The last feature Bill Peet worked on at Disney, and his own pitch. He developed the characters and completed seven storyboards for the film, relishing the wealth of animal characters, before a bitter standoff with Walt over creative direction led him to resign on his 49th birthday, January 29, 1964, after 27 years at the studio.
In his autobiography Bill writes, "With such a wealth of characters to develop, sketching the boards was a picnic. There was Mowgli, the fearless waif of a jungle boy, Bagheera, a serious minded panther, and Baloo, the big playful buffoon of a bear. There was Kaa, the sneaky, sly python, and Hathi, the bull elephant who didn't trust the man cub or any of his kind. There were a number of villainous characters in the story, but the scheming, powerful Bengal tiger, Shere Khan, was by far the most threatening." Bill completed seven storyboards for Jungle Book and came up with the idea for the song "Bare Necessities." Walt was initially very pleased with Bill's work, but for no apparent reason became very critical. Bill didn't give Walt a chance to kick him downstairs again; he quit. At that time he had five books in print and he devoted full time to writing more books.
His contribution
Bill designed the cast and boarded seven sequences, and is credited with originating the idea that became the song "Bare Necessities." The friction with Walt peaked over a standoff about a leopard's "Brooklyn accent" voice, ending when Walt stalked out with a parting shot, "If you want to see some real entertainment, then see Mary Poppins!" It was the last time Bill ever saw him. The date was January 29, his 49th birthday. Driving home, he gave himself a present: "Happy Birthday! I'm not ever going back there!!!" Decades later, Disney's 2016 live-action team mined Bill's rejected 1960s ideas from the studio archives.
Story sketches
- RELEASED
- October 18, 1967
- DIRECTOR
- Wolfgang Reitherman
- BASED ON
- The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (1894)
- BILL'S ROLE
- Story, Character Design (left production before release)
- RUNTIME
- 78 min