E X T E N S I O N DISNEY S THE JUNGLE BOOK FILMS Disney Production often takes inspiration for their films from books that are about moral or growth1 stories because their audience is made up of children and families in particular. The Jungle Book is a perfect example and inspires two Disney productions. In 1967 Disney produces the first animated musical adventure comedy film The Jungle Book. The film is inspired by Kipling s 1894 book, but there are some differences. In the film the tone is less2 dramatic, dark, and mysterious, the story is simpler and more linear, and some characters change their roles: Louie, the King of the Monkeys, becomes comic, the vultures become good, Kaa turns bad probably because of his reputation3 as a snake, and Mowgli falls in love with4 a human girl. Disney thinks that the original ending of the book is too dark for the young audience and so changes it: Mowgli remains with the humans. Disney s third live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book in 2016 has the same positive and optimistic spirit of the 1967 version, including some of its famous songs like I wan na be like you and The bare necessities , but there is more realism and danger, and particular attention is put on the message of nature conservation. In the 1960s, experts draw or paint the images by hand and then photograph and transfer them onto film, but in 2016 film technicians use computer graphics to make the animations, especially to represent the animals and the settings and to make them realistic. The result is that the first version is more for children, while the second is for adults too. Do you think Kipling would like these two film versions of his book? 1. growth: process of developing, of becoming old. 2. less: a smaller quantity of. 3. reputation: opinion that people have about something. 4. to fall in love with: to start loving a person. 41