Jungle Book: Did Baloo have a coconut bra?
- Cory Grajales
Alternate:
Baloo wore a coconut bra in the 1967 Jungle Book movie
Current:
Baloo did not wear a coconut bra in the 1967 Jungle Book movie
How did Baloo cover his modesty in Disney's 1967 Jungle Book?
Many people have a strong image when they remember Baloo doing a dance from Disney's 1967 animated "The Jungle Book" movie, based on Rudyard Kipling's 1894 classic. This is when he does it wearing a grass skirt, but crucially they also remember a bra made from coconuts.
The problem is his "bra" isn't anywhere to be found now, and so it's being pointed to as a Mandela Effect.
The mystery deepens when it turns out Larry Clemmons, the writer producing the animation, specifcally says
When Baloo the Bear has his wacky (I Wanna Be Like You) duet with King Louie the Orangutan, we put Baloo in a coconut bra and a grass skirt
Jungle book
The original work was a collection of short stories set in India where most of the characters are animals, apart from the human Mowgli who was raised by wolves. Kipling was writing about his own childhood, with a strong theme of abandonment throughout representing his own childhood, where he was fostered. Kipling was a good friend of Baden-Powell, who founded the boy scout movement and is said to have founded it having been influenced by the book's morals and themes.
The origin of the book is thought to be him writing it for Kipling's daughter, Josephene aged 6, who died in 1899. This is because in 2010 a first edition with a handwritten note from him was found.
Ape
Baloo is actually imitating an ape when he does the dance.
Some try to explain this by pointing to many other instances or animated characters wearing coconuts as a bra, but none relate to The Jungle Book.