The Jungle Book

Zac Stamp
Mrs. Boresen
Expository Writing, 4
Disney Essay
5/4/11
The Jungle Book
“Somehow I can’t believe there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C’s. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy and the greatest of these is Confidence. When you believe a thing, believe it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.”(Walt Disney) Walt Disney was one of the greatest and most successful animated film producers in the modern world and he gained his success by being a great believer in the “Secret”. The reason that this has any real bearing on the lives of people in today’s world is that in every Walt Disney film he imparted his words of wisdom about the secret and about life. The movie that I would like to discuss is one that has been one of my favorites ever sense I was a child, and that movie is “The Jungle Book”. In this 1967 film Disney infuses his secret to success in every aspect of the film including the Songs, the characters, and the plot.
The songs in this classic movie are the heart and soul of the story; therefore it makes sense that the meaning and the moral of these songs reflect Walt Disney’s views about life and the secret. The Most emphasized song in the film is “The Bare Necessities”. Here is an excerpt from that song “Look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities Forget about your worries and your strife….. The bare necessities of life will come to you” (1lyrics). If broken down it is easily seen that this song can be connected easily to the secret. In fact it directly relates to one of my favorite parts of the secret and that is gratitude. Be happy for the things in life right now be grateful for the “bare necessities” because these are the things that are important in life. The fun part about being grateful for the things already present in life is that it creates happiness and that feeling of happiness according to the secrets “Law of Attraction” (3secret) says that happiness and good feels attract more of the same, sadly the inverse is also true but if a person takes the advice in the Jungle Book and looks for the bare necessities in life and are grateful for those necessities they will attract more abundance then they ever thought possible.
Disney did not only infuse the music in his films with his philosophy he included it in every aspects of his movies right down to the characters that make up the movie. The best example of this in jungle book (2jungle book) is the character Baloo the bear. This is a character that is happy go lucky and doesn’t have a worry in the world and he acts that way for the majority of the movie; therefore it makes sense that out of all the movie this is the character with the least stress and also the character that ends up saving the day and the main character Mowgli, the man cub. Now looking at the character shercon the villain of the entire story the focus of this character is only one thing and that thing is to kill Mowgli he focuses on a negative mood and purpose he may seem to have power at first, but a creature with so much negative energy can only attract more of the same. So it makes sense that in the film when Shercon gets the chance to accomplish his goal of killing Mowgli he is stopped, and in a Walt Disney film this is the only ending possible because that is his philosophy and it is one that works. As Henry Ford once said “Whether you think you can or you can’t, either way you are right.”(3Secret) Another Character that Shows Walt Disney’s and the Secret’s Philosophy Is the Main Character Mowgli. In this story when Mogly is down, sad, and refusing to go back to the man village all his energy is negative. This results in many bad events happening to him he gets abducted multiple times, and like in the secret he is not in control of his own life so a lot of bad things happen to him he is not controlling his life so it is left up to chance and chance did not work out so well for Mowgli. However when he focuses on the positive he finds his way back to his own people and prospers. This again is congruent with the ideas in the secret and with the ideas of Walt Disney that man can accomplish anything.
The songs and characters may be the heart and soul of this story, but without a good plot none of it would make any sense. That is why the plot is the last important piece where Walt imparted his words of wisdom. The plot in this story is one that is pretty simple, but also very well written. Mowgli the man cub must leave the jungle and return to the man village, he does not wish to do so and he fights it with all his being, but is forced to try to go anyway because if he does not it is believed that he will be killed. Mowgli is a positive child prone to happiness and courage so he survives and wins his right to stay in the jungle. The interesting part is that in the jungle as he grows up he could never prosper, so when he gets the opportunity to stay in the jungle he sees a beautiful girl and chooses to go where he belongs. This fits because of his positive attitude his life becomes more abundant then ever before.
I believe that if we follow the philosophy of Disney and The Secret and believe in ourselves and that man can accomplish anything if he/she only believes that it is possible the world will be a much more abundant and blissful place. A reminder for me to follow this path is in one of my favorite animated movies “The Jungle Book” the songs the characters and the plot all remind me and the world to be positive! The last words I would like to impart to you Mrs. Boresen are simple “look for the bare necessities in life and the necessities in life will come to you.”(jungle2)
Bibliography

1. "The Jungle Book Lyrics, The Bare Neccesities Lyrics." SoundTrack Lyrics Source #1. Any Movie, Musical, TV, Cartoon! Web. 04 May 2011. .
2. The Jungle Book. Dir. Walt Disney. Walt Disney Educational Media Company, 1981. Videocassette.
3. The Secret. Dir. Rhonda Byrne’s. Perf. Bob Proctor. Official Web Site of The Secret and The Power. Web. 06 May 2011. .