King Louie

King Louie is a fictional character, an orangutan who kidnaps Mowgli in Disney's 1967 animated musical adaptation of The Jungle Book. He does not appear in Rudyard Kipling's original book, which the movie is "inspired by" rather than "based on". In the book Mowgli is abducted by a band of nameless Bandar-log (monkeys), and the rest of the scene plays out very differently.

Related Topics:
Fictional character - Orangutan - Mowgli - Disney - 1967 - Animated musical adaptation - The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling - Bandar-log

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King Louie appears to be evil but he just wants to be human. In the movie, he is voiced by famed jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis Prima, who sings the song "I Wanna Be Like You" after he kidnaps Mowgli, and asks the boy to show him the secret of "red fire" so he can be human.

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On the spinoff show Tale Spin, he runs a tavern where Baloo Bear and his sidekick Kit Cloudkicker like to hang out. On the other spinoff, Jungle Cubs, he came up with the band called the Five Bananas where he performed alongside Baloo, Bagheera the Panther, Hathi the Elephant, and Kaa the Snake.

Related Topics:
Tale Spin - Baloo Bear - Jungle Cubs

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A slightly different King Louie character appeared in the Disney 1994 live-action Jungle Book movie starring Jason Scott Lee. Once again he is an orangutan, and the 'leader' of a group of monkeys that make their home in an abandoned human city. His name arises in this version from the vast wealth that humans left behind in the city, and in particular to his habit of wearing a crown similar in appearance to that worn by the King of France, Louis XIV.

Related Topics:
Disney - 1994 - Live-action - Jungle Book - Jason Scott Lee - France - Louis XIV

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King Louie also appears in the Fables comic book. He is one of the revolutionaries who wish to overthrow the Fabletown government out of resentment at the apparent second-class status of non-human-appearing Fables. Due to his peripheral involvement, he is given a sentence of hard labor---twenty years, reduced to five years conditional on good behavior.

Related Topics:
Fables - Comic book - Fabletown

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