United Kingdom, United States of America

FamilyAdventureDramaFantasy

Based on novel or bookSnakeElephantWolfTigerFeral childAnthropomorphismRemakeJungleBearOrphanApeMonkeyAnimalTalking to animalsLive action and animationLive action remake

Jon Favreau

Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Walken

Justin Marks

Walt Disney Pictures, Fairview Entertainment, Moving Picture Company

Taglines: The legend will never be the same.

A man-cub named Mowgli fostered by wolves. After a threat from the tiger Shere Khan, Mowgli is forced to flee the jungle, by which he embarks on a journey of self discovery with the help of the panther, Bagheera and the free-spirited bear, Baloo.

Reviews:

Author: Kamurai
Really good watch, would watch again, and can recommend. I'll honestly go as far as to recommend this over the original 1967 version. I don't think is quite as charming as the original, and it has a very different animation style, both with great quality of detail in it. From the individual strains of fur, to the types of animals included (I've done so much research on Indian wildlife today), you can really see the details of the cg effects. Just watch the end credit sequence alone, and it'll prove it. There are 3 huge improvements to this versus others: Sher Khan's face, King Louie, and the intensity of the animal fight scenes. The movie isn't free of problems: I imagine someone will have issues with talking animals vs non-talking animals, that he'd have to learn the language (so how would he ever understand Sher Khan or Baloo?). If anything, I think the writing took a hit. Where the original had a subtle but strong fables sequencing to it (sort of modular moral stories with shifting focus on characters), this is structured much closer to how many video game stories are structured, serialized chapters with some level of power creep and shifting focus of environment and goals but all focused on Mowgli. And I don't think the writing is bad, but this Jungle kid (never actually reveals his backstory, somewhat of a relief honestly) is performing clean engineering using vines and pulleys and armor (that wouldn't work) with calculated positioning. I understand that some people just have talent for some things, but I had to question whether or not I could do the same thing. I could, but I'd have to do it different ways. And in all fairness some of the stupid /inconsistent things he gets up too, even though he's a "take charge" Mowgli in this version really got to me: I was literally cheering for Sher Khan at certain points. Ultimately I had a good time with it, and I think most people and possibly their pets will too (my cats were interested for a while).