Favreau wisely chose to make the new retelling of The Jungle Book a combination of the intensity of the 1994 film and the lightheartedness of the 1967 cartoon. But the end result is an modern piece of movie magic.
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Not since James Cameron’s Avatar has a 3D digital world been conjured with such depth and precision. Though you might have missed it, among those animals was a warthog standing next to a meerkat.
“The Jungle Book” is playing at Hershey Cocoaplex and Flagship Cinemas in Palmyra. A drought has parched most of the jungle, and the animals have struck a peace treaty around the sole remaining water hole.
The narrative is simple and charming, working ideally as a path to take us through two hours of visual splendor.
“The Jungle Book” is an enduring tale. Now in its second week, The Jungle Book’s performance is all the more impressive given it opened on about 1,500 screens, compared to the 2,800-screen count for Universal’s Furious 7.
The movie isn’t simply visually sumptuous – which it is, by the way. Although the film is certainly worth seeing, it may not be in your top ten to be remembered from 2016, and it will be very interesting to see how the Warner Brothers version of the film, directed by Andy Serkis, fares when it’s released in 2018. Shere Khan, voiced by Idris Elba, is fierce and captivating with a presence that demands attention.
Bill Murray is a masterstroke of vocal casting as Baloo, the big bear who befriends Mowgli on his extended jungle trek.
Walken as King Louie was a questionable choice for an actor. Like Avatar did to Pandora, so The Jungle Book does to the jungles of India.
Hollywood is regularly criticized for its reboot- and sequel-heavy business model, often milking a franchise for two or three sequels before the well runs dry – then waiting a decade to reboot it and start all over. Some of the comedic elements seemed out of place, as in when Mowgli jostles beasts that exclaim “excuse me!”
Director John Favreau manages to balance the scary and the humor in the newest incarnation of The Jungle Book. With all of that said, I plan on going back to see it again very soon. But when those kids revisit it down the road, they’ll have tons to marvel at.
Sethi, the only live actor with a big part in the film, is good enough as Mowgli, although interest in his character’s plight is perhaps diminished a bit by the fact the film is so much cooler when any of the animals are at the center of the action. Creators have brilliantly reintroduced classic and loved characters in a form that’s endearing, believable and entertaining.
The meatiest text portion of the book comes in the final chapters, which are devoted to the technical wizardry behind bringing the film to life. During the course of the journey, we meet the expected Book mainstays: Baloo the bear, Kaa the python, King Louie the (pause while I look this up) Gigantopithecus.
Incredible special effects seamlessly mesh with live animals, motion-capture work and puppetry. He’s never acting directly on screen with real people, but his interactions with the animals he befriends are admirably convincing. My skepticism regarding the recent studio stampede to transform every classic animated title into live-action “epics” dropped by the wayside from the moment this film began and remain there now.
Also apparent is just how well-casted this film is. The rest of the score successfully matches each emotional interaction or fast paced action sequence and serves as a form of entertainment in itself.
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When kids my age were young, the movie was animated and not so frightening.
