Five Fun Facts About Disney's The Jungle Book
I have incredible childhood memories of visits to The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and many more great memories as an adult with my family, so when I got to work on a Disney piano project with Halidon Music, it was truly a dream come true. It took me back to my childhood and those magical Disney memories. In honor of WISHES, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some fun facts from some of the songs on the project.
The first is The Bare Necessities, from the 1967 animated Disney classic, The Jungle Book. Here are five fun facts that you may not know about the movie and music we all know and love.
The Jungle Book started out with a darker mood.
When presented with the first version of the script from writer Bill Peet, Walt Disney decided the version was too dark and scary for the intended audience and thus, needed to be rewritten. Peet didn't take the news too well and left the project.
The original music started out with a more darker tone too.
The original music written for The Jungle Book also carried a dark tone, and just like the original script, most of composer Terry Gilkyson's songs were tossed. The Sherman Brothers were brought in to rewrite most of the soundtrack, with one exception: The Bare Necessities. It was the only song from Gilkyson that made the cut, which went on to become one of the best known songs in Disney history. It was also nominated for an OSCAR, which was the only OSCAR nomination for the project.
The Jungle Book could have included The Beatles!
That's What Friends are For (The Vulture Song), was originally written by the Sherman Brothers with the intent of having The Beatles sing it and lend their voices to the project. Unfortunately, between scheduling issues and John Lennon's objection to working on an animated film, the song was re-tooled into a barbershop quartet piece and voiced by a lesser known quartet.
The Jungle Book was the last movie Walt Disney worked on before his death.
When Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966, he was working on the production of The Jungle Book. It was the last Disney project he oversaw and produced. The studio closed for a single day and then continued on the project, which premiered almost a year later on October 18, 1967.
The Jungle Book also contains a recycled song!
The song, Trust In Me, was originally written for another well known Disney project: Mary Poppins. For MP, it was called Land of Sand, but when re-tooled for The Jungle Book, new lyrics were written for Kaa to sing while hypnotizing Mowgli.
WISHES contains seven Disney favorites, and is perfect for any lullaby playlist, or a chilled playlist for study, focus, concentration or rest. Be sure to follow me on social to be one of the first to know about upcoming Disney releases! Be sure to check out my collection of Disney playlists!