King Louie

King Louie is a character from the 1967 Disney animated film The Jungle Book, inspired by Rudyard Kipling's classic novel. Louie did not appear in the book, however, because orangutans are not native to India. The original story for Louie started out quite differently, but he was eventually given the voice and personality of famed jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis Prima. Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, and John Lounsbery animated the character.

King Louie appears to be evil, but he just wants to be human; he is the classic misunderstood villain. He sings the song "I Wanna Be Like You" after he kidnaps Mowgli, and asks the boy to show him the secret of "red fire" so he can be human.

Other Appearances
A slightly different King Louie character appeared in the Disney 1994 live-action Jungle Book movie starring Jason Scott Lee. Once again he is an orangutan, and the 'leader' of a group of monkeys that make their home in an abandoned human city. His name arises in this version from the vast wealth that humans left behind in the city, and in particular to his habit of wearing a crown similar in appearance to that worn by the King of France, Louis XIV.

King Louie did not appear in The Jungle Book 2, but a puppet of him can been seen in Mowgli's puppet show at the beginning of the film. His absence was due to Louis Prima's widow suing over the unauthorized use of her late husband's voice and public persona in past Jungle Book spin-off projects, as Jim Cummings's imitation of Prima featured in these was near perfect. This is rumored to have influenced the cancellations of the television spin-offs Tale Spin and Jungle Cubs. On Tale Spin, Louie ran a tavern where Baloo and his sidekick Kit Cloudkicker frequented, while on Jungle Cubs, he orgnaized the band the Five Bananas where he performed alongside Baloo, Bagheera the Panther, Hathi the Elephant, and Kaa the Snake.

In one of the Disney TV Shows, House of Mouse, there is a King Louie look-alike orangutan who is referred to as King "Larry", and is said to be Louie's identical twin brother. It was to star King Louie, but had to be changed to Larry so as not to violate their agreement with Gia Prima.

King Louie also appears in the Fables comic book. He is one of the revolutionaries who wish to overthrow the Fabletown government out of resentment at the apparent second-class status of non-human-appearing Fables. Due to his peripheral involvement, he is given a sentence of hard labor---twenty years, reduced to five years conditional on good behavior.

Controversy
King Louie has often been used as an example of racial stereotyping in Disney films. However, Mark Pinksky, author of The Gospel According to Disney, says that a child in today's social climate (as opposed to the 1960's) would not discern any racial discrimination from the character.