This is my first article and I am writing this about one of my memories as a child. So bear with me and be kind.
Back in the eighties, when I was a child growing up, I remember two cartoon movies that stood out and still stand the test of time. Even though they were stories from the Jungle Book and the Jungle Book was animated by Disney, These two movies were awesome and had impacted me enough to remember them.
Those Movies are...
" Rikki Tikki Tavi "
" The White Seal "
Now granted, these movies were originally made when I was a newborn pup, but they found a new audience and a place in my heart in the early eighties.
Let’s start with “Rikki Tikki Tavi”.
"Our loyal and faithful hero!"
Rikki Tikki Tavi is from Rudyard Kiplings “The Jungle Book” and is about a Mongoose that is found and rescued by a family, and he becomes a protector of this family by killing off two deadly snakes that threaten them (The Cobras named Nag and Nagaina).
"A nice screen shot of Rikki getting up on Nag and showing him who's the man!"
This was a short cartoon movie that was made by the famous Chuck Jones (Tom and Jerry) and narrated by Orsen Wells, who at that time I had no idea who they even were and how famous for that matter.
"to the left is Chuck Jones and to the right is Orsen Welles"
Anyway, Rikki gets Nag killed by the father with a shotgun while Nag waits in their bathroom to bite the father. Rikki fights with Nag and causes a disturbance that wakes the father and the father comes in and see Rikki and Nag going at it and blasts Nag with a shotgun.
Later Rikki kills and steals Nagaina's eggs after he has her distracted. Nagaina gets upset and goes to bite the kid but Rikki brought to her the last of her eggs that he didn’t kill and she then takes it into a hole underground where Rikki Kills her and reigns victorious.
"I got your Egg!!! How do you want it?"
Now it is very hard for me to remember this in full detail since I had only seen it maybe 4 times in the last 20 years, But I guess it was good enough for me to remember now.
The next movie is also a rare one and was simply titled “The White Seal”.
"Awwwww...Look how cute! Yuck!"
This movie was about Kotick, a white seal with blue eyes and was very cutsey and appealed to most of the young girls when I was a kid. As if you didn't notice from the picture above and the fact that I just restated the obvious.
Anyway, This is another Rudyard Kipling story (surprise surprise) and was also done by Chuck Jones but this time it narrated by Roddy McDowall. For those who don’t know who Roddy is, he was Comelius in “Planet of the Apes“, and Peter Vincent in “Fright Night”, and for a 90’s reference… he was the voice of Mr. Soil in “ A Bug’s Life”. Also Mel Blanc does some voices as well.
"to the left is Roddy McDowell and to the right is Mel Blanc"[/align]So Kotick grows into an adult seal and figures out that the hunters are going to continue to kill the seals and he decides to lead the herd away to a safe place away from the hunters. He befriends whales and walruses, fights off and escapes the sharks and finally finds refuge for his herd.
Not much I can remember, but it is a journey of growing and learning and survival, and has it's dark moments when the hunters come to club and kill the seals.
Hell! When you look at it, Rikki Tikki Tavi was dark and violent in its own way too.
"Kotick and his Mama"
It's a good thing Chuck Jones stayed true to the book more than Disney did or these movies would have not have been affective. There was another one Chuck Jones did called
"Moglis Brother"but I don't ever remember seeing it.
Like I stated above, this is my first article, and yes … It is short but these movies are so old and I was sooo young and I tried to remember the best I could, Plus I have recently discovered that these are available on DVD.. So I might just buy them and give them another view. You might want to as well..
Cheers!