Maya

John Berry – 1966 – USA

One of the better non-Disney but certainly Disney-esque boy-and-his-animal stories of the 1960s, Maya has a sobriety and harshness that was conspicuously absent in Disney’s adventures and nature films and indeed from most kids’ films.  This is due in large part to being shot entirely on location in India, but also to the stoic performances of most of the cast.  Terry Bowen (Jay North) is an adolescent boy traveling alone to come live with his father, a famous game hunter.  At first he idolizes the man, but quickly comes to despise him for his callous disregard for the dignity of the native animal life.  Escaping into the jungle, Terry hits the road with an orphaned Indian boy named Raji (Sajid Khan), an elephant named Maya, and Maya’s albino offspring.  The exotic locale is expectedly beautiful and mysterious, but director Berry holds back from romanticizing India.  There is squalor and treachery wherever the foursome travels, which is all the more reason why they bond and learn to trust each other exclusively.  North and Khan both became short-lived teen heartthrobs thanks to this film and the resultant TV show of the same name that ran for one season (and changed a number of key story elements from the film).  Modern critics, of course, love to read a homoerotic subtext into the boys’ innocent friendship, something that there isn’t really much evidence for except in the eyes of certain types who tend to see what they want to see.