So I saw The Jungle Book today. I was not pleased. To be fair, the movie has some really extraordinary scenes, and the animals are totally believable. The child’s acting, not so much. But the bigger problem is that it lurches between being dark and gritty and serious, and being lighthearted and comical. I get the feeling that the director and the studio disagreed with what kind of movie they wanted, and the studio forced the inclusion of certain scenes from the cartoon.
I think the worst part was the scene with the monkeys. Towards the end of the movie, Mowgli meets the monkey King, who starts off channeling Marlon Brando from Apocalypse Now. And then he starts talking like a New Jersey mobster. And then he starts singing. This is a problem because there is no reason for him to be singing and the movie is otherwise not a musical.
At least Baloo’s song is consistent with his character and context, and relevant to the plot. Louie’s song is more like one of those musical fantasies where the songs are intended to provide exposition and narration. It is really, really weird and breaks the logic of the movie on a meta level. If you want to make a musical, it should consistently be a musical throughout.
It’s really sad, I think, because if this movie maintained the serious, Shakespearean atmosphere consistently and was more judicious in its levity, it could have been Oscar-worthy.
The plot felt more episodic and artificially jammed together than the original animated version, but the CGI was spectacular, and the boy’s acting was fine. I liked it, but if you bring your kids, beware it has some pretty scary bits.
Haven’t seen it yet, but it appear once again poor, maligned Kaa is cast as a villain, setting Kipling rolling in his grave. sigh Herpetologists everywhere grumble in annoyance.
Can you tell Kaa was one of my favorite characters in the original Jungle Books :)?
I don’t mind the idea of picking one story to adapt, but I see your point. I was really surprised when I found out it was an anthology that only partially revolved around Mowgli. It would be just as valid to make a Rikki Tikki Tavi movie and title it, “The Jungle Book.”
My problem with this movie is how flat it is emotionally. In the original cartoon, Baloo wants to adopt Mowgli as his cub, and ultimately, he must give Mowgli up for the boy’s own good. It’s a a powerful emotional situation even though the movie remains light. (Due to the music, l believe. Perfectly done, keeping the cartoon from getting too heavy for kids, and a downer for adults). In this new version, Baloo just wants Mowgli to get honey for him, and his emotional attachment seems tacked on and false.
Also, a lot of the humor in the original involved stuffy Bagheera having his dignity tweaked by Baloo ( pulling his tail, hoist him up on his hind legs). It’s a small point, but this new Bagheera is far too noble to be endearing. To me, that’s annoying.
So, technically the movie is amazing, but the characters are lacking. This is the usual thing with Hollywood now. Plus, Bill Murray is no Phil Harris.
The better half and I really loved it. The animals sometimes entered ‘uncanny valley’ territory, and the death of Akela seemed gratuitous, but the visuals were great. Kaa as the exposition fairy was a little odd, but I guess when you have someone on the level of Johansson you want to use her without making the movie three hours long. We agreed that the ending set up for a sequel.
I was very amused that the scene where Mowgli picked up and rang the cowbell led to the introduction of Christopher Walken’s King Louie.
The thing that I’m not-quite-mock-upset about isn’t that they only adapted one of the stories, but that, because it’s Disney and insanely influential on popular culture, that one story has BECOME the Jungle Book in the popular mind (of America, anyway).
Well, at least Chuck Jones got Rikki Tikki Tavi and the White Seal adapted to animation.
Just saw it, and mostly liked it. I love the books and just finished reading them with my six year old so the differences from the source material were pretty fresh in my mind. That said while I am still a bit annoyed with Baloo the idiot instead of the wise keeper of the law and with the wilful mispronunciation of Mowgli (Kipling gave you a freaking pronunciation guide guys) I thought the movie did a great job of keeping the spirit of the Kipling stories while sticking to the actual plot of the Disney version.
The whole Baloo sequence, was really well done. As was a lot of the Sher Kahn stuff, the water truce and the relationship between Mowgli and the other cubs, and I loved Ben Kingsley’s Bagheera.
The only thing I didn’t like was King Louis. He wasn’t in the book and the Disney version doesn’t work with the tone of this movie and I don’t think they really figured out how to handle the character. It was a disjointed sequence and felt forced.
I also felt like the handled Kaa strangely. It worked but I wonder if maybe there was more originally that got cut out? It seems like they really just dropped her in out of nowhere and used her for a flashback and nothing more. I would have also liked a little bit more with the wolf council so that the stuff with Akeela had a little more meaning, but you can’t fit in everything. I also think ending the story where they did was a mistake, but not a terrible one. I suppose it’s leaving things open for a sequel?
I really liked it! Yeah, maybe the second song was a bit of a clumsy inclusion, but it was really well made, beautiful to look at, and a nice alteration of the familiar Disney movie. I saw it in 3D, the first I’ve watched in ages, and it really warranted it - it made the environment believable. It was truly great fun.
I just saw this. Visually it was stunning. The actor playing Mowgli was not great but he is a little kid who was in almost every scene in the movie so that is a lot to ask for a young actor. The animals were almost all well done.
I will agree the songs seemed out of place. When Baloo was humming Bare Necessities under his breath I thought that would be the end of it as a kind of winking Easter egg. I didn’t expect them to break into song there, let alone a second time.
I was glad I saw it on a big screen. I suspect this will be a movie that will lose a lot on home video but over all I liked it.
“Bare Necessities” happens more organically than “I Want To Be Like You.” I think they could’ve handled Walken’s song a bit better if it was a speech instead.
