Monday, 8 February 2021

Bicho Do Mato: Characters

The characters of Bicho Do Mato 

The Pausini Jubas 
Lo Pausini Juba - the son of Aki Juba and Luca Pausini Senior, Lo is the incredibly horny hero of the story, known to have a black girlfriend named Luna De Castro. 
Aki Juba - Luca’s dead mother. 
Luca Pausini Senior - Lo’s dead father. 
Emilio Juba Pino - Lo’s snobbish maternal male cousin, who frequently gropes on Cecilia and her own friends since he was only ten. 
Fernando Pausini - Lo’s paternal uncle. 
Alfredo Pino - Emilio, Bettina and Leopoldo’s dad. 
Mora Juba Pino - Bettina, Leopoldo and Emilio’s mother and Ricardo’s insanely criminal shotgun wife. 
Ricardo Pino - Ricardo Pino was Fernando’s close friend.
Bettina Juba Pino - Dona Vanda’s own foster daughter, who is the second product of a horrifying shotgun wedding between Alfredo Pino, an Italo Brazilian man, and Aki’s bad sister Mora Juba. 
Leopoldo Pino - Lo’s younger cousin and Emilio’s younger brother. 
Laura Zola - Along with her younger sister Lili and brother Tulio, Laura reluctantly became one of Gustavo Ramalho’s employees. 

The Morricone family 
Barbara Zwaricz Morricone - Barbara was from Rio Grande Do Sul, and was a lady who forcibly married an unlucky judge, only to murder him, their two sons and older daughter in law in cold blood. In another twist, she also successfully prevented her unhappy daughter Zulmira from meeting her son and younger husband again, but that’s until she died of natural causes, as hoisted by her own destructive body, which in turn was attacking her already flat brain the whole time. 
Zulmira Morricone Zola - Tulio’s wife, Ottavio’s perverse mum, Barbara’s privately bisexual only daughter and oldest child. 
Cecilia Morricone - Juba’s tough cookie friend. 
Daisaku Morricone - Barbara’s incredibly unlucky part-Japanese part-Italian husband, Cecilia and Rui’s grandfather, and the father of Gin and Vinicius. 
Rui Morricone - Cecilia’s overweight but shy and kind younger brother, who’s mostly best friends with the inventive Leopoldo Pino. 
Gin Morricone - Vinicius’ beloved younger brother, Jacinta and Cajuru’s dead uncle, Cecilia and Rui’s late father, and Barbara’s younger son. 
Vinicius Morricone - Barbara’s dead older son, Yara’s late husband, Jacinta and Cajuru’s father. 
Yara Pinto Morricone - Yara Morricone is Jacinta’s mother.
Jacinta ‘Jaci’ Morricone - The daughter of a part-Italian Brazilian man and the lively local Yara. Her younger brother is Cajuru Morricone. 
Cajuru Morricone - Jacinta’s younger brother and Yara’s son. 

The Pintos 
Carlos Pinto - Carlos is Yopanã’s older brother and Lo Juba’s right hand cop friend. 
Yawa Pinto - Iruka and Tina’s respectful medicine man uncle, Regina’s estranged husband, Carlos, Maibi and Yopanã’s father. 
Maibi Pinto - Yopanã’s lovely younger sister. 
Yopanã Pinto - Iruka and Tina’s tough guy middle cousin and Maibi’s older brother. 
Tiniá ‘Tina’ Pinto - Iruka’s cool mannered and likeable younger sister. 
Iruka Pinto - As Iruka means ‘Dolphin’ in Japanese, it fits the curiously randy nature of Lo’s local best friend. 

The De Castros 
Joao De Castro - Eduardo’s more laidback older brother. 
Luna De Castro - Joao and Eduardo’s younger sister, who ultimately hooks up with and marries Lo Juba afterwards in the wedding finale season. Before she married him, she had consensual sex with and being impregnated by him a month earlier; thus she birthed a baby girl 8 months later, albeit one who looks a lot like her ginger haired paternal grandfather. 
Eduardo De Castro - Although a fair and just doctor in training, he otherwise has to defend himself from a ton of corrupt people everywhere. 
Maria Elisa De Castro - Eduardo’s older wife, who suffers from ovarian cancer, a health condition somewhat closely associated with the relative inability to produce healthy babies after reaching age 40. 

Ramalho Rodrigues and his friends 
Dona Vanda Mazzina - Tulio’s confidante and Margarita’s mother.
Margarita Mazzina - Dona Vanda’s daughter and Guilherme’s flirty girlfriend.
Lili Zola - Laura’s mean and snobbish younger sister, who often behaves like her equally corrupt dad, the otherwise not murderous Augustin Zola. 
Tulio Zola - Tulio is Lili and Laura’s brother and the dad of Ottavio Zola. 
Regina Chaves Pinto - Yawa Pinto’s estranged wife. 
Alzira Camacho - Regina’s mean and sociopathic best friend. 
Gustavo Ramalho Rodrigues - The Heavy and main antagonist of the story, Ramalho doesn’t really care about anyone until he saw his own victim-secretary Susana finally having consensual sex from, of all people, his own ex-sidekick Ottavio. 
Raul Zola - Tulio, Lili and Laura’s nicer paternal uncle and Augustin Zola’s older brother. 
Augustin Zola - Tulio, Laura and Lili’s widower father, long married to his much older, long suffering, ptsd prone late wife, herself an ethnic Swedish mail order bride. 
Ottavio Zola - Ramalho’s insanely horny young ex-sidekick, who’s happy enough to have consensual sex with his secretary Susana even after he killed off his boss. Although he’s such a rich brat, he does love his friends, especially the poor Rafa. After Susana murdered their boss just for killing off his fellow employees, both she and him are in a (happy enough) prison shotgun wedding and bore themselves a baby boy afterwards. 
Nicolas Viana - Ottavio’s incredibly inventive autistic friend, Graça’s confidante and Rafa’s younger brother.
Rafa Viana - Ottavio’s plainclothes best friend. 
Susana Zola - Ramalho’s secretary turned Ottavio’s older wife. 
Brandão Hunziker - Ruth’s equally unpredictable (if otherwise hyperempathetic) bisexual father, himself the unlucky shotgun husband of a psychopathic tech boss with plans to take over the whole district. As the result of a family life gone horribly squick, his emotions are too overdeveloped for his own safety, and his own screwed up parents were too busy to even take care of him, which explains why he went solo since he was ten and had to raise Ruth alone in such horrible ways. 
Ruth Hunziker - Brandão’s screwed up yet incredibly horny bisexual daughter, who is trying to reunite with her already unlucky former female friends; although she’d have to do that by enacting gross and unfortunately non consensual sexual tactics. Even by her own fairly blue and orange standards, she just can’t comprehend both disabled helpless animals and completely depraved monsters, as the only major thing that she does know is to not even toe the two lines of moral horizon that Barbara Morricone technically went into. What she ultimately did to her newfound girlfriend Graça De Melo may not be considered a sexual violation anyway, but it’s still pretty painful nonetheless. 
Carl Friedman - One of Ottavio’s chummy friends. 
Louisa Friedman - Carl’s workaholic single mother. 

Cecilia’s Friends 
Graça De Melo - Graça De Melo is Cecilia’s insecure (privately lesbian) Cafuzo best friend, who secretly had to endure having consensual sex with Ruth near the end of the story. 
Daniela Camacho - Alzira’s spunky daughter and Carl’s girlfriend. 
Hercílio De Sa - Georgina’s somewhat reckless father and Anita’s loving husband.
Anita De Sa - Georgina’s mum and Hercílio’s stern but firm wife. 
Georgina De Sa - Daniela’s estranged buddy from Minas Gerais. 
Claudia De Sa - Being Georgina’s sister, Claudia is a haughty young manager working for Lili’s dad’s corrupt company. 
Juliana Freitas - One of Cecilia’s friends, Guilherme’s Sister and Frederica’s daughter.
Jurema Couto - One of Lili’s quaint employees, Jurema is implied to be from southern Rio De Janeiro.
Marcia Dos Santos - Maurinho Dos Santos’ Niece.
Maurinho Dos Santos - Maurinho is a heel face revolving door amongst the good guys. Sometimes he’s corrupted by the murderous Barbara Morricone, but he’s otherwise still a frizzy clown. He is Marcia’s uncle. 
Frederica Freitas - Juliana’s wise mother, Laura’s stubborn confidante. 
Paulo Da Silva - Paulo is the twin brother of Ana Da Silva, but who happens to be a witty mannered mulatto guy being good friends with Nicolas Viana. 
Ana Da Silva - Paulo’s sister. 
Lourdes Miranda - Lo’s schoolteacher. 
Guilherme ‘Gil’ Freitas - Frederica’s son and Juliana’s naughty little brother.




Thursday, 4 February 2021

Jungle Dramas with wild men and women

A list of jungle dramas with wild men and women

Tida Wanorn aka Daughter of the Apes (both Amy Jacobs and Pin Ngeoncharoen versions) - Even though this franchise has fictional cryptid apes played (in ironic fashion) by actual orangutans (browner Bornean ones in the original, ruddier Sumatran ones in the spinoff reboot), it is a tried and true moneymaker amongst Lakorns (aka Thai language soap operas) originally aiming (primarily) at middle aged rural ladies in the northwest, north-central and northeastern parts of Thailand. The first one, lasting about three years, is 61 episodes long while the second one, a mild continuity reboot, is only 40 episodes long (which is understandably due to being based loosely upon the first two seasons, since the original show’s third season is technically the blandest of them all). Also noted is that both stories are quite different from each other, in spite of featuring different characters with all the same names attached. The original got a much more depressing ending, mostly because it was being worn down faster than anyone could imagine at that time, whereas the reboot thankfully got a happy enough, if still bittersweet, ending. 

Prince Of The Wolves - Originally aiming at middle aged housewives is a pretty funny story with a fanbase composed partly of a few recent Jungle Book anime fans, and partly of Amber An’s own countless fans. Also helping is that it’s perhaps a noble attempt (although a weakly executed one nonetheless) at making a spiritual sequel to both Mowgli: The New Adventures Of The Jungle Book and its film companion The Jungle Book: Search for The Lost Treasure. Also helping is that it’s also a decent follow up to the internationally famous Jungle Book: Shōnen Mowgli tv anime series, which aired from 1989 to 1990 in its native Japan. 

Yago: Pure Passion and Pure Passion - The original Argentine version is otherwise rather superior to its own (much blander) Mexican remake, mostly due to the fact that it’s got better developed characters and much better rounded storytelling. 

Bicho Do Mato (both original and reboot) - The original version seems to have such a cast of characters considered off limits today, so that its superior reboot replaced them with a character who lives in the Pantanal with a family of badass indigenous locals. 

Tuesday, 2 February 2021

The Yoichiro Minami Catalogue: Books

The books of the Yoichiro Minami Catalogue 

Books that have 'Moju' (3 books)
Capturing the Beasts (猛獣を生捕る): This is a companion story to The Roaring Jungle. 
The Deadly Beast Hunt (決死の猛獣狩り): The huge raptors are the breakout stars of this book, and it’s those beasts who would frequently appear in the Baruuba books from 1948 onwards. 
The Fierce Beast Hunting Adventure (猛獸狩冒險): It’s actually just a subtitle for the Jungle King/To Catch a Tiger. 

Books that have 'Kairyu' (1 book)
The Dinosaur Kingdom (魔鏡の大怪龍): Baruuba (or an equivalent) likely appears in the story. Soon to be renamed as The Cryptid Kingdom (魔鏡の未確認)

Books that have ‘Amazon’ (2 books)
The Great Amazon Secret (大アマゾンの秘密) 
The Great Amazon Monument (大アマゾンの魔塔): Baruuba (or an equivalent) is a recurring character in this story. 

Books that have 'Kinjito' (3 books; 1 book being the abridged original edition, 2 others being the expanded edition)
Winding Through The Big Green Monument (緑の金字塔): A Japanese boy makes uneasy allies with Peruvian locals in this serial. 

Books that have ‘Maumi’ (5 books) 
The Devil Sea King (魔海の王者) 
The Magical Sea Treasure (魔海の秘宝): It’s actually the full name in Kanji. 
Beyond the Sea of Magic (魔海の彼方) 
The Devil’s Golden Sea Tower (魔海の黄金塔) 
The Devil’s Sea Treasure (魔海の宝) 

Books that have ‘Mujinto’ (3 books)
The Deserted Green Island (緑の無人島) 
A Sailor On The Deserted Green Island (水夫長平無人島漂流記)  
The Deserted Green Island Adventure (無人島の冒險): A soft reboot to the Deserted Green Island story. 

Books that have ‘Mitsurin’ (4 books)
The Roaring Jungle (吼える密林): Joseph Wilton and his friends attack the homes of unlucky animals in this gross adventure. Will be reprinted as To Catch a Hungry Lion (空腹の獅子を捕まえるために). 
The Jungle King (密林の王者): Another companion story to The Roaring Jungle. Will be reprinted as To Catch a Hungry Tiger (空腹の虎を捕まえるために), in order not to be confused with a 1948 story based on The Roaring Jungle. 
The Jungle Mystery (大密林の怪奇) 
A Huge Ship In The Jungle (密林の大怪船) 
The Jungle King (密林王): Actually an abridged adaptation of The Roaring Jungle/To Catch a Lion. 

Books that have 'Koto' (3 books)
The Secret of the Lone Island (孤島の秘密)
A Pirate of the Lone Island (孤島の怪賊)
15 Boys on the Lone Island (孤島の十五少年)

Anonymous Books 
An Ocean Adventure Story (海洋冒険物語) 
The Magic Shiva Statue (シバの魔神像) 
The Demon Island (魔神島) 
The Great Pirate’s Treasure (大海賊の秘宝) 
The Devil’s Hall of Fame (魔神の大殿堂)
The Lion King’s Treasure Sword (獅子王の宝劍)
The Arctic Star (北極の妖星) 
The Magical Phantom Tower (魔境怪塔の巻)
Under the Southern Cross (南十字星の下に) 
The Great Adventure King (日東の冒険王) 
The Terror of Cannibal Island (食人島の恐怖)
The Single Eared Leopard (片耳の魔豹) 
The Kingdom in the Air (空中魔城) 
The Treasure of the Great Kingdom (大魔境の秘宝) 
The Magic Kingdom’s Iron Palace (魔城の鐵假面) 
The Ogre Bandit (大鬼賊) 
The Phantom Ship (まぼろし船) 
The Monsters From Hell (魔境の怪人)
The Skull Mask (髑髏仮面) 
The Drifting Beast Ship (漂う猛獣船) 
The Ghost Tower (幽霊塔) 

Friday, 29 January 2021

The Yoichiro Minami Baruuba Books

The Baruuba Series 

Yoshimasa Ikeda’s Original Baruuba series in Chronological Order
The Jungle Orphan (密林の孤児) - will be reprinted as Baruuba The Jungle Orphan (密林の孤児バルーバ)
The One Eyed Golden Lion (片眼の黄金獅子) - will be reprinted as Baruuba And The One Eyed Golden Lion (バルーバと片眼の黄金獅子)
The Mighty Baruuba (巨人バルーバー) or The Phantom Kingdom (魔境の怪人) - will be reprinted as Baruuba And The Underworld’s Monsters (バルーバと地底の魔境の怪人) 
The Kingdom On The Rocks (岩上の怪人) - Baruuba is a recurring character in the story that started it all in production order. Nonetheless, said story, a working prototype, still counts as a loose part of the older canon. 
Baruuba The Iron Man (鉄人バルーバ) or The Ironman’s Fingerprints (鉄人の指紋) - will be reprinted as The Fingerprints of Ironman Baruuba (鉄人バルーバの指紋)
The Black Panther Kingdom (魔境の黒豹) - will be reprinted as Baruuba And The Black Panther Kingdom (バルーバと魔境の黒豹)
The Treasure Pursuit (秘宝を追って) - will be reprinted as Baruuba’s Treaure Pursuit (バルーバの秘宝を追って) 

The Abridged Goichi Yanagawa Illustrated Novels for grades 2-4 
The Jungle King (密林の王者) 
A Girl In The Jungle (密林の少女)
A Duel In The Jungle (密林の決闘) 
The Phantom Monsters on the Rocks (地底の怪人) 
The Mysterious Prisoner (怪奇境の虜) 
The Jungle Thief (密林の怪塔) 
The Jewel Valley Terror (宝石谷の恐怖) 
The Magical Monument (魔境の金字塔) 

The Abridged Remake Novels for grades 2-4 (in chronological order) 
The Jungle Orphan (密林の孤児) 
The Phantom Kingdom (魔境の怪人) 

The Abridged Compilation Novel for grades 2-4 
The Mighty Baruuba (巨人バルーバー) (with Omizu Suzuki) 


Saturday, 23 January 2021

The case against extensions of both Copyrights and Trademarks

As always the case, a majority of both entertainment corporations and middlemen abuse an idea and its extensions, to the point of their subsequent works becoming outright train wrecks. Another scenario is that both profit from an idea for a short while and sit on it very abusively for a long time, even hundreds of years after an actual live creator creates it for both, or has sold it to both and passes later on.

Then, there is the fairly agitating problem with visibly orphaned and abandoned works. Not only are such orphaned and abandoned works not in the public domain, they don’t have any of the original human owners left remaining. Fortunately, some of these works are already in the public domain for most nations, regardless of how recent their public domain status is, while various others have become what I can call ‘adopted works’. 

A surprisingly good (though rarely reported) example of a franchise being adopted by a huge fan of pulp fiction is the Kaspa series, much of which has only recently been released in an online paywall by its current owner, the Cajun editor Camille Cazedessus, aka Caz, while only the first two were being released within the original author’s lifetime. However, I am not allowed to scan the books as they are on the paywall much of the time, and I also only own the first Kaspa sequel instead of the original. Not helping is that the first two published Kaspa stories aren’t becoming public domain until 2036 in much of the world. That, and the franchise’s titular character being both registered and trademarked by said current owner, so nah. 

Another awesome example is Isamu Of The Wilderness, which originated as a prototypical graphic novel series distributed by Shueisha in the early 1950s. Unfortunately, such a graphic novel series consists of only three bland volumes, mostly due to Souji Yamakawa being a considerable perfectionist who begrudged a lot about the (somewhat wrong) executive meddling. Only in 1971 did a much more popular (and technically superior on all levels to the original) manga version appear in Weekly Shōnen Jump to last for three years. It was Souji who was gradually softening his still demeaning stance on manga, just by the time that Noboru Kawasaki met his own idol and thereafter drew the manga version, while Souji himself wrote it all along the way of the Rio Grande River. The manga itself spawned a considerably much lighter and softer, denser and wackier anime version made by the esteemed anime studio TMS entertainment, a few decades before it got acquired by video game giant Sega. By the time Souji Yamakawa died a week before Christmas Day 1992, Noboru Kawasaki technically owns his own studio, while Shueisha still owns and distributes the rest of it. 


Thursday, 21 January 2021

Meet Zenith!

From the JJ Nevins site.

Zenith the Albino, in case you don't know, is one of many enemies of Sexton Blake. This site aims to provide some information about him. (The images above and below, by the way, are taken from Savoy Books' site on Zenith, and are copyrighted by them.)

Zenith, as I said, is an enemy of Sexton Blake. If you aren't familiar with Blake, you should really go my page on him (the link is given right above) to familiarize yourself with Blake and provide the context for the following. If you are familiar with Blake, well, go to the page anyhow, you might learn something.

Now then. Zenith the Albino was not Blake's arch-enemy, Blake didn't really have one of those, having too many recurring enemies for any one of them to be supreme, but Zenith is the best- and most fondly remembered of all of Blake's enemies. Zenith was created by "Anthony Skene," aka George Norman Phillips, and debuted in "A Duel to the Death," Union Jack #837, 21 November 1919. Phillips, by his own account, was inspired to create Zenith in this way:

In 1913, I encountered, in the West End, a true albino, a man of about fifty-five. He was a slovenly fellow: fingers stained with tobacco, clothes soiled by dropped food. Yet he was dressed expensively, and had about him a look of adequacy. I should have forgotten him in a day or so; but when, an hour afterwards and five miles away, I sat down to have my lunch, he walked in to the restaurant and sat himself within a few feet of me.

This coincidence made an impression upon my mind, and when I needed
a central figure not quite so banal as Blake for the Union Jack series, I re-created this albino fellow 'moulded nearer to the heart's desire.'

From this encounter came the immortal Zenith. Jack Adrian, in the Sexton Blake Wins anthology, describes Zenith nicely:
snow-white hair, leprous skin, pink-irised eyes; his opium-soaked cigarettes, ivory-headed swordstick, melancholy disposition (in this, not unlike his creator), and the bizarre habit (considering he was an eternal fugitive from the police) of wearing, even in broad daylight, immaculate evening dress.
To quote from the text and the jacket copy of Phillips' 1936 novel, Monsieur Zenith:
'Zenith's crimson-irised eyes were reflective. He stood there long of leg and broad of shoulder, immaculately dressed, groomed to perfection, cold as an icicle; and dangerous; transcendently dangerous.'
Monsieur Zenith is an albino. Craving excitement
because it brings forgetfulness; thrust into crime by his abnormality, by his illimitable egotism, by the caprice of his recalcitrant nature, he finds himself involved in the quest for a mysterious something on the finding of which life--and more than life--depends.

Indifferent to gratitude or reward, asserting--and, perhaps, believing--that he seeks only 
the final diversion of the damned, to dice with death; threatened on the one hand by the police, and, on the other, by political chicanery, this strange creature crashes through.

Monsieur Zenith is the strangest, most bizarre, character ever devised in thriller fiction.


Zenith was a sinister individual of the "gentleman crook" variety, elegant, sophisticated, and quite lethal. He was, as mentioned, an albino, with "snowy white hair" and "rabbit pink eyes." His background was variously described as being Romanian nobility and a famous old English family, but more often it was left vague (see below), as perhaps was best. Zenith had a first-rate education, regardless of what country he came from, was a top violinist and an Olympic-level fencer, but, alas, his background and attainments did not stop him from turning bad. He smoked prodigious amounts of opium, used his own inventions for criminal ends (his infra-red binoculars were a threat to all of London's wealth, and his special drill, made of a steel unknown to science, could "perforate a hardened steel safe as a a gimlet will perforate a cardboard box"), used his sword-cane for lethal ends, and in general left a trail of broken minds, bodies, and fortunes behind him. Zenith was the admitted model for Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné, and had a definite style to him; he always referred to Blake as "dear detective" and uttered one of the best villainous lines of all time: while speaking to the rude henchman of another villain Zenith said, "I would treat you as you deserve, but the blood would get on my cuffs."
Better still, I've found "The Box of Ho Sen," from Detective Weekly #8, 15 April 1933, a prime example of Zenith (and Phillips) at the top of his game. I'm going to push the Fair Use doctrine as far as it will go and provide as many good passages as I can from the story, so you can see why Zenith is just too cool for words.

Tuesday, 19 January 2021

Notes for How far can The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Stories decay

Notes for the non-WB/non-Disney Live Action variants 
*In terms of how in name only an onscreen Jungle Book adaptation can go, My Mowgli Boy surely is a huge winner. In a happy twist of irony; despite still being rather heavily vetted in its native PRC (as with everything in the country), it’s also a lot more adult than Prince of The Wolves or even Andy Serkis’ Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, which is itself a hard achievement to follow in Hollywood. The main reason why is that Mowgli (appearing as Mo Ge Li in this version) occasionally gets drunk and sometimes cat fights his own girlfriend turned future wife. 
*The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli And Baloo is perhaps the least faithful Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Stories adaptation distributed by a major Hollywood studio. In hilarious irony, it’s ranked (in terms of being in name only) between Reitherman’s The Jungle Book and DQ’s The Jungle Book. 
*Mowgli: The New Adventures of The Jungle Book is a decent prequel to The Jungle Book: Search for The Lost Treasure. 
*The Jungle Book: The Search for The Lost Treasure is more faithful to both Jungle Books (or more specifically a few stories in each of them) than its prequel tv series.
*Prince of the Wolves is perhaps the most faithful non-WB/non-Disney live action variant out there, even though it’s largely a comedy romance for the most part. Along with My Mowgli Boy and Stephen Sommers’ The Jungle Book, it is one of the few significant onscreen adaptations of the Jungle Book story that started it all. Not even helping is that, apart from having a huge online audience primarily consisting of Southeast Asians, Taiwanese, Latin Americans and Brazilians, what most people don’t really know that the story that it’s indirectly based upon is In the Rukh, with the heroine and hero’s age gap and all. 

Notes for the non-WB/non-Disney Animated Variants 
*Even though DQ’s The Jungle Book is considerably lighter than most other adaptations (which are still family friendly to begin with), it’s not as (heavily) in name only as My Mowgli Boy. 
*While Wolf Boy Ken is likely inspired more by Wambi the Jungle Boy than by the actual Jungle Books, it is still a modest international success which stars a wild boy and the heroic wolves who raised him. 
*Golden Films’ The Jungle Book, although pragmatically based on Mowgli’s Brothers and a few other bits in The Jungle Book, has the palest 20th Century variant of Mowgli out there. Unfortunate implications indeed. 
*Despite being from the UK, Bevanfield Films’ The Jungle Book is the worst Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Stories onscreen adaptation by far. 
*Saban’s The Jungle Book is perhaps the most faithful Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Stories adaptation distributed by a Hollywood studio other than WB. 
*Despite being made in Soviet Union era Russia, The Adventures of Mowgli is the most faithful of the 20th Century Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Stories adaptations onscreen. It is based upon both Jungle Books as well as having a few elements coming from In The Rukh, such as Mowgli being in his twenties for significant amounts of the fifth and final part. 
*In terms of being faithful to the original, Jungle King Saro is perhaps an all time winner for a crapload of questionable reasons! Being based on both Jungle Books, it features the most questionable onscreen depictions of the otherwise competent Man Villagers on record, which surely said it all, as the show was indeed filled with critical research failures galore. 

Notes for MGM, Netflix and Warner Bros Variants
*Zoltan Korda’s The Jungle Book is the least faithful of the MGM, Netflix and Warner Bros variants. Funnily enough, it is the first onscreen Jungle Book adaptation based primarily (albeit rather loosely) on The Second Jungle Book (mingling awkwardly with a few elements of The Jungle Book) and features the inspiration behind King Louie and King Larry, an orangutan who leads the Bandar Log group of fellow primates. 
*Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is the darkest and edgiest Jungle Book adaptation co-distributed by a pair of major Hollywood studios, although it is based pragmatically on The Jungle Book with a few elements coming from The Second Jungle Book. 
*The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Brothers, although based on a few bits of The Jungle Book (but primarily Mowgli’s Brothers), is perhaps the most faithful Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Stories adaptation distributed by a major Hollywood studio. 

Notes for Disney Variants 
*Despite its own famously troubled production history, Reitherman’s The Jungle Book is surprisingly less ‘in name only’ than two closely ranked deviants, The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli And Baloo and DQ’s The Jungle Book. 
*The Jungle Book 2, although a rather weak and often contentious sequel, is actually a bit more faithful to Kipling’s Jungle Books (but mostly Leaving In The Jungle and a few bits in The Second Jungle Book) than its predecessor. It is the only animated Disney one which doesn’t feature Louie, as the latter is (in the story) implied to be taking a holiday off. 
*Sommers’ The Jungle Book is the darkest 20th century Disney variant. Funnily enough, while it does have elements of both Jungle Books mingling with each other, it is the first significant live action Jungle Book adaptation based on In The Rukh, albeit in a rather loose fashion. 
*Favreau’s The Jungle Book and its upcoming sequel The Jungle Book 2 are amongst the darkest of the Disney variants, despite being rated PG in the US. 
*The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story is the most faithful of the Disney variants, being based primarily on Mowgli’s Brothers and other bits in The Jungle Book.