Popular Culture Review Vol. 5, No. 1, February 1994 | Page 27
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and self-conceit that characterize Kipling's monkeys, who believe
they are simply the greatest of animals.
Finally, Louie's request for the secret of making fire, with its
Promethean overtones, also implies his and the monkeys' hopelessly
primitive status. This is an especially invidious characterization in
light of the widespread belief among whites that Africans were
themselves hopelessly primitive. Again, Disney's version differs
significantly from Kipling's: in the latter, the monkeys' pretext for
kidnapping Mowgli is that he "would be a useful person to keep in the
tribe, because he could weave sticks together for protection from the
wind; so, if they caught him, they could make him teach them” (36).
By contrast, Disney's version exaggerates this wish for a simple
comfort into a desire to transcend what mythically served to separate
gods from humans (or, in this case, humans from animals)-the divine
technology whose illicit revelation Zeus jealously punished.
In addition. King Louie's and the monkeys' hopeless
primitiveness is seen both in their lack of intellect and in their
association with the body and libidinal impulses—two further
stereotypes of African-Americans (see Frederickson 53-58; 275-82).
For example, Bagheera refers to King Louie and the monkeys as
"scatter-brained," and indeed Louie reveals his essential stupidity
when he says to Mowgli, "Have two bananas," and then proceeds to
hold up three fingers in visual confirmation. Moreover, Bagheera
clearly associates their music with mindless bodily reflex. Alarmed
that by dancing to jazz Baloo may be surrendering his rationality to
rhythm, Bagheera warns him, "This is a time for brains, not brawn."
Baloo seems to confirm Bagheera's worst fears: after moving almost
uncontrollably in response to the music, he confesses, "1 am gone, man,
solid gone!" Similarly, Baloo's disguising himself as a female
gorilla (replete with miniskirt) and dancing with hip-swinging
abandon is aimed directly at King Louie's libido. This is not only
evident in the movie's quick cut to King Louie's face as he eagerly
raises his eyebrows and runs to join Baloo in dancing, but also in the
following cut to Bagheera's eyebrows raised in shock and disbelief. In
this way, the film appeals equally to t he stereotype of AfricanAmerican lustfulness and lack of inhibition, as to that of English
restraint, decorum, and public reserve. It is in itself significant that
Baloo has recourse to such a subterfuge to deceive Louie, for the