Hathi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hathi is a fictional animal character created by Rudyard Kipling for the Mowgli stories collected in The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second Jungle Book (1895). Hathi is a male elephant that lives in the jungle. Kipling named him after hāthī (हाथी), the Hindi and Sanskrit word for "elephant".
Hathi is head of the elephant troop. He is one of the oldest animals of the jungle and represents order, dignity and obedience to the Law of the Jungle. He is mentioned, or possibly in "Kaa's Hunting. In "How Fear Came" he tells the jungle animals' creation myth and describes Tha, the Creator.
- In the story "Letting In the Jungle" Mowgli reveals that Hathi once destroyed a human village in revenge for being captured, and persuades Hathi and his sons to do the same to Buldeo's village as punishment for threatening Messua with execution.
[edit] Disney film version
- In the Disney film, the character of Hathi, like the other characters in Kipling's Mowgli stories, is greatly transformed and becomes a comic character. He is called "Colonel Hathi" and he leads his wife, Winifred Hathi, and his son, Hathi Junior, in a marching patrol while singing a deliberately silly song authored by the Sherman Brothers entitled, "Colonel Hathi's March". His role in the film is as follows: The night after Mowgli is hypnotized by Kaa, Col. Hathi and the Dawn Patrol patrol the jungle and wake Mowgli and Bagheera. When Mowgli comes to investigate, he tries to join with help from Junior. After the patrol, Hathi inspects all of his elephants. Once he reaches Mowgli, he thinks of him as a new recruit. But after Mowgli talks back to him, he yells at Mowgli for being a traitor. However, Bagheera comes to stop the fiasco. After Bagheera promises to return Mowgli, Hathi says the famous saying "an elephant NEVER forgets". But as they march along, Winifred tells Hathi that he left Junior behind. When he goes to fetch him, he forgets to say "halt" and all the elephants crash. Later in the film, they mess up Shere Khan's hunting as they patrol the jungle some more. Bagheera notices they are around. He stops the elephants. This is because Mowgli ran away and he needs help. Shere Khan decides to listen in on the conversation. Hathi refuses to help. During the heated explanation, Winifred gets furious. She makes Hathi find Mowgli with the threat of taking over command. He does not listen, but Junior comes up and sweetly asks him if he can find Mowgli. Hathi says that he had a plan the whole time (he was bluffing). After gathering the troops, they go to look for Mowgli. Because of how the film ends, it is obvious he forgot. He is voiced by J. Pat O'Malley.
- Hathi is also one of the main characters in the spin-off Jungle Cubs. This was before he was a colonel and is portrayed as a baby like everyone else.
- Colonel Hathi and all other characters (with the exception of Winifred and King Louie) return in the Disney Sequel The Jungle Book 2.
[edit] Hathi in popular culture
- Like all of the main Jungle Book Characters, Hathi is used as a name for a warranted adult, or young leader in many Cub Scout Packs.
- Hathi is a major character in the anime series Jungle Book Shonen Mowgli where he is the king and enforcer of the Law of the Jungle. Like the stories, he has 3 children. However, one change is that Chil the Kite is his messenger.
