Movie Review: The Jungle Book

Disney has another great film on their hands with this Jon Favreau directed live-action version of 1967’s The Jungle Book. Disney’s animated Jungle Book is a film I watched quite a few times on VHS as a kid, but it was never one of my favorites. Disney has quite a history with Rudyard Kipling’s classic stories, with other attempts including a 1994 live-action version (which featured an adult Mowgli and real animals who did not speak) as well as their 2003 animated sequel (with John Goodman and Haley Joel Osment voicing Baloo and Mowgli). I saw all of these films growing up, and all were fine, but didn’t leave me wanting more. This Jungle Book did leave me wanting more.

I left this film feeling like a kid again. The film works so well because of the scenery and how truly immersed you feel in the jungle. The film opens with Mowgli trying to keep up with his wolf family members, and as he races through the jungle almost believe you are there with him. Once Mowgli must journey through the jungle to find safety, each new animal encounter is magical and captivating. All of the surroundings and animals were made through CGI, with the entire movie filmed in Downtown Los Angeles. Just thinking about the contrast between Los Angeles and the jungles of India is pretty remarkable. Overall, it is such a visual treat. 

The voice cast is also pretty remarkable, with Bill Murray (as lovable bear Baloo), Christopher Walken (as a gigantic version of monkey King Louie), Scarlett Johansson (briefly appearing as the snake Kaa), Ben Kingsley (as my personal favorite, panther Bagheera), Lupita Nyong’o (as mother wolf Raksha), and Idris Elba (as the fantastically villainous tiger Shere Khan). The only non CGI character is Mowgli, who is played by young actor Neel Sethi, who does well enough in the role. For fans of the animated film’s songs, you may be disappointed as the film only uses parts of the songs. The classic tunes “The Bare Necessities”, “I Wan’na Be Like You”, and “Trust In Me” are all used in some way, and I found that each were incorporated well and managed to fit into the scenes. If you can stick around, the credits at the end of the film do offer the most representation of the music, which is fun to hear.

The ending was probably the biggest change from the animated film, but one that I personally preferred. At the end of the original, Shere Khan runs away humiliated after Mowgli lights his tail on fire. After the showdown, Mowgli sees a young girl, which intrigues and mesmerizes him into deciding to go to the man village. Bagheera and Baloo then shimmy and dance away as the film closes. For me, I always felt like this was so abrupt after all of Mowgli’s qualms against leaving the jungle and the friendships he forms, but I suppose it shows that Mowgli does have the need to interact with the humans he comes from. In the new Jungle Book film though, with Shere Khan dead, Mowgli stays in the jungle, living with the wolves, Bagheera, and Baloo. Mowgli also embraces his “human” tricks to make life easier for him.

Speaking of Mowgli’s human “tricks”, this was something this story focuses on. Mowgli uses different tools and methods to get things such as water, keep up with the running wolves, or help a starving Baloo get honey, all of which are at first very discouraged as he is told he needs to act like the wolves he has been raised with. When he saves a baby elephant from the bottom of a pit, his tricks are slowly seen as good for all the animals. With Shere Khan and the animals so fearful of humans, I found this aspect to the story nice as it shows both the human and animal world combining, instead of each side only being fearful of the other.

If you are a Disney fan, I think this film will more than please. Even though this version is a quite a bit darker than the animated film, the story manages to feel fresh while still keeping the aspects that were so fun about the original. With this and last year’s live-action Cinderella being successful re-tellings, I can’t wait until Disney’s next release of another of their classic films.