Baloo

That smooth, swingin’ “jazz” voice that made everyone smile and toe-tap along was unmistakably the big friendly Jungle Book character, Baloo.  Arguably Disney’s most popular “Bear” cartoon character, after Winnie the Pooh, we all know Baloo as the carefree bear from the movies, The Jungle Book (1967), but he has been featured in several various “Jungle Book” spin-off films and television shows since then. Like many of the actors who have lent their voices to Disney Animated Movies, it was “the voice” that made it really work.

Phil Harris originated the role of Baloo in The Jungle Book (1967). Harris had initially been doubtful in accepting the role, but he relented when the animators allowed him to just use his own, unique, natural voice. He also voiced Thomas O’Malley, the Alley Cat in The AristoCats (1970) and Little John in Robin Hood (1973). Disney created two television which featured the characters from The Jungle Book (1967), called TaleSpin (1990-1991) and Jungle Cubs (1996-1998). Phil Harris was initially supposed to reprise his role as Baloo in TaleSpin (1990-1991), but he unfortunately had grown too old to do so at that point, and the studio hired Ed Gilbert to portray Baloo. Gilbert had previously done additional voice work on The Little Mermaid (1989) and voiced Francois the Grasshopper in The Rescuers Down Under (1990). He also voiced Fasir in Aladdin the TV Series (1994-1995). Pamela Adlon voiced Baloo as a child in Jungle Cubs (1996-1998). The “Baloo” torch was passed to John Goodman for The Jungle Book 2 (2003). Goodman provided the voice for Pacha in The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), Sulley in Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Monsters University (2013), and “Big Daddy” La Bouff in The Princess and the Frog (2009).

In addition to shows produced by Disney, Baloo has also been featured in internationally produced television shows as well. An anime TV Series called The Jungle Book (1989-1990), which was produced in Japan but aired both there and in America, where it was dubbed over in English. A.J. Henderson provided the English-dubbed voice. There is also an Indian computer-animated series called The Jungle Book (2012), that originally aired on the channel, Disney XD, but was moved to Discovery Family in July 2015. Baloo was voiced by Jimmy Hibbert in that show. The Fox Kids Network also created a show entitled Mowgli: the New Adventures of the Jungle Book, where Baloo did not speak.         

Disney first re-adapted The Jungle Book for live-action in 1994, with a Baloo who once again, didn’t speak. The film was directed by Stephen Sommers who directed The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001). Brian Doyle Murray (Bill Murray’s brother) lent his voice to Baloo in Disney’s second live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book, entitled, The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story (1998). In 2016, however, the “Baloo” torch will be passed to Bill Murray, himself, for Jon Favreau’s (Director: Elf (2003), Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010)) new film adaptation of The Jungle Book. The film will also feature the voice talents of Scarlett Johansson, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Walken, Idris Elba, and Giancarlo Esposito.

      I think we can all agree that Baloo never ceases to be an optimistic character, considering his philosophy is to always “look for the Bare Necessities.” He reminds every one of us to be anxious for nothing as God tells us in Philippians 4:6-7, because life itself wouldn’t be worth living if we were anxious for things all the time. All of the actors who have portrayed Baloo have been entertaining in their own, special way, but Phil Harris’s performance really is the most impossible to forget, since he was the very first. Whenever life gets us down, we can always use a friend like Baloo.

Everybody Loves Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh is not only one of the most popular, but also one of the cutest Disney characters ever. He always in a jolly mood: he is always willing to lend a helping hand to any of his friends, and he is ALWAYS hungry for honey. 

The Disney studios cast a number of talented people to provide the voices for Pooh and his friends when Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966) was in development at the studio. Did you know, however, that all the “early” voices of Winnie the Pooh were members of the voice casts of other classic Disney animated movies? Sterling Holloway, who did the voice Winnie the Pooh, was also the voice of Mr. Stork in Dumbo (1941), Adult Flower in Bambi (1942), Professor Holloway in The Three Caballeros (1944), the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Kaa the snake in The Jungle Book (1967), and Roquefort the Mouse in The Aristocats (1970). He also narrated several of Disney’s lesser-known shorts including Peter and the Wolf (1946), Lambert the Sheepish Lion (1952), and Goliath 2 (1960), and he voiced Amos Mouse in a short about a fictional story about Benjamin Franklin’s friendship with talking Mouse called Ben and Me (1953). 

John Fiedler, who was cast as Piglet (and who continued to portray Piglet in every “Winnie the Pooh” film and television adaptation until his death in 2005), also portrayed the Church Mouse in Robin Hood (1973), the Deacon Owl in The Rescuers (1977), the Porcupine in The Fox and the Hound (1981), and the Old Man in The Emperor’s New Groove (2000). Paul Winchell, who lent his voice to Tigger, and like John Fielder, voiced Tigger until his death, which was also in 2005, also played the roles of Shun Gon, the Siamese Cat in The Aristocats (1970) and Boomer the Woodpecker in The Fox and the Hound (1981). He also did the voice of Zummi Gummi the Gummy Bear on television for Disney’s television series Adventures of the Gummi Bears (1985-1991). (John Fiedler and Paul Winchell were also good friends in real life, and they both died one day apart from each other: Winchell on June 24th (82 years of age), 2005, and Fiedler on June 25th, 2005 (80 years of age)). 

Long before Barbara Luddy was cast as Kanga in Winnie the Pooh, she had previously done the voices of Lady in Lady and the Tramp (1955), Merryweather the Fairy in Sleeping Beauty (1959), and Rover in 101 Dalmatians (1961). She also played the Mother Rabbit and the Mother Church Mouse in Robin Hood (1973). Clint Howard (Ron Howard’s brother) voiced Roo, and he also played Colonel Hathi the Elephant’s son, Hathi Jr. in The Jungle Book (1967). Junius Matthews had performed as Archimedes the Owl in The Sword in the Stone (1963) and shared the role of the Fox in the animated sequence in Mary Poppins (1964), with Dal McKennon, before landing the role of Rabbit. Sebastian Cabot who narrated all of the Winnie the Pooh shorts also played the roles of Sir Ector in The Sword in the Stone (1963), and Bagheera the Panther in The Jungle Book (1967). Cabot also acted in two live-action films for Disney, Westward Ho, the Wagons (1956), and Johnny Tremain (1957). 

Ralph Wright, who worked primarily as a screenwriter for the Disney studios, voiced Eeyore. While that was the only role he acted for the studio, he co-wrote the screenplays for many of the studio’s shorts and films (i.e. Goofy’s Glider (1940), Bambi (1942), Lambert the Sheepish Lion (1952), Sleeping Beauty (1959). The character of Gopher has been voiced by a number of actors over the years, but the very first person to do it was Howard Morris, primarily known throughout the world as Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith Show (1963-1965). Like Ralph Wright, that was the only role that Bass acted for Disney. The role of Christopher Robin has been by 13 different young men from 1966-present, though the only person to do it to have another Disney role outside of Winnie the Pooh, was Bruce Reitherman who voiced him Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966). The following year, Reitherman voiced “Mowgli” the Man Cub in The Jungle Book (1967). (Reitherman was also the youngest son of Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman who was one of Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men. “Woolie” Reitherman directed the first two Winnie the Pooh shorts, The Sword in the Stone (1963), The Jungle Book (1967), The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) and many other shorts and films for the studio. “Woolie” Reitherman’s two elder sons, Richard and Robert shared the role of Wart/Arthur in The Sword in the Stone (1963) with Rickie Sorenson.) And finally, Owl was voiced by Hal Smith in all of the original shorts. Smith temporarily took over the role of Winnie the Pooh himself for Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore (1983) and Welcome to Pooh Corner (1983-1986), before the role was passed full-time to Jim Cummings for the TV Series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988-1991). In addition to Owl, Smith also took over the role of Goofy, after his original voice, Pinto Colvig, died in 1967, he voiced Philippe the Horse in Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Jafar’s horse in Aladdin (1992), and he continues to voice Owl today in all of the movies and shorts that have succeeded The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988-1991), with the exception of Craig Ferguson doing it in Winnie the Pooh (2011). Smith and Jim Cummings have also alternated turns voicing Pooh. 

Jim Cummings, who permanently took over the role of Tigger in 1990 from Paul Winchell due to his retirement (though Winchell did voice Tigger for 4 more Winnie the Pooh films, as well as The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction for the Disney theme parks), like his predecessor, Sterling Holloway, Jim Cummings has an equally, if not, even bigger, Disney resume, having lend his voice all kinds of Disney films and television shows, including Ed in The Lion King (1994) the singing voices of Chief Powhatan and Kekata in Pocahontas (1995), the Guards and Gypsies in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and the trial role of Nessus the River Centaur, the Tall Thebian, and the Elder Thebian in Hercules (1997), and Ray in The Princess and the Frog (2009). Cummings singing voice was dubbed in for Jeremy Irons singing voice in The Lion King (1994) for the song “Be Prepared” when Irons fell sick due to his voice and was unable to complete recording the song. In addition to lending his voice to The Return of Jafar (1994), Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996), Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World (1998), Brother Bear 2 (2006) (all of which are direct-to-video sequels), his voice can also be heard in several Disney television shows, including DuckTales (1987-1990), Chip ’n Dale Rescue Rangers (1989-1990), TaleSpin (1990-1991), Darkwing Duck (1991-1995), Goof Troop (1992-1993) (He voiced Pete, Goofy’s “frienemie” a role that he would continue to do for many other television shows and movies, including A Goofy Movie (1995), and it’s direct-to-video sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie (2000)), Bonkers (1993-1994), Aladdin (1994-1995), Timon and Pumbaa (1995-1999), Gargoyles (1994-1996), House of Mouse (2001-2002), and The Legend of Tarzan (2001-2003).

Winnie the Pooh and his friends are undoubtedly some of the most loved cartoon characters of all time. They always tell good stories of friendship, and the “friends” who voiced those characters are a major reason the characters are loved by generations. It’s a shame that in reality, bears aren’t quite as sweet or friendly as Winnie the Pooh. We can at least be glad, though, that Pooh will always be our friend, because he will always exist in the world of imagination

My Favorite Villain

Throughout the entire history of storytelling, we’ve always had heroes and villains. The villains have always gotten a bad rap. Although it’s their life’s ambition to pursue their “happily ever afters” just like the heroes, they always seem to go about pursuing them in the wrong way. But really, villains are the characters that make things happen in the stories. They serve as the motivation for the hero/heroine to pursue their happily ever afters. So maybe, they’re the real stars of their show, because if you had a story full of heroes and no villains, nothing would happen in the story! Use your imagination with me-maybe villains are people that you can love to hate (instead of just hate!)

Walt Disney hired a huge number of talented people to provide the voices of the villains in his cartoons. One such person was a radio/television/film actress named Eleanor Audley. Audley portrayed the Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella (1950) and Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959). In addition to these two film roles, she also played Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion attraction at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. A favorite voice-over artist of Walt’s, she initially turned down the role of Maleficent when Walt offered it to her, because she was battling tuberculosis at the time. However, she managed to overcome the disease, and accepted the role just in time. Besides lending her voice to all of these characters, she provided all of the live-action referential modeling for the animators at the studio as well. Unlike many of the more modern Disney villains, neither the Stepmother nor Maleficent get to sing a song in either of their movies. What makes them entertaining, though, is simply the indelible images that come from pairing her distinctively deep voice with Frank Thomas’s genius animation on the Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella (1950) and Marc Davis’s breathtaking animation on Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959). Those combinations cause a powerful thrill!      

Since Eleanor Audley’s passing in 1991, all of the characters that she portrayed for Disney have been re-adapted for live-action by Academy-Award-Winning actresses: Angelina Jolie (Best Supporting Actress: Girl, Interrupted (1999)) played Maleficent in Maleficent (2014), Cate Blanchett (Best Supporting Actress: The Aviator (2004) and Best Actress: Blue Jasmine (2013)) played the Wicked Stepmother, also known as “Lady Tremaine” in Cinderella (2015), and Jennifer Tilly (Best Supporting Actress Nominee: Bullets Over Broadway (1994)) played Madame Leota in The Haunted Mansion (2003). 

Susan Blakeslee who voiced Wanda (the Fairy)/Mrs. Turner on The Fairly OddParents (2001-) has voiced the Wicked Stepmother and Maleficent for Disney Video Games such as Disney’s Kingdom Hearts series and Disney Infinity. She also voiced the Wicked Stepmother for Cinderella’s two direct-to-video sequels, Cinderella 2: Dream’s Come True (2002), and Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time (2007).

Eleanor Audley is, of course, only one of the many brilliant actors who have voiced Disney villains. While the majority of Disney villains are female, each of them are “wickedly” fascinating in their own unique way. I’m sure we can all agree that had Eleanor Audley not voiced the Stepmother nor Maleficent, neither film would be quite the classic that they are. The Haunted Mansion attraction wouldn’t be the beloved ride that it is, either. Her voice has left a most enduring legacy for cartoon storytelling and it will continued to be remembered for generations.