Popular Culture Review Vol. 5, No. 1, February 1994 | Page 28

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Popular Culture Review

implication is that Louie, being primarily a bodily, sexual creature
himself, will most readily fall for such bait.
By contrast, one can hardly imagine Baloo employing such a
subterfuge against white, English, upper-class Shere Khan, who,
when faced with the only remotely comparable temptation (by Kaa)
in the film, simply whacks Kaa's hypnotic eyes shut and declares,
"No, 1 can't be bothered with that--I have no time for that sort of
nonsense." Disney offers another significant contrast to King Louie in
the subdued sensuality of the village girl, who is depicted as retiring
and demure. She bats her eyes plentifully at Mowgli, but she never—
heaven forbid!—resorts to her pelvis to beckon him. Moreover, her
sexuality is not allowed to interfere with her filial duty, for she still
manages to fetch the water. Would King Louie, one wonders, ever
pause from his erotic pursuits to fetch water?
King Louie's and the monkeys' association with the libido is also
suggested by their posture and behavior throughout their sequence.
For instance. King Louie is first presented lazily lounging on his
throne, grooving to the beat of jungle drums, and singing. He
carelessly tosses banana peels around him and scratches his belly
before cradling Mowgli's head in his oversized feet and grooming him
for lice. There is a shocking litany of stereotypes in this short film
segment: King Louie, as the representative African-American, is
lazy, slovenly, and unclean, living a life of mindless sensuality. He
even crowns himself, appropriately, "King of the Swingers."
However, King Louie is not obeyed by all his subjects. For example,
one elderly monkey hits King Louie in the face with a palm leaf and
proceeds to parody his movements and melody throughout the
segment. This disrespect forms an eloquent contrast to the society of
wolves, in which authority is respected, and all orders are obeyed for
the good of the group. Thus, for example, Rama, Mowgli's wolffather, subordinates sentiment to duty when he acquiesces to the
wisdom of the wolf-pack elders in sending Mowgli back to the manvillage. Conversely, the monkey society is more governed by selfindulgence than by authority.
Besides possessing many of the stereotypical qualities of blacks.
King Louie and the monkeys are correspondingly treated with the
most bitter social contempt. In the stratified jungle society of the
film, they are the ultimate outcasts, the very lowest of the low.
They even live—appropriately—in slum-like ruins, and Baloo will