Hathi
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 bull elephant
that lives in the jungle. Kipling named him after hāthī (हाथी), the Hindi
word for "elephant
".
. 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.
, 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 (voiced by Verna Felton
), and his son, Hathi Junior (voiced by Clint Howard
), in a marching patrol while singing a deliberately silly song authored by the Sherman Brothers
entitled, "Colonel Hathi's March".
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 realizes that Mowgli is a human and yells at him for infiltrating the Dawn Patrol. 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 into him.
Later in the film, Bagheera finds Hathi and asks him to find Mowgli, for he has run away. Hathi refuses saying that the herd was on a cross country march and that Shere Khan
cannot be found for miles (the irony is that Shere Khan is actually listening to the conversation for he too is looking for Mowgli). Hathi's wife, Winifred, gets furious with Hathi and tells him to find the Man Cub with the threat of taking over command. Hathi does not listen. When Junior tries to convince his dad to find Mowgli, Hathi agrees to find him, bluffing that he "had a plan in mind all the time." (to which Winifred sarcastically replied "Sure, you did!") After he organized all of his elephants, they start the search. Shere Khan then decides to start looking for the man cub.
, 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 returns in the Disney sequel The Jungle Book 2
in which Jim Cummings
provided his voice.
with new meals specialising in a wide range of pizza and pasta dishes.
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.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
created by Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
for the Mowgli
Mowgli
Mowgli is a fictional character from India who originally appeared in Rudyard Kipling's short story "In the Rukh" and then went on to become the most prominent and memorable character in his fantasies, The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book , which also featured stories about other...
stories collected in The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book is a collection of stories by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–4. The original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six...
(1894) and The Second Jungle Book
The Second Jungle Book
The Second Jungle Book is a sequel to The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. First published in 1895, it features five stories about Mowgli and three unrelated stories, all but one set in India, most of which Kipling wrote while living in Vermont...
(1895). Hathi is a bull elephant
Indian Elephant
The Indian Elephant is one of three recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant, and native to mainland Asia. Since 1986, Elephas maximus has been listed as endangered by IUCN as the population has declined by at least 50% over the last three generations, estimated to be 60–75 years...
that lives in the jungle. Kipling named him after hāthī (हाथी), the Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
word for "elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
".
Kipling's character
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 JungleThe Law of the Jungle
"The Law of the Jungle" is an expression that means "every man for himself", "anything goes", "might makes right", "survival of the strongest", "survival of the fittest", "kill or be killed", "dog eat dog" and "eat or be eaten".- The Jungle Book :...
. In "How Fear Came", he tells the jungle animals' creation myth and describes Tha, the Creator.
In the story "Letting In the Jungle
Letting In the Jungle
"Letting In the Jungle" is a short story by Rudyard Kipling which continues Mowgli's adventures from "Mowgli's Brothers" and "Tiger! Tiger!". The story was written at Kipling's parents' home in Tisbury, Wiltshire, and is therefore the only Mowgli story not written in Vermont.It was published in the...
", 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.
Disney film
In the Disney filmThe Jungle Book (1967 film)
The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Released on October 18, 1967, it is the 19th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was inspired by the stories about the feral child Mowgli from the book of the same name by...
, 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 (voiced by Verna Felton
Verna Felton
Verna Felton was an American character actress who was best-known for providing many female voices in numerous Disney animated films, as well as voicing Fred Flintstone's mother-in-law Pearl Slaghoople for Hanna-Barbera...
), and his son, Hathi Junior (voiced by Clint Howard
Clint Howard
Clinton "Clint" Howard is an American film and television actor. He is a character actor with numerous brief appearances on television and films. He has played many bit parts in movies directed by his brother, actor-turned-director Ron Howard. He is also the uncle of actress Bryce Dallas Howard...
), in a marching patrol while singing a deliberately silly song authored by the Sherman Brothers
Sherman Brothers
The Sherman Brothers are an American songwriting duo that specialize in musical films, made up of Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman ....
entitled, "Colonel Hathi's March".
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 realizes that Mowgli is a human and yells at him for infiltrating the Dawn Patrol. 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 into him.
Later in the film, Bagheera finds Hathi and asks him to find Mowgli, for he has run away. Hathi refuses saying that the herd was on a cross country march and that Shere Khan
Shere Khan
Shere Khan is a fictional tiger of the Indian jungle. He is the chief antagonist in two of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book stories featuring Mowgli. Shere Khan is named after an Afghan Prince Kipling encountered on his trips to Afghanistan...
cannot be found for miles (the irony is that Shere Khan is actually listening to the conversation for he too is looking for Mowgli). Hathi's wife, Winifred, gets furious with Hathi and tells him to find the Man Cub with the threat of taking over command. Hathi does not listen. When Junior tries to convince his dad to find Mowgli, Hathi agrees to find him, bluffing that he "had a plan in mind all the time." (to which Winifred sarcastically replied "Sure, you did!") After he organized all of his elephants, they start the search. Shere Khan then decides to start looking for the man cub.
Other media
Aside from the fact that Hathi does not appear in the Disney Channel show TalespinTaleSpin
TaleSpin is a half-hour American animated television series based in the fictional city of Cape Suzette, that first aired in 1990 as part of The Disney Afternoon, with characters adapted from Disney's 1967 animated feature The Jungle Book. The name of the show is a play on "tailspin", the rapid,...
, Hathi is also one of the main characters in the spin-off Jungle Cubs
Jungle Cubs
Jungle Cubs is an animated series produced by Disney for ABC in 1996. It was based on their 1967 feature film The Jungle Book, but set in the youth of the animal characters. The show was a hit, running for two seasons in syndication before moving its re-runs to the Disney Channel...
. This was before he was a colonel and is portrayed as a baby like everyone else. Colonel Hathi returns in the Disney sequel The Jungle Book 2
The Jungle Book 2
The Jungle Book 2 is a 2003 American animated film produced by the DisneyToons studio in Sydney, Australia and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. The theatrical version of the film was released in France on February 5, 2003, and released in the United States on February...
in which Jim Cummings
Jim Cummings
James Jonah "Jim" Cummings is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 100 roles. He has appeared in classic animated movies such as Aladdin and The Lion King, as well as taking on roles in more current films, such as Bee Movie, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh.-Personal...
provided his voice.
At Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Paris originally featured a restaurant named Explorers Club, themed to famous explorers. This is a colonial house in the jungle, decorated with many artifacts from all over the world. In 1995, the restaurant was renamed Colonel Hathi's Pizza OutpostColonel Hathi's Pizza Outpost
Colonel Hathi's Pizza Outpost is a restaurant located in Adventureland, in Disneyland Paris. It opened in 1992 with the park under the name Explorer's Club. It specialises in a wide range of pizzas and pastas.-Explorer's Club:...
with new meals specialising in a wide range of pizza and pasta dishes.
Hindi
In the language of Hindi, Hathi translates to Elephant. The Elephant (Hathi) has a son that is friends with Mowgli.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 ScoutCub Scout
A Cub Scout is a member of the section of the worldwide Scouting movement for young persons, mainly boys normally aged about 7 to 11. In some countries they are known by their original name of Wolf Cubs and are often referred to simply as Cubs. The movement is often referred to simply as Cubbing...
Packs.
Hathi is a major character in the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series Jungle Book Shonen Mowgli
Jungle Book Shonen Mowgli
is an anime adaption of Rudyard Kipling's original collection of stories, The Jungle Book. It aired in 1989, and consists of a total of 52 episodes.-Music:...
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.