Week 2: Morality

Over the 90-or-so years of its existence, The Walt Disney Company has established itself as a sort of arbiter of moral decency. Perhaps due in part to its early dominance of feature animation, Disney Company is ascribed a particular resonance by the American public — we have even invented a term, “Disney magic,” to identify the qualities of the studio’s output. This connotation argues that movies made by the Disney Company are “timeless” or even “good” simply by virtue of their existence. We connect universal morality to these movies without acknowledging the real people (and real ideologies) behind them.

For the most part, the Disney Company does a pretty good job hiding any sort of political statement in their work. But The Jungle Book is a movie that is overt not only in its politics, but also in its specificity to its period. This movie calls into question the nature of morality in children’s media — are creators obligated to tell universal stories of absolute morality, or is their responsibility to rather reflect the moral realities of the world?

In 1967, the counterculture movement loomed over the public consciousness, and no doubt was influencing the artists working on their Kipling adaptation. Hippies were still looked at as practicing a cute alternative lifestyle rebelling against modern structures. Only a couple of years later, the Manson murders would reconfigure the public perception, but at the time of The Jungle Book, there was a real cultural pull occurring between the counterculture and traditionalists.

As a document of this period in time and a movie for children, The Jungle Book is less directly about teaching children morals and more about adult ideologies fighting for the children’s (or future’s) soul. The movie is not about Mowgli’s journey — in fact, Mowgli disappears for large swaths of the runtime — but rather about the animals determining what is good for him. On the extreme end of the spectrum is Shere Khan, the ultimate representation of authority and arbitrary power (Why is he in charge? Because tigers have always been the apex predators. That’s just how it is). Baloo occupies the other pole as a devout follower of the hippie lifestyle. His “Bare Necessities” mindset reflects the calls for simpler, more sustainable living from the hippies of the 1960s. Baloo is most often admonished for his habits by Bagheera, who most accurately represents the parents of the younger generation caught between ideologies. Bagheera is obligated to take care of Mowgli and see that he is given some sort of future, so Mowgli’s ultimate acceptance of a domestic life is a sort of victory for the panther dad.

Of course, The Jungle Book is full of potential virtues for children to glean, like being true to what you are or getting a wife “who stays in the home” or whatever. But the most telling image in the movie is the hug shared by Baloo and Bagheera as they walk away from Mowgli. Bagheera’s acceptance of Baloo and rejection of Shere Khan feels like a statement from the filmmakers, indicating that regardless of how the youth turn out, they’d better not succumb to The Man.

The dad literally walks off arm-in-arm with the hippie in this movie.

This direct politicking almost feels out of place in a movie by The Disney Company, but it coheres when considering that Walt Disney himself was on his deathbed as this movie was made. While surely not a bitter sentiment towards Uncle Walt, the movie argues for kicking out the old rulers and forging ahead in a new way.       It’s important to recognize that all this ideology likely whizzes over the heads of children. This is still a movie made for them, but it’s remarkable how much timely, adult commentary is contained within.

It’s telling that Mowgli is pulled between worlds so much; this is a movie concerning the filmmaker’s anxieties about the future, so naturally the kid (the future itself) becomes a ball to be volleyed around. Even with these competing goals, this text is rich with a morality that, while not universal, offers multiple avenues to a happy, virtuous life — which is a more nuanced and helpful moral than The Disney Company usually offers anyway.