The Jungle Book (2016) — Disney's live-action remake · The Jungle Book (1967) — the animated classic with the songs
Movie first is fine, and for most kids it's how it will happen anyway; just tell them plainly that the book is not the movie. The 1967 film suits younger kids, the 2016 one is scarier, and neither will spoil the book, because most of the book was never filmed. We've found the simplest audition is to read Rikki-Tikki-Tavi aloud one evening: if it wins them over, the whole collection will.
Disney invented him. In the book the monkeys have no king at all; the Bandar-log are despised precisely because they have no law and no leader, and nobody in the jungle will even speak of them. The films made a fun character out of the book's whole point.
The movies make the python a villain trying to hypnotize Mowgli into dinner. Kipling's Kaa is one of Mowgli's most powerful allies; the rescue he pulls off at the Cold Lairs is one of the best scenes in the book.
Film Baloo is a lazy fun uncle with a song. The book's Baloo is the strict old teacher of the Law of the Jungle, who cuffs Mowgli for forgetting his lessons and loves him fiercely. The song is better on screen; the bear is better on the page.
Both films build a single Mowgli-versus-Shere-Khan plot. The book is a collection: Mowgli's tales alternate with whole other stories, and some of the best pages have no Mowgli in them at all.
A mongoose defending a family's garden against two cobras, in a story so tight it still gets anthologized on its own. It alone justifies the book, and it makes a tremendous read-aloud.
A seal searching the oceans for one beach where his people will be safe. Strange, sad, and beautiful, and almost nobody knows it's in this book.
The book's jungle runs on a real code, with oaths, debts, and a master-word that opens doors. Kids who love rules and honor find something here the movies never bothered with.
The jungle raised him, and the book is clear-eyed about what that costs when it's time to leave. The last Mowgli story ends with him crying and not understanding his own tears. No film has touched it.
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