One of Disney’s more animated animation adventures The Jungle Book has been released for the first time in a diamond edition on Blu-ray/DVD and Digital Copy.  Whether you are a collector of Disney on Blu-ray or just want the best possible presentation of this comical and music filled adventure it’s a perfect choice for your library. Fun for the whole family, the video also has some very new bonus features.

The comical adventure finds Mowgli, a young child being raised by wolves in the Indian Jungle.  Happy go lucky, Mowgli has found some very good friends in Baloo a wacky bear and Bagheera a wise old panther who tells the story.  The film goes on showing Mowgli’s fun with his friends and featuring some lively songs as they enjoy jungle life.

But not all is coconuts and bananas when a fierce tiger called Sheer Kahn starts to invade their space.  The wolves are nervous and want Mowgli to go to live with the humans, but for the young boy it’s not the life he wants.  That is until he meets a human in the form of a young girl his age.

Mowgli comes face to face with Sheer Kahn in THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book is filled with funny characters and in addition to his best friends and his parents the wolves Akela and Rama, there’s marching elephants lead by Colonel Hathi, his wife Winnifred with little Junior bringing up the rear. Then there’s a crazy orangutan named King Louis, a wise old snake called Kaa and the madcap vultures Buzzie, Flaps, Ziggy and Dizzy.

The zany vultures in THE JUNGLE BOOK

There’s over two hours of bonuses with something for the whole family.
BONUS FEATURES:

• “Disney Animation: Sparking Creativity” a behind the scenes visit with today’s top Disney animators.
• “Bear-E-Oke” a opportunity to sing-a-long with Baloo
• “Recently Discovered Alternate Ending”
• “Music, Memories and Mowgli” featuring Richard M. Sherman
• “I Wanna Be Like You” hanging out at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
• “DisneyPedia: Junglemania”
• “Deleted Character Sequence”
• And much more

Baloo, Mowgli and Bagheera

The sound is excellent played using Blu-ray 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio or DVD’s 5.1 Dolby Digital.  The dialogue and songs come through crystal clear.  There are plenty of kid friendly songs that include; “The Elephant Song”, “The Bare Necessities”, “I Wanna be Like You”, “Trust in Me”, I Knew I Belonged to Her”, “That’s What Friends are for” and “My Own Home”.

The video is nicely remastered and is presented in 16×9 TV widescreen with a 1.75:1 aspect ratio that fills the complete screen.  Glorious color has been upped from the original DVD release and there’s not distortion that I could see.

FINAL ANALYSIS: If you don’t have it already or want an upgrade, then this is a must for your family library. (B+)

Specifications and additional film information:
Cast: Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, George Sanders, Sterling Holloway, Bruce Reitherman and J. Pat O’Malley
Director: Wolfgang Reitherman
MPAA Rating: G
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Family
Running Time: 1 hr 28 min    
Video Release Date: February 11, 2011
Original Film Release Date: October 18, 1967
Language: English
Format: Blu-ray
Audio: Blu-ray 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio or DVD’s 5.1 Dolby Digital
Video: 16×9 Widescreen with Aspect Ratio 1.75:1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Number of Discs: 2 Discs + Digital Disc Code
Distributed by: Buena Vista Home Entertainment