The Jungle Book – Film Review

The Jungle Book is one of Disney’s best entries in the Live Action Fairytale genre of their overall brands. This entry is probably my favorite out of all them. Jon Favreau did really well creating this imaginative jungle with CGI by shooting it all in a studio. It felt very immersive and real. I could feel as thought I was in the jungle. I did view the film in 3-D and do recommend you view it in that format. The animals though at points I could tell weren’t real did feel real overall. The talking didn’t bother me after a few minutes in. It just was done perfectly.

Neel Sethi was amazing as Mowgli. One of the best child actors that did a magnificent job acting against basically nothing and having that emotion come across very well. All of the voice cast brought their “A-game” with their respective characters. Idris Elba was a pure stand out as Sher Khan, the villain of the film. His voice and his tone really get you to feel his anger and his tone that you forget that it is him voicing the role. Billy Murray as Baloo was great. He was a charming character that had a great relationship on screen with Mowgli. Ben Kingsley’s Bagheera was well done — he felt very real and came across in this version as a stronger father figure to Mowgli than Baloo in the animated film. Christopher Walken, Lupita Nyong’o, and Scarlett Johansson do great in their respective roles as well.

Are you alone out here? What are you doing so deep in the jungle? Don’t you know what you are?… I know what you are. I know where you came from. Poor, sweet little cub. I’ll keep you clossse. Let go of your fear now… and trussst in meee… – Kaa

I didn’t have many negatives to the film. The songs in the film felt either forced or oddly organic in the mix. They didn’t do “Trust in Me” in the film — just in the credits, which I wished they had included. I’m proud of Jon Favreau’s work here and hope he is able to do that “Magic Kingdom” film after this. Also, I’m glad that this film didn’t end the same way the animated film did so it can go to other stories in the original book for the sequel.

9/10