Have you ever watched a movie and caught yourself whole-heartedly siding with the villain?

The Bare Necessities

When I was a kid I alternately thought this song was just Baloo singing at Mowgli about how to pick various fruits while also making a godly bear pun, or that Bagheera was right that this was all “silly gibberish” and Baloo was just teaching Mowgli how to be a lazy bum like him.  But I have since realized, and let me tell you tumblr…

Baloo is dispensing some godly bear wisdom here.

The song could be about how to properly obtain food, okay—and that in itself is helpful knowledge for a young human on his own in the jungle.  It can also be easily taken as a recommendation to not work so hard to get stuff because there’s bounty all around you if you know where to look for it and the basics are all you really need.  That’s cool too but that’s what Bagheera’s scoffing about.  So lemme wipe the condescending eyeroll off this cat’s face with this:

Baloo is teaching Mowgli a lesson about problem solving in general, not just how to get food with the least effort.

Baloo tells Mowgli that if he tries to pick a prickly pear and gets hurt, he should just learn to be careful next time.  Implying casually there’ll be a next time, so Mowgli shouldn’t just give up on the thing he wants—he just has to pay attention to the difficulties or consequences surrounding the thing, find an appropriate solution, and remember to apply it in the future too.

Then Baloo makes a suggestion as to what the solution is: pick the pear using a claw, not fingertips.  Baloo makes it look easy, but when you think about it, trying to spear a pear on your claw while avoiding thorns would be something that requires practice.  So, to translate, some problems require finesse or a delicate hand, or attention to detail.  Notice Baloo also says “try,” again not suggesting Mowgli will be able to do this kind of thing without practice.

But, the bear goes on, you don’t need to use your claws when you’re grabbing a big melon instead.  When your problem, or the thing you want, is big and obvious, it’s not always necessary to stress out about details and little things, and try to use your careful claws.  Sometimes it’s okay to just go on in and get what you want, or use a more general solution to a problem.

"Bare Necessities" is a song about picking your battles, about how to solve problems with the tools at hand, about how to react to different situations with different skillsets, and about how to not give up when you initially fail.  Baloo doesn’t spell this out explicitly, he just tries to "give Mowgli a clue" on how to be happy and have less stress while still getting the things out of life he most needs and wants.

So hey, Bagheera, your bear brofriend isn’t really as dumb and shiftless as you thought, huh?

(Gif source)

Wouldn't that hurt

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This hurts my brain