It’s back! The totally delightful Disney song, “I Wan’na Be Like You,” is brought to the big screen once again in Jon Favreau’s “The Jungle Book,” a live-action fantasy adventure that features spectacular CGI, special effects, and wonderful visuals. Those, along with top-notch voice actors, make for an engaging, nostalgic experience for those that grew up on the fantasy tale that will captivate new audiences just the same.
Basing its interpretation off of Rudyard Kipling’s collective works, as well as the 1967 animated Disney movie, this film is a complete live-action of the story of the orphan boy Mowgli, who is raised in the jungle by animals. This update uses photo-realistic rendering and motion-capture technologies to create a beautiful artificial world and a visually-stunning experience.
Set in the jungle of India, “The Jungle Book” tells the story of Mowgli, who is rescued by a panther named Bagheera as a child and taken to be raised by wolves. At one point in the story, the creatures of the jungle gather at Peace Rock for a water truce, and Shere Khan, a fearsome Bengal tiger, approaches and threatens all the animals by demanding that they turn over Mowgli to him.
Shere Khan’s threat forces the wolves to face the reality that it may be time for Mowgli to leave the jungle and go to live with his own kind. Bagheera attempts to escort Mowgli to the closest human settlement, but they are attacked on their journey by Shere Khan, which causes Mowgli to get lost and forces him on his own journey of self-discovery, where he runs into various creatures -- some dangerous, some friendly.
Without question, the best attributes about this film are the visuals and, in my opinion, the various actors and their respective voice performances. The visuals and world created are reminiscent of “Avatar,” and the story even has some similarities to a film such as “The Lion King.” If there was a type of movie that deserved to be in 3D, it’s a film like this. The 3D only adds to the presentation and experience, never detracts.
Young and fresh actor Neel Sethi plays Mowgli in his film-acting debut, and aside from seeing few other humans such as Mowgli’s father in a dreamlike vision, Sethi is one of the only humans present. Actual animal puppets were used at times so the actor could have help performing his scenes, where he is basically alone in a studio or in front of a green screen. Later on, the computer-generated animals that use voice actors are added.
- Click here on mobile to watch the trailer for "The Jungle Book"
Idris Elba voices Shere Khan and gives an impressive performance, Ben Kingsley plays Bagheera, Lupita Nyong’o is Rakasha the wolf (Mowgli’s surrogate mother), Scarlett Johansson voices Kaa the giant snake, Giancarlo Esposito is Akela, the wolf pack leader, Christopher Walken gives an amusing performance as King Louie, and Bill Murray voices Baloo the bear (and presents one of the most comedic roles in the film). All of the cast (sans Sethi) is noteworthy.
The filmmakers ultimately decided not to make the film a complete musical, but there are multiple songs from the original that are presented at various times throughout. King Louie/Walken sings an updated version of “I Wan’na Be Like You,” Baloo/Murray and Mowgli/Sethi sing “The Bare Necessities,” and “Trust in Me” is performed by Kaa/Johansson. Whether incorporated into an instrumental background track or performed by the characters in the movie, it’s welcoming and nostalgic to hear a few of these songs played.
I thought this version was a decent interpretation for the modern age, similar to Disney’s recent adaptation of “Cinderella,” which was also live-action and created as a non-musical. This version of “The Jungle Book” is a bit darker than the animated one, largely in part to the fact that it’s live action. It’s a film made for all audiences, but may be a little scary for certain young viewers. Aside from the appealing visuals and quality cast, the film is being praised for its faithfulness to the Disney version and the original source material.
If this film is further indication of what Disney has planned for other previously-animated tales that many of us grew up with, than I’m very excited to see future live action adaptations. Check out “The Jungle Book” in theaters starting this weekend.
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars.
“The Jungle Book” is rated PG for some sequences of scary action and peril. Running time is 1 hour and 45 minutes.
