The Jungle Book shouldn't be shown to kids

Mowgli lives in the jungle happily ever after… isn’t a message we should be giving to kids. Yes he wants to stay with his adoptive family, the wolf pack, as well as his mentor Bagheera and good old Baloo, and who wouldn’t? Life’s great when all you’ve got to worry about is where your next hive full of honey is coming from, but this isn’t a lesson we should be comfortable with our children learning.

Because as anyone who’s seen the classic 1967 original film, also by Disney, knows, at the end Mowgli sees a woman carrying a jug of water from the river, and instantly realises, his place is amongst other humans. Bagheera tells Baloo this must be so, and Baloo tries to help the Panther lighten up a bit. A nice ending, which a child will love, but also an important message; Mowgli has to grow up because, much as he might like to retain the innocence of the jungle, relatively speaking, forever, his own nature will lead him to something more. In this way Mowgli grows, though Kipling admittedly did not make his transition a smooth one. In Tiger Tiger, he struggles to live as a normal human, whilst still being hunted by Shere Khan.

Here though his struggle is reduced to two dimensions, with only Shere Khan standing between him and lifelong happiness in the jungle. As a life lesson, it is simply too simplistic to be of any worth to children, or their parents. Life simply doesn’t work that way. As we grow up we find that we can’t simply do what we want. Instead we find that there are things we have to do. We find that there are many pitfalls in life, many obstacles to be overcome. And we find that our problems in life cannot simply be attributed to one antagonistic figure.

Admittedly The Jungle Book is meant to be a kid’s film, but that doesn’t mean it can’t teach important life lessons. Inside Out showed audiences that sometimes sadness is a part of life, a necessary part, which allows us to grow. Charlie Brown showed the importance of forming relationships, and of working with others, whether in the form of Charlie trying to better himself to win the affection of a girl, or Snoopy working with Woodstock and his team to rescue the love of his life from the Red Baron. Odd as it might seem to derive life lessons from a dog flying a shed against a triplane, the way Woodstock and the other birds hacked at the Red Baron’s plane was a subtle way of showing the value of thinking your way through a problem, and asking for help when you need it, rather than using brute force.

You won’t get anything like that from The Jungle Book. Instead your kids will learn that action without forethought as to the possible consequences, such as Mowgli setting the jungle on fire in his rush to use the red flower to fight Shere Khan, isn’t a problem because your friends will see your intentions before your actions and afterwards the elephants will redirect a nearby river to solve the problem. Worse, instead of learning that sometimes bad things happen to good people, and that good people can do bad things depsite their intentions, such as setting the jungle on fire, your kids will learn simply that the good guys are always smarter and they always triumph. No matter what.

Any look at history will tell you this isn’t so, and in daring to show some of the harsher truths in life, Inside Out transcended its nature as a kids film to become something that everyone, regardless of their age or background, could watch and learn from. Joy must work with Sadness to solve the problems together, that she can’t by herself, and it Joy’s realisation that Sadness can not only contribute but do so in a way that makes Joy’s own work better, that is the most important message Inside Out has to offer.

Why? Because it shows that sooner or later, we all come to a point where we have to start thinking differently in order to grow and to prosper. So too does Inside out show the importance of change in helping us to grow, through Riley’s imaginary friend, Mr Bing Bong. Long since forgotten by Riley, Bing Bong clings to his idea of one day taking her to the Moon. When he and Joy are flung into the abyss of lost memories, they try to escape together. In the end though only Bing Bong’s sacrifice of himself, after he’s realised Riley has grown beyond him, allows Joy to escape oblivion.

There’s something of that sacrifice in the ending to the original Jungle Book film. Mowgli wants to stay with Bagheera and Baloo, but then he sees the girl, and realises that he must say goodbye to his friends in order that he can grow and live his life to its full potential. A sad message, but a necessary one, because Mowgli realises he can’t have it all. He can’t stay with his friends and yet discover love with the girl. So he makes a choice, makes a sacrifice just as Bing Bong did. And as Riley found happiness away from her friends in Minnesota, so Mowgli will start to find happiness with the girl and other humans.

You don’t get that in the newest film. Instead Mowgli gets to stay with his friends having killed Shere Khan, and if he grows, it is only physically, because this choice means he has decided to remain a child rather than learning a harsh but necessary truth. That isn’t something children should see and, for all that they should be able to enjoy their childhood, there’s nothing wrong with finding subtle ways of letting them in on a few of life’s most important lessons. The Jungle Book doesn’t even try for this, sticking instead with that most empty of notions; that you can have it all. That’s a lesson we should never teach children.