The Jungle Book and Friends Collection (DVD/Digital)

With Disney remaking their remakes of classic fairy tales and adventure novels, stories like “The Jungle Book” are all the rage these days. For folks that want to branch out from the Disney umbrella and check out what other companies have adapted these classic stories, Mill Creek Entertainment releases a collection of animated adaptations of legendary adventures and fantasies. It’s especially good if you’re looking to save a few bucks while expanding your animated horizons beyond the House of Mouse.

Among the titles features, there’s 2000’s “The Jungle Book” also known as “Jungle Book Shōnen Mowgl” an adventure from Rudyard Kipling’s books that adapts the source material in to Hindi and Japanese animation. The ninety five minute movie is mainly a combination of episodes from the series and tells the story of Mowgli, his family of wolves, and his best friend, Baloo the Bear. 2005’s “Cinderella” also known as “Cinderella Monogatari” is an Italian-Japanese production that combines many episodes of the original anime series to fit the structure of a ninety minute film. Much like the “Jungle Book” movie, it’s mainly just a hodgepodge of scenes from the original anime series that should be fun for kids looking for something completely different.

“The Legend of Snow White” from 2005 is a ninety four minute movie taking the original fifty episode series and constructing a fantasy film from it. Although the series is initially from the nineties, the compilation is from 2005 and should serve as a neat departure from the more famous musical brother. Finally, there’s 2005’s “Simba, The King Lion: The Final Battle” a nearly two hour compilation from the anime series that riffs on the Disney film creating a more fantastic iteration that’s hit or miss. Ultimately it’s a miss.

The DVD collection comes with six additional films no on DVD, only for digital consumers that redeem the titles. The digital redemption ticket includes access to “Welcome Back Pinocchio,” “Pocahontas I: Princess of American Indians,” “The Thief of Baghdad,” “The Three Musketeers,” “Hercules,” and “Robin Hood.”