The Jungle Book History

This story appeared in the latest edition of the "Disney Insider". I totally recommend this publication for any Disney fanatics out there (of course, if you're a Disney fanatic, you probably already know about it). Anyway, I thought this article was just AWESOME! Hope you enjoy
-- Disney Dean

Like Rodgers & Hammerstein or Lerner and Loewe, Robert and Richard Sherman are one of the great American songwriting duos, with a parade of memorable hits penned for Disney. Sherman brothers' songs like "A Spoonful of Sugar," "It's a Small World," and "I Wanna Be Like You" have had audiences tapping their toes and singing along for decades.

Now, with "The Jungle Book" being released on DVD in a deluxe 40th Anniversary Platinum Edition on October 2, those classic Sherman brothers songs sound better than ever! Richard Sherman shared with us his memories of Walt Disney, the making of the film, and just how wild Louis Prima and his band got while recording "I Wanna Be Like You."

"The Jungle Book" was the last animated feature personally produced by Walt Disney himself, and Richard has vivid memories of working with him on the film -- from the outset, it was clear that Walt was going to leave his own stamp on the project.

"Walt sat us all down in his office and said 'How many of you guys have read 'The Jungle Book' by Rudyard Kipling?' No one raised his hand," Richard recalls. "And he said 'Good! We're going to tell the story of 'The Jungle Book' the Disney way.' In fact, he told us how he wanted to see this film, and he acted out every part. It was an amazing thing to hear. So I have yet to read 'The Jungle Book,' actually!"

Walt and Richard together were responsible for one casting decision -- that of young Darleen Carr, who voiced the part of the young girl who convinces Mowgli that life in the "man village" might not be so bad after all. Darleen had been put under contract to the Walt Disney Studios because of her angelic singing voice, and when Richard wrote a song for a young girl's voice to finish the film, he knew just where to turn.

"My brother and I had just finished writing a song called 'My Own Home' for the little girl to sing at the end of 'The Jungle Book.' I didn't want to be the first one to sing that particular song for Walt -- I could sing an ape song or a monkey song, but I couldn't sing a little girl song, that would be hard!" He laughs. "So we found Darleen walking down Dopey Drive at the Studio in front of the animation building, and I said 'Darleen, come to our office and sing this song.' She learned it in a flash and laid it down on a piece of tape for us. I said 'Walt, I have a little demo' and we played it for him. It was typical of Walt -- he listened very intently and then said, 'That'll work' and moved on. If you knew Walt, you knew that was good because he never said in front of you 'Oh, wonderful!' He'd only do it behind your back, to someone else -- 'They wrote the perfect song!'"

Although the Sherman brothers had only intended to use Darleen's voice for the demo version of the song, when it came time to cast the little girl Walt didn't hesitate. "We expected to listen to a lot of singers and compare their voices. But Walt said 'You've got the voice already! Get that girl -- you know, Darleen, get her.' So that's how it happened."

Another artist needed no introduction to Walt -- or to anyone involved in the project. Louis Prima and his band were wildly popular in the late '60s, known both for their virtuosity in scat singing and modern jazz, and for their onstage antics.

"Louis Prima came about in an interesting way. We had written a song for the king of the apes, and it was very fun. I remembered that Louis Prima had done an album of songs from 'Mary Poppins,' of all things, and he did a kind of a scat version of 'Chim Chim Cher-ee,' where he was going all over the place with the song. It was very impressive! Bob and I thought it would be great if we had a little scat singing in there.

"So they sent Bob and myself to Las Vegas to see Louis Prima and his band. We were kind of intimidated, because I had to sing this little song in a little room with these wild musicians. I sat there, and you could have heard a pin drop -- these guys were sitting there like university professors, listening to me sing 'Ooo-oo-oo, I wanna be like you-oo-oo …' And Louis Prima said to me, 'Are you trying to make a monkey out of me?' And we said 'No, we're trying to make an ape out of you!' And he said, 'Well, you got me!,'" Richard laughs. "They loved the song and wanted to do it very much, and they put their own personalities into it and it became a very exciting sequence."

The thing I take away most from all my memories of the film is that none of us who were working on it realized that this was the very last time Walt Disney would personally be producing a picture. He was involved in every sequence, personally making suggestions and keeping the team moving forward. It was an amazing, amazing time and as the years go by, I think back and say "What an honor it is to know that I was part of that team that made his last great animated film."