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Disney has just a vast collection of animated classics in its vaults that it was at one time unthinkable that anyone could ever try to remake them as cartoons, and even more outlandish that someone would try to pick one of those public domain classics and make a live action version of the film. And then when Disney actually started doing just that years ago with a live action remake of 101 Dalmations, they proved that it wasn’t such a far-fetched idea after all.
In recent years they’ve struck real gold with Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and even Maleficent, and now they’ve turned their sights on one of my all-time favorite Disney films, The Jungle Book. As a child, who can resist talking animals, including a black panther, a jazzy bear, an oragutan who wants to be a man, and a fearsome tiger? And not only did they talk, they sang! It’s a pretty tall order to bring that kind of film to life and make it even the slightest bit believable but Disney and director Jon Favreau have done just that.
The story of The Jungle Book, based on the stories of Rudyard Kipling, focuses on a young boy, Mowgli (Neel Sethi), orphaned in the jungle and cared for by the panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) and a pack of wolves who raise him as one of their own. But a boy is not a wolf and does not belong in the jungle, and the tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) has a personal vendetta against the boy. At a time of severe drought, one area of the jungle has water that all the animals are free to use without fear of being attacked. It is here that Shere Khan tells Bagheera and the wolves that when the “water truce” ends, they are to bring the boy to him to be killed.
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Of course, no one is on board with this, so Bagheera hatches a plan to get Mowgli out of the jungle and back to the human encampment where he’ll be safe. But that’s easier said than done with Shere Khan on the hunt (brutally killing Mowgli’s wolf father to prove he’s not kidding around) and various other obstacles along the way. Mowgli gets separated from Bagheera, meets Kaa the snake (Scarlett Johansson), Baloo the bear (Bill Murray) and King Louie (Christopher Walken) along the way. He helps Baloo get honey and discovers King Louie wants the secret to man’s “red flower” (aka fire) to make him a man too.
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If you know the animated film, this live action version follows that basic plot fairly faithfully, minus the silly elephants (substituting more majestic caretakers of the jungle) and vultures (who only appear as harbingers of Shere Khan), and it works remarkably well. The cartoon is famous for its catchy tunes as well, and at one point Baloo is humming a tune that he explains to Mowgli is a song. Having never sung before, Mowgli is treated to Baloo’s classic number “The Bare Necessities.” It seemed unlikely that any other songs could fit naturally into the more realistic take of the movie, but Walken’s King Louie does manage to break into a talk-sing version of the classic “Wanna Be Like You” as well. And it works beautifully, especially as Walken is doing Louie as Brando as The Godfather. It’s probably the most brilliant part of the entire film. If you stay for the credits (and please do), you’ll also get to hear Johansson croon Kaa’s “Trust In Me” which I think could have also worked in the film itself.
The only human in the film (not counting the faceless silhouettes at the human’s camp), is Mowgli and Sethi plays him with a lot of wonder and sass (maybe a little too much modern sass for my tastes), but he’s still very endearing, and they’ve given Mowgli some ingenuity with his human “tricks” that are normally forbidden in the jungle but they do come in handy when needed.
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The real stars of the movie are the animals, and they have been rendered with the utmost, photo-realistic precision as possible, from to the stands of hair gently blowing in the breeze to the terrible scars on Shere Khan’s face (which relate directly to his desire to kill Mowgli). The voice cast is also terrific with Kingsley’s British accent a nice reminder of Sebastian Cabot’s original Bagheera, and Bill Murray sounding like he recorded his lines early in his career. You can almost picture a Stripes/Ghostbusters era Murray in the role. Johansson was fine as Kaa, but it was a bit jarring to hear a female voice for the character when all you’re used to is the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh coming out of the cartoon character’s mouth. Elba is also terrifically menacing as Shere Khan, although for the entire movie I thought it was Mark Strong! But again, Walken just steals the entire movie as King Louie. Actors in smaller roles include Lupita Nyong’o, Giancarlo Esposito, Garry Shandling, Favreau himself and director Sam Raimi.
In addition to the original songs, the movie even opens with the original theme music to really please the fans of the cartoon. The Jungle Book is being presented in IMAX 3D in select locations and I can’t recommend enough that you should see this version if possible. The giant screen and the 3D envelopes you in the jungle environments, and some of the close-ups of the animals faces puts them practically nose to nose with the viewer. It’s not necessary to seek out the 3D, but it was a nice added effect for this film.
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Disney has really hit this one out of the park, and The Jungle Book should be suitable for older children and their parents. I would caution against taking much younger children because even with the amusing songs and funny animals, the film does not shy away from the brutal reality of life and death in the jungle. The non-chalant killing of Mowgli’s “father” and a brutal battle between Shere Khan and Bagheera may be just a bit too intense for the very young (not to mention the scarred visage of Khan, which is enough to give anyone nightmares). As the animated film was probably the very first movie I ever saw on the big screen, the new The Jungle Book brought back so many memories and had me smiling from ear to ear many times throughout the movie. Put this one on your “must see” list.
The Jungle Book has a run time of 1 hour 46 minutes, and is rated PG for some sequences of scary action and peril.
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