- “I wanna be a man, Man-Cub! And stroll right into town. And be just like the other men; I'm tired of monkeying around!”
- ―King Louie to Mowgli in "I Wanna Be Like You"[src]
King Louie is a minor character in Disney's 1967 animated feature film The Jungle Book. He is an orangutan and the obstreperous ruler of the Ancient Ruins with an affinity for swing music. Having grown tired of his mundane simian lifestyle, Louie hopes to learn the secret of man's "red flower" (fire) to fulfill his dream of becoming a man.
Background
Development
King Louie is a rowdy orangutan who was crowned King of the Apes. Unlike most characters in the film, Louie was created solely by Walt Disney Productions, and there was no ape king in the original novel by Rudyard Kipling, on which the film was based. The original story for Louie started out quite differently, but he was eventually given the voice and personality of the late and famed jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis Prima, who also provided the voice of Louie. Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, and John Lounsbery animated the character.
Around 2001, Louis Prima's widow sued the Walt Disney Company over the unauthorized use of her late husband's voice and public personal in past Jungle Book spin-off projects, as Jim Cummings' imitations of Prima featured in them were near perfect.[1] In later years, Disney would continue to use Louie in theme parks and other promotional material but refrained from having him speak to avoid trouble with Mrs. Prima, though he did still speak in Animagique and a few Tokyo Disneyland shows at that time.
However, by 2010, these files were apparently lifted, allowing Disney to once again have full use of the character, as evidenced by 2012's debut of the live show Wishes, aboard the Disney Fantasy cruise ship, marking Louie's first speaking role (with newly recorded dialogue) since Disney's Dreams On Parade: Moving On! at Tokyo Disneyland.
Personality
As King of the Apes, Louie enjoys a lavished life in his palace among the ancient ruins of India, apparently living by his own law and order. Waited on by his monkey minions, Louie enjoys jazzy music, fun-filled parties, and a seemingly endless supply of bananas and other fruits. With a laid-back, fun-loving nature, similar to that of Baloo, Louie appears as a generally jovial member of the jungle, though his scheme to learn the ways of "man's red flower" is seen as scandalous; Bagheera referring to the ape as a scoundrel upon learning the motives behind his hopes of becoming a human.
Nevertheless, Louie seems too lighthearted to cause any legitimate harm. After kidnapping Mowgli, both the man-cub and the King of the apes come to enjoy one another's company, to the point where Louie's fun-filled method of persuasion (a jazzy party with his monkeys) ultimately distracted from his quest to learn the ways of fire until Baloo and Bageheera arrived onto the scene.
By the time of the film's follow-up story—More Jungle Book... Further Adventures of Baloo and Mowgli—it is shown that Louie, Baloo, and Bagheera have become good friends following Mowgli's return to the Man-Village. Despite their friendship, Louie is still rather selfish, lazy, and not entirely loyal; though he enjoys the company of Baloo and Bagheera, he refuses to do them any legitimate favors unless he gets something out of it, as well. This is a direct result of the brouhaha that occurred over Mowgli during the original film, which Louie is still rather sore about.
Appearances
The Jungle Book
King Louie greets Mowgli.
After receiving word that a Man-Cub is being taken to the Man-Village, but wants to remain in the jungle, Louie sees this as an opportunity to finally succeed in his goal to learn the secret of "man's red flower" (the animal term for "fire"), and sends his bandar-log minions to retrieve him. The monkey minions kidnap the Man-Cub Mowgli and delivers him to Louie, who introduces himself as the boy's "cousin", with intentions on granting Mowgli his wish to stay in the jungle, so long as the latter fulfills his end of the bargain. Mowgli agrees, and through the song "I Wanna Be Like You", Louie laments his desire to become a man and asks Mowgli how to create the "red flower". Unfortunately for Louie, Mowgli has no knowledge of how to create fire or what he is talking about.
Louie believes Mowgli is just playing coy, and continues to seek answers, but he is soon interrupted by the sudden appearance of scat-singing, female orangutan. A distracted Louie becomes smitten and the two engage in a song and dance routine, though by the end of it, the female orangutan is revealed to be Baloo the Bear in disguise, having infiltrated Louie's palace alongside the panther Bagheera to rescue Mowgli. A chase ensues, and in the midst of the chaos, a supporter is destroyed, forcing Louie to abandon Mowgli for the sake of upholding his damaged palace. Baloo, however, tickles Louie to loosen the ape's grip, but the bandar-logs intervene to assist their king, only to destroy another supporter by accident. As Louie's kingdom falls apart, Mowgli escapes with Baloo and Bagheera, leaving Louie within the ruins of his fallen empire. He is not seen again for the rest of the film.
Not much is known of Louie after these events, but in a storybook follow-up, Louie and Bagheera tried to help Baloo deal with the fact that Mowgli is living in the Man-Village, implying that the three discarded the event and made amends.
The Jungle Book 2
King Louie does not appear in The Jungle Book 2, but a puppet of him can been seen in Mowgli's puppet show at the beginning of the film and was mentioned by Mowgli and Baloo when they traveled to the Ancient Ruins in the middle of the film.
Louie's whereabouts were unknown, but according to Baloo, he and the monkeys turned the ruins into a hangout spot for the popular, party-loving members of the jungle. He was originally going to appear but due to issues with Gia Prima (the widow of Louie's original voice actor Louis Prima), his role was given to Flunkey.
Jungle Cubs
Louie in Jungle Cubs.
Louie appears as a young cub, referred to as Prince Louie, who dreams of being king of the apes. Louie also stars in the show alongside Baloo, Bagheera, Shere Khan, Hathi, and Kaa, who were all a group of friends. A fast-talking prankster, he takes the troupe from one madcap adventure to the next. Louie is a genius inventor and natural-born leader. This verbose orangutan always has something brewing, and is one of the founding members of the band "5 Bananas". His scats deliver positive messages, proving that he is more than just a goof-off and has the potential to someday be king. During the first season, he has long hair that sticks up in a crest and is voiced by Jason Marsden, while in the following season, this crest disappears and his hair goes down. Additionally, his replacing voice actor is Cree Summer, giving him a more feminine, yet recognizable voice similar to his voice as an adult.
The episode "The Ape Who Would Be King" actually shows that Louie and his friends did not know about Louie's monarchy status until said episode. After the news swarmed around the jungle, everyone, even Baloo, felt Louie would make a lousy king. It is not until a volcanic eruption broke out that everyone was able to see Louie actually has the potential of protecting the jungle's inhabitants from dangers.
In the Jungle Cubs: Born to Be Wild DVD, Louie, as an adult, served as the narrator, telling the story of Mowgli, Bagheera, and Baloo's journey to the Man Village. Jim Cummings reprises his role from TaleSpin.
House of Mouse
Louie in a rare close-up cameo on House of Mouse.
King Louie made several cameos in the animated series House of Mouse, usually sitting alongside Mowgli. He could also be spotted alongside the rest of The Jungle Book cast in the lobby during the opening sequence, and one episode even gave him a close-up cameo after a cartoon ended. Due to the above-mentioned lawsuit by Gia Prima (Louis Prima's widow), Louie never spoke in any of these cameos.
In "Unplugged Club", he was seen grabbing Kaa (who was hanging above next to him) by the neck and shaking him like a rattle as Mickey Mouse went over to thank Zeus for using one of his lightning bolts to repower the club.
The episode "King Larry Swings In" features an appearance by King Larry, an identical orangutan stated to be Louie's twin brother. The episode was actually originally supposed to star Louie, but had to be changed so as not to upset Gia Prima.
He and Mowgli can be seen sitting at a table together in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse.
Cameos
In the Aladdin episode "When Chaos Comes Calling", Genie turns into Baloo and fly in the sky of Agrabah with the Zingalow. In this scene, he also transforms Jasmine into Rebecca Cunningham, Abu into King Louie, and Iago into Kit Cloudkicker. These transformations here are a reference to TaleSpin.
In Mickey Mouse, Louie, Flunkey, and two of his monkey minions make a cameo appearance in the episode "Mumbai Madness", chasing after Mickey Mouse during the travel montage.
In Turning Red, while passing the trigger tests, Jin and Ming showed their daughter, Mei a picture of a very sad orangutan in a cage at the zoo, which looked exactly like King Louie.
Louie makes a brief cameo in this short film Once Upon a Studio, appearing in the group photo along with his fellow Jungle Book co-stars.
Video games
The Jungle Book (SEGA Genesis)
In The Jungle Book game, Louie appears as the third boss and as a boss character in "Chapter VIII: Collapsing Ruins". Louie has two skills after Kaa or the three monkeys posing as the Witch Doctor. He used coconuts as a bowling ball to damage the player and at the same time, he actually throws bananas like Mowgli does to deal damage. Mowgli has to damage him with any fruits on his arsenal and to dodge the coconuts he had bowled or to avoid damage whenever he throws bananas. Once he gets defeated, Louie will accidentally slammed both of his fists into the ground, causing many debris to destroy his ruins.
The Jungle Book Groove Party
King Louie in The Jungle Book Groove Party.
In the game adaptation of the film, Louie kidnaps Mowgli and challenges him to a dance-off. Should he win, Mowgli must teach the orangutan the secret to Man's red flower. After Baloo rescues the boy and the temple collapses like in the film, Louie is left in the ruins until he retreats out of fear of an approaching Shere Khan.
Disney Magic Kingdoms
Louie appears in the kingdom during The Jungle Book event. Upon his arrival, he takes notice of the humans surrounding him, and anticipates using one of them to learn the secrets of man's "red flower". When Mowlgi, Baloo, and Bagheera battle Shere Khan, Louie lazily helps by throwing banana peels on the tiger.
Disney Heroes: Battle Mode
King Louie appears in the game as a playable and unlockable character along with the other characters.
He has the ability to throw bananas at enemies and leave only their peels on the ground to slow down enemies, he can also call the Bandar Iorg and he can also strike with his hands causing earthquakes to hit enemies.
His friendship campaigns are with Peter Pan and Animal. He also has a friendship campaign with Baloo
Other games
In Kinect: Disneyland Adventures, King Louie and his band are mentioned by Mowgli.[2]
In Disney Universe, King Louie reappears as a playable costume character in The Jungle Book Pack.
In August of 2016, two medals featuring King Louie were added into Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ, as part of an event based on The Jungle Book.[3] To evolve Louie's solo medal, one would need Mowgli and Baloo's shared medal.
King Louie appeared in Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. A token resembling his face served as the award for King Louie's Challenge from September 3 to September 13, 2021. A costume based on King Louie could be earned in full at 1,100 tokens (bottom half at 800 and top half at 1,100) and a nameplate also having his face could be earned at 1,400.
Disney Parks
King Louie poses for a photo at Walt Disney World.
Disneyland Resort
In Disneyland, Louie is seen in Mickey's Soundsational Parade, where he joins Terk and Simba in the jungle section of the parade.
He is also the first Disney character visited by the audience in the stage show Mickey and the Magical Map, where he performs "I Wanna Be Like You".
In the Disneyland version of Fantasmic!, King Louie along with several monkey dance on the floating barges as Kaa snakes around the stage.
Louie also appears in World of Color: Celebrate! during the celebration of animated films.
In Disneyland Forever, Louie performs "I Wanna Be Like You".
Walt Disney World Resort
In Disney's Hollywood Studios' version of Fantasmic!, King Louie is briefly seen during the bubble montage.
In the former Celebrate the Magic at the Magic Kingdom, Louie appeared performing "I Wanna Be Like You", during the string of segments centering animal-centric films.
Tokyo Disney Resort
In Tokyo Disneyland, Louis hosts the jungle segment of the stage show One Man's Dream II: The Magic Lives On! alongside Terk. They are showcased having a wild party at Louie's upbeat club.
In the Tokyo DisneySea version of Fantasmic!, Louie is seen on the barges with his monkeys much like the Disneyland version.
Hong Kong Disneyland
In Hong Kong Disneyland, Louie is seen in Flights of Fantasy parade. He and Baloo join Tantor, Rafiki, and Timon in the jungle section of the parade.
He also appear in the stage show Mickey and the Wondrous Book in Storybook Theater, after he performing "I Wanna Be Like You", Mickey appears in the Wondrous Book and called him "阿叔" (in English known as "sir"), asked him about losing a snowman in his world.
Gallery
Trivia
- While orangutans are found in Asia (Bornean orangutans in Malaysia and Indonesia, and Sumatran orangutans also in Indonesia), they do not inhabit India, the film's location; however, there is a theory that King Louie is actually the former pet of a maharaja, who escaped into the jungle.
- Despite being male, Louie lacks flanges on his face, a feature of real life adult male orangutans. This could have been a mistake or perhaps Louie is meant to be a young adult.
- King Louie shares his name with his late voice actor, jazz singer Louis Prima. Originally, he was to be voiced by singer Louis Armstrong, but the idea was scrapped so as to avoid an offensive stereotype of an ape being voiced by an African-American. Despite this, in certain foreign dubs like Latin Spanish and German, as well as the original Dutch 1969 album version, his voices are a closer resemblance to Louis Armstrong.
- King Louie calls Mowgli "cousin" because orangutans and humans share 97% of their DNA, making them close taxonomic relatives.
- Louie's laughter when Baloo is tickling his armpits while the ape is attempting to keep the crumbling palace in place is reused exactly from Br'er Rabbit in Song of the South.
- In Jungle Cubs, Louie has long red hair that sticks up until the second season. This is a reference to real life orangutans, who have similar hair in early childhood.
- In the audio story More Jungle Book... Further Adventures of Baloo and Mowgli, which takes place after the events of the original film, Louie makes amends with Baloo and Bagheera and regains their friendship.
- King Louie's species in the 2016 film Gigantopithecus, is considered a close relative to the modern orangutan, leading to his appearance closely resembling an orangutan, besides his enormous size. Furthermore, the real-life Gigantopithecus were built like gorillas, despite having orange fur and an orangutan-like face.
- Unlike most of the other animals featured in the Jungle Book, orangutans are not native to India.
Variants
References
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20121007022613/http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/the-monkey-vs-the-mouse/Content?oid=1239351
- ↑ Mowgli: "King Louie's monkeys are really good dancers. But Baloo's better."
- ↑ "August-22nd-Kingdom-Hearts-Unchained-English-Update-The-Jungle-Book". KH Insider (August 22, 2016).
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