History YMMV / TheJungleBook

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: During the confrontation with wolves at the Council Rock, Mowgli tells them: "So I do not call ye my brothers any more, but ''sag'' (dogs), as a man should". "Sag" is the Persian word for dog, not Indo-Aryan. In the Seoni district there are speakers of Hindi, Marathi, Gondi, but Persian speakers are practically unknown.

* ValuesDissonance: In ''InTheRukh'', the first Mowgli story ever written, Mowgli (presumably age 17) marries the thirteen-year-old daughter of his employer's butler. The following year, they have a child. While such young marriages may have been common at the time, it is not anymore.

** Kaa's not a villain, but a mentor, ally, and friend, except to Bagheera whom he nearly eats and the primary reason he hasn’t tried to eat Mowgli is that as a human Mowgli is immune to Kaa’s hypnotic abilities. Even so Kaa isn't evil, moreso neutral. Good luck explaining that to anyone who only grew up with the ''Disney'' versions where Kaa is often second only to Shere Khan in terms of villainy.

* MemeticMutation: '''SIMBA?!'''[[labelnote:Explanation]]''WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}}'' fans might be more familiar with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce1X0Gf0knA a bootleg version of the game]] played by Joel, which was edited into a ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing'' game, complete with Mowgli being replaced by an anthropomorphized lion who appears to twerk when crouching.[[/labelnote]]

** Kaa's not a villain, but a mentor, ally, and friend, except to Bagheera whom he nearly eats and the primary reason he hasn’t tried to eat Mowgli is that as a human Mowgli is immune to Kaa’s hypnotic abilities. Even so Kaa is less evil than he is {{chaotic neutral}}. Good luck explaining that to anyone who only grew up with the ''Disney'' versions where Kaa is often second only to Shere Khan in terms of villainy.

** Kaa's not a villain, but a mentor, ally, and friend. Good luck explaining that to anyone who only grew up with the ''Disney'' versions where Kaa is often second only to Shere Khan in terms of villainy.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: The anime's incarnation of Kaa for being far truer to the books than most of his other animated counterparts.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: This anime was very popular in India; it's probably more popular there than Japan, its native country. It's even more popular than the Disney animated movie over there.

** Though often referred to as the main villain of the Mowgli stories, Shere Khan is little more than a glorified StarterVillain, appearing in only three of the nine stories, even dying while Mowgli is still a child. His expanded role in adaptations may be the cause of this.

** Though often referred to as the main villain of the Mowgli stories, Shere Khan is little more than a glorified StarterVillain, appearing in only three of the nine stories, even dying while Mowgli is still a child.

** Though often referred to as the main villain of the Mowgli stories, Shere Khan is little more than a glorified StarterVillain, appearing in only three of the nine stories, even dying while Mowgli is still a child.

* CommonKnowledge: People tend to refer to "The Jungle Book" as a novel when it is actually a collection of short stories and tend to refer to it as if all stories happen in the same book when there are two different volumes with the second being called, naturally, "The Second Jungle Book."

* ViewerSpeciesConfusion: Baloo was specifically referred to as a "sleepy brown bear" in the original novels. However, many people tend to believe he's a sloth bear due to the region the novel sets in.

* MainstreamObscurity: It's not so much that [[AdaptationDisplacement people don't know the book exists]], it's more the fact that people don't seem to understand that the novel and the Disney animated movie are vastly different in more ways than one. The other major WesternAnimation adaptations by Creator/ChuckJones are several decades old.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: This anime was very popular in India, probably more popular there than Japan, its native country. Its even more popular than the Disney animated movie.

!!For the 2012 DQ Entertainment adaptation:
* JerkassWoobie: [[https://vimeo.com/18820867 Tabaqui.]] Yes, he tries to trick, trap, manipulate and lie to Mowgli several times but he suffers more physical and verbal abuse than any other character in the series, often leaving him a shivering and terrified wreck. His {{Adorkable}} antics when he actually isn't up to something bad only makes him all the more cute and pitiful.
* {{Moe}}:
** Tabaqui most certainly qualifies despite being a ManipulativeBastard and a notorious SmugSnake. He's especially cute when frightened or terrified and is known to whimper softly when sad and make PuppyDogEyes. Plus, he can be pretty {{Adorkable}} at times.
** Chota, the little tiger cub.
* UglyCute: A few characters, most notably Rana the warthog.
* UncannyValley: Some character can come across as this because of the CGI style, most notably Mowgli.
* TheWoobie: Rana the warthog. Despite his HairTriggerTemper, the only two episodes he's had a major role in involve him being bullied and picked on by the Banda Log. His UglyCute appearance only amplifies his status as one.

!!For the Disney animated movie:
* AdaptationDisplacement: More people know about the aforementioned Disney movie than Kipling's books.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** Shere Khan could be interpreted as an [[WellIntentionedExtremist avenger against Man, seeing how they have hunted and killed his species purely for their striped pelts]]. Bagheera does mention at one point that Shere Kahn will not let Mowgli grow up to be "another hunter with a gun". A storybook adaptation of the film even stated that Shere Khan had once been shot by a hunter.
** There's a lot of debate on Wiki/ThisVeryWiki whether Shere Khan is AffablyEvil or FauxAffablyEvil.
** In the books, he's born crippled, meaning he finds it easier to hunt humans. This is a common explanation for many man-eating predators. The film removes his lameness, and therefore his reason for attacking humans.
** As some have noted, King Louie's desire to "be human" may be less playful than he implies. What do most animals in the jungle fear? The power of fire. If an animal has the power over fire, they could rule the jungle uncontested. He even says himself that he's the king of the apes, and ''that's not enough for him''. Being a king over other primates is not where he wants to cap out. This is exactly the direction the [[Film/TheJungleBook2016 2016 live-action / CGI movie]] took the character into, making him a fully-fledged villain who wants to take over the jungle with the power of fire.
* AngstWhatAngst: Mowgli seems ''far'' more choked up about leaving Baloo (who he's known for all of a couple of days) than his wolf family that raised him for about a decade.
* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Kaa is praised as one of the most entertaining villains in Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon and, due to his HypnoticEyes, has garnered an unusual fanbase. A second scene was in fact produced for the movie after he proved popular with test audiences.
** While Shere Khan had little screen-time for a Disney baddie, his build-up and mannerism made him quite the scene-stealer when he finally made his appearances. [[UpToEleven He even stole a scene from]] ''Kaa.''
** King Louie, who has just one scene (and musical number), but is very fondly remembered as a highlight of the movie.
** Shanti originally wasn't very popular, but fans warmed considerably up to her after she'd been given a name and a personality, and became one of the main characters in ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook2''. The sequel itself is considered average at best, but Shanti got a sizeable fanbase.
* EvilIsCool: [[BigBad Shere Khan the tiger]] arguably personifies this trope. It’s kind of funny considering he’s a lesser evil Disney Villain and can ''still'' encompass this trope. This is what happens when you’re portrayed as a big, brutal badass and a [[FauxAffablyEvil well-mannered]] [[WickedCultured gentleman]].
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The film is the most popular of Disney's animated films in Germany and still remains a box office record holder there, the result of [[SuperlativeDubbing/GermanDubs Superlative Dubbing]].
* HilariousInHindsight:
** Baloo's concern that the Man Village "will make a man out of [Mowgli]" becomes funnier once you've seen the film's spinoff series ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'', which stars a fully-anthropomorphized Baloo.
*** Not to mention that particular phrase was later used for a song in [[WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}} another Disney film]].
** Shere Khan is a tiger with a British voice and is implied to be somewhat insane. Richard Waugh later mentions that he used Shere Khan's voice as the inspiration for how he would voice Albert Wesker from the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series, who is a really bad individual and also happens to possess feline eyes after a certain incident involving a serum.
** "That's What Friends Are For" was originally going to be more faithful to what Music/TheBeatles were doing, but Walt [[ItWillNeverCatchOn thought it would make the movie dated]].
** The reason for Kaa's AdaptationalVillainy was because of Disney believing that [[SnakesAreSinister snakes are sinister]]. Years later, Disney would release ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', where one of the characters is a snake... who is ''not'' sinister at all.
*** Before that, Disney released ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToasterToTheRescue'', ''WesternAnimation/BrandyAndMrWhiskers'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheWild'', all of which included a good snake in the main cast.
*** And even before that, the film's other spinoff series ''WesternAnimation/JungleCubs'' more or less portrayed Kaa as a good guy like his book counterpart.
* HoYay: So much between Baloo and Bagheera.
** In particular, this exchange:
-->'''Bagheera:''' You can't adopt Mowgli as your son.\\
'''Baloo:''' Why not?\\
'''Bagheera:''' How can I put it... Baloo, birds of a feather should flock together. You wouldn't marry a panther, would you?\\
'''Baloo:''' I don't know. [laughs] Come to think of it, no panther ever asked me. [nudges Bagheera in the ribs]
** The film ends with Baloo and Bagheera literally walking off into the sunset together. This occurs seconds after Baloo advises Mowgli to swear off women.
* MemeticBadass: One of the main reasons why Shere Khan is so popular.
* MemeticMutation:
** "What are we gonna do?" "I don't know; whatcha wanna do?" "Hey, don't start that again!"
** The Jungle Book wedgie (The scene where Bagheera tried to drag Mowgli to the Man Village by his loincloth while Mowgli held onto a tree) is very popular.
* OlderThanTheyThink:
** The portrayal of Shere Khan as a tiger lacking a lame leg originates with the 1942 screen adaptation.
** The film's main theme "Jungle Beat" was originally written for the 1964 New York World's Fair under the title "Serengeti Serenade".
* OneSceneWonder: Shanti who just appears at the end to sing a song.
* {{Padding}}: The elephants, who contribute next to nothing to keep Shere Khan away even as they march about military-style to defend their jungle.
* PopularWithFurries: Kaa is ''the'' most influential snake character for the scaly fandom. Due to him, and to a lesser extent Sir Hiss from ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', many snake characters have [[{{expy}} similar]] HypnoticEyes.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
** One of the main criticisms against the movie is that Mowgli himself felt flat, underdeveloped and passive in his own story, making him easily overshadowed by the villains and supporting characters.
** The wolves, compared to the novels and most adaptations, are fairly minor characters with barely any characterisation. Their relationship with Mowgli is given only passing mention, and they get no appearance or even so much as a mentioning in the sequel.
* ToyShip: Mowgli can't be older than ten, but that doesn't stop the similar-aged village girl Shanti from making goo-goo eyes at him.
* UnfortunateImplications: A notable example of deliberately trying to avert this trope. Disney originally had Music/LouisArmstrong in mind to voice King Louie, but they ultimately went with Italian-American jazz musician [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Prima Louis Prima]] instead, out of concern that casting an African-American as an ape who has a number on how he wants to be a human too would raise eyebrows.
* VanillaProtagonist: Many people find KidHero Mowgli the least interesting character in the movie, in contrast to the funny and entertaining animals he interacts with (all of them, including [[StraightMan Bagheera]]).
* ValuesDissonance: Shanti in the original film is portrayed as a shameless FilleFatale, with the camera lingering over her batting her eyelashes at Mowgli etc., in a way that no kids' film would present a ten-year-old child today.
* WhatAnIdiot: Kaa answering Bagheera's call for Mowgli to remain quiet til morning wasn't a bright idea, especially since he would've gotten away with eating the man cub if he hadn't done so.

** Shanti originally wasn't very popular, but fans warmed considerably up to her after she'd been given a name and a personality, and became one of the main characters in ''Disney/TheJungleBook2''. The sequel itself is considered average at best, but Shanti got a sizeable fanbase.

*** Not to mention that particular phrase was later used for a song in [[Disney/{{Mulan}} another Disney film]].

** The reason for Kaa's AdaptationalVillainy was because of Disney believing that [[SnakesAreSinister snakes are sinister]]. Years later, Disney would release ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', where one of the characters is a snake... who is ''not'' sinister at all.

* PopularWithFurries: Kaa is ''the'' most influential snake character for the scaly fandom. Due to him, and to a lesser extent Sir Hiss from ''Disney/RobinHood'', many snake characters have [[{{expy}} similar]] HypnoticEyes.

!! For the 1993/1994 video game based on the Disney animated movie: