The Jungle Book (Two-Disc Platinum Edition) (DVD)

The Jungle Book, another one of my Disney favorites, is finally on DVD and in its original aspect ratio, something I didn't actually realize until I hit play. Imagine my surprise when the movie begins and I am not forced to watch it in fullscreen 1.33:1, but its original 1.75:1. I am not sure if that matters to many of you as much as it does to me, but complete with the original aspect ratio, audio and video digital restoration and a large group of special features this is yet another successful Platinum Edition release for the Mouse House.

Disc one comes complete with the feature film, 21 minutes of deleted songs, an audio commentary, a music video of King Louie's "I Wan'na Be Like You" performed by Jonas Brothers and a Disney Song Selection guide. The deleted songs are very rough and even include a demo version of "The Bare Necessities" and songs that would have accompanied Bill Peet's original story concept. The Song Selection guide let's you jump straight to the songs from the film including accompanying on-screen lyrics.

The disc also includes a look at the only deleted character from the film, Rocky the Rhino, described as something of a Mr. Magoo of the jungle, half blind and extremely dumb. His appearance would have come along with the vultures, but as the vulture characters grew Rocky was soon ousted, but he lives on here.

The audio commentary is probably the most interesting piece on the first disc as Jungle Book composer Richard Sherman, Disney animator Andreas Deja and Bruce Reitherman (voice of Mowgli) have a good chat during the film. It is interesting and just the beginning as you are going to find out just how influential this film actually is on today's animators.

Disc two carries the historical features including a 46 minute making-of feature that delves into the creation of the story and the difficulties involved as Walt Disney first assigned Bill Peet to create the entire story, but when Walt didn't like the direction it was heading and wanted a much lighter fare than Peet was creating the two parted ways and the film became what it is today. As with most Disney 2-Disc DVDs this one also pays particular attention to specific animators. This time around it is Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, whom I am sure you have already heard of if you own any of these Platinum Edition DVDs. Along with being part of the featurettes, touted as animating over 50-percent of the film there is also a short vintage featurette on animation featuring the two friends.

The second disc also includes a 15 minute feature on the influence The Jungle Book had on many of today's animators. Considering it was first released in 1967 and then re-released in 1978 this is the first time many of these people had seen a Disney film and it really stuck with them. You will hear from folks like Brad Bird (The Incredibles and Ratatouille), Eric Goldberg (Aladdin) and Andreas Deja (The Lion King).

The one thing that will really stick with you is that this is the last film Walt Disney would be alive long enough to work on as he passed away while the film was still in production in December of 1966 due to lung cancer. The final feature of the 46 minute making-of "Bare Necessities" feature goes into this and talks with the people that were working the last time Walt came into work, which ultimately was the last time any of them saw him. The one key thing they remember him saying about Jungle Book specifically is something I wish more animated films would learn from, "Fewer events leaves more room for character." You will learn in the making of this movie the emphasis was on character and there is no better example than The Jungle Book when it comes to an ensemble of great animated characters, something that has been lost on a lot of animated films as of late.

This 2-Disc DVD is definitely one more to add to the collection, I loved every minute of it.