The BEST episodes of The Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli
Every episode of The Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli!
In the jungles of India, an orphaned human infant named Mowgli is taken in by a wolf pack under the sponsorship of the black panther, Bagheera. As Mowgli grows up with his canine family, he finds that he has a lot to learn about life in the jungle under the tutelage of Bagheera and Baloo the Bear. At the same time, Mowgli learns to thrive in his own way as he handles the threat of the tiger, Shere Khan and his minions. Throughout the boy's adventures, there is also the growing mystery of his origins and humanity that would change his life forever.
#1 - Solitary Kichi
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/6/1989
Kichi wants to spend all his time with Mowgli and his friends, but unfortunately, this desire often gets him into trouble. The panda becomes easy prey for the monkeys who use him as a bait to snare Mowgli. After a tumultuous turn of events, the boy and the young panda renew their friendship and, together, manage to get the better of the terrible Shere Khan. Shere Khan climbs out of the water and angrily vows revenge.
#2 - The New Friends
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/30/1989
Life in the jungle is easier for those who have good friends. Encouraged by Baloo and Baghera’s lessons, our young hero then makes friends with Kichi, a young panda, after rescuing him from Shere Khan’s clutches.
#3 - The Cold Fang
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/13/1989
Sometimes Mowgli does not heed Baloo’s teachings concerning the law of the jungle. When Mowgli refuses to learn his lesson, the bear loses his patience and slaps the boy with his paw. Mowgli gets angry and runs away. Deeply resentful, Mowgli then does exactly the opposite of what he has been taught, and, as Baloo has feared, falls into the terrible trap of the iron teeth.
#4 - Sorry Baloo
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/20/1989
Mowgli has been trapped by the iron teeth. While he struggles to free himself, a giant crocodile lumbers out of the river and heads in his direction. Luckily, Baloo shows up in time and engages the fearsome reptile in a fight to the death. Mowgli is carried to safety by Baghera, but the boy is distraught because he realizes that a friend has died in order to rescue him. But, as it happens, a happy ending is destined when Kaa discovers Baloo hiding down by the river and tells Mowgli, affording him the opportunity to make up with the bear.
#5 - More Precious than the Law
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/27/1989
Akru breaks the law of the pack, places Mowgli in great danger, and is then severely injured while trying to save him. Because the young wolf has committed a serious crime, his companions are not allowed to help him, and he is banished from the pack. However, Mowgli refuses to accept this harsh law, and thus sets out to find the enchanted flower that is the only remedy for the wolf’s injuries.
#6 - The Hero's Return
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/25/1989
Our friends offer refuge to several wolves who are being pursued by hunters. After a long absence, Lala’s father Vermillion, and Sandah, Akela’s son, return home. When he learns of Alexander’s death, Vermillion offers to take leadership of the pack. However, Sandah does not like the idea because he resents the presence of Mowgli, a perceived member of the cruel human race that kills for the pleasure of killing. Mowgli’s curiosity then gets the better of him; he resolves to leave in order to meet other human beings, but, once again, he is caught by the monkeys acting on behalf of Shere Khan.
#7 - The Lone Wolf Visitor
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/4/1989
Times are hard for our jungle friends; the lack of prey grows greater every day, and the threat of starvation becomes more and more real. In the meantime, an old, solitary wolf named Fargas appears and claims to have been a good friend of Alexander’s. He proceeds to save Mowgli from an oncoming buffalo such that Mowgli accepts the newcomer unconditionally, but Bagheera is suspicious of him. One night while the pack is out hunting, its precious reserves of food are looted. Akela is quick to blame Bacchus, and gives him a stiff punishment, however Mowgli is determined to prove the wolf’s innocence.
#8 - The Devil in the Mind
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/11/1989
Mowgli and Bacchus are accused of stealing the reserves of food. However, they are then defended by Bagheera who blames the thievery on an evil spirit that appears during times of famine. Soon afterward, Fargas is caught stealing red-handed, but manages to get the pack to pardon him by claiming that he acted under the influence of the evil spirit.
#9 - Adventurous Journey
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/18/1989
Mowgli is preoccupied by the presumption that he cannot compete with the wolves of the pack, so when Akela asks for a volunteer to carry out a dangerous scouting mission, he does everything possible to be chosen. The boy carries out the mission successfully, even if he might have been less fortunate without the help of Bagheera. Mowgli realizes that he still has much to learn, and so returns to Luri’s den with his mind at peace.
#10 - Alexander's Son
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/16/1989
Mowgli is desperate because Lala has hidden his new weapon, a boomerang he refers to as his "Fang". Demoralized by the difficulties he encounters while trying to find a replacement, the boy returns to his memories of the good old days when his father had taught him some basic hunting skills. Mowgli is determined to fulfill his father’s wishes: he will become such a proficient hunter that he will be able to kill Shere Khan who has been responsible for Alexander’s death.
#11 - The Birth of the Wolf-Boy Mowgli
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/9/1989
Mowgli has a serious problem: he cannot run as fast as his brother wolves, and has no claws or fangs with which to hunt. Teased continuously by Lala, a young she-wolf in his pack, he challenges her to a test of skill. During the contest, Mowgli discovers an effective way to catch his prey, and then saves Lala from Shere Khan, finally earning himself the pack's respect.
#12 - The Jungle Book
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/9/1989
Mowgli is the infant son of a scientist who embarks upon a research mission in the jungle. While his parents are busy, Mowgli, so young he can barely walk, wanders off into the jungle where he is stalked by a hungry tiger, Shere Khan. Fortunately, Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther, and Kaa the python defend the infant boy. In the end, Mowgli is taken in by two wolves, Luri, and Alexander, who wish to adopt him. The rest of the pack opposes the idea, however Bagheera, who has witnessed the death of Mowgli’s parents in the meantime, feels responsible, and so offers a freshly killed buffalo in exchange for Mowgli’s life. Mowgli thus becomes one of the pack.
#13 - Human Speech is Beautiful
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 5/21/1990
Mowgli returns more and more frequently to the territories near the human settlement where his new friends live, and one day Shere Khan decides to follow him. Beautiful Jumeirah teaches the boy to talk, and the little "savage" is enthusiastic about his teacher and her lessons. Bagheera, Baloo and Kichi are concerned because they don’t understand what is happening to Mowgli. Meanwhile, Shere Khan has every intention of eating the boy and Jumeirah.
#14 - A Word to Mowgli
Season 2 - Episode 26 - Aired 10/29/1990
Mowgli decides to leave the jungle, but before going to live in the village with Jumeirah and her family, he bids farewell to all his animal friends, except Bagheera, who will accompany him. All the jungle animals then assemble at Council Rock to offer him a bittersweet good-bye. At the end of the episode, he is reunited with his old friends in the human village as he throws his Fang.
#15 - Mowgli Goes to the Village
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/28/1990
Mowgli and Shere Khan engage in mortal combat. The boy is about to be overcome when the old Rahar comes to the rescue and, in spite of receiving serious injuries, drives the tiger away, but not before Mowgli manages to slash the tiger's eye. Mowgli and Jumeirah carry the injured man home, and when Jumeirah’s mother, Meshua, sees Mowgli she is convinced he is her son, Keshnu, who was lost in the jungle and never seen again. Her husband and daughter try to calm the woman down, explaining that Mowgli cannot possibly be her son, but in any case, he has just saved grandfather Rahhar from the tiger's fangs.
#16 - Want to Know Human Being
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 6/4/1990
Mowgli is very attracted by the lifestyle of his own kind and wants to stay with Jumeirah. Unfortunately, people are unkind to him: the village youths, a boy named Ganshum in particular, make fun of the little savage, and the elders want to sell him to a circus. However, in spite of everything, Mowgli bids his animal friends farewell, determined to stay with Jumeirah.
#17 - The Lying Human Being
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 6/11/1990
Buldeo, the evil hunter of the village, and Ganshum’s grandfather, tells his outraged fellow villagers an incredible story: one day, he ventured deep into the jungle and came upon some grey monkeys guarding the secret of eternal youth, who offered him some delicious wine. But this was not all; Buldeo knows that the king of all the animals is a chimeric dragon, known as the "Fire Dragon". He tells his audience that Shere Khan is possessed by the soul of the village's most hated man, named Purun Dass, who died the year before and is then determined to take revenge by killing everyone in the village. As proof that the tiger is the reincarnation of the thief, Buldeo adds that they both have a scarred eye. It becomes quite clear that Mowgli will soon have another fight on his hands.
#18 - Tears Before the Battle
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 6/18/1990
In order to avenge his wolf father, Alexander, Mowgli is determined to kill Shere Khan with a dagger and the help of his friends, but Chil reports that the tiger has disappeared. While Kaa sets out to track down Shere Khan, Sura and Akru remain at Mowgli’s side.
#19 - The Decisive Battle
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 6/25/1990
Akela’s plan of attack against Shere Khan calls on Mowgli to play a decisive role: the boy will be the one who engages the tiger in the final duel. After overcoming much peril, he is to succeed in this endeavor.
#20 - Goodbye Meshua
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 7/2/1990
Mowgli is ordered by Buldeo to bring Shere Khan’s corpse into the village to prove that he has not been lying, and that if he cannot do this, then he will be severely punished. Mowgli accepts the challenge, and, with the help of the animals, a torch, and Rahhar’s knife, manages to subdue the tiger, ultimately killing his prey. However, the perfidious Buldeo plans to pocket the reward on the tiger’s head. In order to do this, he goes to great pains to prove to the villagers that in fact he is the one responsible for the death of the tiger, and that Mowgli is merely a conniving sorcerer. Mowgli turns his back on the village and returns to his friends in the jungle. Jumeirah is very sad to see him go.
#21 - The Dhole Invasion
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 7/9/1990
Chil the eagle, warns the animals of the Seeonee forest that a terrible calamity awaits them: an invasion by the dholes, a pack of red dogs pushed northwards by thirst and hunger. After a long meeting at which Luri is appointed commander-in-chief, Mowgli’s mother decides to send the boy to fetch Kaa so that she can consult the snake about drawing up a defensive plan. Kaa comes up with a most ingenious idea.
#22 - Run through the Valley of Death
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 7/30/1990
The red dogs reach the forest of Seeonee where Mowgli is waiting for them. When the sun goes down, he puts Kaa’s plan into action, luring the dogs into Death Valley where a swarm of black bees attacks them. The surviving dogs throw themselves into the river and are carried by the current into the mouths of the wolves who have the chance to show off their fighting skills. The dangerous enemy has been defeated and peace returns to the forest of Seeonee.
#23 - Longing to Meet Meshua
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 8/13/1990
The forest is celebrating the mating season. Mowgli and Bagheera feel left out because all the wolves have found partners. Bagheera’s stories about the mating season make Mowgli homesick for the beautiful Jumeirah. In the end, Mowgli runs to the village and discovers that Jumeirah and her family have been kidnapped. The door has been broken down and the house is empty.
#24 - Mowgli Helps
Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 8/20/1990
A mongoose called Rikki-Tikki-Tavi tells Mowgli that after Buldeo vented his rage on Mowgli’s adopted family, that the villagers kidnapped Jumeirah and her parents, believing them to be demons. Mowgli runs to the village to help his friends, but along the way, he runs into Buldeo and Riswan who threaten to kill him.
#25 - The Sound of the Trumpet-Shell and the Bells in the Moonless Night
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 8/27/1990
Mowgli breaks into the hut where Rahhar and his family are held prisoner and sets them free, but they first ask him to provide them with food in order to build up their strength before they make their escape. While he is trying to hunt down Mowgli with a friend, Buldeo then encounters Bagheera.