The Jungle Book

Almost everyone loves The Jungle Book, but I have to imagine that this is the last time this story will be [re]told for a while.

This adaptation of the classic Disney cartoon has a lot behind it to attract audiences to the theaters -- famous voice actors as your favorite characters, the director of Iron Man, Jon Favreau, as well as some really impressive, live-action visuals.

With Disney reopening their aged vault of stories and creating them into live-action versions, it was only a matter of time before we got The Jungle Book as it's easily one of their most iconic films. Side bar: when do we get a "live-action" version of The Lion King? That would be incredible! But anyway...

I wasn't super excited for this one even though I knew I'd be seeing it. I'll say it was more of a passive interest but I wasn't "pumped" as I often am going to my highly anticipated films. Not much to my surprise, The Jungle Book was good, almost great, but it's not much more of a revisiting to the tale as opposed to an uber-creative re-imagining.

That shouldn't discourage audiences at all, and I'm sure it won't given it's early box office numbers, but I think personally I'm having a hard time finding myself excited for these recreations, as impressive as they may be, because I don't feel like they offer much new. Still though, the environment and visuals in this particular instance are enough to warrant a viewing as they're mightily impressive and easily the best part of an entertaining, if not forgettable film.


Dawn of the Evening of the Summer of the Planet of the Apes.
Coming soon to a theater near you!

Bill Murray in a big bear costume.
It looks so real!

The easiest place for me to start would be the story. To my memory -- it's been ages since I've seen the original -- the plot is almost exactly the same. A few things changed here and there to accommodate for the more realistic tone, but not much. This is still a story about a boy, raised in the jungle, trying to fit in. It's nothing that will set the world on fire, nor did I find it to pack a significant emotional punch *cough cough The Lion King cough*, but it's still a classic tale in and of itself. One of Disney's strongest? No I don't personally think so, but hey, it's still fun. Along for the ride are some phenomenal voice actors and a pretty decent child actor. Neel Sethi does fine as Mowgli...but the usual child-actor pitfalls are here and present, but he is quite impressive with all the running, climbing, rolling, and jumping he has to do so I give him props for that. The best characters though are with the voice cast of Bill Murray, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong'o, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Kingsley, and several others. Everyone is well cast and does excellent, but I found Murray and particularly Elba to be the standouts. Both voices really suited their characters and they offered the appropriate emotion and gravitas to their digital counterparts.

Some outstanding shots throughout...

Johansson will also be playing the snake
in the new Anaconda reboot...

Hands down the best aspect of The Jungle Book is the visuals. Given that special effects were needed in nearly every scene, it's a testament to the current age of these SFX that I could only identify green screen one or two times. Otherwise, the film is absolutely gorgeous, especially on a giant screen. I didn't see it in 3D but I really wish I would have now as I'm sure that extra layer really looked good too. The facial capture for the talking animals looks more realistic than ever and the environmental shots are gorgeous, though they seemed to be reserved to only the first half of the film. Mowgli, who I'm guessing was often in front of some type of green screen, looks natural and rarely fake, even when he's running and zipping around. Each animal has an incredibly high level of detail too from their eyes, to their fur, to their teeth, etc. It's all quite pleasing to the eye and almost every bit as mesmerizing at times as Life of Pi was several years back. Favreau's direction in all of this is solid as he manages to get some great shots and create some intense, fun scenes of running through the jungle. I personally could have done without the singing bits as they're awkwardly shoehorned in for the most part, but most audiences eat that up so I can see why they made the final cut.

If you loved The Jungle Book, you'll absolutely adore this recreation of it as its' visually impressive and a lot of fun. While I may not have been chomping at the bit to go see it, I still had a good time with it on a snowy Denver Saturday and I enjoyed all the quality/TLC that went in to making this more than just a cash grab. It's worth a look and one of those movies that almost the whole family can enjoy together.

CONS:

• The Jungle Book was never my favorite Disney story and it's still not. Given this is a recreation I can't hold it too much against it, but I was a bit disappointed (though not all that surprised) that they didn't try to shake it up a bit
• The singing bits didn't do it for me and they felt like an afterthought
• A few green-screen-obvious moments
• Typical, but few, child actor woes
• Very generic original score
• Somewhat forgettable

PROS:

• Neel Sethi does an above average job as a child actor, especially when you consider he's the only live action part of the entire film. Furthermore, his "action" skills are quite impressive for someone his age
• Well directed and organized by Jon Favreau
• Good, sometimes amazing cinematography
• There are a few really entertaining, thrilling scenes throughout. Mowgli's field escape was a personal favorite
• Very, very impressive visual effects. There is an incredible amount of detail on both the creatures and the environment that bring the film to life and make it believable
• Superb voice cast. All do great, but I found Bill Murray and definitely Idris Elba to be my standouts
• Fun and light that almost anyone can enjoy

Rath's Review Score: 7.5/10