The Jungle Book

When it comes to classic Disney animated films, 1967's The Jungle Book comes across as pretty thin soup.  There's little narrative to drive the story, and it's really just a series of gags and encounters with different animals that either help or threaten the brave little "man-cub" Mowgli.  My hope for the big budget live action adaptation would be that director Jon Favreau would realize this, and maybe try to flesh out the story and characters, much the same way Kenneth Branagh did with his live action take of Cinderella last year.  However, as it turns out, Favreau is a traditionalist, and has basically given us a similar film - Well meaning and mostly enjoyable, but very thin, with nothing that resonates.

Just like before, we follow the adventures of little Mowgli, played here by young Neel Sethi.  This is the first major role for the young actor, and he does well enough, though there's nothing here that would challenge any semi-decent child actor.  For years, Mowgli has been living with a wolf pack, ever since he ended up lost and alone in the jungle when he was very young.  Mother wolf, Raksha (voice by Lupita Nyong'o) has mostly raised and nurtured him, while father wolf Akela (voice by Giancarlo Esposito) spends all day standing on top of a nearby rock, trying to look majestic.  Mowgli's main father figure in life has been the black panther, Bagheera (voice by Ben Kingsley), who has been trying to teach him the ways of the jungle.  But now, Mowgli's young life is in danger.  The deadly tiger Shere Khan (voice by Idris Elba) has been roaming around the local parts of the jungle, looking to kill the boy, because he fears all man and does not want a human living in the jungle.  The only choice is for Mowgli to leave the wolf pack, and for Bagheera to guide him back to the Man Village where he belongs.

From there, the movie more or less follows the same episodic nature of the animated movie.  There's a close call with a deadly and seductive tree snake (voice by Scarlett Johansson, making the most of her roughly five minutes of screen time), some elephants march through the jungle relentlessly, and there's good ol' Baloo the Bear (voice by Bill Murray), who in this film, has been reimagined as kind of a con artist, smooth talking little Mowgli into getting some out of the way honey for him.  At the very least, Murray's performance stands out, because he's not just repeating the performance that came before in the animated film.  Same goes for Christopher Walken, who provides the voice of the mischievous ape King Louie.  Here, Louie is portrayed almost as a jungle crime boss, with Walken giving off the vibe of an off-kilter Mafia don.  He's a lot of fun, but again, his screen time is limited.  Perhaps to cater to fans of the '67 film, two of the musical numbers from that movie have been squeezed in here.  Though, to be fair, they feel shoehorned in, and the movie probably would have been tighter without them.

Perhaps to compensate for the familiarity of the script, the filmmakers have decided to pull out all the stops with the visuals.  This is a gorgeous film, blending actual nature locations with photo-realistic CG animals to inhabit it.  The ultimate effect of the live action locations (and the young boy in the middle of it all) with the CG talking animals is quite seamless.  And as you can tell by the names up above, the voice acting is first rate, particularly Murray, whose voice over performance creates an easy chemistry with his human co-star.  There's quite a lot to admire here, and I can easily see how someone could get lost in this movie, looking at all the detail.  But I could never shake the feeling that underneath all the pristine and perfectly executed details, the story just didn't seem to matter.  Not only did I feel like I had seen it all before, but that there just wasn't enough new being done with it.

For some people, that won't matter.  The Jungle Book is a visual feast, and has obviously been made with the greatest of care.  It simply never captured my imagination the way a truly great movie can.  I found myself thinking back to a couple weeks ago, when I was watching April and the Extraordinary World.  That is a family film that not only has incredible visuals, but has a wonderful story to tell, and characters who feel fleshed out and interesting.  As a movie, it's a complete package.  Of course, that's a cartoon from France that's getting a very small release over here.  Most kids and their parents don't even know it exists.  It doesn't have the multi-million dollar marketing push that this film does.  I have no doubt that kids will enjoy this movie.  It's a faithful representation of something that worked before.  But if they were to see April, not only would they be getting a great movie, but they would be seeing something completely new and unlike anything they've seen before.

I don't want to sound like a cynic, or discourage kids from seeing this.  It's a fine movie in its own right, and it never offends.  I just found myself wishing that it didn't play it so safe sometimes.  Maybe the original animated film is a classic in your eyes, or you just really want to see some great effects.  This movie should work for you.  I liked what I got from the film most of the time, I just felt like I had seen it all before.

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