As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Book
- In the original book and some theatrical versions, Tabaqui, Shere Khan's rabid jackal sidekick, has a habit of turning from a Professional Butt-Kisser to an Axe-Crazy maniac, and it's hinted that when he's in his manic stage he could probably take Shere Khan despite being a quarter of his size.
- And the fact that he spends the entire play eyeing up Mowgli's ankle-bone (which Shere Khan promised to him when he finally kills him) and basically sees him as a walking talking meal doesn't put anyone at ease...
- Another case from the novel: Kaa hypnotizes the Bandar-Log to save Mowgli. He first charms them so that they cannot move any part of their bodies unless he commands them to, then puts them in a complete trance using "The Dance of the Hungry Kaa". As the dance progresses, he commands them all to move one step closer straight into his waiting maw. Worse still, while Mowgli is immune to Kaa's charms, the hypnosis almost effects Bagheera and Baloo as well, and if Mowgli hadn't stopped them from moving forward when he did, Kaa would likely have eaten them too.
- This scene is worked into animation in the Adventures of Mowgli animated film. And it is terrifying.
- Mowgli learns that the village persecuted his mother. Once he gets her and her husband to safety, he destroys the village. Slowly. Over a period of months. Without killing anyone. Bagheera is (half-jokingly?) terrified of him when he realizes what Mowgli is up to. There's even a scene where the fleeing villagers take one last look back at Hathi the elephant breaking down their walls.
- Initially it's slow. Then Hathi pricks his foot on a splinter. Whatever remained was gone by the end of the day.
- "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" depicts India as a place where deadly snakes can be anywhere and the simplest of actions can put you in deadly danger. Most explicitly, the boy in the story stoops to offer Rikki a peanut and Karait, a deadly dust brown snakeling, appears out of the dirt right before him to threaten him. Even Rikki is afraid upon first meeting Nag, until he realises he is a mongoose, a furry protector born to confront such threats.
- Nag and Nagaina take the fear factor of their species up to eleven, with their plotting to sneak into the house of Rikki's adopted family and kill them.
- After Nag is killed, his vengeful mate Nagaina abandons stealth and simply walks in on the family when they are having breakfast intent on simply killing all of them right there. Believing that it was the father who killed Nag, she aimed to start by killing the man's son right in front of him.
- The short scene with Karait is made all the more nerve-wracking, because the story warns the reader that despite his smaller size, Karait's venom is as potent as Nag's, and Karait's speed and reflexes are much greater than the bigger cobra's. Thus, if the over-confident Rikki fails to kill Karait with his first bite, he will be killed by Karait's deadly retaliatory bite into Rikki's lip — or eye.
Chuck Jones Animated Films
- In general, the animation style and the background music add a lot of intensity to the already tense scenes from the novels, working wonders to heighten the viewer's mood.
- The introduction to Mowgli's Brothers includes a sequence of Shere Khan stalking that is both beautiful and terrifying, with the tiger literally nothing but a silhouette made up of his stripes against a solidly colored background, even as the camera gets right up into his face and then dives down his roaring throat into total blackness.
- Mowgli using a stolen shirt to pretend to be a ghost and scare Tabaqui is genuinely creepy looking.
- The choice of Orson Welles as narrator for the Animated Adaptation of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi also does wonders for turning up the creep factor, particularly in the scenes where Karait makes his appearance or when Chuchundra warns Rikki to listen to the sounds of the house late at night, when Nag or Nagaina may be sneaking in.
Anime
- Mowgli being surrounded by jackals is enough to scare someone and let their imagination create some very lurid images of what would have happened if Sura and Bagheera didn't arrive to save him.
