Jungle Cubs

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Jungle Cubs
The main characters. From left to right: Colonel Hathi, Kaa, Shere Khan, Bagheera, King Louie and Baloo.
Format	Animated series
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	21
Production
Running time	22 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC (1996–1997) Disney Channel (1998–2000) Toon Disney (April 18, 1998 – December 28, 2001)
Original run	October 5, 1996 – January 10, 1998

Jungle Cubs was an animated series produced by Disney for ABC in 1996. It was based on their 1967 feature film The Jungle Book, but set in the youth of the animal characters. The show was a hit, running for two seasons in syndication before moving its re-runs to the Disney Channel. The show was last seen on Toon Disney, but was taken off the schedule in 2001 and has not been seen since on the U.S. airwaves. The show did air in the United Kingdom on Disney Cinemagic and in Latin America until it was removed. Disney Channel confirmed reruns of the show starting at 4AM replacing Dave the Barbarian was removed from the schedule until December 2009.

Premise

The stars of Disney's 1967 animated film The Jungle Book were regressed to cubs for this syndicated animated series. Jungle Cubs suggested that when they were younger, both the good and evil animals lived together in relative peace.

Each of the characters were given distinct characteristics which reflected their future personalities as seen in The Jungle Book; this creative idea further tied the show in with its film predecessor. Uptight panther Bagheera, free spirit bear Baloo, headstrong tiger Shere Khan, wild orangutan Prince Louie, neurotic elephant Hathi, and hypnotic snake Kaa all returned from the film, putting aside their differences to live and learn together. The show gave a female elephant named Winifred a prominent role; she was (Colonel) Hathi's wife in The Jungle Book.

The cubs brave a variety of jungle dangers, often matching wits with sneaky vultures Cecil and Arthur. Living up to new federal regulations for educational television, Jungle Cubs offer lessons on friendship, self-respect, and other healthy traits, crafted for an audience of young children.

In the second season of the show, many of the cubs become slightly older and more distanced from one another. (Many are also given different voice actors.) And, although they still remain good friends, they are getting more and more busy with their own lives and spending less time at their fort, the Cub House (Louie's future palace). Louie becomes wrapped up in being King of the Jungle and is no longer so close to Baloo, Bagheera becomes more serious and uptight than before, and Hathi begins spending more time with Winifred than with the other Cubs. The biggest change, however, is Shere Khan. He spends a lot of time hunting, as Bagheera and Kaa do, and as the series progresses, begins to become more annoyed with the other Cubs than before. He even attempts to overthrow Louie at one point, using Kaa (who didn't really get a choice in the matter) as a henchman. Kaa, as well as Baloo (with the exception of his friendship with Louie), doesn't really change much. He still remains sneaky and uses his hypnotism power.

Character biographies

• Baloo: A caring and happy go lucky sloth bear. He likes to play with his friends and sometimes plays tricks on Bagheera in order to snap the latter out of his seriousness.

• Bagheera: He is a sensible and solemn panther who rarely gets into trouble. He has a preoccupation with being clean. Bagheera is affectionately known as Baggy and is the youngest in the group.

• Louie: Baloo's best friend. He is very physically active, spending a great deal of his time in trees, and wants to become king of the jungle one day. Louie is an orangutan.

• Shere Khan: A stuck up Bengal tiger. He often tries to lord over the other animals, but his confidence sometimes suffers when faced with actual problems.

• Kaa: A young python who wants to hypnotize other animals, but his skills at hypnosis are currently erratic at best.

• Hathi: An elephant who attempts to keep the pals in order but is known to stammer when under stress. Later, he develops a huge crush on Winifred, who is his wife in the The Jungle Book.

• The two main recurring characters in the series are the vultures Arthur and Cecil, who are constantly hoping for one of the cubs to die so they can eat them; however, they also provide some comic relief and are never seen as a real threat.

Voice Actors

FIRST SEASON

• Charlie Adler as Ned the Baboon
• Pamela Segall as Baloo
• Jim Cummings as Kaa/Fred the Baboon/Jed the Baboon/Dhole Leader/WhiteHood the Great White Cobra/Winifred's Uncle/Golden Jackal/Cane the EvilIndian Wolf/Common Tailorbird/High-Tempered Mother Indian Rhinoceros/Striped Hyena Pack
• Elizabeth Daily as Bagheera/Cousin Benny the Younger Orangutan/Screaming Lar Gibbon
• David Lander as Arthur the Slender Billed Vulture
• Tress MacNeille as Mahra the Baboon
• Jason Marsden as Shere Khan/Louie/Gulping Indian Chameleon/Intruding Clouded Leopard
• Michael McKean as Cecil the Slender Billed Vulture
• April Winchell as the Cranky Eurasian Pygmy Shrew
• Susan Tolsky as Clarice the Female Slender Billed Vulture
• Jeannie Elias as Cousin Clyde the Younger Orangutan
• Rob Paulsen as Hathi/Akela
• Kath Soucie as Winifred/Leah the Female Indian Wolf/Scared Indian Pangolin/ Alarmed Rook
• Kenneth Mars as the Old Asian Water Buffalo
• Adam Wylie as Mungo the Young Indian Gray Mongoose
• Frank Welker as the Angry Indian Rhinoceros/Hungry Mugger Crocodile/Grasped Blue-bearded Bee-eater/Ticking Crocodile
• Jeff Bennett as McCoy the Himalayan Brown Bear

SECOND SEASON

• Jim Cummings as Kaa/Johar's Father/Talent show Anouncer/Asiatic Cheetah Bodyguard #1/Primo/Basket Warthog/Embarrassed Striped Hyena/Dictator Turtle/Embarrassed Warthog/Indian Rhinoceros (A Tale of Two Tails)/ Baboon #1/Asian Water Buffalo #1/Mite #1/Domestic Sheep #4/"And I'm still hungry" Indian Elephant/Moaning Bactrian Camel/Mite #3
• Jason Marsden as Shere Khan/Johar/Indian Wolf Pup #1/Baby Mice/Snoring Indian Gray Mongoose/"The elephant's worse than the bear!" Animal
• Cree Summer as Louie/Indian Elephant girl #1/Indian Elephant girl #3/Embarrassed Caracal/Domestic Sheep #2/One Of The Dancing Monkeys (The Ape That Would be King)/Kasaba Ball Anouncer
• Pamela Segall as Baloo/Indian Wolf pup #2/Indian Elephant girl #2/One Of The Dancing Monkeys (The Ape That Would be King)
• Dee Bradley Baker as Bagheera/ Baboon #2/Embarressed Gray Langur/Embarressed Lion-tailed Macaque (Hair Ball)/Asian Water Buffalo #2/"We're not following you anymore" Animal/Stampeding Indian Rhinoceros Herd/"Yeah, you've spread enough evil turtle boy" Animal/"Nothing's worse than the bear" Animal
• Stephen Furst as Hathi/The White-tailed Mole who looks like Curly Howard/House Mouse #2 (Waiting For Baloo)/Mice (Hathi's Makeover)/Morning Indian Peafowl
• Barbara Sammeth as Johar's Mother
• Michael McKean as Cecil the Slender Billed Vulture/The White-tailed Mole who looks like Moe Howard/Domestic Sheep #3
• David Lander as Arthur the Slender Billed Vulture/Domestic Sheep #1
• April Winchell as the Magical Old Lady Monkey/Mother Mountain Tailorbird
• Christine Cavanaugh as Slothy the stand-up comic
• Frank Welker as the "You did it" Frogs/Woodpecker-owning Sloth/Sarus Crane/Lepe the Monkey/Blow-horn Toucan/Laughing Mouse/Dancing Mouse/Opera-Singing Warthog/Monkeys (Tree For Two)/Mite #2/Tiny the Indian Rhinoceros
• Kath Soucie as Winifred/Mountain Sheep/Embarrassed Ostrich/Mother Mouse/Mother Duck/Mother Sparrows/Little Chirpy the baby Sparrow/Shere Khan's Grandmother/"With the world" Monkeys/Can can Monkeys/Screaming Indian Gray Mongoose/Mouse #1 (Waiting For Baloo)
• Tino Insana as Primo's Fat Indian Leopard Manager/Asiatic Cheetah Bodygaurd #2/Lion-Tailed Macaque (Old Green Teeth)
• Jess Harnell as the "Fast-Talking" Toucan/Indian Rhinoceros (Old Green Teeth)

Episodes

Season 1 (1996)

Season 2 (1997)

DVD: Born to be Wild

This DVD featured three episodes, interspaced with clips of the animals as adults, with Baloo narrating the stories to Mowgli, Bagheera, Kaa, Hathi, King Louie and Shere Khan as he reminisces about their childhood. This is the second time that Ed Gilbert voices Baloo, the first is in TaleSpin. Jim Cummings provides the voices for King Louie, Bagheera, Kaa and Hathi; whilst Tony Jay does Shere Khan.

• A Night in the Wasteland - Young Shere Khan climbs into trouble at the top of Pinnacle Rock.
• How the Panther Lost Its Roar - Bagheera loses his voice before finding his courage.
• Red Dogs - A pack of dholes terrorize the jungle while Baloo, Kaa and Shere Kahn are missing.

'VOICE CAST'

• Jim Cummings as Adult Louie/Adult Bagheera/Adult Kaa/Young Kaa/Fred/Jed/Adult Hathi/Dhole Leader
• Ed Gilbert as Adult Baloo
• Tyler Mullen as Mowgli
• Elizabeth Daily as the Sreaming Lar Gibbon/Young Bagheera
• Jason Marsden as the Gulping Indian Chameleon/Young Shere Khan/Young Louie
• Pamela Segall as Young Baloo
• Rob Paulsen as Young Hathi
• Tress MacNeille as Mahra
• Charlie Adler as Ned
• David Lander as Arthur
• Michael McKean as Cecil
• Frank Welker as the Angry Indian Rhinoceros/Hungry Mugger Crocodile
• Tony Jay as Adult Shere Khan
• Kath Soucie as the Alarmed Rook

External links

• Jungle Cubs at the Internet Movie Database