The Jungle Book: The Legend Of Mowgli

If you want to explore the literary magic of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle book, this software provides kids with a narrated line-by-line text. An animated version of Mowgli, the jungle boy raised by wolves, dances in the opening screen - very similar to the dancing characters in the Living Book series. Kids can also read the facts on author Rudyard Kipling and guide their way through a photo tour of India, most of this information is available on CD-ROM encyclopedias. A Top Banana game features a slingshot, equipped with a banana. Kids use their mouse to aim the banana-powered slingshot at hungry jungle monkeys who swing from tree to tree. When their aim is on target, a screen message proclaims "You are Top Banana". In the New Adventures of Mowgli section, kids can select from a 3-part screen, some of which features live action digital video. Clicking on the moving feet icons and you can learn some facts about jungle animals on split-screen videos. There is a section of the game that is something of an interactive movie in that you can guide Mowgli as he travels through the jungle and find a cave which is the home of a villain that is so evil we never learn his name. The whole segment lacks speech and a story, and is mostly just a glorified tour of the jungle and its animals. Even so, it is an interactive movie since it is possible for Mowgli to get killed when he faces the villain which results in a bad ending for his adventure.