Epic Win: Chuck Jones’ Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
Submitted by WerewolfCyote
Rudyard Kiplings’ Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was so awesome, with the cute little mongoose darting about and protecting the family. Chuck Jones’ animated interpretation in ‘75 was Epic Win though. The animation made it look like Rikki would fly so fast all throughout the house, the garden, and pretty much anywhere he went. We haven’t seen this movie in decades (literally) and yet we distinctly remember Rikki’s mannerisms and that funny noise he made and the “dance” he would make when scaring off the snakes.
The ’70s were a time when dark, grim stories were acceptable for children and even taught us harsh lessons about life that we would have otherwise learned from experience. Rikki taught us about things like loyalty, cunning, and survival. He also taught us how dangerous some snakes can be.
Chuck Jones’ Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is an Epic Win for all of the chances it took with not-so safe story – one that the likes of Disney or Pixar or Dreamworks would soil their drawers even thinking about (or perhaps they’d add a song and dance and take all of the bite out of the story).
I seem to recall they used to show this cartoon about once a year, just like the Peanuts specials. Too bad it doesn’t seem to appear anymore.
Oh yes, this is definitely an epic win! A beautiful rendition of Kipling’s story, far better than Disney’s perversions. It was a sad sad day for me when Chuck Jones died–he gave us so many wonderful ‘toons.
I agree with the decision to bestow Epic Win status on this cartoon. I do not agree with the submitter’s assessment of the state of modern animation. Pixar in particular is doing much to move animation away from strictly kid safe fairytale musicals. Additionally, I don’t think Jones’ “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” is quite so dark and challenging as the submtter seems to think. I think the only thing that happens in it that is very rare in other American animation is that Rikki actually kills his foes himself. I’ve just been watching “The Secret of NIMH,” which was from the early 80s, and kids who were fine with “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” would likely be terrified by that. Oh, and “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” does have a song – albeit one based on Kipling’s writing – so the slam at movies with songs is rather unwarranted.
It is a great piece of animation and very deserving of recognition, but I think it can be praised just as well without bashing other animation.
Good call on The Secret of NIMH. A character dying from a dagger in the back? Not exactly typical Saturday Morning material.
From what I’ve seen, kid movies have often been more violent than TV shows with similar material. Malificent got a sword in the gut, Ursula was run through with a ship’s prow, Scar was mauled to death, etc. In the TV cartoons I remember, they couldn’t even used the word “kill”.
The Pixar movies have been mostly violence-free because their stories didn’t call for it. The exception was The Incredibles , and that had a fair amount of knocking around.
If you’ll notice, almost every Disney villain dies in a fall.
True, it makes for good drama and symbolism, and makes for “clean disposal”, but as pointed out above, Disney does give gorier deaths a nod every now and then.
Disney isn’t the only one that does falling disposals either. Darth Maul and Emperor Palpatine both perished in a plunge (though Maul was cut in half first).
I submitted this- I didn’t do the writeup, whoever runs the site does.
Back on topic: I used to have this on VHS, why oh why did I get rid of it?
Oh gosh, I’m sorry. I misunderstood when I was reading the credit and thought it was for the write-up as well.
I certainly love Chuck Jones and think this piece in particular deserves recognition, so kudos to you for submitting it,
You can buy this on DVD. I got one as a Christmas present last year.
Funny, you just posted my “Now wait, don’t harp on Pixar” comment so I don’t have to.
And it’s worth noting that Chuck Jones was a tremendous influence on Pixar in general and director Pete (“Monsters Inc.” “UP”) Doctor specifically.
Vote 100!
Anyway I loved this film. I seen it probably every year back in grade school… man that was so many years ago.
OMG– I still have this at my parents’ in a BETA tape!!! Damn– need to figure out how to get it to DVD… great movie!! EPIC WIN!!
If you’ve already got the beta casette, nobody but the MPAA idiots will think it’s wrong to just torrent it.
yeah I definitely agree with LOLDemon on this one…the jab at modern day animation was definitely unwarranted. I’m studying early childhood education and there is definitely such a thing as age-appropriateness–children are not ready to deal with certain themes like violence, blood, death and so on until they have reached a certain cognitive level. Putting dark, grim stories on TV for children can cause night terrors, undue emotional stress and quite simply, it’s just not appropriate. Dr. Seuss and Peanuts didn’t deal with any ‘dark grim’ themes and yet they are not whitewashed classics. Look carefully at Disney’s early stuff–there are some pretty scary scenes in Snow White, The Rescuers, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.
And Pixar has moved away from the typical sanitized animation with things like The Incredibles, Wall-E, Finding Nemo and Up. Up is the first Pixar movie to show blood! It’s all about context, cognitive development and age-appropriateness. Bashing modern day animation without a sufficient knowledge of these things is unfair and ignorant.
Excellent choice! I had a total love/hate relationship with this show. I just ADORED that little mongoose, but was completely terrified of the cobras — still am, as a matter of fact. I remember hiding behind a big chair in the living room to watch the show, not daring to peak out when those damn hissy snakes came on the TV. They scared the crap out of me! :-O
THIS.
I’d squee happily every time he did the zoom-zoom running, but cry when the snakes came out at the people at the end. Scary stuff, but it makes for good memories :3
oh hell YEAH! i was s in love with this when it came out…is it on dvd?…and it was dark because well childrens literature then was dark but lifelike so to speak…take alice through the looking glass and jungle book and compare that to what passes as kids books today…usually i just see tie ins to tv shows and cartoons…wheres the real and imminent threat and danger?…pixar…nuff said…myazaki…nuff said
I always loved this movie and story, but as a lover of many things creepy-crawly, I get tired of snakes always being portrayed as “evil”. But of course, the story was written in times when snakes were still misunderstood and considered aides of the devil, etc.. They do a really good job of making the cobras evil in this movie–the voices, OMG. June Foray once said that Nagaina was one of the only voice jobs she ever did that really made her feel icky, but I think she pulled it off brilliantly!
Also remember this is set in India in colonial times – cobras are very deadly snakes, and were (and are) feared on their own merits, superstitious beliefs aside.
I, too, sympathize with snakes, and understand that not all of them are dangerous. However, the ones that are, were once a very serious threat to people sharing habitat with them.
Kipling, who lived in India himself, understood the danger. But notice, even the “evil” of the snakes comes down to their own logical conclusions on how they and their young could best survive, now that there was a mongoose about. Kill the humans, and the mongoose will leave. No indication of them having any particular malice towards the humans before Rikki came along. It’s safe to assume that the cobras were previously content with simply staying out of the humans’ way.
From what I remember reading of Kipling, he was fair-handed even towards unpopular creatures. Shere Khan, the tiger, was old and crippled, iirc, which is the condition which tends to turn tigers into dedicated man-hunters. ANd there’s a poem about Hyaenas (which Leslie Fish put to music) which addresses the disgust that people felt when these creatures would dig up the shallowly buried casualties of war. In this poem, he basically explains that the hyaneas are only simply doing what comes natural for them, and for them, the right and safe way to get their meat, that they don’t mean to “desecrate” the body – desecration of the memory of the dead is something reserved for other humans.
Our local WalMart had this on VHS last year. I bought it, along with Cricken in Time Square. Chuck Jones also did the White Seal, which was very well done.
And “Mowgli’s Brothers,” his version of the Mowgli stories which were also the basis for Disney’s “The Jungle Book.”
Hey, I just checked and both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have it on DVD, if anyone wants to buy it.
They actually just had a Chuck Jones collection of shorts on sale at the Target near me (Oregon). I bought it because of Riki Tiki Tavi!! They might still have it for sale, I got it about 3-6 months ago and there were quite a few in stock . . . never know, worth a peep, or it could be for sale online somewhere since it’s now in DVD format.
I was addicted to this when I was little… I used to get it from the library a few times a year…
Squeee! Rikki-tikki!
Looking back I can’t help but wonder if this movie wasn’t the motivation for my pet squirrle… so many of the little mongoose manerisims in this film are also rather squirlish. ^^
That little ummmm or uhhhn noise they make right after Rikki moves was very scary to me for somereasion. 0o I think it’s because he zoomed around so much hunting the snakes…. *shudder*
Meh. The Russian version was better art and story-wise. It kept to the storyline well and actually had Indian people (considering the movie is based in the Indian setting). I liked the art better too.
But maybe because this is what I had in my childhood, thus the bias. Seriously, though, check it out.
Overall, one of my favourite stories. Read it 10000+ times as a tot.
Are there any websites with picture or clips from the Russian version online? I’d be very curious to see it.
I think it would make less sense having Indian people… This was about a family of Brits that -lived- in India. Not about an Indian family and a mongoose.
.
Why randomly change the nationality of the main characters?
…I had this entire movie memorized by the time I was six years old. Word for word. I wrote the whole script in my little diary- which my older sister then broke into and found and made fun of me for for years after…
I remember how invested I was in this story, even at a very young age. Wonderful writing and even more wonderful story. It still stands.
goddamn me and my sister would watch this movie SO MUCH!!
it is definitely epic win
Pure epic win! But for sentimental value. Rikki Tikki Tavi drove me to seek out getting a ferret as a kid. Ah, memories.
Even though Riki was a mongoose, not a ferret?
I has a chinchilla instead of a fer-ratta. ^^ They is more bouncy and fast, and less likely to eat other pets. o0
That was well done. I read the book several times as a child, but I do not believe I had seen this movie before.
I never saw this as a child, but I love it now! Kipling’s story has always been one of my favorites.
I never cared much for Rikki-Tikki-Tavi personally, as I was always a snake-person, but I do miss cartoons like this.
my seventh grade teacher showed us this. we all loved it. us poor 90s kids had to deal with watery disney movies. this was just awesome
I must say, I don’t know much of the 70’s *I was a 90’s child* But I very much enjoy the animation of this show. I slightly remember the book, but I may be wrong.
I the OP was dead on about Disney / Pixar .I did not take it as a put down, just a fact. They could never risk the loss of merchandising revenue by doing something as ‘real’ as this .
My mother rented this for me years and years ago. We never got around to returning it, so it’s in my Box of VHS Tapes I Refuse to Get Rid Of. (I always rooted for the snakes.)
Also, the jabs at Disney and Dreamworks are warranted, but not at Pixar. Look at WALL-E for instance. It’s not outwardly dark or anything, but the subject material is very adult-oriented.
I never saw this movie… now I really want to! And extra points for the HMS Pinafore reference in the bathtub!
My Grandfather,Charles Tobias with Eddie Cantor,wrote ,Merrilie we roll Along,on Chuck Jones many Animated Cartoons. Jeffrey Tobias