I’m sure a lot us know The Jungle Book, right? Whether it be the 1894 novel by Rudyard Kipling or one of the many film adaptations of it, including Disney’s film adaptations of it. There’s no denying that The Jungle Book is awesome. But what some of you may not know is that Rudyard Kipling has a second famous story called Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. 

For those who don’t know Rikki-Tikki-Tavi or haven’t heard the story in a long time, it’s a short story in The Jungle Book novel but has since been published several times as an individual book. The plot is about a young mongoose named Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (or Rikki-Tikki or simply Rikki for short) who becomes a pet for a British family residing in India after they save him from drowning. The family consists of a little boy named Teddy and his parents. Although Rikki loves his human family, he soon finds that their lives are endangered by a pair of sinister cobras named Nag and Nagaina, who want to kill the human family because of their presence in their territory. And it’s up to Rikki to protect them from the venomous snakes. But luckily Rikki won’t have to take down Nag and Nagaina on his own completely, because two of his friends, who inhabit the garden, Darzee, a tailorbird and Chachundra, a muskrat have his back by feeding him intel on the cobras’ whereabouts. 

My reason for making this petition is because Rikki-Tikki-Tavi deserves a Hollywood film adaptation. Hollywood studios, most notably Disney, have made movies out of classic fairytales and stories. But Rikki-Tikki-Tavi has yet to receive a film adaptation. However, the closest we’ve ever gotten to it is a 24 minute animated short that came out in 1975. One of the things I like most about Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is the moral of the story. Which is although you maybe small, you can still overcome major enemies.

Classic stories such as Snow White, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, Aladdin, Hercules, Tarzan, etc have all had at least one or multiple film adaptations. And now it’s Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’s turn. If you agree that Rikki-Tikki-Tavi deserves a full-length feature film, whether it’s animated or live action, please sign this petition. PS, if it’s gonna be a musical film, I have an idea of the perfect person who’d be capable of writing and performing the songs, his name is Jay Sean (if you don’t know who he is, look him up). Much like what Elton John did for The Lion King soundtrack or Phil Collins with the Tarzan and Brother Bear soundtracks.