I’ll tell you what we are gonna do. We are gonna do another Disney night.
Wow, things are definitely wrapping up in the COUNTING DOWN TO BEING OLD MOVIES AND FOOD post series. And as you can tell, we are really cramming them in here. Less than 5 days until Disney and after this post, we have one more left. So hence, the two movies in two day ACTION.
COMING AT’CHA!
Oooooh….what could the last movie be? I know. I know. Yup. The Cat from Outer Space. Can’t wait. I mean, a talking cat? Pfft.
OK, fine…its not. But I ain’t telling what it is.
We are getting ahead of ourselves though. Let’s focus on the movie at hand. I have been really looking forward to watching this one. I don’t know…I really love The Jungle Book. It just has so much great going for it. Baloo = best. We all know this. And should therefore stop denying.
The food
For dinner, we had Indian food. We had some naan and samosas to start:
For our entrée, we had butter chicken and some basmati rice. My Indian friends tell me butter chicken ain’t real deal Indian-field. But eh…it tastes good.
And for dessert, we had chocolate covered frozen bananas from Trader Joe’s. On account of monkeys like bananas. And King Louie. And noms.
The activity
For this one, the four of us headed out to the zoo for a couple hours. We are members, so we can just stroll in and be like…”sup animuls” whenever we want. Yeah, we are kind of a big deal.
And it was actually a really great day at the zoo. The cold was starting to subside so it seemed like all the animals were coming out to get a taste of some warm weather. I LOOOOOOOVE ANIMALS.
This guy? Literally wanted to eat out faces off.
The movie
The Jungle Book, at its core, is just a great story. Kipling’s original story has been told…and re-told…and re-told…and re-told again. The newest live-action version is coming out next week. What about this story keeps us coming back? Because this story is awesome. Obvs. But of course, for its version, Disney had to enhance it. The Disneyfication of this movie is probably best exemplified by the music.. This movie has some legitimate best Disney music contenders. “Bare Necessities” and “Wanna Be Like You” are up there with the greats for sure. Even the lesser songs like Kaa’s “Trust In Me” or the vulture’s “That’s What Friends Are For” still remain pretty great.
And while Mowgli is great and all, it’s the animal characters that drive most of what we love about this movie. Baloo. King Louie. Kaa. Bagheera. All great. And Shere Kahn is a pretty ruthless villain. Like, he literally wants to RIP APART the main character. Come to think of it, Kaa also tried to eat Moqgli. So. You know. Stay away from those dudes.
The genius of this movie, in my opinion, is that under all the music, adventure and up-tempo-ness of it is a pretty deep (and kind of sad) story. Yeah. Deep breath. This movie is first and foremost about family and friendship. Fierce friendship. And man, I mean…who wouldn’t want a friend like Baloo.
But it’s also about letting go and moving on. At the start, Mowgli is not ready to move on and let go of the family and world he has known his whole life. He has to though, right? for the very real reason of like being eaten by a tiger for sure. But also because…he has to grow up. Become a man. Evolve. When we first meet Mowgli, he isn’t ready. He has learned how to survive well enough. But emotionally, he isn’t ready.
And then he meets Baloo. And for a little while at least, he is allowed to remain in a developmental sort of limbo, adapting to Baloo’s carefree life in the jungle. But of course, we all know living life means challenges and hard decisions. And while fun should always remain a part of life, life isn’t all fun. It’s also…you know…life.
Disney has done a lot of movies about growing up over the years. And attacked the subject from different angles for sure. Wendy’s desire not to do such a thing. Christopher Robin’s reluctance to leave the 100-Acre Wood. Or even the heart-wrenching emotional journey of Riley in Inside Out. And I have talked about these before for sure. At its core, The Jungle Book is essentially the same story. But with what seems like much more at stake, right? I mean, Mowgli is being told he has to move on from the world he has known his entire life. While to the rest of us, the jungle might be a scary place…the world of man is one unknown to Mowgli.
And in the end, he lets go and moves on of course. He can’t avoid it. Call it destiny, fate or simply just the march of time. We all have to evolve. The sad thing is that when a child grows up and moves on, it’s not just the child that has to let go. As we watch Baloo and Baghera let Mowgli go into the world, this moment can’t help but stick with me as a parent. The ascent to adulthood is something so many children resist and fear. But like it or not, time does in fact march on. And if we do it right, while time sort of moves our children forward, once it happens we as parents are left like Baloos and Bagheeras looking on with a bittersweet mixture of pride and sadness at the time that has come before and lead us here. And we all know that moment when we let our children into the world is inevitable.
Of course, as Baloo and Bagheera walk off, we know that these moments pass and time continues to march. Bringing new joys, new adventures and new moments to be cherished. And if we let them, maybe the moment that pass are what can help us to cherish all the ones that come after even more.
WeHeartDisney 
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