History Theatre / Jungelboken

* TheBlindLeadingTheBlind: Mowgli makes an honest attempt at teaching the monkeys to be human. Unfortunately, since he's lived with the wolves all his life and doesn't know any more about human life than they do, his advice ends up being "walk with your knees straight, don't climb trees,and cut off your tails." Despite this, he actually manages to convince them that he knows what he's talking about... until they ask him how to make fire.

* DirtyCoward: Shere Khan won't start a fight he's not sure to win. He may bluster and threaten, but as long as he's up against an entire wolf back, or one single Baloo, he won't actually attack. This is why he keeps wanting Mowgli to go off on his own, away from the protection of his friends.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Tabaqui survives the story, and is last seen together with Lulu, finally getting something to eat -- Shere Khan's body.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Tabaqui survives the story, and is last seen together with Lulu, finally getting something to eat --- Shere Khan's body.

* TheRuntAtTheEnd: Pee Wee, the smallest of Raksha's wolf cubs and the only one apart from Mowgli not to have "Brother" in his name, is usually mentions last and usually walks last in the marching order. Some productions present him as a girl.

* MockingSingSong: Mowgli and Pee Wee use this to tease Grey Brother about being in love with Tara.

* FailedASpotCheck: Mowgli has been hypnotized by Kaa, and Bagheera, who can't wake him up and can't carry him while he's in a trance and nearly rooted to the spot, covers the boy up with branches to hide him while he goes for help. Enter Baloo, who engages in some comical mishaps while completely failing to see Mowgli -- in some productions he's just on his way to the wolves' home, in others he's gathering eggs to make eggnog. At one point he looks directly at the branch-covered Mowgli, but just as the audience thinks he's seen the boy it just turns out he's spotted either an egg or a date, depending on the production. He picks it up and then goes on his merry way, completely failing to notice the entranced Mowgli even as the branches fall away and uncovers him completely.

* FailedASpotCheck: Mowgli has been hypnotized by Kaa, and Bagheera who can't wake him up, covers him up with branches to hide him while he goes for help. Enter Baloo, who engages in some comical mishaps while completely failing to see Mowgli -- in some productions he's just on his way to the wolves' home, in others he's gathering eggs to make eggnog. At one point he looks directly at the branch-covered Mowgli, but just as the audience thinks he's seen the boy it just turns out he's spotted either an egg or a date, depending on the production. He picks it up and then goes on his merry way, completely failing to notice the entranced Mowgli.

* LighterAndSofter: Despite the first song of the musical being about the Law of the Jungle and how PredationIsNatural, the musical is a lot more lighthearted and comical than the book. Even Shere Khan is a much more comical villain with a MilesGloriousus attitude and a few moments of bumbling slapstick.

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Shere Khan is a comical bumbler who [[MilesGloruousus brags about his own greatness while not being able to back it up]], but he's still a legitimate threat to Mowgli.

* LighterAndSofter: Despite the first song of the musical being about the Law of the Jungle and how PredationIsNatural, the musical is a lot more lighthearted and comical than the book. Even Shere Khan has his moments of bumbling slapstick.

-->'''Baloo:'' Relax, Bagheera! Have a pineapple! ''(throws him a pineapple)''\\

* AdaptedOut: Akela and Father Wolf don't appear in the play, though Akela is name-dropped in the wolves' scout motto ("Akela, we will do the best we can!"). Raksha seems to be the head of the pack.

* NobleWolf: Exaggerated to the point of parody. Mowgli's brothers are a ''cub scout troup.''

** Mowgli in the book could be both obnoxious, disobedient and disrespectful, and often a bit of a {{Jerkass}}. This version is a lot more humble and easygoing -- his worst traits is a tendency to overestimate his own abilities and to wander off on his own when he's explicitly been told not to, but this is mostly him being antsy and restless; he's growing up and testing boundaries .
** The wolves in the book had a much more ambivalent relationship with Mowgli. While his adopted parents and brothers were always on his side, the overall wolf pack pretty much only let him in because Bagheera bribed them, and are all too willing to turn their backs on him when Akela is no longer the leader. Here, Mowgli's status as a member of the pack is never in question, and all the wolves are ready to defend him when danger lurks. Additionally, Mowgli's brothers (Grey Brother, Big Brother, Long Brother and Pee Wee) essentially act as the [[StealthPun cub scouts]] of the jungle, going around and performing at least one good deed per day,

* BearyFriendly: Baloo, to an extent he wasn't in the book. He gets along with everyone -- with the possible exception of Shere Khan, and even there he's not actually hostile towards him.

* AdaptationalBadass: Bagheera was already a {{Badass}} in the original book, and while this version takes more than a few cues from the more uptight ComicallySerious Disney version, he manages one thing that even his book counterpart couldn't: he completely {{No Sell}}s Kaa's hypnotic abilities. He's totally ImmuneToMindControl, and she knows it, which is why Bagheera is the only character Kaa is intimidated by.

* AdaptationalBadass: Bagheera was already a {{Badass}} in the original book, and while this version takes more than a few cues from the more uptight ComicallySerious Disney version, he manages one thing that even his book counterpart couldn't: he completely {{No Sell}}s Kaa's hypnotic abilities. He's totally immune, and she knows it, which is why Bagheera is the only character Kaa is intimidated by.

* FailedASpotCheck: Mowgli has been hypnotized by Kaa, and Bagheera who can't wake him up, covers him up with branches to hide him while he goes for help. Enter Baloo, who's on his way to the wolves' home to see Mowgli. He sees the branches, notes that one of the branches has dates growing on it, so he picks and eats the dates before going on his merry wa, completely failing to notice the entranced Mowgli.

* MassiveMultiplayerEnsembleNumber: The first song of the musical, "The Law of the Jungle" has most of the major characters (excluding Raksha, Mowgli and Shere Khan) introduce themselves and tell the audience how they follow the law of the jungle.

* PredationIsNatural: The animals all speak the same language and can communicate with each other -- but (apart from Baloo, who's a vegetarian) they'll still eat each other. This is the "law of the jungle," treated as perfectly natural. Part of Shere Khan's hatred for humans is rooted in how human hunter, with their guns, will hunt for trophies rather than for food.

** Baloo can come across as this, given how this version owes more to his Disney counterpart than his original book one. He's still the wolf cubs' (and Mowgli's) teacher, but while he seems to do a fairly good job, he's not always the most alert or aware of teachers; he can be directly irresponsible and he's got a penchant for ComicallyMissingThePoint, focusing on the wrong things at the wrong time. He does have a bit of an AdaptationalBadass thing going on, though, even if it's mostly implied: Shere Khan doesn't dare to attack Mowgli when Baloo is around.

* TheDiva: Kaa is very much this.

* DramaQueen: Tabaqui overreacts hilariously when he finds out that Mowgli isn't dead so he and Lulu can't eat him.

* PredationIsNatural: The animals all speak the same language and can communicate with each other -- but (apart from Baloo, who's a vegetarian) they'll still eat each other. This is the "law of the jungle," treated as perfectly natural, and everyone accepts it; even Shere Khan isn't necessarily portrayed as being ''wrong'' for wanting to eat Mowgli, it's just that the wolves, Bagheera and Baloo ''really'' don't want to lose their human.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Bagheera lapses into a scathing "The Reason You Suck" ''song'' when he discovers that Mowgli has wandered off bec ause Baloo, who was supposed to be watching him, fell asleep.
* ScavengersAreScum: Played with but ultimately subverted. Tabaqui and Lulu are nominally on the side of the villains, acting as the much-abused stooges of Shere Khan, but it's pretty clear that they're not really evil, just hungry (and too afraid of Shere Khan to leave him). As scavengers, it's noted up front that their job is to "keep the jungle clean" by eating dead things.