The Jungle Book (franchise) The theatrical version of the film was released in France on February 5, 2003, and released in the United States on February 14, 2003. Also inspired by Rudyard Kipling's classic children's books, the film is a sequel to the 1967 animated musical film "The Jungle Book", and stars Haley Joel Osment as the voice of Mowgli and John Goodman as the voice of Baloo. Wild child Mowgli has grown fidgety with his life in the "man village", so he sneaks back to the jungle to be with his animal friends, like the beloved bear Baloo. Mowgli's disappearance, however, worries his
The Jungle Book Kipling. Rudyard Kipling was born in India and spent the first six years of his childhood there. After about ten years in England, he went back to India and worked there for about six-and-a-half years. These stories were written when Kipling lived in Naulakha, the home he built in Dummerston, Vermont, in the United States. There is evidence that Kipling wrote the collection of stories for his daughter Josephine, who died from pneumonia in 1899, aged 6; a first edition of the book with a handwritten note by the author to his young daughter was discovered at the National Trust's