History Literature / TheJungleBook

* ScavengersAreScum: While Shere Khan the tiger is a main villain, Tabaqui the jackal is shown as his lackey, reporting to him in the hopes of eating his leftovers and avoiding fights, in contrast to the wolves who are presented to be honorable hunters. In fact, wolves who side with Shere Khan are compared to jackals by Mowgli.

* BigBad: BigBad: Shere Khan the Tiger is Mowgli's ArchEnemy as well as the most reoccurring villain, and his attempt to kill Mowgli as a baby leads to Mowgli being raised in the jungle in the first place.

* BigBad: BigBad: Shere Khan the Tiger as the main animal villain and Buldeo the hunter as the main human villain. The former is Mowgli's ArchEnemy as well as the most reoccurring villain, and his attempt to kill Mowgli as a baby leads to Mowgli being raised in the jungle in the first place.

* BigBad: Varies from story to story, though some have cases of NoAntagonist.
** ''Mowgli's Brothers'' has Shere Khan as the reason that Mowgli is adopted by the wolves and swears to ultimately kill him for having escaped him years ago.
** ''Kaa's Hunting'' has the Bandar-Log who kidnap Mowgli.
** ''How Fear Came'' has NoAntagonist. Shere Khan does appear, but as the plot centers around a story within a story, he plays no antagonistic role.
** ''Tiger, Tiger'' being focused on Mowgli's alienation from human society, Buldeo plays a primary role with Shere Khan appearing in one scene, in which he is killed, however killing him is an objective of Mowgli.
** ''Letting in the Jungle'' has Buldeo hunting for Mowgli with the addition of trying to have Mowgli's adoptive parents executed.
** ''The King's Ankus'' has NoAntagonist save perhaps for the greedy desire to own the King's Ankus some people have after Mowgli careless discards it.
** ''Red Dog'' has the dholes, the titular red dog, who are invading the jungle.
** ''The Spring Running'' has NoAntagonist, being focused on Mowgli's inner struggle between staying in the jungle or at long last returning to man.
** ''In The Rukh'', the first written, but chronologically the last, also has NoAntagonist, being focused instead on Mowgli's introduction in literature, his first meeting with white men (at least as written by Kipling). He is offered a job by a forestry ranger, marries and ultimately there is no major villain.

** Shere Khan, a man-eating tiger and one of two recurring villains.

* DemotedToExtra: While the main antagonist of ''Mowgli's Brothers'', Shere Khan has a reduced role in ''Tiger, Tiger'', being spoken of, but only appearing once due to the actual focus being Mowgli's alienation from human society.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: After Shere Khan's death in ''Tiger, Tiger'', Buldeo, who has more of an on-stage presence than the former in the story, takes over as the BigBad, driving Mowgli from the village and later tries to have Mowgli's adoptive mother Messua burnt at the stake in ''Letting in the Jungle.''

* TheImp: Tabaqui; being a cowardly little jackal amidst a bunch of Earth's most formidable predators, his activities consist largely of teasing the wolves and spreading word of Shere Khan's wrath. Unless he's in AxCrazy mode, in which his activities largely consist of attacking everything he sees.
* InformedAttribute: Downplayed with Shere Khan. He seems fearsome enough to have a bounty on his head, but outside of the bungled attack that caused Mowgli to be adopted by the wolves, he is never shown in action.

* StarterVillain: Shere Khan only appears in three of the nine Mowgli Stories, only has the BigBad status in ''Mowgli's Brothers'' and has a reduced role in ''Tiger, Tiger'' due to the focus being Mowgli's alienation from human society, resulting in Buldeo having a more prominent role.

* AVillainNamedKhan: Shere Khan the tiger, hunter of man and self-procliamed ruler of the jungle.

* AdaptationalBadass: Several adaptations tend to play Shere Khan as much more fearsome and terrifying. This is downplayed to a certain extent, as while he was notorious enough to have a bounty on his head, he was never shown in action, while these adaptations do show him in action.
* AdaptationalComicRelief:

* HijackedByGanon: [[BigBad Shere Khan]] sometimes does this in television series adaptations to the point of sometimes having him present for stories he was either absent from or occurred after his death, the latter of which being achieved by changing the chronological order.

There was a live-action 1994 film based on the Jungle Book, called ''Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book''. It was directed by Creator/StephenSommers. While taking elements from the original books and the 1967 animated film, it had a very different storyline. It mostly focused on Mowgli's (Jason Scott Lee) life after leaving the jungle: having to become accustomed to life in British-colonial India and attempting to woo upper-class {{love interest|s}} Katherine Anne "Kitty" Brydon (Creator/LenaHeadey). See ''Film/{{The Jungle Book|1994}}''.

* HijackedByGanon: [[BigBad Shere Khan]] sometimes does this in television series adaptations.

There is also a Soviet animated series called [[Animation/AdventuresOfMowgli]], that is extremely faithful to the stories and to the general mood and style. No human-like mimics in animals here. However, some of the animal characters changed their gender -- most notably, Bagheera is female (since the word "panther" is always feminine in Russian) in this adaptation. ''Rikki Tikki Tavi'' has also been adapted twice in the Soviet Union: first, as a 1965 cartoon, then, in 1975, as a live action film.

** Shere Khan, a man-eating tiger and the [[BigBad main villain]].

* AVillainNamedKhan: Shere Khan the tiger, hunter of man and ruler of the jungle.

* BigBadEnsemble: Varies from story to story, though some have cases of NoAntagonist.

* AbledInTheAdaptation: Many adaptations omit Shere Khan's crippled leg in order to make him more threatening or to leave him no other excuse than hatred for preying on humans.

* HijackedByGanon: [[BigBad Shere Khan]] sometimes does this in television series adaptations

** ''Tiger, Tiger'' being focused on Mowgli's alienation from human society, Buldeo plays a primary role with Shere Khan appearing in one scene, in which he is killed.

* BigBadEnsemble: Shere Khan the Tiger as the main animal villain and Buldeo the hunter as the main human villain. The former is Mowgli’s ArchEnemy as well as the most reoccurring villain, and his attempt to kill Mowgli as a baby leads to Mowgli being raised in the jungle in the first place. After his death, Buldeo takes over, driving Mowgli out of the village and attempting to have Mowgli's adoptive human mother Messua burned at the stake, causing Mowgli to have a negative view of humans.