Jon Favreau’s remake/reimagining/retooling/reboot of Walt Disney’s 1967 animated classic The Jungle Book tells the same story we’ve all come to know as kids and into adulthood: Mowgli, an orphaned human boy, sets out with his animal guardians on a journey of self-discovery while evading the threat of the evil Shere Khan. That’s the story at its core, a true retelling of the same story you already know. So if you liked the one you’ve grown up watching then most likely you’ll like this too, since it’s the same thing.
Granted the new movie gives us new and better effects/animation, music, and new voices in the characters you already know and love. The filmmakers do add some new ideas and character development where there wasn’t any before. An animated movie in the 60s didn’t need as much backstory as movies do today. It does help flush out some plots points and development on characters that didn’t have much in the original: Mowgli’s wolf parents, Raksha and Akela and Shere Khan for example.
The movie does a really good job at retelling the story. You have a beautiful world to look at. The filmmakers make an amazing world that Mowgli lives in. Your eyes immerse themselves into the jungle elements. There are some really good moments that are worthy of all our heartbreaks and tears, good and bad. But then there are many out of place elements that make you tilt your head and wonder: why did that happen?
The effects are amazing and you can see all the money that was spent on making these animal effects look and feel as if you are watching a nature show where the animals just happen to talk. They all look great. They have weight, and fur that looks and acts like real fur when the animals move; time and love was put into making these effects look and feel just right for the world we’ve entered.
It’s the adding of human boy into those effects that becomes an issue. There are times when Mowgli looks like he does live in this CGI world the filmmakers have crafted. Then there are whole scenes where you wonder why they’d bother putting the human in there when CGI would have looked so much better. There are many unusual choices of when to use the CGI Mowgli vs. the actor, Neel Sethi, who does a good job at being our live-action Mowgli. He’s good, not great. The internet and TV will praise his performance as “fantastic” or “spellbinding.” That’s a bit of a stretch: he does a good job for a kid who’s never been in a movie and has to act against nothing for the most part.
What will be talked about mostly will be the animal voices, because really, why else go see this? You’ve seen it, heck, you probably own it, because it’s Disney’s The Jungle Book. But nevertheless the actors who provide voices are great to listen to. Lupita Nyong’o and Giancarlo Esposito as Raksha and Akela, Mowgli’s wolf parents, are wonderful to see and hear. They both give delightful performances. And if you don’t cry when Mowgli says goodbye to his mother you’re a robot, because that’s some emotional stuff right there.
Ben Kingsley as Bagheera is strong and powerful. His voice is soothing yet conveys so much strength. He’s one of the standouts in the film. And they explore the father-son relationship more in the movie than the animated version ever could; it’s one of the better portions of the movie for sure.
And then there’s Bill Murray as fan favorite Baloo. You hired Bill Murray to be Bill Murray. So by that standard, the filmmakers did a great job. He’s good, but there is not one moment were you forget its Bill Murray just being Bill Murray. Which is fun, but it takes a few scenes to get into the rhythm of him being Baloo and not the amazing Phil Harris we were all used to.
The actor you have the most time adjusting to is Christopher Walken as King Louie. He is just Walken being Walken. It’s not unlike getting Murray just to play Murray, but at least Bill does eventually become Baloo. Walken never becomes anything but Walken: his normal Walken speech comes out of a giant orangutan. The ape is way too big and the size looks like it changes depending on what they needed Louie to do, which is odd. But on top of that you have Walken saying/singing lines we know so well. It just pulls you out of the flick. Walken was the worst choice for this role.
The other weak link in voice acting is Scarlett Johansson as Kaa. Her voice is great, but her scene is nothing more than exposition. You really feel like she was only in these scenes because Kaa was in the original, therefore you must have a Kaa scene. I’m not saying you don’t need Kaa, but the way she’s used seems forced and oddly timed for the pacing of the movie.
Now the real reason you’re going to go see the movie is for Idris Elba as Shere Khan; worth the price admission alone. In the original we don’t get much backstory for Khan, due to time, but here the filmmakers had a chance to flush out his story and make him that much better. In the animated flick he just kind of shows up and wants to kill “the man cub” just because he is a man, which is fine for cartoon villainy. But here Shere Khan is nothing but pure evil with claws. We hear his backstory from the book: he’s directly the reason Mowgli is in the jungle, and we find out why he hates him so much. Every scene Khan is in you’re in fear of what he’s going to do next. The tension his character brings is almost palpable. And Elba’s voice just commands that kind of fear. Which is a great feat to accomplish, as the original Shere Khan voice actor, George Sanders, was just as scary.
And the biggest question most people will be asking: yes they do sing. On paper and in your mind these songs work. Especially in the animated film, because that’s what you did then. “The Bare Necessities” song works in this because it’s seamlessly worked into a conversation about singing, so therefore, they sing. It’s not shoehorned in and doesn’t feel forced and really does make you smile, as Bill Murray really does become Baloo at that moment. It’s the use of King Louie’s song “I Wanna Be Like You” that is forced in so hard you roll your eyes. Also “song” is subjective. Walken can’t sing so it’s just terrible. He does the Shatner thing, and talk/sings it. It makes no sense for the scene, other than “well they did it in the other flick so we have to here.” It feels even more forced at the end of the movie when the whole cast actually sings the song for the end credits and you hear how good it could have sounded.
Over all, the move is really good. Not great. It has some serious pacing issues, and once you’re aware of them they’re really hard to ignore. Favreau makes a good movie. A fun movie. A remake. It’s the same story you know and love, just done with better animation almost 50 years later. This is Disney’s new thing, remaking their old classics into live-action. Which is fine when it’s done right or so different it’s worth retelling, like their Cinderella from last year, which was wonderful: a retelling with so much more going on it was like watching a new story. But here it’s really just the same story with new elements.
If you enjoy the original there is a lot to like here. But if you loved the original, save your money, watch that one and enjoy this on Netflix.