In his new documentary Do I Sound Gay? author, filmmaker, and gay-sounding American David Thorpe includes a super-cut of some of the many homicidal sissies in animated films, Disney and otherwise. But the truth is, when it comes to mainstream animated kids' movies, the crypto-homo villain has been a stalwart for decades. It's easy to take potshots at Disney since it's the biggest target in the field. In the 90s, so many films in the "Disney Renaissance" featured gay villains, it felt like they'd hired Anita Bryant as a creative consultant. So I didn’t want it to be distracting, but I definitely wanted to introduce to the next generation some of the influences I was introduced.”Ī Hindi version of the film is set to be released in India at the same time, with Indian actress Priyanka Chopra standing in for Johannsen as the seductive snake, Kaa.Īmong those monitoring reaction to the film will be Warner Brothers, which is releasing its own remake, Jungle Book: Origins, next year, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett.But if by "gay" you mean mincing, sibilant, underhanded villains with a penchant for extravagant hats, there have been many to choose from, like King Candy ( Wreck-It Ralph), Jafar ( Aladdin), Governor Ratcliffe ( Pocahontas), Hades ( Hercules), Scar ( The Lion King ), or Shere Khan ( The Jungle Book). “The archetypes introduced to a young Jon Favreau also affected who I am. In February, Favreau told the website Collider of his love of New Orleans jazz and how his whole musical baseline had come from watching Bugs Bunny and Disney cartoons.
Murray and Sethi performed their version of “The Bare Necessities” on US late night TV last week, suggesting that this, at least, will remain in the film. Christopher Walken plays King Louie.įavreau has said he switched between the book and the film to chose the elements of the story for his version and was inspired by the visual effects of the 2013 sci-fi fantasy film Gravity.
Twelve-year-old New Yorker Sethi was cast as Mowgli after an audition of 2,000 hopefuls. “Why bother with this morass when there are so many other books to choose from that are as yet undiscovered by the Disney audience? Disney can afford fresher fare than a rehash of a film that will have to be so deconstructed from the original into an unrecognisable hash in order to succeed.”
On the film’s release, the character of King Louie was widely criticised for connoting inequality between African-Americans and Caucasians.ĭisney should perhaps have steered clear, said the Christian Science Monitor, in a damning piece following the announcement of plans to make the movie two years ago. According to movie lore, when Disney animators first approached Prima, he joked with them: “You wanna make a monkey outta me?”
His “I Wanna Be Like You” song was sung by American singer and trumpeter Louis Prima in a Dixieland style. In the original film King Louie (who is not in Kipling’s book) was an ape with poorer linguistic skills than the other animals. Hollywood is highly sensitive to accusations that it lacks racial sensitivity and resists diversity, so the decision to remake Jungle Book might seem particularly risky. “The first Disney Jungle Book was based on Kipling the next one will be based on the movie, so it’ll be another generation removed from Kipling, which will help,” Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, told Yahoo Movies.