Film Review: The Jungle Book

 

The famous Disney cartoon movie that you cannot help but sing and dance along to (no matter how old you are) has been remade into a new live-action version of the story. With its numerous comic book film releases with their partner, Marvel, and the growingly popular live-action remakes of old childhood classics, Disney seems to be taking over the cinema world. However, with that reputation comes great expectation, and there is a question as to whether this new adaptation quite lives up to the original.

There’s no doubt the CGI in this film had to be at the top of its game due to most characters being computer generated. Not only did it succeed in this, but it exceeded expectation. With CGI and motion-capture technology moving forward leaps and bounds recently, films are going to look more convincing by the year, but this new instalment blows every other CGI-reliant film out of the water. Each animal is created in such a delicate and intricate fashion with unbelievable attention to detail that it’s very easy to forget they’re in fact not real. The recent Planet of the Apes films may have been the front-runners to date, but they’ll certainly need to pick their game up for the third movie in order to keep up.

In addition to the incredibly realistic characters, there's the beautifully huge jungle that you can’t help be totally immersed in. With trees larger than any New York sky scraper, waterfalls more majestic than in any travel brochure and grass so green you just want to sausage roll over it again and again, this jungle is a place you could only have dreamed about.

 

The voice cast includes such stars as Ben Kingsley playing Bagheera, Bill Murray as Baloo, Idris Elba voicing Shere Khan, Christopher Walken bringing King Louie to life and Lupita Nyongo’o as the mother wolf, Raksha. However, this is just to name a few, with stars such as Scarlett Johansson and the director himself, Jon Favreau, popping up too. There’s no denying the endless list of talented actors is impressive, but it felt a little predictable. Idris Elba, with his low voice and intimidating demeanour, playing the villain, surprisingly didn’t always seem to work. His voice was lent to another Disney film previously, Zootropolis, which worked perfectly. However, his clear, deep vocal sound seemed just a tad too cartoony for such a naturally terrifying beast. The growls that have been created for Shere Khan also didn’t seem to mesh with Elba’s voice particularly well, making the character feel a little disjointed. It has to be said that Murray brought such an incredible personality to Baloo that was fun enough to rival said character from the original film. Also, there’s no denying that hearing Walken sing I Wanna Be Like You should be on everyone’s bucket list.

Most notable was Neil Sethi’s fantastic portrayal of the main man himself, Mowgli. For such a young actor, he took this cartoon character and brought him to the big screen in such a way that you’d believe they’re one in the same. He grasped the different emotions you feel from the story, but also the fun and enjoyment every person should feel while watching this film in a brilliantly mature manner. He’s a young actor to watch out for in the future.

If you’re planning on seeing the film, you must be aware that although there is singing, it’s not as much about the music and dancing as the original, which means that there is a small sense of fun lost. Due to the incredible CGI setting this film, apart from any others at the moment, it’s advisable to see it in 3D – or even IMAX, if your wallet can stretch to those prices. Although worth a watch, it may not be in your 2016 top ten films, 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.

The Jungle Book is on general release now.

The Jungle Book Trailer