content and knowledge! Very impressive! It's especially lovely to see Chris Schnaebel's illustrations and Al Hubbard's comic art getting the love they deserve, and I was surprised you even dug up some of the rarer Dutch Donald Duck comics! I'd like to offer a few additional pieces of trivia to complement the great content of the video: [CONTINUES] ====================== PRE-DISNEY JUNGLE BOOK TRIVIA: - The Disney pronunciation of 'Mowgli' was inherited from the 1942 Jungle Book movie by the Korda brothers. This was released 15 years before the animated Disney film and was a hugely successful film of the period, making full use of Technicolor to depict vibrant jungle scenes. Members of the production team would have certainly have seen it, and other features invented by the Korda film like Mowgli's bright red cloth came to feature in Disney's version too. - The Jungle Book elephant designs, some of the elephant animations, and some of the Jungle Book's transitional instrumental music were taken from the same director's earlier 1960 short animated Disney movie 'Goliath II'. If you go watch it, it's striking how much of it fed into the JB! - Many of Khan's and Bagheera's animations were rotoscoped (traced) from the earlier 1964 Disney movie 'A Tiger Walks'. - In 1964 Sterling Holloway, the voice of Kaa, narrated several of Rudyard Kipling's 'Just So' animal stories for Disneyland Records, including one where he read the dialogue of a python! ====================== JUNGLE BOOK 1967 TRIVIA - The video mentions the cut 'The Mighty Hunters' song from Peet's original version - but for those unaware, there was a demo recording made of it! Demos were made for several songs that were deleted from the final movies, and it sounds to me like Thurl Ravenscroft's band 'The Mellomen' sang the demos. In the final version of the movie, The Mellomen sang 'Hathi's March', and as the video states: Bill Lee of the Mellomen voiced Khan's singing line. In particular, the deleted 'Song of the Seeonee' has a lot of the same vibes as the Mellomen's dog vocals in 'He's a Tramp', and I'm pretty sure you can hear Thurl Ravenscroft's deep Tony the Tiger/Grinch voice among the singers. - It's mentioned that the rest of the monkeys are voiced collectively by Bill Skiles and Pete Henderson, but Sam Butera also has a minor uncredited role voicing some of the monkeys' lines. Sam Butera was the leader of Louie Prima's backing group 'The Witnesses', and he voices the minor monkey lines "Yeah ha-ha, a big hothead!", "That's how a bear can rest at ease..." and "Yeah, that's him!" - The change in Kaa's design between his first scene and his second scene may be down to the fact that Milt Kahl animated the first and Frank Thomas animated the second. ================== OTHER MEDIA TRIVIA: JB 2016 - The 2016 film's version of 'Trust in Me' during the credits reintroduces an additional verse that was originally cut from the Sherman Brothers' 1967 version. - The 2016 King Louie scenes appear to be heavily influenced by old illustrations of Bill Peet's original story. There are Peet illustrations of King Louie looming large in very similar darkly lit temple, with a very similar throne, while Mowgli stands next to a pile of fruit on the ground. It's clear that director Jon Favreau took a lot of inspiration from Peet's sketches! MOWGLI'S STORY - Tabaqui the jackal is often portrayed as a hyena in visual adaptations so he isn't confused for a wolf (Shōnen Mowgli [1989 anime], Mowgli's Story [1998], Mowgli [2018 Serkis] ). - Eartha Kitt indeed plays Bagheera in Mowgli's story, but she ALSO previously played a female Kaa in the BBC's 1995 radio series adaptation of the Jungle Book! This makes her the only major actor to have played two separate main Jungle Book characters (if you don't count the prolific Jim C!) JUNGLE CUBS - For those who don't know, young Khan's voice actor Jason Marsden also played Kovu in The Lion King 2! An effective actor for sweet big cats trying to come across as mean! BALOO'S VIRTUAL SWINGIN' JUNGLE CRUISE - The 40th anniversary (2007) special edition DVD of the Jungle Book includes an interactive animation called 'Baloo's Virtual Swingin' Jungle Cruise', featuring some new 2D animation clips of Baloo and 3D scenery of the jungle - incorporating background art from the original 1967. The 'camera' POV floats downstream through the jungle scenery as if you're riding on Baloo, until you are whisked away by monkeys through 3D scenery of Louie's part of the jungle. Jim C reprises his role as Hathi and there are a series of 'games' to play. These attempt to innovatively use a DVD remote's menu arrows to simulate a game by skipping between mp4 files when an arrow combo is pressed, but it hasn't aged well! KINGDOM HEARTS - A beta Jungle Book world was developed for 'Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep', but the world was eventually cut from the game. Although the world was cut, the unfinished level is still in the game code of the released Japanese version, and the level can be explored with hacks. The level features unfinished jungle scenery including King Louie's throne area, but no characters.

Its pretty sweet your using scenes from the Russian version of The Jungle Book movie; which is another great version that's rarely been discussed!

Great video as always, I didn’t know about the legal problems with King Louie, but I always wondered why they couldn’t use him in the House of Mouse. Fun Fact: King Louie appeared in the comics “Fables” because the creator thought he was a character from the original book, instead of an invention for the Disney’s movie.

The Jungle Book 2 actually takes place 2 years after the original, not just few months.

Since Edgar from The Aristocats is coming soon to your Disney Villains Retrospective. I wanted to bring up that Edgar actually made his Disney Parks debut at a Disneyland Paris Event a couple years ago (I believe it was for a Jazz-themed event held at Walt Disney Studio's Park). As of 2022, he hadn't show up at the other Disney Parks. Update: Looks like Edgar made his U.S. Parks debut at Villains Nite! at Disneyland in DC recently.

Jim Cummings is legendary if you know how many Disney characters he did over the years. The Jungle Book sequel and Tail Spin spinoff series were where Jim really shined with many of his voice roles. Anyone who can sound so good as the hypnotic python Kaa deserves my respect.

After watching this video, now I really wish they made the 2016 version of Kaa Mowgli's ally later on. That would've helped pay tribute to the original source material and give Kaa the added screen time that she deserves.

46:30 I'm really digging Shere Khan's outfit in this theatrical performance. It's dripping fire~

It's been 3,000 years! Also, The Jungle Book 2 was a wasted opportunity to add Tabaqui to the Disney canon, since Kaa said he never wanted to see Mowgli again after their second encounter.

I could see a tailspin version of Kaa being an opportunistic criminal, less inclined for large scale and long term schemes and more for spur of the moment crimes that benefit him in some way, maybe making use of his hypnotic ability to ensure he lives like a king.

It's kinda interesting that Scar from the lion king is similar to Shere khan.

5:28 Shere Khan 11:41 Kaa 16:44 King Louie 49:04 Don Carnage 53:13 Colonel Ivanov Spigot 54:25 Trader Mo

It is SO weird seeing Kahn walk upright and wear clothes.

I'm glad you agreed about the 2016 being pretty good, mainly with the characters. I found Kaa particularly haunting because of how surprisingly realistic she is in terms of reptile biology, as in her personality. She doesn't seem to have much morality (nor much inflection in her voice), moreso just showing Mowgli what he wants before going in for her prey. She has some personality, but is otherwise very much how I feel a sapient snake would behave given their more limited emotions than other animals. She's less "evil". King Louie was awesome, too. I dig the unhinged mafia don idea so much.

I still have this movie on VHS from my other family and it’s really nice to give it a watch every now and then. Shere Khan is awesome!

I freaking loved watching the talespin series. As a kid i was always curious in why these characters now live like people and wear clothes, but i still loved watching this show. Also! I wonder if talespin is one of the reasons in why fans love coming up with au's of their favorite shows, movies, etc 😁

I just remembered in TailSpin, there actually was a snake that resembled Kaa in one episode, albeit it was only on screen in a few seconds. Baloo and Rebecca briefly get separated in a jungle after a zepplin they were traveling in crashes. The snake jumps Rebecca and tries to constrict her but Baloo quickly dispatches it.

Louis Prima, what a singer. I think I heard the original somewhat, it’s quite great.

I LOVE Jungle Cubs. 😭

One important yet overlooked aspect of Kaa is when , having finished his conversation with Shere Kahn , he shows disgust at the Tiger for his sadistic pursuit of a defenseless victim and takes pity on Mowgli .Until his Hypnotic Eyes appear again for a moment and he shakes and shudders before going back to toying with and trying to eat Mowgli .Has Kaa essentially hypnotized himself to be lile he is most of the time ? .Could he have something similar to Dissociative Personality Disorder with one Personality dominating the other ? .Or was it just a sudden quirk of the character ? .

"Another villain baloo had to regularly contend with was Col. Ivanod Spigot; perhaps you've heard of him" 😆 Nice reference.

I remember Jungle Cubs, really funny how the animals from the original Jungle Book film were all friends when they were younger. Kaa not being able to hypnotize anyone as a young snake was funny, especially when everyone else pretended to be hypnotized when young Kaa started to experiment with his hypnotic spiral eyes. Young Kaa: "Look into my eyes, you are all under my power." Everyone: "Yes Kaa, we are under your power" Young King Louie: "Especially Baloo."

I have a vague memory of some behind the scenes show or clip where they were talking about a show/performance of "Jungle book"...where they had to scrap a massive Kaa puppet because it was too difficult to move on set. I'm not even sure if it was a real thing from t.v or if I just dreamed it. I have this memory of a massive puppet moving around, with lit up swirling eyes.

As a fan of Kaa, I knew that he isn't a villain. Only mistaken for one

As light hearted as “The Jungle Book” (a movie that premiered when my dad was only 4) was, Kaa and/or Shere Khan scared me so much as a kid that I was too terrified to watch it all the way through until I was close to 11. Considering I’ve seen arguably scarier scenes from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” and “Bambi” without issue, I still find it puzzling this movie scared me for as long as it did.

I love how king Louie in the remake had a cowbell. Makes sense since they’re in India, but it’s a nice Easter egg and nod to Christopher Walker on SNL

Fun fact. As backup plans just in case a Season 4 happened the original Don Karange's fate was going to be revaled. Meaning that Jim Cummings would've probably reprised the role.

Walkens rendition "Be like you", is one of the most haunting ciinematic moments of our time.

Monkey See, Monkey Do from the Plane Crazy stage show at Disneyland is an absolute banger.

I adore Disney's Kaa, even as a villain. He's so sneaky and a little bit seductive. Plus, he was voiced by Sterling Holloway, who was much of my childhood despite passing away a year before I was born. Wished I could've met him, and while Jim Cummings is a good replacement, no one can really 100% replicate Sterling's silky, soft voice. And, as much as I adore the Disney version of The Jungle Book, I have to give a shout out to the Jungle Book anime made in 1989, Shonen Mowgli. It's much closer to the book -- not exact, but an entertaining rendition. Like in the book, Kaa's a good guy! In fact, he comes across baby Mowgli (or rather, baby Mowgli comes across him) in the first episode. No hypnosis, though, via eyes or dance :(

It's not just the 60s, those spirals are still used in art today.

You know, it was stated in the commentary that Bill Lee was Shere Kahn's singing voice, but most of us think that was a mistake and that it was actually Thurl Ravenscroft. Lee wasn't known for having that low a voice. Also, while that bit about Shere Kahn being more a jungle lord than a villain in the 1994 movie is mostly true, don't forget he did trespass on the man village and kill Mowgli's father. Just thought I'd point that out. Good call on the part about Bill Peet leaving the studios at this time. If you read his autobiography, he actually included specific dialogue that led up to it.

Disney’s Jungle book sure has plenty of light comedic moments but I do feel it does have lots of serious somber ones as well. So I understand the change. But the original sounds interesting as well.

I love snakes but Kaa creeps me out. I think it's the fact that he seemed to never end

Hi Colin! Just wanted to say that I've throughly enjoyed these retrospectives of yours so far, & thanks to them, I've learnt a lot more about my favourite Disney villains than I otherwise would have. This is probably my most anticipated one yet, as Shere Khan & Kaa are two of my favourites, & I'm looking forward to seeing you cover more iconic villains from the House of Mouse in the future!

Man, that original Jungle Book movie would have been legit cool.

Also, the Talespin version of Shere Khan has to be my favorite corporate villain in any media that I've seen. He's antagonistic, intimidating, clearly not afraid to slide the law, but he still has a strong sense of personal morality. There are lines he won't cross, but they are lines HE draws, not anyone else. My favorite quote from the series is this, "My dear, I desire only two things: money and power. Unpresentable employees provide me with neither." This is said in response to him finding out that two of his managers were abusing employees in a mine he owned and explaining why he sided with the miners instead of the managers.

29:59 - OK Off Topic but 1994 Jason Scott Lee as Mowgli? Ugh Oh I can't even... *Chef's Kiss* -- SO fine. Prolly my first major crush as a kid. WAY too much *man* there guy had muscles in places I didn't even know had places. LOL rant over *swoon*

For those of you wondering where you can find the stage musical adaptation of “The Jungle Book”, as far as I can recall, he got the clips from a video that showed the musical in its entirety from someone who managed to record it. Unfortunately, given RU-vid’s frivolous copyright nonsense, they took the video down, essentially unfairly depriving any viewers that were unable to see the show in its entirety just because they weren’t in a city where the show happened to be playing. HOPEFULLY, someday it’ll pop up again, because having seen it in its entirety a few months back before it got taken down, I can genuinely say it was an AMAZINGLY well done stage musical that should’ve gone to Broadway. From the costumes, to the puppetry (seriously LOVE the puppet they used for Kaa in the first scene, they nailed the actual movements of a real snake, even down to having the underside of Kaa’s head nearly touch the ground while he’s moving), to the set design, the score (which manages combine Indian music with jazz phenomenally well, including for “I Wanna Be Like You) and even the actors they to got to portray the characters from the movie this was by and far one of the best stage musical adaptations of a Disney film I’d seen in a long time. What especially worked is that it not only struck a better balance of being faithful to the spirit of the movie while still expanding on it by incorporating aspects from the book (when compared to the 2016 live action remake), but it was shockingly much more willing to be dark like the book was. For example, the fact that Shere Khan actually succeeded at killing the deer he originally stalked from the movie was already surprising enough, since the movie would never’ve allowed that… But that scene went the extra mile in two ways: 1.) Shere Khan did this while singing his own villain song, which happened to be about the inevitability of death. And it wasn’t even something big and bombastic since it was honestly more subdued, almost like a waltz really. And yet, even if you didn’t know what the “unexpected friend” Shere Khan was referring to, you couldn’t quite help but be on edge because of how uneasy it made you feel. As a result, it genuinely felt like a song that would’ve fit him PERFECTLY in the original movie, given how elegant and dignified yet ominous it was in parts of the song. 2.) Again, the show having Shere Khan succeed in killing the deer was already surprising enough, but what made it far more shocking and ballsy is that rather having it be implied offstage or even hidden behind a set piece? By the end of the song, with no obstruction to speak of, after courteously allowing the doe to drink from the pond? Shere Khan ended his prey’s life with a single, yet elegant swipe of the paw that BROKE HER NECK, showcasing just how POWERFUL a tiger can truly be, with the red lighting after the killing blow adding a striking effect and cements an image of the King of Tigers standing over the body of the prey whose blood he spilt with ease. And it to top it all off? As befitting the title of the song, it was impeccably UNEXPECTED since, well, you don’t even see it COMING since a scene like that would NEVER have been green-lit for the movie. Stuff like that, in my opinion, are why I think it’s a damn shame it never made it to Broadway, because if this and other Disney stage musicals on Broadway are of any indication, they’re a HELL lot better than these live action movie remakes in the past few years (granted I do still the 2016 Jungle Book remake but as I mentioned, there was a better balance between the elements of the original movie and the elements from the original book). What I think puts the stage musicals ABOVE the live action remakes is that not only is there much more artistic flexibility, but there’s a lot more creativity and PASSION put into them while still respecting the spirit of the movies, even being a bit more willing to be much darker in some aspects. It’s why the Broadway musical version of “The Lion King” is still beloved to this day, while the live action remake is basically a shot for shot remade dumpster fire filled with souless, expressionless cgi mannequins. Overall, the stage musical adaptation of “The Jungle Book” by the Goodman Theater is proof of how much of a waste of time, money and energy the live action remakes were when we already had damn good remakes in the form of Disney’s stage musical adaptations.

I love how they referenced Warner Brothers’ own dastardly dog Muttley with one of Don Karnage’s design.

As a kid, I could have sworn that Kaa was a part of the Talespin cast, but maybe I remembered it wrong, and I confused him with Thaddeus E. Klang

I remember Jungle Cubs was on Disney's One Saturday Morning on ABC.

Thank you for mention the stage musical.

12:05 OMG that's from the soviet cartoon! It's really well made by the way, I highly recommend!

It's interesting about the perception of Kaa and Louie now that you mentioned them. With Kaa, people hold him as one of the examples of someone getting a villainous upgrade due to his status as a snake. However, I do think the first movie shows us again and again even though he's more comedic than his book counterpart he is not harmless which the second movie sadly did. And I can say your analysis of him shows that if Kaa got character rerailment he would get back his villain cred as a dangerous threat because again this guy could have not only eaten Mowlgi but also Baheera since he was pissed off. Also as said the original film really makes you forget that technically Louie is a villain but it's because he's so affable you forget that he's willing to kidnap and misuse a dangerous element for his own use. Louie in my opinion is more likely to make a Heel Face Turn out of them all but he just has to learn a good lesson about not being irresponsible and selfish. Also nice dig at Edgar because ha ha he is one of the lamer villains.

This was surprisingly enjoyable. Thank you very much for bringing so many of these forgotten movies, plays, and tv series to my attention. I applaud you for all the hard work you put into researching for this. 🙏👏👏

I think Boldeo should have been in Jungle Book 2. The cheapquel age really was lazy about premises. Seriously, who wouldn't want Mowlgi go up against the embodiment of why he doesn't want to be human. And he could have faced off against Shere Khan again with Boldeo also at his heeled. Shanti and Mowlgi's adoptive brother could still be there but the big aim is now Boldeo could be using Shere Khan as an excuse to go on a big hunting spree.

You used to work at the parks. That's awesome. Also after seeing these media I guess I would have clarify Louie and not truly evil, but rather someone who doesn't know what he's doing at points, but also an anti hero with other appearances, fitting for the Banderlog ans how they don't get it. That would be interesting to explore.

On the subject of games, Jungle Book was intended to make an appearance in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, but got cut. The world is still in the game's data but it's empty. Judging by the fact you have 3 playable characters and they all encountered different characters from the Disney Worlds, there's a good chance all the villains would have appeared in one form or another.

Bagara: why are you so mean? We used to be friends. Sher Khan: I remembered things differently. For one thing, we wore clothes, stood on two legs and Baloo drove an airplane. I also was a corrupt businessman. Baloo: What?

I'd use my comment here to say that Jungle Book is one of my favorites, the BEST of the new remakes, and how Talespin is even better, BUT I'd be remiss in mentioning the most obscure piece of Jungle Book media, the "Say no to Strangers" classroom video. Not nearly as remembered or as well documented as the House at Pooh Corner one, this video basically said the same things, but utilizing clips of the movie narrated by Baloo. Otherwise unremarkable, there is one line that always stuck with me. They used the Louie scene for the obvious "don't get lead in by strangers or accept anything from them," message, but what was really interesting is Baloo made it a point to mention that him and Louie became great friends later (kinda muddies the don't trust strangers bit). Now this was probably around the time Talespin was in production when this was made, but it seems they were destined to make Baloo and Louie buddies and re-contextualize Louie entirely to just be a fun-loving goofball, not a true villain.

Jungle book is my all time favorite Disney film both the classic 1967 animated film and the 2016 CGI film and the Japanese anime series as well as the sequel and the jungle cub’s series. Kaa is my favorite villain with his hypnotic power’s and bewitching song Trust in Me, Shere Khan second who rules the jungle by striking fear and cunning over the animals and King Louie third with his desire for man’s red fire and his jazzy music song I Wannabe like you. Thanks for a very interesting insight into each character and keep up the good work 👍

I feel bad for Kaa. I would have portrayed him in a way similar to the Great Owl in the Secret of NIMH, with even a similar voice and introduction.

Funny how Disney was against a snake as a heroic character when in more shows and movies there's a good snake, Lola Boa From Brandy and Mr Whiskers, Larry from The Wild, Snake and Mouse from Fish Hooks , Slips from Gym Partner, Craig from Sanjay and Craig , Garden snake from Little Bear , and Slimey from the Simpsons.

I am very pleased to see USSR Jungle Book cartoon used in this video. It was one of my favourite animations as a kid, and I am happy to see it having some niche fame outside of Russia. It is a great cartoon

Kaa. An hypnosis icon for the ages.

Jungle Book is without a doubt one of my all time favorite Disney Franchises! I’m so glad that you gave Talespin its own section. It really is a fantastic and underrated cartoon! I love visiting the world of Talespin! Don Karnage truly is a fantastic character! I wouldn’t mind seeing him in his own proper movie someday! Very good job compiling all this together in one video!

In the version I knew, Sher Khan had a lame leg because he stepped into a human's fire and that's why he fears the 'Red Flower'. Also Kaa is female originally

Good to know I was the only one that though Jungle Cubs was sad as a kid. Honestly I would love to see someone make a story about how the characters started to grow apart and become distant.

It should be noted that George Sanders also originated the role of "Batman" villain Mr. Freeze, and that by portraying him with a German accent (Sanders actually being Russian by birth and not English, by the way) he set the pattern for the eventual "Victor Fries" character brought to the big screen by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Unfortunately, it seems to be the TV performance of Otto Preminger (who, like Schwarzenegger, was Austrian) that is remembered most by Mr. Freeze fans nowadays.

Just know I love these retrospectives and appreciate the work you put into them

Can't believe I am nearly caught up with all the Villains videos made to date! I am going to be at a loss! Haha Just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your efforts and passion. You don't only delve into and dissect the characters, the history, and developments, but you give such a great platform for so many of the talented artists and actors and creators. It's really quite wonderful.

33:04 Likely yes Hyenas are incredibly trainable to be pets or hunters, to the point that ancient Egyptians trained them

Depending on how long this retrospective series runs for, and if you’ll even remember this comment, for next year’s April Fools it’d be hilarious if you did an entry for Quest For Camelot.

This ended up in my recommended videos and was the first video of yours I'd seen as far as I know- time to go back and watch the rest of this series before the heffalumps and woozles episode comes out! I mostly had this playing as background noise while I sew, but there were parts where I turned my attention back to the screen for storyboards, concept art, and video clips I'd never seen or heard of before Keep up the good work! 👍

So glad you’re still doing these, and so in depth!

I discovered this series of videos three days ago and have since binged every part. These are absolutely phenomenal, well crafted essays that have been nothing but a delight to watch! I considered myself a diehard fan and still have learned a lot through these :) I can’t wait for the next installments! Keep up the fantastic work!

THANK YOU for the correct pronunciation. It drives me crazy when people don't know. I mean, I get it and I don't blame them. Disney rules most people's childhoods.

Finally you back great work man now I can't wait to see you talk Robin Hood Villains like Prince John and Sheriff of Nottingham and then Bronze/Dark Age Disney Movies and villains like Horned King(Black Cauldron), Medusa (Bernardo and Bianca) and Ratagan (Great Mouse Detective)

In House of mouse Shere Khan had a fun Banter with Mortimor Mouse when the latter pretended to be a critic and Kaa helps the other vllains take over the House in House of Villains by putting Mickey and Minnie on the Card slide

Loved the video, I didn’t know the story about King Louie and his voice before. Very interesting

R.I.P George Sanders 1901-1972