Thanks for stopping by, SoloFam! I did not realize today was April Fool's so here's a regular old video for ya! This one's been a looong time coming so I hope it was worth the wait!
He forgot to add the Husband's reply in the Loyal Mongoose Story which says basically- "How could you have been so hasty. If you had only thought to look before acting our beloved pet would still be with us."
I was going to say. How exactly was this the dad's fault??? Not a great choice to leave your son unattended, but he was not involved in the death of the mongoose.
yeah i feel bad for the dad. i guess it'd seem greedy if everyone in the family was well fed and he just lusted after more gruel...but it looked like he was bring it home instead of eating it himself. if he didn't go out the wife could probably scold him for sitting around and not providing any food. :-( with some people it's impossible to win and i suspect she's one of them. though, to her benefit, at least she felt bad about her mistake even if she didn't verbally own up to it...
Even in ancient times men can't seem to do anything right for others even when it is with well intentions. "I brought our family more food, honey!" "I killed our fur baby because of my own prejudices against the furry bastard when I thought he killed our human baby when it turned out the thing killed an equally disgustang serpant, THIS IS CLEARLY BECAUSE OF YOUR GREED!!!" "...is it too much to ask for a divorce?"
This kind of reminds me of a Danish folk story where a dog kills a wolf to protect a baby while his owner is away. He was a single dad and had to go to work. When he comes home he sees the blood and kills the dog. Then he follows the trail of blood to the crib and sees that his baby is alive, and the wolf not so much. They say he never smiled after that day.
The lesson which isn't "Don't assume something from appearance it just might be helpful" instead it's "Don't be greedy" from a character that barely was in the story. What the living shit is this?!
I can remember when I was in middle school and the teacher had me pick a movie to watch. I picked this movie. Not a single student knew it. Only the teacher and I which surprised the teacher.
This was one of my favorite cartoon when I was a little kid. I love how Rikki-Tikki-Tavi eyes would turn red. When I was in the Army a friend of mine was stationed in Hawaii and he said their mongooses are a nuisance. They were brought in to take care of the rat population. But of course them having no natural predators they became an invasive species.
My mom has mentioned that the same scenario happened in Jamaica , but another reason for why this failed is due to the fact that rats are nocturnal while mongoose are generally active in the day so they became pests.
Wow...this brings back some memories..I actually had Riki-Tiki-Tavi on VHS growing up..I watched it alot cause I liked Riki's voice, he had a good VA and seeing him go into 'fight mode' teeth chattering like mad, tail bushed up, and body swinging back and forth was a little funny as a kid but it was seeing how the snakes freaked out at it that made it funnier.
@@Vicus_of_Utrecht LUCKY! I lost mine when I moved in to take care of my maternal grandparents due to their age and health....I had a LOT of VHS tapes that I had to sell and find people who wanted them cause my grandparents didn't have the space for them all....so many Thundercats and TMNTVHS tapes gone..
I always loved this movie as a child, especially how the animators rendered him. They would sketch out Rikki's final position and the path he would take to get there and then draw him as flowing into that position like water. It made the movements of the character very unique and fluid.
when I was a kid I used to love the story of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. I don't quite know why I just liked mongoose since they killed snakes which I was afraid but its cool to find out it's origins
Well, killing snakes keeps them alive; a snake wouldn't think twice about killing and eating a baby mongoose without any protection nearby. Fun fact: the reason mongooses are so dangerous to venomous snakes is because they're immune to the nerve toxin in the snake's bite, making the snake's most powerful weapon essentially useless. Something that can be powerful enough to kill grown men is a lost cause against those remarkable little guys.
They both messed up. The mom was presumptuous and the dad, while well intentioned, assumed it was more important to go out and get food rather than babysit.
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I remember back in the day, our elementary school teacher reading us the story and then showing us the movie. I always found it intriguing. And that name Naga, heard that that name being used when referring to snake or dragon characters in multiple different series.
You need to check out his book, Just So Stories. These are the written collection of the stories he told his child, however the stories had to be told "just so." If Kipling tried to edit or leave a part out, the child immediately stopped him and insisted that the story had to be told just so. The collection includes "How the Elephant Got It's Trunk" and how armadillos came to be. It is great fun! Look it up!
Wow did you just bring back a memory! That was the first book I remember checking out from a public library as a kid. It was such a big deal to be able to check out my own book. Thanks!
So the parents go off to wherever and leave their child with whoever that also abuses him. Sure, he created great stories but what a sad, horrible way to grow up.
The climate in India was considered very unhealthy for English children - it was an era of high childhood mortality even in milder climates - so it was intended as protection. Plus, England had a tradition of sending male children away for schooling at quite young ages, rather the same way the sons of the medieval nobility were fostered by other noble families as pages and squires (aka hostages to reduce the odds of noble feuds). It’s only quite recently that there’s been any recognition and study of the psychological damage that separation can do.
I am 65 yo and this was standard reading. I loved the writing of Kippling. It is of interest to me what experiences the man had that led to his excellent stories. Jon does great research.
Well, I think it was to show that they both did wrong. It was the husband's responsibility to look after the Child. He DID do wrong. No doubt about it. It is just that the wife ALSO did wrong
First saw the Chuck Jones cartoon on Nickelodeon in 1989. Loved it so much, I read the story (and jungle books). It's always been such a great story, and i share with my kids now. Thanks for this, it's a great addition to the Solo works. ❤️👍
I actually feel really bad for the snakes. They were just trying to survive and protect their babies but I get it. Nature is metal. I've owned a snake before (albino corn snake) and he was super chill and so sweet.🐍💕
Wow...I haven't heard the name Rikki Tikki Tavi in a long while. Thanks for reminding me of this story. Thanks for giving us the background of the writer tragedy too. Really enjoyed this channel.
Gotta say I remember seeing this as a kid and thinking ‘what was that movie I saw when I was little with a mongoose and snakes?’ Thank you for posting this!
"The Loyal Mongoose" reminds me of a story I heard about Ghangus Khan (sp?): As near as I can recall, he was out hunting with his pet falcon/hawk, and got thirsty. He saw water dripping from somewhere on a hillside and slowly filled his cup, but his hawk knocked it out of his hand. This happened several times, ending with Khan killing the hawk in anger. When he climbed the hillside to retrieve his cup, he found the dripping water came from a pool further up ... and there was a dead venomous snake in it. If he'd drunk the water, he'd have drunk snake-poison along with it.
I watched this movie as a kid. Loved it and one of my favorites. I still rewatch this movie. I also wanted a pet mongoose just so I could name it after Rikki.
Hey I'm from India and I've been watching ur videos since just before quarantine and I wanted to say YOU DID AMAZING JOB RESEARCHING ABOUT THE PANCHATANTRA. I'm also a literature student so like just last year we had panchantra analysis and jungle book analysis and it's just amazing the way you broke down everything about Rikki tikki tavi including the loyal mongoose text! I would love to see more indian mythology messed up origins and true origins as well on this channel cause like Indian mythology is like super huge and intriguing too! I recommend!
Your videos are always so interesting, I love them. It's terrible how the author was treated as a young child, at least he was reunited with his parents, and he didn't fall down the wrong path.
I am 70 years old and grew up reading these stories. They were also read in school and the effects they had on my imagination were and still are profound. You do a great job Jon.
Wait, may I ask some questions. Why did you like it back then if it promoted invading, colonising and killing babies? Really, I have been wondering this. And since you are from an older generation, it feels like I should ask you
@@Master-Works When I was a kid, it was read as a great adventure tale that had nothing to do with colonialism, etc. I was in the 3rd. grade! I learned about these things later as I grew up. It's an imaginative story of a mongoose protecting a family by killing a deadly snake. Mongooses are designed by nature to prey on snakes. I'm afraid you'll have to take the matter up with Nature or subject your own family to such a lethal threat and see where you stand.
I remember reading this story in Grade 6 in our personal libraries. It's a big red book with collections of stories including Rikki-tikki-tavi, Hades and Persephone, and a cute comic of Heracles and his 13 labors.
The version with the mother killing the mongoose sounds a lot like the hunter (I think?) killed his loyal hawk (or falcon?) when it was trying to keep him from drinking water poisoned by a viper or something. Those types of stories make my heart hurt as someone who tends to step back and look at a situation and process it fully as opposed to jumping to assumptions.
Kipling was a wonderful writer. His stories bring to life stories that the world would never have heard. This one, is particularly good because it is about heroism.
Dude, Kipling was an bad and contradictive writer. When his stories was first published, people thaught they were badly written. And killing babies is not heroic
@@Master-Works Look, regardless of politic his stories are undeniably well written, AND a story like Kim or Rikki-Tikki (being based on stuff he heard in India) would never otherwise have been introduced to audiences around the world. His fiction brought to life in a way we do not normally see--outside of an M.M. Kaye novel like 'Shadow of the Moon' or 'The Far Pavilions'. Today we have people WHINING constantly about how the West only uses stories dealing with White People (Lord of the Rings most recently) and Kipling proves this sentiment to be a lie.
@@Master-Works Since I could not find anything that indicated that Kipling took part in 'child murder' so, citation needed. I did find that he was adamant that England was not fighting WW1 in the best way it could be fought--accusing them of having learned nothing from the Boer War in South Africa.
The Chuck Jones' special was amazing. I had the VHS tapes of the FHE release of this movie and the other Jones' special and the one thing that always stuck out to me was the preview for this story, most notable the end where they had the shot of Rikki's eyes going red and the narrator saying; "Where's going to be a war...." Just as it ends on Rikki's red eyes twinkling. Watching the whole movie as a kid, in a dark room with that scene was one of the coolest things to watch. The whole room turned red and it only got better during the battle between Rikki and Nag only for it to end with the deafening explosion of the father shooting Nag and killing him. It really shook me as a kid because I did not expect that moment, especially with the flashing colors that accompanied it. And can we talk about June Foray's amazing work voicing basically....all of the female characters in the movie? Her first line as Nagaina "WICKED! WICKED BIRD!" and let's be honest; Nagaina was a bad ass in the movie; so sinister and the fight scene with her and Rikki at the end was coo. We all thought Nag was the boss but no, it was his WIFE that was the one to watch out for. The husband took out Nag but only Rikki could take out Nagaina.
Honestly, I never knew much about Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, I think besides having heard the name like once or twice before, the recount of the tale was totally new to me and I was on edge the whole time not knowing what would come next. Stories like these make me wonder how people dismiss animal fostering at times, they can totally show appreciation and even create incredible bonds. Though that other story had me very sad knowing it wouldn't be as happy an ending :(
This was always my favorite story growing up. My husband found a copy of it in a DVD it was part of. 53 years old and I still love Riki as much as I did when I was 6. ❤ (also contributed to my love of ferrets lol) Thank you for this video!
Thanks for this video, Jon. "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" was one of my favorite stories as a kid; now I'm eager to see the film version. Also thanks for the info about Kipling's life -- I had always imagined he spent his whole life in India.
@@ArianaRaven well, it didn’t stop the humans from taking the land for the garden from whatever creature was there in the first place and either taking them from their home, or just outright destroying them to make the garden in the first place. So if the snakes are then to take the garden it would have been fair.
@@tsunemara Am I the only one who thinks it has connotations to how white Englishmen stole land, enslaved people, and felt entitled to do it? Am I overthinking
The story “Ill considered action,” is very similar to the story “the legend of gelert the dog.” It’s cool when there are cross cultural stories like that
I read Rikki Tikki Tavi to my kids. It lead to a rather cool discussion with my kids. When my dad fought in Vietnam, a member of his unit had a mongoose as a pet. It was there because there are 17 species of venomous snakes in the region, and the mongoose was there to protect them. The story of Rikki Tikki Tavi has more truth to it than many people realize.
"I'm a Kipling fan myself. "The female of the species is by far the most dangerous."" -Colonel Mustard How did anyone not watch either movie and immediately want to read the rest is beyond me. I am a huge Kipling, Barry, Wells, Verne, and Carol fan solely because of some movie or cartoon. Hell, Bugs Bunny is the reason I can't quit watching Operas and listening to big classical pieces. Or the reason I ultimately know where "Mack the Knife" comes from.
I was introduced to Riki in the 8th grade. It was in our book from literature class. We would go down the rows. Each person would read a paragraph aloud. Then then person behind would read, then on and on. Until we finished the story. Then discuss the story.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED GROVER! My mom got the monster book for me as a surprise. I didn't even know it existed, and it cracked me up!! One of my favorite memories of my mother.
I had this video as a kid, along with The Velveteen Rabbit by the same company. The Velveteen Rabbit is worth a go for messed up origins too, since it deals with some pretty intense death and grief themes. It's worth reading as an adult. It'll make you cry. Also, I feel like a little discussion of England's role as a colonial power and Kipling's place withing that is important to talking about Kipling's stories set in India.
Fun fact: Mongooses are immune to a snake's nerve venom, making it immune to what can kill a grown man, and making it one of a snake's most dangerous predators, being immune to their defense. They can still be killed by getting crushed, bitten full of holes, swallowed whole, et cetera, but they're hardly ever defeated by one bite, unless it's crazy strong. Not to mention, they can sneak and squirm their way out if dangerous positions and places, and their teeth are sharp and dangerous.
I loved the way it was animated too. Like every time Ricky gets ready to fight he gets sparkles in his eyes and puffs up and vibrates till BAM! He goes off!
this video was awesome! it was so interesting. i never heard of rikki tikki tavi before now. after watching this i watched the animated movie and loved it! rikki is so sweet, adorable, brave, and loyal. i absolutely loved him! thanks for this fun video.
I remember watching this cartoon every year, for about 10 years, as a kid. We only had Saturday morning cartoons, so when something like this came on, it was a special occasion. I haven't thought about this in ages. Thanks for the reminder.
This story makes me slightly mad. Nag stole 1 egg that the parents butterfingered out of the nest and probably dropped like 5 more before the story while Rikki-Tikki killed 3 snakes and and entire clutch of eggs, but everyone calls the snakes monsters.
Yes! THIS. I hated that about this story! I loved the artwork in the Chuck Jones animation, but hated the story. I was, and still am, a big snake lover ❤🐍
@@DemimondeMesilaThraam When I read the story it seems like the Humans and Rikki-Tikki-Tage are the villains. I mean, the humans invade a land and is genuine threath to the snake, and Rikki kills babies
@MMM-ux6kc When I was 12, I was in a 7th grade film class, and my big project was an actual cel animation of about two or three minutes, and it was about a mongoose and a cobra. But the roles were switched, and the mongoose was a jerk, and the snake was a a sly escape artist. It was sort of like the many cat and mouse cartoons I had seen. I can't remember what the snake was called, but the mongoose was "Rikki Sicky". (Please forgive me, I was only 12! But I should've figured out a better name!)
I LOVE Rikki Tikki!!! He’s so adorable and brave. One part I find hilarious is when the mom is watching her son and Rikki Tikki sleep she says, “ he saved our lives, he saved our son’s life, he saved all our lives.” Why not just say he saved all our lives?? Lmao. 😂😂
I literally laughed out loud when you dropped the paper and pen. The look on your face when you said, "You were supposed to grab it," was priceless! Thank you for the laugh and the video! :) As an author myself, I approve the message about how to make great authors. :D
Thanks, Jon! I grew up with the story and the original version of it as well so glad to see you explore it after years of seeing everyone forgetting it. Also, I think it the best story of the jungle book.
As an Indian kid, I immediately recognized this tale but I had no idea it was in the original jungle book. I used to get so angry at the mom who k*lled the mongoose, so I'm glad he got a happy ending in that version. Also, your pronunciation of Panchatantra is so funny to me. (Technically it's right because it's the British pronunciation but I had to do a double-take when I heard it, lol)
