What ever happened with that show? They used to show it all the time, but I don't think I've seen where it's been on since I was a kid. Has it been deemed too scary for kids nowadays?
I loved the short story and the Chuck Jones teevee special. It's probably been nearly 40 years since I've seen it, maybe longer. As cool as the 1975 original is, it would be great if they made a new one with 3-D animation. Rikki is apparently a supporting character in the Nickelodeon animated Jungle Book series.
I remember an animated version my grandparents had on VHS. Can't say if I'm wearing rose-tinted nostalgia, but I remember enjoying it, though now days I wouldn't be too upset had the cobras gotten bitey with the British father before the mongoose went to town. Colonialism
If one knows where to look, one can find it easily enough. Some aspects of it still hold up, others, like the colonialism, don’t. The big issue, I think, is that stylistically, it’s out of step with everything else made for kids today. After all, not only does it involve a kid being menaced by a cobra, but Rikki methodically kills the children of the cobra in front of her, in order to keep her distracted so the kid can escape.
Could be as simple as a licensing issue. Back in Portland classic moviehouses are a thing (didn't know they weren't a thing everywhere until moving to Louisville). I made a suggestion to one of my favorite ones to get the Beatles' animated "Yellow Submarine." They said they couldn't get it because it was out of print. As far as I can tell there are no plans for a rerelease. Don't know if there isn't a good copy or something that can be restored or what, but some of these classics just disappear.
For some reason you don't see "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" near as often as you used to either. And every Christmas you used to get the Laurel and Hardy classic "Babes in Toyland."
I was also going to say that the Raj aspect of it probably makes it unappealing to modern audiences, plus what Tuckerfan said about the violence. Seeing it as a third grader in 1975, I wasn't aware of the former and thought the latter was just fine.
I absolutely adored it - I don't remember too much about it but foggy memories of things I've read about that sort of production, things based on stuff written, say, in the last 50-60 years before WW2, have a lot of things that were very much social norms then that are frowned upon now (and any production based on such writing before...at least the 90's probably...would carry that over credulously.
