Headscratchers / The Jungle Book (1967)

• Was Kaa really going to eat Bagheera after hypnotizing him? I mean, a "man-cub" is one thing, but a fully grown panther is much bigger and higher on the food chain.
  • Kaa was just trying to get rid of Bagheera so he could eat Mogwli without interruptions.
  • Actually, large Indian pythons can and do eat leopards. Not every day obviously, but they can.

• Shere Khan was clearly suspicious that Kaa was hiding something, and all Kaa does is dig himself deeper. So why does Shere Khan walk away?
  • One possibility is that Shere Khan was too arrogant to even contemplate the possibility that Kaa would lie to him so many times in a row, and decided he was probably being too paranoid. After all, if you've watched Jungle Cubs, then you know he is pretty confident that everyone in the jungle is terrified of him going as far back as when he was still a cub. Furthermore, he's treated Kaa like a lackey of his for nearly as long, so in Khan's mind, Kaa would know better than to try to deceive him.
  • Alternatively, Shere Khan actually does respect Kaa more than he lets through. It's a nine meter long python with hypnotic powers we're talking about. On the ground Shere Khan has the advantage, but tigers are not particularly agile climbers (too heavy) and trying to maintain balance AND fight a giant python up in a tree would probably be a little too much, so he doesn´t really care to climb up and check for himself. Also, he paws Kaa away from his face as soon as the snake tries to hypnotize him; although his demeanor would make it seem as if he's just annoyed, maybe he was actually being wary. There's really no reason why Kaa's hypnotic powers would work on Bagheera but not Shere Khan...
  • Shere Khan sees himself as a sort of "gentlemanly ruler" of the jungle and generally avoids unpleasantness with the other apex animals. He pushed his authority as far as he was willing to and without further evidence he let Kaa get back to what he suspected was a normal meal that was interrupted.

• Shouldn't Bagheera have ripped Mowgli's loincloth off? I highly doubt a 10-year-old boy holding a sapling would be strong enough to win a tug-a-war with grown panther gripping him by a pair of shorts that obviously wasn't even fashioned by a professional tailor.
  • The Media Watchdogs would have loved that.

• Isn't taking Mowgli to a man-village only gonna further motivate Shere Khan to kill the Mancub? He wants to prevent Mowgli from growing up and using guns or fire, which is even MORE likely to happen when the people at the village raise him. If Mowgli lives in the jungle forever, there's no threat of him learning any of that.
  • True, but on the other hand, it makes Mowgli less of an individual threat to Shere Khan, making it harder for the tiger to try and kill him.

• "Word has grabbed my royal ear, have a banana, that you wanna stay in the jungle" Um... King Louie, if you somehow knew Mowgli was being sent to a man-village against his will, shouldn't you have also known that he lived in the jungle his whole life and NEVER learned how to make fire, which is your only reason to help him stay in the jungle in the first place?
  • He may not be aware of how long Mowgli has lived in the jungle, or may not truly understand that knowledge of how to make fire is something men have to actually learn, rather than something they're basically born knowing how to do.
    • Fridge Brilliance. Animal knowledge tends to be more about inborn instincts, while humans spend a lot more time learning things from the surrounding culture. (I mean obviously animals learn some things from their kin, and humans have some instincts, but overall it's not the same). King Louie assumes that men build fires the same way that birds build nests. It's just something they know how to do.

• Couldn't Kaa hand Mowgli over to Shere Khan so he can can murder him for being a man, then eat him, something which Shere Khan seems to have no interest in?
  • Even though Kaa wants to eat Mowgli, he doesn’t support Shere Khan’s desire to kill him, since he wants to kill him for a different reason. Kaa just wants to eat Mowgli, but Shere Khan wants to kill Mowgli simply out of spite for being a human, something even Kaa does not approve of.
  • Nothing says Shere Khan WOULDN'T eat Mowgli. Sure it's only addressed he wants to KILL him, but it's not much of a stretch to assume Shere Khan would make the most out of a slaughtered man-cub he killed out of spite.
  • Plus it would kind of ruin the benefit for Kaa to eat a corpse that might not even be intact.

• Bagheera sarcastically comments on Mowgli's independence after nearly getting eaten by Kaa, but Bagheera is the one who chose to rest out in that tree in the first place. Even claiming "It'll be safer up there", which it apparently WASN'T! Shouldn't Bagheera be blaming HIMSELF for the incident instead of ridiculing Mowgli's competence?
  • He's just arrogant and snarky and so doesn't want to admit that it's his fault.

• Leaving the fact that this is a Disney movie aside, why does Kaa attempt to eat Mowgli without constricting him first as is normal in pythons? The Latin American dub at least references constriction when Kaa threatens Mowgli to one day "give him a very tight hug", but the original version would make it seem as if Kaa was in the habit of eating his prey alive, using his coils exclusively to hold them in place...
  • For a Watsonian explanation: Kaa isn't the most practical-minded animal around, as he seems to be driven mostly by his whims... even when those whims make him do blatantly stupid things like pause before eating Mowgli just so he can gloat at Bagheera. He also has a bit of a playful streak, and seems to enjoy toying with his prey. It'd be perfectly in his character to simply prefer using hypnosis to subdue his victims and then swallow them alive.
  • In addition to the above, there's really only so much that can be shown in a family film. Constriction is quite heavily alluded to in their first meeting by Mowgli briefly calling out for Bagheera before Kaa's tail coils itself around Mowgli's neck, which results in his call for Bagheera being quite literally choked off as the coils visibly tighten.
  • Kaa seems to prefer eating his prey alive and based on Mowgli's response to the coils, he seems to find them relaxing and comfortable. So Kaa is most likely using the coils to relax him in order to make him tender for consumption.

• Is Shere Khan not as strong as his reputation claims? Akela says that even if the whole pack defends Mowgli from Shere Khan, they'll all get killed. Shere Khan wasn't even able to finish off ONE BEAR that easily. Granted this is because the vultures and Mowgli's flaming branch intervened before it was too late, but I still think all those wolves could have had some success in fighting Shere Khan. (Worst case scenario : SOME of the wolves killed or life-threateningly injured, but Shere Khan is too weak and injured to fight back against the rest, and ESPECIALLY Mowgli survives)
  • Watch the remake and see how that worked for them. And mind you that was the entire pack, plus Baloo and Bagheera, getting into the mix. Against a half-blind Shere Khan. Here, it would have been just the wolf pack against a healthy Khan.
    • But that battle didn't have any prior strategic planning, it was done solely on impulse due to the threat of the situation. And Shere Khan didn't kill any of the wolves, he just maneuvered around them so he could chase Mowgli. Had the wolves set it up so that Shere Khan was backed into a corner, he might not have had much of a chance. (And I know there's only so much violence they can pull off in a Disney movie, but still...) Realistically, I should question if it's possible for even the fittest Bengal Tigers to overpower an entire pack of wolves. Shere Khan may have superior strength, speed, and agility to wolves, but he's still outnumbered.
  • Wolves are pack animals; it does make sense that they'd rather not risk any of them dying for what is, despite Mowgli having grown up with them, an outsider, and there's absolutely no indication that the pack standing and fighting would necessarily achieve anything. Shere Khan does beat the hell out of Baloo, getting him on the ground relatively quickly and then clawing at him. If the (let's be honest) Deus ex Machina of the tree getting hit by lightning and thus bursting into flames (the one thing we know Shere Khan is afraid of) hadn't occurred and allowed Mowgli to tie a flaming branch to his tail, I doubt the vultures, Baloo or Mowgli would have lasted much longer.

• I realize this is a Disney film and thus it probably isn't meant to be taken too seriously, but why does Mowgli walk upright on two legs like a normal human instead of on all fours? Since he was Raised by Wolves, it would make sense for him to walk on all fours like them. Where did he learn to walk bipedally?
  • Not only is it easier on the animators, but it makes his credibility as human character more plausible. But for an in-movie explanation, maybe Mowgli learned a lot from mongooses, monkeys (not the Bandar Log, who kidnap him later) and other bears (not Baloo) who walk on hind legs. The real question should be how THOSE animals know how to walk on their hind legs.
  • I don't think humans learn how to walk by watching other humans, it is an instinct that just takes some practice to master. Maybe it will take longer than it would with human parents, but even if he does try imitating how the Wolves walk he would naturally find it just doesn't work for him, it would feel way easier and more natural to lift up his hands and start walking on two legs. Even if you did think he would need a reference, the jungle is full of birds walking on two legs.

• Shere Khan wants to kill Mowgli because he's afraid he will grow up to become a hunter with a gun. But considering that Mowgli grew up in the jungle and was friends with the animals, shouldn't he be considered pretty much the least likely human to get a gun? Because logically, since Mowgli has never met another human and has never entered civilization, there's no way he could even know how to use a gun. The other animals seem to recognize this as none of them seem to be worried about that. If anything, Shere Khan should be more worried about Mowgli going to the man village, because once that happens, that just means Mowgli is more likely to learn to use a gun.
  • Mowgli actually states that they could just explain to Shere Khan that he won't ever kill an animal. Bagheera dismisses this because he knows Khan won't stop to listen.
  • Shere Khan isn't gonna risk it at all. He knows that as long as Mowgli is alive, he could return to man village and learn how to use guns and make fire at any time. He's determined to kill Mowgli before that happens.
    • Yeah, but as long as Mowgli stays in the jungle that's unlikely to happen. And Mowgli clearly does not want to go back to the man village. And ironically, the only reason he's going there is so he will be safe from Shere Khan.
    • But he ends up going there because he's got a crush on a girl. Shere Khan knew that there were all sorts of reasons why Mowgli might eventually decide to join the human village, regardless of his upbringing. And even if it's unlikely, he's not satisfied with that. You know what's more unlikely than a raised-in-the-jungle kid joining the man-village? A dead kid joining the man-village. From Shere Khan's perspective, it's obvious which option works better for him.
  • This is all dependent on the assumption that Shere Khan understands exactly how human knowledge and behaviour works. King Louie clearly thinks that knowledge of how to create fire is innate in humans; why wouldn't Shere Khan think that the knowledge of how to use weapons to hunt and kill animals and the desire to do so is innate in humans too? The likelihood is that Shere Khan heard about a man-cub in the jungle and put that together with his clear knowledge that adult humans hunt and kill animals with guns and fire. The reason why none of the other animals are afraid of the same thing can be answered by the simple fact that they all previously knew Mowgli (e.g. Bagheera, the wolves), or quickly grow to like him after meeting him (e.g. Baloo) or they simply see him as currently incapable of harming them. Shere Khan, by contrast, is exclusively focused on what he thinks Mowgli will do in the future (without ever even meeting him before the climax of the film) and the easiest way to stop that from happening is by killing him now while he's still apparently defenceless enough.
  • Baloo already pointed out in the movie that Mowgli isn't like the humans that Shere Khan fears, but Bagheera explains that the tiger doesn't care and won't take any risks. Shere Khan's hatred of humans is so deep that they're all the same to him. Also, Shere Khan wasn't supposed to know about Mowgli's existence. Bagheera's original plan was to escort him to the man-village without anyone knowing. But of course, Mowgli was afraid and confused when he was forced to leave the only home he's ever known, causing him to run away and word got around.

• What exactly is Shere Khan's deal? I get his hatred for man, but he seems to enjoy intimidating the other jungle animals just for fun. He wouldn't have any reason to hold ill will against them. Is he just a bully for the sake of being a bully and having a reputation that prevents anyone from messing with him?
  • There are plenty of real-life people who are savage bullies for no apparent reason.
  • It's his way of asserting dominance. It's also to separate him from predators like Kaa, who only kill for survival.