The Jungle Book (2016)

Review

106min

Genre:      Family, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Musical

Director:   Jon Favreau

Cast:        Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Idris Elba…and more

Writers:    Justin Marks & Rudyard Kipling

-Synopsis-

Disney’s CGI-heavy 21st century version of Rudyard Kipling’s iconic story, following the fortunes of an orphan who’s raised in the jungle by his talking animal friends in this epic fable featuring an all-star cast of voices from some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

It’s debatable whether director Jon Favreau’s extravagant production is a live-action adaptation, particularly when you consider that every single element you see is computer-rendered, apart from young Neel Sethi’s “Mowgli” running around on fake rocks & shrubs in front of blue screens.

So when we first heard about yet another lavish 21st century version of a beloved piece of entertainment from our youth, we initially feared the worst.

But we needn’t have worried because the folks at Disney have managed to craft an extraordinary visual spectacle which manages to retain plenty of charm and humour, pay homage to Kipling’s creation and the 1967 animation, all while catapulting ‘The Jungle Book’ into the modern age.

Favreau & Co. have gone the photo-realistic route with this ‘Jungle Book’ in building a digitally rendered world that’s indistinguishable from our real one; taking the amazing achievements seen in ‘Life of Pi’ and ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ and applying them across the jungle while doing the near impossible, creating a whole ecosystem of familiar creatures that the human brain accepts as real.

However this technical wonder is infused with no small measure of charm, particularly in the form of Bill Murray’s scene-stealing “Baloo” and Christopher Walken’s “King Louie”; as well as gravitas through a voice cast that includes Sir Ben Kingsley, Lupita Nyong’o and Idris Elba among many others.

Dropped into this fantastical melting pot is our young “Mowgli” Neel Sethi, an Indian-American New Yorker who was 10 years old at the time of production, and who deserves plenty of praise for an impressive film debut in extraordinary circumstances.

This version of ‘The Jungle Book’ remains a family fable with lessons about nature and man’s place in it; but this is not quite a film for small children and features imagery and a dynamism that can be a bit alarming, as well as a limited amount of musicality and a core that’s not quite as delightful as the story from our childhood.

Perhaps the most disappointing element is the slightly predictable crowd-pleasing ending which deviates heavily from the original movie, no doubt setting up a sequel or a series of films. But despite its inherent limitations, this is still probably the best “live-action” adaptation of an animation or cartoon we’ve seen and one of the better modern interpretations of our childhood memories.

The Bottom Line…

Director Jon Favreau and the folks at Disney have solved a complex modern filmmaking puzzle; the result is a striking and engrossing adaptation of a beloved piece of entertainment, which retains much of the original’s charm, while introducing the appropriate elements for a modern audience… and sets a new standard for visual effects.

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Similar films you may like (Home Video)

The Jungle Book (1994)

Live-action adaption of the classic Rudyard Kipling tale of the young orphan raised in the jungle by animals, this time featuring a grown Mowgli who’s caught between his love for a British girl and the corrupt men surrounding her who threaten his home.

Directed by  Stephen Sommers and starring Jason Scott Lee, Lena Headey and Cary Elwes among others.

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