King Louie

King Louie (full name Louie Lamount in TaleSpin) 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. 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.

Personality
King of the Apes, Louie is quite the party animal. He is often seen scat singing, or performing music of some kind. He is fairly laid back and easy going, but is known to be rather crazy. He's used to being on top, and thus getting what he wants. However, he becomes bored with just being King of the Apes, and thus desires to be human.

The Jungle Book
King Louie first appears in Disney's 1967 adaption of The Jungle Book story. King Louie sends out his monkey friends the find and capture Mowgli. The monkeys successfully retrieve Mowgli and bring him to King Louie, who lives amongst ancient ruins. King Louie offers to help Mowgli find a way to stay in the jungle,if Mowgli will teach him and his friends how to make fire. Louie believes that if he can make fire, then he can become human. However, Mowgli has no clue how to make fire. King Louie believes he is just being shy, and continues to try to get the answer out of him. Meanwhile, Baloo and Bagheera head to the ancient ruins where King Louie and the monkeys live. Baloo disguises himself as an orangutan, and distracts King Louie, while Bagheera attempts to rescue Mowgli. However, Baloo's disguise falls apart, and this leads to a fight between King Louie and his monkeys against Baloo and Bagheera over Mowgli. After Mowgli switches hands several times, Louie is knocked into one of the stone pillars holding up the ruins. The ruins begin to fall apart, so Louie forgets about Mowgli and attempts to hold up the ruins himself by replacing the missing pillar. However, he fails, and the ruins become rubble, though Louie is unharmed. Louie is not seen again afterwards.

The Jungle Book (Live Action)
A slightly different King Louie character appeared in the Disney 1994 live-action hit The Jungle Book 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.

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. His absence was due to Louis Prima's widow suing 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. Although these rights have recently been dropped and Disney may once again use the character King Louie.

TaleSpin
On the TV 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. Baloo is addicted to the various ice cream concoctions Louie serves, and he always charges them against his vast and ever-growing tab. Louie affects slightly dated California-hip talk, words like "bodacious" being a rather self-conscious part of his vocabulary. He enjoys hanging out with Baloo, either partying or treasure hunting (usually partying). But when he and Baloo get together, there tends to be some amount of trouble brewing (something Rebecca Cunningham has had the misfortune of learning). He's almost a genius in the kitchen, he creates many bizarre dishes and drinks (usually called a "Krakatoa Special") that he then unleashes on a poor, unsuspecting crowd. His standard garb is a tropical shirt and straw hat.

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 "Five Bananas." His scats deliver positive messages, proving that he is more than just a goof-off and has the potential to someday be king.

House of Mouse
In one of the Disney T.V. 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.