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Review: The Jungle Book

Written by tha - bang from the blog Movies and Things with Thabang on 18 Apr 2016
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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
=========================================================================== 
* Rubbish **Ja nee ***only if there’s nothing better on TV ****Now we cooking ***** Instant classic



5 Comments

wonderlad
18 Apr 2016 15:13

I loved every minute of it Tha-bang. Sure it is all American in its production but it's apparently quite faithful to Kipling's stories. Yes, Mowgli is the only human and he speaks Americanese. I guess they could have got an an Indian national to play the part but (as someone who is of Indian descent) I found Sethi quite appealing as a lead - if Mowgli were to speak in an authentic Indian accent then all the animals should as well. This one isapparently going to be hard to top in terms of the US summer box office this year. 

tha - bang
19 Apr 2016 09:35

Hey @wonderlad it is a fun movie , i just have issues with americanese whenever hollywood does stuff outside the US but i loved baloo and i loved the humour.i hear they actually doing an Indian lanuage dub with Indian actors for the "sub continent".  so civil war next?

wonderlad
19 Apr 2016 10:22

Yes actually The Huntsman 1st  - then Civil War and Alice - though I'm really most excited for X-Men: Apocalypse. 

Tashi
19 Apr 2016 15:53

Only two songs?? I saw a preview of it on the news and wondered about the songs, hoping they'd stick with them so I'm disappointed. It's essentially a musical so I don't understand why they chopped them.

tha - bang
21 Apr 2016 09:30

@wonderlad i still think the story lacked flow ...but i dont know about huntsman,will watch it on half priced tuesday . bought my tickets for civil war for next week already. i havent been excited by the Xmen trailers but will watch it nonetheless cause i love Bryan Singer and what he did with X2, Days of futures past and the ussual suspects.so wont judge the movie on the trailers. then August is Suicide Squad, i believe that is going to be this years Mad Max Fury road,time shall reveal all
@Tashi i think the songs were an afterthought ,the live action is not really a musical.


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