King Louie

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King Louie is a fictional orangutan who kidnaps Mowgli in Disney's 1967 animated musical adaptation of The Jungle Book. He is voiced by Louis Prima in the film and therefore has his same mannerisms.

Conception and creation

King Louie the Ape singing I Wan'na Be Like You.

The character King Louie does not appear in Rudyard Kipling's original book, as orangutans are not native to India. Also, Kipling insists that the Bandar-log or monkeys have no king, or any effective leadership. But the movie is "inspired by" rather than "based on" the Kipling stories.^[1] In the book, Mowgli is abducted by a band of nameless and leaderless Bandar-log (monkeys), but the rest of the scene plays out very differently from Disney's version. Bill Peet's original story for the film did not feature King Louie, but did have a bigger Bandar without a tail, who was perhaps meant to be their king. Peet left the Disney company over a dispute regarding the contents of his script so his ultimate vision for the king of the Bandar-log remains unknown. Development of the story continued following Peet's departure, with his darker story giving way to a new emphasis on lightheartedness and jazzy tunes. In this company milieu King Louie eventually came into being, given life through the voice and personality of popular performer Louis Prima. Personality was also given to Louie by Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, and John Lounsbery, three of Disney's Nine Old Men who animated the character. Kahl animated Louie's interaction with Mowgli, Thomas his solo song and dance portions, while Lounsbery animated his memorable duet with a drag-wearing Baloo.

Character

As a cub, Louie was a fun-loving practical joker, often playing tricks on Bagheera. He was best friends with Baloo the Bear as the two shared similar qualities and personalities and could often be seen helping Baloo gain fruit for their regular feasts.

As an adult, King Louie is an orangutan and lives in the ancient ruins located in the far east of the jungle. He kidnaps Mowgli to obtain knowledge of fire and to be like Man. In the song "I Wanna Be Like You" he refers to himself as the King of the Swingers and the Jungle VIP. His city is destroyed during the rescue of Mowgli by Baloo and Bagheera. Little is known of King Louie after these events.

Portrayal

Famed jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis Prima portrayed King Louie in the film. Louis Prima considered playing King Louie as one of the highlights of his career and felt he had become "immortal" thanks to Walt Disney and the entire studio.^{[citation needed]}

Appearances in other media

A slightly different King Louie character appeared in the Disney 1994 live-action Jungle Book movie starring Jason Scott Lee. Once again he is an orangutan, and the 'leader' of a group of monkeys that make their home in an abandoned human city. His name arises in this version from the vast wealth that humans left behind in the city, and in particular to his habit of wearing a crown similar in appearance to that worn by the King of France, Louis XIV.

King Louie did not appear in The Jungle Book 2 (though a shadow puppet of him can be seen at the beginning). His absence was primarily due to Louis Prima's widow, Gia Maione (aka Gia Prima), filing suit at Disney for unauthorized usage of her late husband's voice and persona in previous Jungle Book projects, such as TaleSpin and Jungle Cubs. (Jim Cummings, who provided Louie's voice in these projects, had impersonated Prima's interpretation of the character). Once Disney settled out of court, they have since refrained from using King Louie in any of their projects to avoid further conflict with Gia and her attorneys.^{[citation needed]}

However, in one of the Disney TV Shows, House of Mouse, there is a King Louie look-alike who is referred to as King Louie's brother "Larry", and is said to be Louie's identical twin brother. Indeed, the episode was to have starred King Louie, but the decision was made to make it his brother, Larry, instead, so as not violate their court agreement.^{[citation needed]}

The Jonas Brothers have adopted the song that King Louie sings, "I Wan'na be Like You," into their collection, and sing it in a style that is more rock than jazz.

Non-Disney works

King Louie appears in the Fables comic series published by Vertigo comics. He is one of the revolutionaries who wish to overthrow the Fabletown government out of resentment at the apparent second-class status of non-human-appearing Fables. Due to his peripheral involvement, he is given a sentence of hard labor---twenty years, reduced to five years conditional on good behavior.^{[citation needed]} In this story, he is called a "Kipling" character, which is incorrect. He is a Disney character, with no counterpart in the Kipling original.

Reception

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (October 2008)

The characterization of King Louie has frequently been cited as an example of racial stereotyping in Disney films.^[2][3][4] However, in his 2004 book The Gospel According to Disney, Mark Pinsky asserts that a child in the current environment (as opposed to in the late 1960s) would not discern any racial dimension to the portrayal. Pinsky also relates Orlando Sentinal's film critic Jay Bogar's assertion that "the primates could be perceive as representing African Americans in a time of turmoil, but [that Bogar] saw no racism in the portrayal." ^[3] (Pinsky offers neither a quotation nor a citation for this assertion.)

References