As I
said in my review, I wound up pleasantly surprised by Disney’s new version of The Jungle Book, and not just because of
how great the CGI is. No – I also really
enjoy the story, which explores some interesting themes. It’s those themes I’d like to look at today
(spoilers.)
Obviously,
the immediate elephant in the room for The
Jungle Book is the fact that Mowgli isn’t a wolf like everyone else in his
adopted family. In fact, he’s not any
type of jungle animal – he’s a “man cub,” and that means he’s out of
place. While his family and friends love
him, his status as a human earns him stares wherever he goes, and even within
his family, he can’t shake the feeling that he doesn’t fit in.
Like
Disney’s other major “diverse animals” movie this year, Zootopia, we can find some thoughtful metaphors for
multiculturalism. Although Mowgli was
technically born in the man village, he was found by Bagheera as a baby and raised
by the wolves since infancy, and yet he’s still seen as an outsider. Animals who don’t know him whisper and keep
their distance when he approaches the watering hole. More significantly, Shere Khan is overtly hateful
towards Mowgli and isn’t content to merely see him leave the jungle; he wants
the boy dead by his paw. In the present
climate of stirred-up xenophobia, I don’t have to tell you what that kind of
hostility feels reminiscent of. It’s
important, too, that Shere Khan’s hatred is rooted in both ignorance and
fear. Because he believes all humans are
the same, he believes Mowgli will grow up to fit his expectation of what that
looks like, and it’s not in a flattering one.
In his mind, all humans are inherently dangerous, indiscriminate killers,
and he tries to fan the other animals’ wariness and mistrust into a fear that
matches his own. Gee, that doesn’t sound
familiar, does it?
In
light of all this, the movie couldn’t very well have ended as the animated
version does, and I’m super relieved that it doesn’t. Sure, in the real life, it’s of course better
for a child to live among humans instead of jungle animals, and if this was
real life, it would be criminal to suggest otherwise. However, I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your
notice that this isn’t real life. It’s a movie with talking animals and a
singing bear, so the rules are different, and when it uses Mowgli being human
as a metaphor for immigration, it would be terrible
to end the movie by sending Mowgli “back where he came from” (even though the
man village has never truly been his home in any meaningful sense of the word)
because he “belongs with his own kind,” the implication being that he doesn’t belong with the animals who are
physically different than him. So glad, then, that the film is
ultimately about Mowgli and those around him recognizing the jungle as his real
home.
