Auluck : The Jungle Book Movie review

The Jungle Book review: Thank you Disney  for this intelligent and nostalgic visual spectacle 

Director: Jon Favreau

Writers : Justin Marks (screenplay), Rudyard Kipling (book)

Stars: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley

Rate :  4/5

The Box Office:

The Jungle Book opens in US on April 15^th courtesy of Walt Disney. It starts its overseas rollout on April 7^th in some territories before slowly expanding around the world over the next two weeks. It will be playing pretty much around the world by the weekend of the 15^th, with a Japan release set for August 11th. That’s ironically one day before the U.S. release of the next one of these Disney “live-action version of an animated film” movies, Pete’s Dragon, opens in America and much of the world.

The film is, of course, the latest in a series of live-action adaptations (or live-action sequel/prequels) of their popular animated features. It comes on the heels of Alice in Wonderland, Oz: The Great and Powerful (yes, not technically from a Disney toon, but it still counts), Maleficent, and Cinderella.

The Mouse House has been full-steam ahead in this newest little quasi-franchise, greenlighting a Tim Burton-directed Dumbo, a Bill Condon-helmed Beauty and the Beast, and new versions of Mulan, Pete’s Dragon (coming in August) and a Reese Witherspoon Tinker Bell movie along with an Emma Stone-led Cruella de Vil movie. I’m sure I missed a few, but you get the idea.

All of these films have been varying degrees of successful, and this summer’s Alice Through the Looking Glass will be a test case as to whether these films can be sequel-ized. But back to The Jungle Book. The film will open three weeks before Captain America: Civil War and six weeks before the aforementioned Alice Through the Looking Glass and hot on the heels of the unexpectedly massive Zootopia.

The film’s biggest selling point will be its world-creating animation, shot and animated not in the jungles of India but Los Angeles studios using the kind of technical wizardry that helped create the likes of Avatar, Gravity, and The Life of Pi. Pre-release tracking has this one pegged at a $60-$65 million debut weekend, and I imagine the flood of (spoiler?) positive reviews two weeks before opening will only send that figure up accordingly.

The Review:

Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book is every bit as visually splendid as you’re hoping it would be. I could spend the next paragraph explaining in detail how the film was constructed. Just know that nearly all of what you see during its 105-minute running time is created via animation and motion-capture work. My four-year-old son was entranced from beginning to end, totally unaware (save perhaps for moments of animals talking and singing) that anything was amiss, and hell if I am going to spoil the illusion for him.

The greatest strength of this new-fangled “live-action” adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s novel (or more specifically, the 1967 Walt Disney animated version of said novel) is not just its effects work but rather the sheer believe-your-eyes achievement. Yes, there are moments where the camera goes to incredible places and gives us impossible perspectives (the opening seems like a live-action recreation of the vine surfing from the animated Tarzan), but there is just enough restraint to achieve the idea that what we’re watching is “real.” Favreau and company make the effort to maintain a hint of plausibility concerning how the picture is shot and edited.

As a result, the gorgeous (shot by Bill Pope) film feels “live action real” in as impressive fashion as, yes, Avatar, Gravity, and The Life of Pi. This is next-level wizardry, with just enough story and emotion to avoid feeling like a technical exercise. I am not going to say it’s as revolutionary an experience as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but the fact that said all-time-classic came to mind should give you an idea of how engrossing this movie quickly becomes. It’s an unmitigated audio/visual knockout. It looks gorgeous in 3D, but I imagine it would look just as scrumptious in 2D as well.

As far as the story, well, you only get the “bare necessities” (sorry). This new film adds some attempted emotional beats and something of a hero’s journey arc that takes bits and pieces from Babe, The LionKing, and Tarzan. That will only be a (very slight) problem when Disney decides to use this technology to give us a “live-action” Lion King movie.

The story concerns young Mowgli (Neel Sethi, giving a remarkable reactionary performance as basically the only flesh-and-blood thing onscreen) as he is forced to flee his forest home after he is marked for death by the insidious Shere Khan (a deliciously cruel Idris Elba). Although initially guided by Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), he eventually finds himself in the company of a friendly (if conniving and self-interested) bear named Baloo (Bill Murray). Murray and Kingsley play off each other quite well as dueling surrogate dads and Chris Walken adds late-in-the-game charm and menace as a rather ginormous King Louie.

It was during Louie’s big scene where my son got the most frightened (a temporary and non-perilous situation), and I will admit some glee at my son having achieved the “freaked out by Christopher Walken” rite of passage. Yes, we do get renditions of the animated film’s two iconic songs, and yes the film does have its fill of exciting and intense action sequences. But despite the periodic escapes (and a blisteringly awesome climactic battle) that pepper the film, the overall feeling is more lackadaisical than a conventional action movie. The emphasis is on watching Mowgli and his animal compatriots talk with each other as opposed to fighting with each other.

There are some intense moments (the film doesn’t suffer fools regarding its PG-appropriate action and peril), but the film applies the Beauty and the Beast formula of interchanging a dark or dramatic scene with a light or comedic scene. The first act is comparatively grim as Mowgli struggles with his forced exile, but Bill Murray’s Baloo shows up right when the proceedings are getting a bit glum. Murray is this film’s comedic shot in the arm, equivalent to Robin Williams’s Genie in Aladdin or Mark Hamill’s Joker in (the obviously not Disney) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.

All-in-all, The Jungle Book is a remarkable achievement and yet more reason to be optimistic about Disney’s “turn an animated classic into a live-action feature” sub-genre. I could quibble about the thin plot or the cribbed-from-The Lion King thematics, but the picture works precisely as intended. It’s a thrilling and visually splendid bit of popcorn entertainment that walks just enough on the wild side to make kids think they’re getting away with something.

It is also another fantasy winner for Jon Favreau who has somewhat unassumingly established himself as a genuinely successful “indie-to-blockbuster” triumph. He crafted a genuine holiday classic in Will Ferrell’s leggy blockbuster Elf and then basically created the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man. This one is closest in spirit to Zathura, and I mean that as a compliment. The Jungle Book works as both a fine stand-alone piece of action fantasy as well as a worthwhile companion to its animated predecessor.