Here's my only nitpick (and I will admit it is a very stupid nitpick, but this bothered me even as a little kid). I have absolutely no quabble with talking animals and I am certainly no jungle expert, but I've never heard of bears and wolves living in the same jungle with tigers, monkeys and elephants. I know I know, it's a fantasy--just go with it, and trust me I CAN go along with it, but like I said, even as a kid that seemed odd to me.
According to Wikipedia, Seoni, in the Madhya Pradesh state of India, is the setting for The Jungle Book. The books aren't entirely accurate (the forests aren't rain forests, while they are in the books), but let's look at the animals that can be found there:
Wolves - Mowgli's adopted family is called the "Seeonee pack" in the books (a misspelling of Seoni), and Wikipedia lists wolves as being in Madhya Pradesh, and as a "forest-dwelling animal."
Bagheera - Bagheera is a melanistic Indian leopard. Madhya Pradesh actually has the largest Indian leopard population in the country.
Baloo - Baloo in the books is described as "the sleepy brown bear." There are three species of bear in India, but neither the brown nor Asian black bear are found in Seoni. However, the sloth bear is, and other than color, Baloo's depiction seems to match the sloth bear. Furthermore, though this movie has his appearance closer to a Himalayan brown bear, Bagheera refers to him as a sloth bear. Wikipedia also notes that though there are no historical records, brown bears may have ranged across most of northern India at some point.
Shere Khan - Shere Khan is, obviously, a Bengal tiger, and being the national animal of India, is pretty spread out across the country (at least the southern portions). It seems like they're found in just about every type of forest in India, as well.
King Louie - King Louie is an interesting case, as he is
not a character from the books, and instead created for the original animated movie. In the animated movie, he was a Bornean orangutan, which is native of Borneo (obviously, from the name), and are not found in India. The live action version, on the other hand, made him into a Gigantopithecus, which, while found in India, went extinct at least 100,000 years ago. Still, other prehistoric creatures have been found to still exist, so it's an easier stretch of the imagination that a giant monkey could have also existed.
Now, there
are monkeys in the books, they just don't have a leader like Louie. They're referred to as the "Bandar-log" (monkey people). In is version of the movie, they are macaques, langurs, and Indian gibbons. All of these are found in India.
Kaa - Kaa is an Indian rock python, which are found all over India
Elephants - The elephants in the book are Asian elephants, most likely specifically the Indian elephant subspecies, which is found all over India, both in grasslands and in forests.
I think that covers all of the main species in the movie/book? Kipling lived in India as a child (and was also born there), and later lived there for 6 1/2 years as an adult, and had a friend who helped with the animals. The original Disney cartoon seemed to have played loose and fast, but for this one, they did the research, and other than Louie, everything seems to line up with what could be found there.
