Back in elementary school, one of my favorite cartoon film strips was Rikki Tikki Tavi (I recommend viewing the trailer.). I don’t remember a whole lot about it, but it involved a young boy that wore clothes I prayed my mother would never dress me in, evil cobras, and a pet mongoose that would protect the boy and his family from the evil cobras. The one lesson I remember from the film was that a mongoose could kill a cobra, but I didn’t really know if that was true or not.
Well, I ran across a video in which a cobra and mongoose are put in a see-through container and they fight to the death. The video is a little long and poorly edited towards the end, but pretty interesting and gave me my answer.
You can watch that video here. And here is a cool Encarta link titled Mongoose Fighting Cobra.
On a side note, I didn’t know that Orson Welles was the narrator, or that the story was written by Rudyard Kipling. I’m not a poem kinda of guy in the least, but Rudyard Kipling did write my favorite poem that my high school drama teacher (she played Darla in the Little Rascals) made us memorize. I’m a better man today because she put me through the torture of memorizing a long poem. It was all for a grade, but little did I know how well the dividends would pay.
I tried to watch this with my 4-year old, and it couldn’t keep his attention for 10 minutes. It’s amazing that as I grow older, the television/movies I thought to be so Grand, are simply grand because of the memories I associate with them.
When in reality the animation, narration, storylines, etc… are terrible. Althought I still think that Tron is the coolest movie ever made in the history of mankind!
Didn’t watch the video, but did re-read Kipling’s great poem! I remember it as being a popular “verse” in congrat cards to high school grads when I graduated…..a LONG time ago!!! I think it applies to women as well as men, and bears re-reading every day or so to determine if we are becoming more mature or slipping back into childish ways. “When I was a child……but,when I became a man (woman) I put away childish things.” ( I Corintians 13).
I remember watching Rikki Tikki TavI when I was a kid…and loving it!