The Jungle Book (1967 film) versions of both the screenplay and the soundtrack followed Kipling's work more closely, with a dramatic, dark, and sinister tone which Disney did not want in his family film, leading to writer Bill Peet and composer Terry Gilkyson being replaced. The casting employed famous actors and musicians Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, George Sanders and Louis Prima, as well as Disney regulars such as Sterling Holloway, J. Pat O'Malley and Verna Felton, and the director's son, Bruce Reitherman, as Mowgli. "The Jungle Book" was released on October 18, 1967, to positive reception, with acclaim for its soundtrack, featuring five songs by
The Jungle Book (1967 film) with "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" and "The Sword in the Stone". However, after the disappointing reaction to "The Sword in the Stone", Walt Disney decided to become more involved in the story than he had been with the past two films, with his nephew Roy E. Disney saying that "[he] certainly influenced everything about it. (...) With "Jungle Book", he obviously got hooked on the jungle and the characters that lived there." Peet decided to follow closely the dramatic, dark, and sinister tone of Kipling's book, which is about the struggles between animals and man. However, the film's writers