King Louie

King Louie (full name Louie Lamount in TaleSpin) is a character from 1967 film The Jungle Book and its spin-off television shows TaleSpin, and Jungle Cubs, 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. 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 and his followers can be like man. His feet act like hands sometimes.

Background
King Louie is a rowdy orangutan who was crowned King of the Apes. Unlike most characters in the film, Louie was created by The Walt Disney Company and there was no ape king in the original tale. Louie was animated by Frank Thomas who used Louie's voice artist Louie Prima, to design and animate the character.

Around 1996, Louis Prima's widow sued The Walt Disney Company over the unauthorized use of her late husband's voice and public personal 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. In the later years, Disney would continue to use Louie in theme park entities and other promotional material but refrained from having the character speak, to avoid trouble with Mrs. Prima.

However, around late 2010, these files were lifted allowing Disney to once again use the character. 2012's debut of the live show Wishes aboard the Disney Cruise Line ship, the Disney Fantasy, marks the first time Louie actually spoke dialogue since the 2000 video game The Jungle Book Groove Party.

Personality
Louie tends to be very loud and energetic. He dreams of one day being a man and when he learns a man-cub is near his ruins, he feels this to be the perfect opportunity to fulfill his dream. However, his kidnapping of Mowgli is sometimes mistaken for a villainous deed. Being that his loves parties, he makes great friends with Baloo the Bear (excluding the Mowgli brouhaha).

Alternatively. It's possible that Louie simply desires more power; as while he claims to merely want to be a man, he expresses a very specific interest. Namely in "Man's Red Flower" - fire, is frequently alluded upon in the story as being something all animals fear. Louie takes advantage of Mowgli's naivety to attempt to convince him to learn how to make fire; should Louie get this knowledge, he could quite easily hold the entire jungle hostage and rule over it through fear.

The Jungle Book
King Louie first appears in Disney's 1967 adaption of The Jungle Book. Louie is the king of all primates in the Indian jungle and craves nothing more than to be a man. He somehow learns that a Man-Cub is in the jungle on his way to the Man Village and wishes to stay. Louie sends his monkey minions to capture the boy. They do so with ease allowing Louie to attempt to live his dream. Using the musical number I Wanna Be Like You, Louie asks Mowgli to reveal the secret to man's "Red Flower". However, Mowgli has no clue how to make fire. Louie believes Mowgli is being coy and continues to ask. Out of nowhere, a female orangutan (Baloo the Bear in a costume) appears and begins to scat and dance with Louie. Eventually, Baloo's outfit falls apart and a comical chase follows. During the chase, a supporter is destroyed, which leads to the kingdom collapsing. Louie is last seen standing in his ruined kingdom while Mowgli escapes with Baloo and Bagheera.

Not much is known of Louie after these events, but in a storybook follow up, Louie and Bagheera tried to help Baloo deal with the fact that Mowgli is living in the Man-Village implieing that the three apparently discarded the event.

The Jungle Book 2
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 and was mentioned by Mowgli and Baloo when they traveled to the Ancient Ruins in the middle of the film. Their conversation follows:


 * [Baloo and Mowgli travel to King Louie's ruins to hide from the Man-Village's residents who are searching for Mowgli] :
 * Mowgli: This is the perfect hideout? This is King Louie's place!
 * Baloo: Was kid, was, he's splitsville!

Louie's whereabouts were unknown but according to Baloo, he and the monkeys turned the ruins into a hangout spot for the popular party-loving members of the jungle.

TaleSpin
On the T.V. series TaleSpin, Louie owns "Louie's", an island bar not far from Cape Suzette, where most pilots hang out and refuel their planes, especially Baloo. Squat, hairy, and always quick with a wisecrack or song, Louie is one of the most colorful characters a pilot will ever meet. The scat-singing, tree-swinging owner of Louie's Place, Louie has made a name for himself by transforming a remote South Seas island into a haven for weary cargo pilots the world over. With his outgoing personality and party-loving nature, Louie has become the friend and familiar of every thirsty hedgehopper from Cape Suzette to Thembria.

Little is known about Louie prior to the establishment of his club and rise to stardom-of-sorts. Reportedly raised in Cape Suzette, he has never mentioned anything about his family. In fact, Louie's only known relative is the wild, party-loving ace pilot Louise L'amour, five-time winner of the Scatmandu Championship Air Race (and one family tie Louie would prefer to forget).

Working as a small-time entertainer in Cape Suzette, Louie was a gifted musician and expert bartender. Drifting from one nightclub to the next, Louie and a group of friends performed a few numbers per night and mixed fruit-juice cocktails afterward. Eventually, Louie came up with an idea for a place of his own, a jungle-themed nightclub that would serve Louie's special blend of scat music and refreshments. It was a move several colleagues felt would ruin his career, but Louie was willing to take the chance.

Scrounging every last penny of his hard-earned savings, Louie acquired a remote island property in the middle of the South Seas, several miles away from Cape Suzette. Lush and unexplored, the island was the perfect setting for his dream club and was conveniently situated near local air shipping routes. Building around an old sailing ship wreck on the shore, Louie constructed his club piece by piece with the help of several friends and fellow band members. Five years later, Louie's Place has become the "garden spot of the South Seas" and its owner a celebrity among pilots everywhere.

Louie is a born musician, always marching to his own beat. Easygoing and carefree, he breezes through life much like his longtime pal Baloo. His speciality is band music and singing — particularly with scat lyrics — and Louie has been known to take the stage himself during overnight jam sessions at his club. Louie's life revolves around music and partying; even his speech has a rhyming, somewhat musical quality.

Louie is also an expert when it comes to bartending, a skill which he displays with remarkable speed and flourish. His fruit drinks and desserts are world-famous, especially his flaming "Krakatoa Special". He is also known for making delicious pizzas — although not with anchovies, the only food that Louie is allergic to.

Louie values good times and friendship above all else. Even though he barely manages to squeeze a living out of his club, Louie cherishes Louie's Place as the symbol of the things he holds dear — mirth, music, and good friends. No amount of money can replace that for him. While this means Louie has turned down several lucrative offers for his club, it also reveals him to be a very devoted and sentimental person.

Of course, Louie is never lacking in friends. He has a special place in his heart for the flyers who "stuck with him like a bad habit" through the first difficult years of his club, and made Louie's Place what it is today. He values their friendship, especially the friendship of his "main man" Baloo, Louie's oldest pal and one of his first customers. Baloo and Louie have been friends through thick and thin, sharing many adventures together during Baloo's days as a freelance pilot. Baloo still frequents Louie's Place as a regular customer, a favor which Louie is glad to return by overlooking Baloo's hefty tab.

Louie's list of friends has since broadened to include the whole Higher for Hire crew. They are special friends of Louie's, particularly Ms. Rebecca Cunningham — although she loudly and repeatedly claims there is nothing between her and that "pile of matted fur." Louie shares Baloo's weakness for beautiful women. While atrociously uncouth at times, around females Louie acts charming and gracious (and highly competitive if Baloo's interested in the same pretty face).

After five years, Louie's Place has grown from a deserted island into the single most heavily-trafficked spot in the South Seas. However, no matter how popular his club becomes, Louie will always be the same scruffy chimpanzee he is.

Jungle Cubs
Louie appears as a cub, referred to as Prince Louie, who dreams of being King of the apes. Louie also star in the show alongside Baloo, Bagheera, Shere Khan, Hathi and Kaa who were all a group of friends. A fast-talking prankster, he takes the troupe from one madcap adventure to the next. Louie is a genius inventor and natural-born leader. This verbose orangutan always has something brewing, and is one of the founding members of the band "5 Bananas." His scats deliver positive messages, proving that he is more than just a goof-off and has the potential to someday be king.

The episode The Ape That Would Be King actually shows that Louie and his friends did not know about Louie's monarchy status until said episode. After the news swarmed around the jungle, everyone, even Baloo, felt Louie would make a lousy king. It is not until a volcanic eruption broke out that everyone was able to see Louie actually has the potential of protecting the jungle's inhabitants from dangers.

In the Jungle Cubs: Born to Be Wild DVD, Louie, as an adult, served as the narrator, telling the story of Mowgli and Baloo's journey to the Man Village.

House of Mouse
King Louie made several cameos in the animated series House of Mouse, usually sitting alongside Mowgli. In the episode "King Larry Swings In", 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.

Aside from this, Louie can be seen at the opening of the show. One episode even gave him a close-up cameo after a cartoon ended. Louie and Mowgli can be seen at a table in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse.

Disney Universe
King Louie reappears as a playable costume character in The Jungle Book Pack along with other characters from the film.

Disney Parks
King Louie, along with Baloo, is a meetable character in the Disney Parks. He is mostly seen at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Wishes
On the Disney Fantasy cruise ship, Louie is the second Disney character Brandon, Nicole, and Kayla encounter on their journey through Disneyland. During their meeting, Louie attempts to learn the secret to man's red flower from the trio much as he tried with Mowgli.

Fantasmic!
In the Disneyland version of the show, King Louie along with several monkey dance on the floating barges as Kaa snakes around the stage. In Disney's Hollywood Studios' version, King Louie is briefly seen during the bubble montage.

In the Tokyo DisneySea, Louie is seen on the barges with his monkeys much like the Disneyland version.

Mickey's Jingle Jungle Parade
Louie can be seen walking aside Baloo's float in the Christmas parade held at Disney's Animal Kingdom. In this parade, Louie can be seen with a tropical outfit.

Mickey's Soundsational Parade
Louie is seen in the recent parade Mickey's Soundsational Parade. Louie joins Terk from Tarzan and Simba from The Lion King in the jungle section of the parade.

One Man's Dream II: The Magic Lives On!
King Louie hosts the jungle segment of the show in Tokyo Disneyland alongside Terk. Here, King Louie and Terk are showcased having a wild party at Louie's upbeat club.

Disney Dreams!
In Disneyland Paris, Louie is given his own segment performing "I Wanna Be Like You". In the end, Louie and Baloo's partying causes his kingdom to collapse much like the film.

Trivia

 * King Louie is an original character from Disney, as orangutans are not native to India.
 * Another reason why he never appears in the book is because it is stated in the book that the Bandar-log has no king.
 * King Louie calls Mowgli "cousin" because orangutans are apes as well as humans.