Recent viewings:

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (1975).

Sometimes, things which one remembers from one's childhood are not as big, or as scary, as one remembers. That's the case with this animated adaptation of a Rudyard Kipling story. I remember seeing it when I was very young, and being quite scared of the two evil cobras and of what they might do to the gallant little mongoose and the people he's protecting. I seem to recall seeing it in a theater. I was surprised, when I picked up a copy of it on VHS, to see that it was only a half-hour long. Where might I have seen it? Would a film only a half-hour long have been shown in a theater? Or did I actually see it on television instead?

It's still above-average as a short animated feature, and I can easily imagine other youngsters of six or seven years old becoming as engrossed in the story as I was in years gone by. The artwork is not as impressive as I remember, but my standards have probably been distorted by the revolution in electronically-assisted animation that has taken place in the last decade or so.

An older person prone to peering into political penumbras might wonder about what such an eminently British family is doing in India, and what the native-born cobras, so intent on killing or expelling the English, might represent. But taken as an animal-fable, it's simply a good adventure story, with lots of danger and derring-do and a sympathetic and energetic four-footed hero.

One thing has not changed since I first saw the film, though. The singing bird is still annoying.