The ideal DVD for Region 2 and region free viewers

I enjoyed watching this film on the BBC some ten to fifteen years ago. It brought back memories of reading Kipling's Mowgli stories as a kid. On my small TV screen the film's colours seemed perfectly in order. When the reissue of Disney's Jungle Book prompted me to scout the internet for a copy of the 1942 version I was appalled to read the tsunami of complaints about dire DVD editions. After mistakenly buying one of these, I seem to have found an excellent alternative, at least for Europeans and other owners of Region 2 compatible DVD players. It's a print that was restored by the (British) National Film Archive and issued on DVD by Canal+ Video as "Le livre de la jungle". Look out for the black cover with a picture of Sabu as Mowgli and Kaa the rock python's head. They even dared put the word Technicolor on the back cover and rightly so. The difference with my American made, scratched and drab looking, no region disk is really quite shocking! This edition contains English and French soundtracks and French subtitles - if you should need them - and some bonus info in the form of French texts. However, the main thing is that you will be able to see the movie in its original Technicolor splendour. This edition will do very nicely until the day when an imaginative and enterprising company comes up with a Blu-Ray disk with heaps of bonus features... If you understand a little French it should not be too difficult to order a copy from French internet shops like the French branch of amazon. Enjoy!