Article By: Alice-Ginevra Micheli
Are you ready for a blast from the past? A solid hit of nostalgia? A look back to your childhood? Well, Disney’s newest live action adaptation brings all that and more in the The Jungle Book.
At the helm of seasoned director Jon Favreau and starring promising newcomer Neel Sethi, this reimagining of the classic children’s tale tells of a boy, Mowgli, found in the wild and raised by wolves, only to be forced to leave in fear of the Jungle’s most deadly preadator, the man-hating tiger, Shere Khan (Idris Elba).
We all know and love the story, especially when the tunes of its catchy songs find our ears, instantly raising our moods and our hearts. This adaptation definitely plays into this, redelivering some of its most famous songs with a bit of a modernised twist. Now, when I say modernised twist, I don’t mean with dub step, but simply with a few lyrical surprises that will cause even the most hardened adult to chuckle.
After all, that is what this film aims to deliver. Every kid and their sister is going to want to go see this because it’s Disney, it’s set in a fantastical location and it has talking animals. However, the real surprise comes from the fact that it manages to entertain people who have definitely grown out of that whimsical phase long ago. Add to that a prominent and talented voice cast as well as spectacular visuals and you’ve got yourself an enjoyable movie!
Before I move on, let me just emphasise the VFX delivered. They were spectacular and realistic, so much so that it was truly hard to believe that this was all achieved with motion capture and effects rather than the studio just having trained a bunch of animals to talk and act. Much like in Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, there was striking realism to the animals, with them not only having an anthropomorphic way about them to communicate feeling and emotion, but there also being little quirks and behaviours shown that are definitely animalistic and natural. It looked as if something this complex could have taken place in the Indian Jungle. In fact you’ll half start to wonder if Baloo is some sort of distant cousin of the bear in The Revenant.
Speaking of Baloo, the all-star cast deliver some great performances as the iconic characters as the story. Rounding out to include such people as Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Walken and Lupita Nyong’o, there is seemingly real emotion and connection between each of them, as well as illustrating that all those involved were clearly invested in the process and not just phoning it in for an easy cheque at the end of the day.
None of this would have been possible, however, without the keen eye of Favreau, delivering a believable and intricate tale which changes up some of the original animation’s story without straying too far. You still have the same affections for the same characters and the same hatred for others, with more weight added because of the more fluid and strong backstories.
That being said, you shouldn’t go into the film expecting an exact shot-for-shot remake of the original, because there has been some clear changes in plotlines and motivations to add different twists and turns. If you were a true obsessive on puritism towards the original vision of all things Disney, I’d maybe give this one a pass, but you’d definitely be missing out!
The point is, that while this is definitely a re-imagining in its truest sense, it’s a successful and exciting one. It takes the best of today’s creative technology and pairs it with a tale with universal messages, stories and characters. It has quips and lines from various characters that can entertain the older generations as well as the younger giving us the representation of escapism, cinema in its purest sense. It takes you to a place so wondrous; half of you wants to go the other half wants to already be there.
It may have been a seemingly unnecessary remake, but this is a true representation of Event cinema, and if you like animals, heart warming stories, tension, levity or great graphics, or all the above, go watch it and revel in the experience.