The Jungle Book (lost Bill Peet version of Disney animated film; 1963-1964)

Bill Peet storyboarding his version of The Jungle Book.

Status: Lost

The Jungle Book was Disney's 19th animated feature film and was written by four different people, headed by Larry Clemmons. Originally though, The Jungle Book was written and storyboarded by Bill Peet, but quit the project and Disney in general, in 1964.

History

After the release of their 18th animated feature film, The Sword and the Stone, Bill Peet went to Walt Disney with an idea that they could make more interesting animal characters like in another Disney film that Peet storyboarded in, 101 Dalmatians. He also suggested that it would be based on a book by English author Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book. Disney liked the idea and greenlighted the project, with Bill Peet creating an original script with little supervision.

Disney however, became more involved with the story after The Stone and the Sword bombed at the box office. Bill Peet went for a more dark and mysterious take, akin to the original book. Disney initially thought the script and storyboards looked pretty good, but then became more critical and thought it looked more like Batman than a regular Disney animated story. Walt insisted on more changes in the story to make it lighter and more towards the family demographic. Bill Peet combated Disney on these changes until, on his birthday in 1964, Bill Peet left Disney Animation Studios and never came back. He cited that he had five children's books being published at the same time, and devoted full time to children's books in general. Bill Peet was replaced by another writer, Larry Clemmons, as head writer for the story of The Jungle Book.

Additions and Differences

There were many additions but also differences between Bill Peet's version of The Jungle Book and the version that was made into a film. As previously stated, Bill Peet's version was to be darker than the final product. The film's writers made the story more straightforward, instead of episodic-like the book. Mowgli (who was still to be the main character in Bill Peet's version) was to go back and forth between the jungle to the "Man Village." Three new characters were added to the story. There was the human girl, who served as the main love interest to Mowgli, King Louie, who was an orangutan who enslaves Mowgli to teach him also to make fire, and a rhino character, presumably named Rocky. Both King Louie and the human girl were kept in the final film, while the rhino was cut from the film. There was also going to be a poacher in Bill Peet's version who drags Mowgli back to the ruins (where King Louie lives) where there are gold and jewels under the ruin, and Mowgli is in charge of helping him find the treasure.

Bill Peet's version was to feature several songs by Ted Gilkyson, an American folk singer and who has collaborated with Disney before on some other animated works. Disney thought these songs were also too "dark" for a Disney film. Walt Disney decided to put the Sherman Brothers to write the music, which included seven songs. The one song they kept from Ted Gilkyson was "Bear Necessities", which the crew thought the song fits the movie well.

Gallery

A mini documentary on the making of The Jungle Book (part 1).

A mini documentary on the making of The Jungle Book (part 2).

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See Also

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• The Incredibles (found full version of McDonald's Happy Meal commercial for Pixar animated film; 2004)
• The Incredibles (found online promotional trailers for Pixar animated film; 2004)
• Pixar (partially lost early CGI animated commercials from animation studio; 1989-1998)

Animation (Disney)

• Alice in Wonderland (partially lost original draft of Disney animated film; 1939)
• Aladdin (found Howard Ashman treatment of Disney animated film; 1988)
• American Dog (partially found original version of "Bolt" Disney animated film; 2007-2008)
• The Black Cauldron (partially found deleted scenes of Disney animated film; 1985)
• Chanticleer (partially found production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 1940s-mid 1960s)
• Chicken Little 2 (partially found production material of cancelled sequel to Disney animated comedy film; 2006)
• Disney Circle Seven Animation (partially lost production material of cancelled Pixar sequel films; 2004-2006)
• Dumbo II (partially found production material from cancelled Disney animated sequel film; 2000s)
• Fantasia 2006 (partially lost production material for cancelled Disney animated sequel film; 2002-2004)
• Fraidy Cat (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2004-2005)
• Frozen (partially found early drafts of Disney animated film; 1937-2012)
• Gigantic (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2013-2017)
• Kingdom of the Sun (partially found original version of "The Emperor's New Groove" Disney animated film; late 1990s)
• The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (partially found production material and deleted scenes of Disney animated sequel film; 1995-1998)
• Maleficent (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2003-2005)
• Music Land (lost Disney animated anthology film; 1955)
• My Peoples (partially found production material of cancelled Disney animated film; late 1990s-early 2000s)
• Phineas and Ferb (lost production material of cancelled theatrical film of Disney Channel animated series; 2010s)
• The Search for Mickey Mouse (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2002)
• The Seven Dwarfs (partially found production material of cancelled direct-to-video prequel to "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" Disney animated film; 2000s)
• Tangled (partially found early drafts of Disney animated film; 2001-2010)
• Tinker Bell (partially found first draft of Disney animated film; 2007)
• Treasure Planet II (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated sequel film; 2002)
• Wild Life (lost production material for cancelled Disney animated film; late 1990s-2000)
• Zootopia (partially found pre-rewrite version of Disney animated film; early 2010s)

Animation (Pixar)

• A Tin Toy Christmas (lost production material of cancelled Pixar animated Christmas TV special; early 1990s)
• Cars 3 (lost deleted scene of Pixar animated sequel film; 2017)
• The Good Dinosaur (lost original version of Pixar animated film; 2011-2013)
• Inside Out (lost original Bing Bong death scene of Pixar animated film; 2015)
• Made in Point Richmond (found miscellaneous content from Pixar DVD; 1986-2000)
• Newt (partially found production material of cancelled Pixar animated film; early 2010s)
• Toy Story (partially found early test footage of Pixar animated film; 1992)
• Toy Story 4 (found original script of Pixar animated sequel film; 2013-2017)
• Toy Story & Toy Story 2 (partially found intermissions for 3D double feature re-release of Pixar animated films; 2009)
• Toy Story "Black Friday Reel" (partially found rough cut of Pixar animated film; 1993)
• Toy Story "Jessie" (found Patsy Montana Award acceptance speech animation of Pixar character; 2000)
• WALL·E (partially found original treatments of Pixar animated film; 1994-2008)

Audio

• Enchanted (lost deleted song from Disney live-action/animated fantasy comedy film; 2007)
• Fantasia (partially lost original audio of Disney animated film; 1940)
• Jack Wagner (partially lost Disney Park background music collection from American actor; 1970s-2001)
• Mars Needs Moms (found Seth Green vocal performance of Disney motion-capture animated film; 2011)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (lost original Vincent Price audio of Disney stop-motion animated film; early 1990s)
• Pinocchio (lost Mel Blanc's "Gideon the Cat" dialogue from Disney animated film; 1940)
• Toy Story 2 (partially found Bullseye dialogue test footage from Pixar animated sequel film; late 1990s)

Live Action

• 101 Dalmatians (found "Spotted Landmarks" teaser trailer of Disney live-action film; 1995-1996)
• Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (found deleted scenes from Disney live-action film; 1993)
• Sleeping Beauty (partially found live action reference material for Disney animated film; 1959)
• Something Wicked This Way Comes (lost original cut of Disney dark fantasy film; 1982)
• Walt Disney (lost physical Mickey Mouse animation reference footage of animator; late 1930s)

Short Films

• Alice Comedies (partially lost series of Walt Disney animated short films; 1920s)
• Blowin' in the Wind (found Pixar animated short film; 1985)
• Lafflets (lost series of Walt Disney animated short films; 1922-1923)
• Language Arts Through Imagination (found series of Disney educational short films; 1988-1989)
• Mickey and Minnie Mouse (lost unauthorized pornographic animated short film; existence unconfirmed; 1936)
• Mickey's Man Friday (partially found production material of unproduced remake of Disney animated short film; 1939-1941)
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (partially lost series of Walt Disney animated short films; 1927-1928)
• Poor Papa (found "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" Walt Disney animated short film; 1927)
• The Princess Academy (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated short film; 2009)
• Short Subject aka "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam" (found unofficial animated short film; 1968)
• Tales from Radiator Springs "To Protect and Serve" (lost episode of "Cars" animated miniseries; 2015)
• Totally Twisted Fairy Tales (partially found Disney animated short series; 1997)
• Uncle Walt (lost unauthorized Disney short film; 1964)

External Links

• A Wikipedia article on the 1967 Disney version of The Jungle Book.