The "Adventures of Mowgli" animated series was not the Disney version most Western collectors associate with Kipling's story — it was a Soviet production, released by Soyuzmultfilm between 1967 and 1971, that became one of the most beloved children's animations in the USSR and across the Eastern Bloc. Lao PDR's selection of this source material over the better-known American adaptation is a quiet but legible marker of Soviet cultural influence in Laos during the Cold War decades.
The "Adventures of Mowgli" animated series was not the Disney version most Western collectors associate with Kipling's story — it was a Soviet production, released by Soyuzmultfilm between 1967 and 1971, that became one of the most beloved children's animations in the USSR and across the Eastern Bloc. Lao PDR's selection of this source material over the better-known American adaptation is a quiet but legible marker of Soviet cultural influence in Laos during the Cold War decades.