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Brilliant, traditional jazz flavoured songs sung by cartoon animals. You’ve probably heard “The Bear Necessities” and “King of the Swingers” (“ooh-ooh-ohh, I wanna be like you-oo-oo”), and there’s other crackers on it too – an eastern-sounding lullaby sung by a snake trying to hypnotise a boy (so he can eat him), a barbershop quartet of vultures and a military march sung by a herd of elephants.
The first “Jungle Book” CD we had came free with some newspaper, and Isabelle listened to it and mauled it until it wouldn’t play anymore. When we moved into our current house just before she turned two she was at the peak of her obsession, and treated my visiting brother and his girlfriend to her rendition of “The Bear Necessities” while they looked on in astonishment:
“Look for the bear necessities the simpa bear necessities forget about you wowwies and you stwife if you look unda the wocks and plants an take a glance at the fancy ants you eat ants you betta believe it and you gonna love the way they tickle lookforthebearnecessitiesTHESIMPABEARNECESSITIES …”
etc., getting faster and faster, and accompanied by a kind of twirling/jumping dance that got more and more frenzied. Eventually we had to stop her before she blew up.
She still loves it, and asks to listen to it lots, and me and her amuse Heather by singing the elephants’ marching song and while we march round and round the kitchen.
On this CD it’s not just the songs, there’s also the underscore (the instrumental music that plays in the background during the film) and some bonus material including songs recorded for a “Jungle Book 2″ record back in the day, songs recorded for the first draft of the film – much darker, apparently, and truer to the original book, until Walt Disney heard “The Bear Necessities” and pushed the film in a new direction – and an interview with the songwriters that isn’t of much interest to the kids but that I found kinda fascinating (it’s amazing how much influence the song had on the film’s plot and visuals). It’s all very good, but after the first week or so Isabelle started asking me to skip to the “hits” – not really a criticism, it’d be hard for an instrumental underscore in particular to match the excitement of such high-quality songs.
Isabelle spent a while one evening examining the inlay card, and said “That’s not a real bear, it’s just a man pretending to be a bear.” “Very good”, says I, “that’s right”.
“Wearing a bear suit”, says she.
“Em … no … y’see that’s just a drawing of a bear.”
“He’s wearing a bear suit.”
“No … it’s a cartoon, y’see, the whole film is a bunch of drawings of people and animals shown really quickly one after the other …”
“So it’s a real bear? No it’s not, it’s a man dressed up!”
“Well, it’s a man’s voice …”
… and so on and on and on. Eventually I gave up. I think I might have to wait until she’s 4
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:33 am
We used to listen to this on a loop when being driven down to Limerick as kids to see our granny. It’s the best ever. I used to sing along while standing unrestrained between the front seats (yes, it was a more innocent, pre-RSA time). Thanks to the selection of tapes my dad had in the car, we also developed a taste for Pat Boone, Gene Pitney and The Everley Brothers.