Disney takes one of its classic 2D animated features and turns it into a live action feature, but does it still have the same magic? Let's dig in...
Disney’s version of Rudyard Kipling’s book has enthralled audiences since the 1960s. The catchy, jazzy music (a Walt Disney stable) featuring musical legends such as Louis Armstrong.
With catchy songs such as "Bare-necessities" and "I Wanna Be Like You", the movie has enthralled different generations of kids (and adults over the years) so the dude who gave us Iron Man and Zathura (hehehe yep he did), brings us a live action version of The Jungle Book with fewer songs but more photo real animals but does it really gel together?
At least Baloo, this time voiced by comedic legend Bill Murray, still has his song and Christopher Walken does a great jab at the Armstrong's "I Wanna Be Like You" - those are the only songs that survive the remake.
The animal animation is great, especially on the wolves, but on our tiger baddie Shere Khan, it is touch-and-go at some points but overall the animals look very impressive. The film also has some great comedic bits to it, mostly from Baloo.
Yet I find the animals talking a bit distracting, it just feels as if their moving their lips and the voices are coming from somewhere else. Hopefully when Andy Serkis’s The Jungle Book comes out next year it won't have the same problem, and it's never explained how come some animals can speak and some don't.
My other gripe with the story is Mowgli. Mowgli is basically an American kid in an Indian Jungle. From mannerisms to how he speaks, you’d forget that this movie is actually set in in an Indian Jungle and that Mowgli is actually Indian. Like Tarzan, little is seen or heard of the 'natives' - we experience everything from a Hollywood version of what the jungle is.
It’s bad enough that all the animals have American accents except for Idris Elba’s Shere Khan and Ben Kingsley's Bagheera the panther. I guess I'm nit-picking 'cause what does jazz have to do with India and the 2D animated movie was all about American jazz with American voice actors.
I just find it a pity that the live action film would choose such an homogenous world view as far as the Americans are concerned. I thought after "Life of Pie" we'd seen the beauty of diversity not just tokenism. Anyhow, the story is weak in parts 'cause it becomes a series of random jungle events stringed together by a very flimsy plot. It could have been a Lemony Snicket series of unfortunate events in a jungle, the plot is that loose.
Yet thank heaven for Bill Murray’s Baloo whose humour and con-man like character saves this film from being a very tedious affair that has nothing to little to offer people above the age of 14.
Rating
**1/2
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* Rubbish **Ja nee ***only if there’s nothing better on TV ****Now we cooking ***** Instant classic