My favorite Jungle Book character has always been Bagheera, the great black panther. I didn't mind his portrayal as a character here, but his artwork made him too round-faced and cute for my taste. Not quite cat-like enough, I guess.
The three Mowgli stories here are "Mowgli's Brothers," "Kaa's Hunting," and "Tiger! Tiger!" I liked their treatment of "Kaa's Hunting" the best, but all three were quite fun. Some of the action scenes in "Tiger! Tiger!" were particularly good.
I've always found "The White Seal" and "Her Majesty's Servants" kind of boring, and I'm afraid they were here too. Likewise, I've never connected well with "Toomai of the Elephants," though all the elephant artwork here is splendid.
The absolute standout here, for me, is "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi." The story is told as a full-blown action-hero sort of story, which was completely perfect and delightful and adorable.
Rikki-Tikki himself is drawn as the absolute cutest mongoose... but when he fights, he goes kind of Wolverine from the X-men and leaps fiercely into battle with these monstrous snakes, claws out. Really wonderful stuff.
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for danger and peril, violence, and death. Probably too scary for very little kids.
This has been my 4th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023
Excellent review and AWESOME for being on your 4th book for the Unread shelf project!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cindy! :-D
DeleteI love Rikki-Tikki Tavi! And Balloo was always my favorite. I love how their personalities are switched in the Disney film.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever seen the 1994 live action Jungle Book where Mowgli has grown up and he reenters Indian civilization? It's an underrated gem and so beautiful! It's one of my childhood favorites.
Ivy, yes, it cracks me up too that Balloo and Bagheera do a role-reversal in the animated Disney version.
DeleteI have not seen the 1994 version, but I actually have an old VHS copy of it on my TBW shelves and really need to watch it one of these days while my VCR still works ;-)