The Jungle Book is an Indian 3D animated television series. This series is based on the
original Mowgli stories by
Rudyard Kipling.
This series contains examples of:
- Abled in the Adaptation: Shere Khan lacks the crippled paw he had in the book.
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Baloo wears glasses in this show.
- Adaptational Badass: Shere Khan is not crippled in this adaptation and is feared by many animals.
- Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed. Kaa occasionally antagonizes Mowgli and others in few episodes, but he often allies with them just like in the original book.
- Adaptational Wimp: In the book, Tabaqui would get fit of a rabies-like madness that would make other animals steer clear of him, including Shere Khan. In this show, he is a punching bag for almost everyone and is rarely taken seriously.
- Ambiguous Time Period: The Christmas episode implies that the show takes place closer to modern times.
- Amnesiacs are Innocent: Shere Khan in "Kitty Kat Khan." Mowgli makes it his goal to look after Shere Khan and teach him how to be a competent hunter now that the tiger has the mind of a child.
- Androcles' Lion: Doubling as Pet the Dog, the normally antagonistic Jacala does this toward Mowgli after he later pulls his bad teeth and even defends him from Shere Khan.
- And the opposite happens in "Stranded", with Shere Khan defending Mowgli from Jacala after Mowgli saved his life earlier in the episode. After fending off Jacala, however, Shere Khan decides that the he and Mowgli are even, and immediately attempts to kill him.
- Big Bad: Shere Khan is Mowgli’s Arch-Enemy who is constantly plotting to kill Mowgli.
- Big Brother Instinct: Mowgli for his wolf siblings in "Darzi's Waterfall Rescue" and "Blood Brothers."
- Bratty Half-Pint: Mowgli can act as one in few episodes.
- Brutish Bulls: The White Buffalo is a fierce and bad tempered gaur.
- Butt Biter: When Baloo ends up getting the front half of his body trapped inside a tree, Bagheera bites onto Baloo’s butt in order to pull him out.
- Butt-Monkey: Tabaqui. The poor jackal is verbally and physically abused by Shere Khan. Even Bagheera and Baloo beat,insult, and hold him by the tail sometimes.
- Canon Foreigner: Darzee the tailor bird appears. While the character does originate from The Jungle Book, he appears in the non-Mowgli story Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and is thus unconnected to the Mowgli stories.
- Carnivores Are Mean: Played straight and averted. Predatory animals like Shere Khan, Jacala, and Kala all act savage towards anyone in their way. On the other hand, Bagheera the panther and Mowgli’s wolf family are friendly and reasonable animals who are still acknowledged as predators who eat other animals.
- Children Are Innocent: Ponya is this. She is sweet, friendly and has a child-like personality.
- Decomposite Character: Bala and Lali are probably based on Grey Brother.
- The Dragon: Tabaqui, though he's not particularly good at it.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In "Wild Black Bees", Baloo and Bagheera have some notable injuries on their bodies after surviving a fight with Shere Khan. No episodes later on feature them with visible bruises from fights with Shere Khan.
- Elephants Never Forget: Zigzagged; Hathi does remember a lot of things, but because he has so much to remember, it can be hard to trace more specific memories.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: a lot of episodes end with the characters laughing.
- Evil Counterpart: Kala the savage black panther is Bagheera’s nemesis. He even looks almost exactly like Bagheera, but with a scar on his right eye.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: Kala the panther is in good need of a throat lozenge.
- Forgetful Jones: Darzi has an incredibly terrible memory.
- Gale-Force Sound: In one episode, Hathi sneezes so hard in front of Baloo and Bagheera, it sends them flying into a tree.
- Garden Garment: Unlike most incarnations, Mowgli’s loincloth is fashioned out of leaves.
- Gender Flip: Darzi is a female bird instead of a male this time around.
- Ikki the porcupine is a changed from a male to a female here.
- Grumpy Old Man: Kaa acts as one in most of the series.
- Good Is Not Nice: While Kaa is technically on good terms with Mowgli and his friends, he is not above threatening them or tangling them in his coils when they get on his nerves.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The first half of "Fished Out" has Mowgli engaged in a fishing competition against Baloo. The second half of the episode is dedicated to Mowgli and Bagheera trying to rescue Baloo after he hits his head and falls on a log in a River, which is slowly flowing towards a waterfall.
- Heroic Neutral: Kaa is a moody old snake, but will more often than not help out Mowgli when he can.
- Honorable Elephant: Just like his book counterpart, Hathi is a powerful and respected figure in the jungle whom even Shere Khan backs away from.
- Horse of a Different Color: Mowgli will sometimes ride on the backs Bagheera, Bala, Lali, or Rana. Normally panthers, wolves and warthogs would be too small for a person to ride on, but because Mowgli is a little boy, he can ride on them with no problem.
- Inevitable Waterfall: In "Fished Out", Mowgli and Bagheera try to rescue Baloo after he hits his head and falls on a log in a river, which is slowly flowing towards a waterfall.
- Jerkass: Shere Khan, Jacala and Phaona are main examples.
- Jerkass Ball: Mowgli holds one in "Sleeping Python," "Mowgli's Sparklie" and "The Rubber Ball". In these episodes, he is much more selfish and obnoxious than usual,
- Karma Houdini: Ikki manages to avoid anything after she spread rumors about Mowgli being a coward in "Human After All" and in the end she spreads rumors on Bagheera being a coward.
- Phaona in "Two For the Price of One" pretty much gets away with leading Akela into a trap and almost having Shere Khan kill Mowgli just because he changes his mind at the last minute thinking about the trouble he could get into if anyone found out about what he did.
- More egregiously, Phaona gets away without any real punishment in the two-part episode "Temple of the Wolf", even after having been caught and exposed for attempting to kill Mowgli, Akela, and several of the other wolves and usurp the role as pack leader.
- Later-Installment Weirdness: Season 3 is prone to having more musical numbers in each episode, whereas the first two seasons had little to none.
- Lighter and Softer: Even more child-friendly than the Disney version, which already is one of the most extreme examples of Disneyfication.
- Look-Alike Lovers: Oo and Boo are an old turtle couple who look exactly the same barring their shell colors.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Baloo, from what we can guess, is a brown bear, which aren't native to that part of India. One episode touched upon this, as he's noted to be the only bear in the jungle before he meets a female bear.
- In “Itchy Twitchy Kaa”, Baloo mentions giraffes and hippos, animals that are not native to the jungles of India. To be fair, neither animals physically appear in the show.
- Named by the Adaptation: Mowgli’s father was simply called Father Wolf in the book. Here, he is known as Daruka.
- Noble Wolf: Mowgli's wolf family, except for Phaona.
- Odd Name Out: Jacala the crocodile has five sons named Biter, Grabber, Chomper, Guzzleguts and... Colin.
- Old Windbag: Baloo is a very talkative old bear. He can go on and on talking about jungle facts to Mowgli or stories from his past.
- Pit Trap: There a number of episodes that use traps like these.
- Politicians Kiss Babies: "Baloo the King" features an amnesiac Baloo thinking he is king of the jungle. One thing he does is kiss a young crocodile only for the croc to call him an idiot.
- Running Gag: Baloo constantly trips and falls over.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Baloo wears glasses and is a very intelligent bear who knows various facts about the jungle. Why a wild bear in the middle of the jungle is wearing glasses is something that is not answered by the show.
- Token Evil Teammate: Phaona is the only member of the wolf pack who shows outward disdain towards Mowgli.
- Tummy Cushion: Bagheera actually rests his head on Baloo’s belly in "Pavo The Peacock".
- Ungrateful Bastard: Phaona in "The Race", which costs him his victory after Bagheera calls him out on it.
- Vague Age: It is unclear just how old Bala and Lali are. They are treated like children and are young enough to play with Mowgli, yet they are about the same size as the other adult wolves.
- Villain Team-Up: Despite Shere Khan and the wolf pack typically being at odds with eachother, Phaona's hatred for Mowgli led him to collaborate with Shere Khan (whether directly or by partnering with Tabaqui) on multiple occasions in an attempt to take him out of the picture.
- And in the episode "Kitty Kat Khan", after ditching an amnesiac Shere Khan (who was under the belief that he was a baby), Tabaqui temporarily becomes Jacala's underling, and even lures Shere Khan to the river in hopes that Jacala would kill him.
- You Have No Chance to Survive: Shere Khan says this to Mowgli A LOT whenever he chases after the boy.
