The Jungle Book

Starring: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray (voice), Ben Kingsley (voice), Idris Elba (voice), Lupita Nyong'o (voice), Scarlett Johansson (voice), Giancarlo Esposito (voice), Christopher Walken (voice), Gary Shandling (voice), Jon Favreau (voice), Sam Raimi (voice)
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Rating: PG
Genre: Adventure, Drama
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is protected by Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) and Baloo (Bill Murray), but his life is in peril when he's hunted by Shere Khan (Idris Elba).

Review:

Tim: I can't claim to be a big fan of Disney's trend of doing live action remakes of their popular animated films. It feels like a blatant cash grab, as the live movies thus far haven't lived up to their animated originals. If you're consistently making less effective versions of movies you already made, the almighty dollar is responsible. Thankfully, The Jungle Book is a fairly solid movie, thanks to the direction of Jon Favreau.

The film is an interesting one to make into a live action one. Luckily, the technology is good enough now to bring the talking animals to life. While the special effects are impressive, I have to say that it's still fairly obvious that what we're seeing isn't real. There were too many scenes throughout this movie where the computer generated parts overtook the rest of the movie. This is one of the biggest issues Disney is currently facing with these live action remakes- it just doesn't feel real, as there is too heavy a reliance on computer generated special effects. While this movie does often look beautiful, there were too many moments that took me out of the movie because of the lack of realism on screen.

Neel Sethi was an interesting choice for Mowgli. He certainly brings an innocent exuberance to the role, which was definitely needed. The problem is that he's just not a convincing actor. Too often throughout the film, he'd deliver lines poorly- they came across as forced and practiced, not natural in the least. I don't want to knock the kid too hard because he's young, but I have to knock the film down a bit because of Sethi's lackluster performance. He's a cute kid, but here, he didn't meet the standard that was needed for this role.

The voice cast is impressive. Ben Kingsley was a wonderful choice for Bagheera. He has this ability to inhabit the role and disappear into it. I wouldn't overtly know it was Kingsley, as I just felt like I was listening to Bagheera. Bill Murray made total sense for the role of Baloo, but I didn't love his voice work. I felt like I was listening to Murray, not the character. He was fine, but although the casting made sense intellectually, I don't feel like he was the right choice for the role. Idris Elba was great as Shere Khan and Scarlett Johansson was inspired casting for the very short scene as Kaa. Christopher Walken did a very good job as King Louie. While I didn't love the actual performances of everyone, this film did assemble an impressive list of talent to voice the animals.

The story was good. It had a very solid source material to work from, but Favreau directs a film that kept me engaged throughout. There's a good balance between character development and some impressive action/adventure sequences. The movie is the right length, at 106 minutes. It doesn't feel too long and it has enough time to cover the ground it needed to. It was compelling and entertaining. I might have been slightly bored at a few points, but they never lasted long. Younger audiences would definitely get sucked into the story. While there's a few mildly intense scenes of animals frightening, I can see how kids would absolutely eat this movie up. It's easy to see why the film made $364 million at the box office (which also ensures we'll never see the end of these Disney live action remakes).

There's been some very lackluster Disney live action remakes lately, so I'm pretty pleased with how this movie turned out. It's not quite a great film, but it's a solidly made, entertaining film. I have no issues with it being made. Of course, I wished I loved it, but it succeeded where many other films have failed. For this one at least, I'm okay with Disney's strategy. The Jungle Book is a good movie.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Jungle Book (1967)