The Vultures were originally going to be voiced by The Beatles. The band's manager, Brian Epstein, approached the Disney studios about having The Beatles appear in the film, and Disney had his animators create the Vultures specifically to be voiced by the band. But when Epstein took the idea to the Beatles, John Lennon vetoed the idea, and told Epstein to tell Disney he should hire Elvis Presley instead. The look of The Vultures, with their mop-top haircuts and Liverpool voices, are a homage to The Beatles; one bird's voice and features are clearly based on George Harrison's. That's What Friends Are For was originally to be done as a rock and roll song. When the Beatles departed the project, the song was rewritten as a barbershop quartet, to make it timeless.
Shere Khan's stripes proved to be a nightmare for the animators working on him.
Walt Disney died during production of this film. Many people wondered at what the studio's fate would be, particularly the animation division. The film performed extremely well at the box office, ensuring that the animators would not be put out of work. Had the film failed, it is likely that animation would have been closed down at the Disney studio.
This is the 19th animated feature in the Disney canon. It was the last to be personally supervised by Walt Disney and Disney's last animated feature of the 1960s. This was the first film the studio released after Disney's death in 1966, and it was dedicated to his memory.
Wolfgang Reitherman: [Re-using animation] There are multiple moments in the film which feature animation recycled from One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949), Song of the South (1946) and Goliath II (1960).