Movie Monday

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (1975)
Dir: Chuck Jones

Amazon / YouTube
 

I remember watching this on VHS way back when I was only about four years old. That was when my family lived near Indianapolis. We did not have a VHS player at the time, but one of our family friends did. I would always ask to watch this whenever we went over to visit them. For some reason the movie just resonated with me back then. I think I liked it because it had some action in it, it took place in an exotic location, and the main characters were animals. Seeing as I am now a biology teacher and majored in bio at undergrad, it should not be surprising for me to say that I loved animals growing up. I distinctly remember my frequent trips to the "dead amigo museum" (dead animal/natural history museum) outside of Indianapolis. I was also a member of the kids club at the zoo. Ring-tailed lemurs were by far my favorite animal. I thought that a movie about a mongoose was pretty awesome.

Chuck Jones directed and animated this adaptation. I find Chuck Jones' animation to be incredibly iconic. You always know when it is one of his pieces. He is most known for his work on the Looney Tunes cartoons. Some other memorable films with his animation are The Phantom Tollbooth, A Cricket in Times Square, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  

This story is actually by Rudyard Kipling and is part of his The Jungle Book. Chuck Jones got Orson Welles to narrate the film, and his voices adds a certain level of gravitas to the proceedings. The plot of this tale focuses on Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a mongoose. An English family is living in India, and their young son discovers the mongoose and keeps him as a pet. There are two cobras who want the human family to leave their estate, but Rikki protects the family from harm. 

I was very pleased to find this on DVD a few years ago, and had a very fun time watching it again after all those years. The story is a classic and the animation is quintessential 70's. I found that someone has posted the film on YouTube so feel free to check it out. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have.