{"id":107,"date":"2014-03-15T20:30:05","date_gmt":"2014-03-15T20:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.wordpress.com\/?p=107"},"modified":"2022-09-24T19:28:47","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T19:28:47","slug":"wagging-the-dog-in-the-jungle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/?p=107","title":{"rendered":"Wagging the dog in the jungle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Jungle Book<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1967)<\/p>\n

Inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s novel<\/a>, Bagheera, a black panther, takes an orphaned boy he finds in the jungle to live with a pack of wolves. Years later, the wolf tribe learns Shere Khan (George Saunders) has returned to the jungle and realize the young boy, Mowgli,\u00a0is in danger. Despite his protests, Bagheera\u00a0 (Sebastian Cabot) escorts him back to civilization.\u00a0During their journey, they encounter a\u00a0Baloo, a fun loving bear; Kaa (Sterling Holloway), a dangerous python; a pack of musical apes; and pack of vultures doing their best impression of The Beatles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sterling Holloway was the original voice of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh and voiced the Cheshire Cat in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland <\/em>(1951).<\/p>\n

George Sanders was married to two of the Gabor sisters (Zsa Zsa and Magda), won an Oscar as Addison Dewitt in All About Eve <\/em>(1950), then committed suicide at the age of 65\u00a0as his health began to fail.<\/p>\n

Director Wolgang Reitherman was one of the\u00a0Nine Old Men<\/a>, the Disney animators who built the company. \u00a0 He directed most of the their animated films in the 1960s and 1970s including 101 Dalmatians <\/em>(1961), The Sword in the Stone <\/em>(1963), The Aristocats <\/em>(1970), Robin Hood <\/em>(1973), The Rescuers <\/em>(1977), and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh <\/em>(1977).<\/p>\n

Despite its hallowed reputation, the movie’s narrative is plagued with inconsistencies. \u00a0Why was Mowgli abandoned in the first place? A newborn baby is safe in the jungle raised by wolves, but a ten-year old boy is not?\u00a0\u00a0Apparently, the jungle was a safe place for children until the dreaded Shere Khan returned.<\/p>\n

The movie is redeemed by the fantastic musical sequences, especially the swing number “I Wan’na Be Like You”\u00a0by King Louie (voiced by big band leader Louis Prima<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The\u00a0ridiculousness of the plot is excusable because the music\u00a0is so energetic, but the last five minutes are\u00a0a chaotic mess and send horrible signals to children. Mowgli sees a girl for the first time, and abandons his friends without saying goodbye?\u00a0\u00a0Baloo had just pledged he’d never allow the boy to leave,\u00a0but seconds later shrugs off his departure?\u00a0Finally. Bagheera’s “he’s better off with his own kind,” attitude seems weirdly misplaced in a children’s film.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0is\u00a0a good movie, but a tad overrated because of Walt Disney’s death during its production\u00a0and the Disney dry spell which followed. The musical numbers are amongst the best Disney has to offer, but the story is too light and aimless.<\/p>\n

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\"225px-Wag_The_Dog_Poster\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Wag Dog<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1997)<\/p>\n

When the President of the United States is embroiled in sex scandal with an underage girl\u00a0shortly before the election, he calls Conrad Brean (Robert DeNiro) to manage the crisis. Brean enlists film producer Stanley Motts (Dustin Hoffman) to\u00a0stage a fake war with Albania<\/a>\u00a0as a distraction from the scandal, but their plan is plagued with difficulties.<\/p>\n

This cynical movie argues political process is simply a game to the people in power; making an impassioned explanation for your beliefs is beside the point in contemporary politics.<\/p>\n

It also explores the nature of art, particularly the collaborative process. \u00a0Motts gladly agrees to help, but cannot imagine not getting credit for his work.<\/p>\n

This movie has no moral center, no hero struggling to do the right thing.\u00a0\u00a0These people are very good at what they do, but they’re not very good people. This updated\u00a0Dr. Strangelove<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is a fascinating movie because of how little outrage it provokes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Jungle Book\u00a0(1967) Inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s novel, Bagheera, a black panther, takes an orphaned boy he finds in the jungle to live with a pack of wolves. Years later, the wolf tribe learns Shere Khan (George Saunders) has returned to the jungle and realize the young boy, Mowgli,\u00a0is in danger. Despite his protests,… Continue reading Wagging the dog in the jungle<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[63,89,193,227,246,308,495,568,589,678,705,751,898],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-progress","tag-animation","tag-barry-levinson","tag-cynicism","tag-disney","tag-dustin-hoffman","tag-george-sanders","tag-louis-prima","tag-musical-films","tag-nine-old-men","tag-robert-deniro","tag-satire","tag-sterling-holloway","tag-wolfgang-reitherman","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12857,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/12857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}