Adventures of Mowgli

Maugli
Bagheera, Mowgli and Baloo resting after their escape from Bandar Log city.
Directed by	Roman Davydov
Written by	Leonid Belokurov Rudyard Kipling (story)
Starring	Sergei Martinson L. Lyubetskiy Lyusyena Ovchinnikova Stepan Bubnov Anatoli Papanov Lyudmilla Kasatkina A. Nazarov Klara Rumyanova
Music by	Sofya Gubaydulina
Editing by	Lyubov Georgiyeva
Release date(s)	1967-1971 (USSR) 1973 (combined) (USSR)
Running time	20 min x 5 96 min 92 min (USA)
Country	USSR
Language	Russian

Adventures of Mowgli (Russian: Маугли; also spelled Maugli) is an animated feature-length story originally released as five animated shorts of about 20 minutes each between 1967 and 1971 in the Soviet Union. They were directed by Roman Davydov. In 1973, the five films were combined into a single 96-minute feature film. The Russian DVD release of the restored footage, distributed by "Krupnyy Plan" and "Lizard", separates the animation into the original five parts.

An English-language version made by Films by Jove was released direct-to-video in 1996 under the name Adventures of Mowgli. Charlton Heston is the narrator in the English version.

Style

This is the second film adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's work released in 1967. Even though the movie was not conceived as a reaction to the Disney adaptation, it proves an interesting contrast, being more faithful to the epic and primal content of Kipling's original work. The Soviet adaptation features sequences of fighting and occasionally shows blood. Except the first two episodes, Mowgli is portrayed as an adolescent warrior rather than a child.

Characters

• Mowgli
• Akela
• Shere Khan
• Tabaqui
• Raksha
• Baloo
• Bagheera (female in the film, coming from Russian translation by N. Daruzes)
• Kaa
• Hathi
• Hathi's three sons
• Bandar Log
• Chil
• Thuu

Plot

Episode 1 - "Raksha"

A young child, Mowgli, wanders into a wolf cave in the jungle. The tiger Shere Khan (accompanied by his servant Tabaqui) appears at the entrance and demands that the wolves give him his prey, but the wolf mother Raksha refuses. He taunts them and says that the wolf pack will decide. Meanwhile, Tabaqui runs around the whole jungle and tells all the animals that a wolf pack has adopted a human.

The elders of the wolf pack watch a performance of the wolf cubs and Maugli, with Maugli matching the cubs' every step. The elders are evenly split about whether or not they should allow him to stay until they see Maugli pinch the nose of Tabaqui, who came up to taunt him. At this point, however, Shere Khan appears and demands that he be given his prey. Raksha and Baloo (the bear who instructs the young wolf cubs) come to his defence, but Shere Khan is undeterred until the panther Bagheera also appears and offers the wolf pack a freshly killed bull in return for keeping Maugli alive. Shere Khan is forced to admit defeat, but vows that he will still eat Maugli one day.

Episode 2 - "The Kidnapping"

Maugli and Raksha's cubs are being taught to hunt by Baloo, who also teaches them the call of the jungle: "Me and you are of the same blood". Then Bagheera appears and teaches Maugli to climb and jump between trees. The Bandar-logs in the trees watch Maugli perform and decide that he's just like them but without a tail. A short while later, they kidnap him while he's sleeping and take him to their city. Baloo and Bagheera run after him but decide that they need the help of the python Kaa. They don't know where to look until Chil the Kite, flying above them, tells them that he saw him being taken to the abandoned city; Maugli had used the call of the jungle as he was being carried away and asked him to help. Baloo and Bagheera arrive first and are both overwhelmed by the monkeys. Once Kaa arrives, the monkeys go still and sit quietly on the city ruins around him. Kaa begins a hypnotizing dance, and every so often tells the monkeys to come one step closer. Bagheera and Baloo are nearly caught in the trap as well until they are pulled away by Maugli, after which they leave the scene.

Episode 3 - "Akela's Last Hunt"

Episode 4 - "The Fight"

Episode 5 - "Return to Mankind"

Crew

Note: Crew information for episodes 4 and 5 is incomplete.

	Romanized	Russian
Director	Roman Davydov	Роман Давыдов
Scenario	Leonid Belokurov	Леонид Белокуров
Art Directors	Pyotr Repkin Aleksandr Vinokurov	Пётр Репкин Александр Винокуров
Animators	Pyotr Korobayev (1, 2, 3) Boris Butakov (1) Aleksandr Davydov (1) Vladimir Zarubin (1, 2) Viktor Lihachyov (1, 2, 3) Viktor Arsentyev (1, 2) S. Zhutovskaya (1) Vladimir Krumin (1, 2) Valeriy Uragov (1) Oleg Komarov (1, 2) Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin (2) Roman Davydov (2, 3) Oleg Safronov (3) Lyudmila Kasatkina (3) Vitaliy Bobrov (3) Nikolai Fyodorov (3)	Пётр Коробаев Борис Бутаков Александр Давыдов Владимир Зарубин Виктор Лихачёв Виктор Арсентьев С. Жутовская Владимир Крумин Валерий Угаров Олег Комаров Вячеслав Котёночкин Роман Давыдов Олег Сафронов Людмила Касаткина Виталий Бобров Николай Фёдоров
Camera Operator	Yelena Petrova	Елена Петрова
Executive Producer	A. Zorina (1, 2) Lyubov Butyrina (3)	А. Зорина Любовь Бутырина
Composer	Sofia Gubaidulina	Софья Губайдулина
Sound Operator	Georgiy Martynyuk	Георгий Мартынюк
Script Editor	Arkadiy Snesarev	Аркадий Снесарев
Editor	Lyubov Georgiyeva	Любовь Георгиева
Voice Actors	Sergei Martinson (1, 2, 3, 5) L. Lyubetskiy (1, 5) Lyusyena Ovchinnikova (1) Stepan Bubnov (1, 2, 3) Anatoli Papanov (1, 3, 5) Lyudmila Kasatkina (1, 2, 3, 5) A. Nazarov (1, 5) V. Ushakov (2, 3) Maria Vinogradova (2, 3) V. Bubnov (2, 3) Yuriy Khrzhanovskiy (2, 3) T. Dmitriyeva (2, 3) Klara Rumyanova (2, 3) L. Lyubetskiy (3) A. Shabarin (3) Lyusyena Ovchinnikova (5)	Сергей Мартинсон Л. Любецкий Люсьена Овчинникова Степан Бубнов Анатолий Папанов Людмила Касаткина А. Назаров В. Ушаков Мария Виноградова В. Бубнов Юрий Хржановский Т. Дмитриева Клара Румянова Л. Любецкий А. Шабарин Люсьена Овчинникова
English Voice Actors	Ian James Corlett Sam Elliott (Kaa) Dana Delany (Bagheera) Charlton Heston (Narrator)

Trivia

• One of Hathi's sons shows similarities to the baby elephant Junior, from the Disney adaptation.
• In this version, Bagheera is female. She is also less willing to spoil Mowgli, as she spanks him after he refuses to apologise for landing on Baloo (this scene has inexplicably been deleted for the English-language version made by Films by Jove).
• Human characters like Messua and Buldeo are not present in this film.
• Bagheera has three cubs in this film, one black and two gold. They are only mentioned in the book while Bagheera's female mate is not.
• In this film, the king's ankus is replaced with a dagger. This is the same departure as in Disney's later film The Jungle Book.
• Unlike most adaptations that show Tabaqui, this is loyal to the story and he is a jackal. In most adaptations like Jungle Book Shonen Mowgli, and The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story, he is a hyena.

See also

Children's literature portal

• History of Russian animation
• List of animated feature-length films
• List of Russian films
• The Cat Who Walked by Herself, a later Soviet feature film based on a Kipling story

External links

• Maugli (series) at the Animator.ru
• Maugli (1973 film) at the Animator.ru
• Maugli at the Internet Movie Database
• Review of Krupnyy Plan DVD release (Russian)
• A page of stills from the movie (linking to bigger versions)