Baloo: Mowgli’s Teacher
Baloo was created by Rudyard Kipling in his 1894 book titled The Jungle Book. Baloo also appeared in Kipling’s Second Jungle Book (1895).
In Kipling’s book, Baloo was a sleepy brown bear living in the jungle in the Pench region of Seoni, India. Baloo was a wise old bear who taught the cubs of the Seeonee wolf pack the strict Law of the Jungle. He had the honor of being the only non-wolf member of the pack Council.
All was as it should be until Mowgli entered the scene.
Mowgli was just a toddler when he was separated from his parents during an attack by the Bengal tiger Shere Khan. Rescued from sure death by Wolf Mother Raksha and Father Wolf, Mowgli was raised by Raksha and Father Wolf along with their own four cubs. Mother Wolf named him Mowgli the Frog because he wouldn’t/couldn’t sit still and because he didn’t have any fur on his back. When Mowgli and their cubs were old enough, Mother and Father Wolf took them to Council Rock to be identified by the rest of the pack so they would be safe. Shere Khan tried to interfere with Mowgli’s acceptance by the pack, but was thwarted again when Baloo and Bagheera the black panther both spoke for Mowgli and the boy was allowed to stay.
Mowgli thus became Baloo’s student, and a most challenging student he was. Mowgli matured slower than the wolf cubs, and was rebellious and disobedient at times, as human children can be. He also didn’t learn as fast as the wolf cubs and was sometimes forgetful. And because Mowgli was human instead of wolf Baloo, assisted by Bagheera, felt it necessary to teach him an expanded version of the Law of the Jungle in order to help Mowgli survive. Baloo and Bagheera not only taught but mentored and befriended the “man-cub,” helping him learn the ways of the jungle. They also, along with the python Kaa, rescued Mowgli from many a scrap.
One of these was after Mowgli got involved with the Bander-log monkey tribe in spite of Baloo’s warning. The situation soon grew tense for Mowgli as he realized too late that his erst-while “friends” wanted him to be their king. A wild journey ensued as the monkeys carried Mowgli through the trees to an abandoned city in the jungle where they kept him captive. However, Baloo, Bagheera and Kaa came to Mowgli’s rescue, teaching him a lesson that he didn’t soon forget.
Baloo and Bagheera also managed to keep Shere Khan away from Mowgli until Mowgli grew up and defeated the tiger himself. Eventually, Mowgli returned to mankind with Baloo and Bagheera’s blessings, and Baloo disappeared from the rest of the stories.
Baloo was created before the birth of the teddy bear, but he’s included in our stories here because of the fame he has acquired through a series of Disney animated films plus live action films and TV beginning in 1967. The most recent version of The Jungle Book was in 2016, with a new live-action movie scheduled for release in 2018, this time through Warner Brothers.
Baloo has been a popular character in the Disney animated features, perhaps even more-so than Mowgli. In these musical features Baloo, looking more like a teddy bear than a real bear, sang and danced his way into our hearts. Baloo became especially famous after he and Bagheera sang “The Bare Necessities” in Disney’s 1967 The Jungle Book.
In Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967) and its sequel The Jungle Book 2 (2003), Baloo was Mowgli’s teacher, but instead of being strict was a friendly even-tempered almost roly-poly bear who shirked responsibility. On top of that, he was ticklish! However, he did help Mowgli with jungle life until Mowgli finally returned to human-kind.
Sadly, most of the depictions of Baloo in these films were far removed from the strict law teacher of Kipling’s books. An exception was the 1988 live-action TV series Mowgli: The New Adventures of the Jungle Book where all the characters, including Baloo, were depicted fairly true to the original stories.
Baloo obviously wasn’t a teddy bear, but that didn’t prevent Disney from issuing Baloo plush teddy bears as part of the marketing of the Jungle Book movies. These popular bears now help little Mowglis everywhere with their adventures.