Jungle Book Casting News

Two of my favorite movies to teach are The Jungle Book (1967) and The Lion King (1994), simply because of how they insert race into children's movies about animals. (Oliver and Company is also notorious for this.)

After all, animals don't have races--at least, not in the same sense which humans ascribe them. They have biological categorizations, and they are capable of grouping themselves together and ostracizing others, but not for the same reasons which humans do.

So why is it that Tito the Chihuahua (from Oliver) has a plethora of stereotypical, racist Latino traits? (While all the dogs steal to survive, he alone is the one who can hotwire the car.) Why are the hyenas -- the very bottom of the food chain -- voiced by an African-American woman (Whoopi Goldberg) and a Latino man (Cheech Marin)? (And the third is...."slow," at best.) Why are the monkeys in Jungle Book jazz singers/dancers?

After all, everything in animation is consciously done--surely these can't be coincidences?

Now, yes, The Jungle Book is from 1967 -- and to say things were "different back then" is an understatement. And I'm always a big advocate of acknowledging the context of a text -- acknowledging when it was made and the views that were held during that time. What seems incredibly racist/uncomfortable now, would simply not have been that wrong to the Disney execs in the 1960s. (And even less so in the 1940s when Dumbo was released.)

But that's why I was so intrigued when Disney announced that they were doing a live-action remake of The Jungle Book. What would that film look like? How would they approach some of the more controversial scenes? And, most importantly, how would they handle the casting choices? (I'm still not entirely sure how live-action it will be, given that most of the characters in the film are animals, but that's another matter.)

And the casting choices are certainly interesting:

• King Louie -- king of the apes and perhaps the most racist portrayal in the animated film -- will be played by Christopher Walken (thus avoiding any associations with black actors and monkeys)
• Bagheera -- Mowgli's mentor and guide -- will be played by Ben Kingsley (a good choice, IMHO, if only because Kingsley has that regal attitude innately -- but it does seem as if all mentors/guides/teachers should be British...)
• Shere Khan -- our villainous tiger -- will be played by Idris Elba (another choice I love, because the world needs more Idris Elba, and he makes a great villain -- but could this lead to discussions of black-actors-as-villains?)
• Kaa -- Khan's hench-snake -- will be played by Scarlett Johansson (the inclusion of a female actor is interesting...particularly in this role, given the whole Eve-Eden-snake-apple thing)
• Baloo -- our lovable hippy bear -- will be voiced by Bill Murray, mainly for the comedic effect, I think. 

Perhaps I'm overthinking the casting choices, but I think -- given Disney's tendency to ascribe race to animals in the past -- it's an interesting conversation to have.