The Jungle Book is the second movie based off of the book The Jungle Book.
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“Part of the appeal of movies is that you’re seeing illusion and magic”, Favreau continues. He’s the one whose aggressions toward Mowgli propel the child from the safety of the wolfpack into the untamed land beyond, and ultimately to the “red flower” of fire, the devilish work of man and the biggest threat to the jungle’s way of life. “It’s truly a family film in that it entertains all ages; parents won’t be checking their watches to see when things are going to wind up”.
Finally, after a long search, Favreau found his Mowgli in the form of newcomer young star Neel Sethi, who blew him and Disney away in his auditions: ” We were looking everywhere!
Fearful of the impact on the pack of wolves, Mowfli flees deeper into the jungle, not wanting to go the “man village” and encounters all sorts of creatures, including a giant seductive snake (Johansson) and a lovable sloth bear named Baloo. “When you throw stardom into the mix, it makes it even harder”. But with awesome CGI and some pretty convincing actors behind the animal’s voices, I won’t blame you if you choose to suspend reality for a bit while watching the film. “We borrowed a lot of the tools that were developed for that”, said Favreau. Beyond the characters having the right voices, there is also the fact that the back story of key players is revealed and for characters who do not get a back story, their personality is enough to make them as real as the only human in the movie. During pre-production, motion-captured actors standing in for animals rehearsed and ran through scenes with Sethi at Digital Domain in Playa Vista. Knowing the little guy isn’t safe, the panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) decides that Mowgli must leave the jungle and return to man. However Shere Khan has other plans.
Rated PG for some sequences of scary action and peril. I’ve loved both of Disney’s recent live-action remakes – Cinderella and the Snow White retelling: Maleficent – so I had high hopes. And…I was pleasantly surprised to hear the neurotic voice of Garry Shandling, in what is probably his last film role.
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I was pleasantly surprised they kept the song “Bare Necessities” in the film, as well as “I Wanna Be Like You” (side note: it’s a shame more people don’t realize Louis Prima was a musical genius); yet, with two songs, the movie isn’t a musical, and they feel forced into the picture. The movement, appearance and texture are all so lifelike that we never question the animals’ physical presence in real space, and the interaction with the live-action Sethi is seamless.
