The Jungle Book

This version of The Jungle Book feels less like Disney and more like Life of Pi for kids. Or at the very least, it's an adaptation of the very famous story that strives to embrace both Disney and Kipling, without alienating either camp. Shere Khan, the malicious tiger, is here of course, but he's not quite George Sanders. In the 1967 animated film, Shere Khan was debonair. In Disney's first live-action adaptation in 1994, he was more sympathetic, more of a protector of the wild. In this one, directed by Jon Faveau, the former has more weight than the latter, but it is understandable to see why he hates Mowgli so much. The result is something far scarier than anything you saw in the cartoon.

For the very few who have no idea what the story is about, Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is a young boy who has been raised by wolves. But the jungle has become too dangerous for him, for Shere Khan (Idris Elba) possesses a fierce hatred toward man for the scars they gave him, and wishes to annihilate the young boy. "Man is forbidden!" he yells to other animals of the jungle. Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), the black panther who rescued Mowgli, sets out to return Mowgli to the man village, where he will need to be raised as a man. But while it does take a village of animals to raise a man-cub, it takes another to destroy him. It's not simply Shere Khan who tries to kill Mowgli on his odyssey, but also Kaa the snake (Scarlett Johansson) and King Louie the ape (Christopher Walken).

There is a ton of talent in this cast, an eclectic array of some of the best performers around. And yet, the one with unquestionably the toughest task is young Sethi. His Mowgli is just as inquisitive and brave as he needs to, but unlike the title character in the 2005 movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mowgli doesn't have a solution to every conundrum. He is helpful and courteous, even selfless, but he also gets angry and makes mistakes. That is about Mowgli, so what makes Sethi's portrayal of the character so interesting? The most obvious is how imaginative he must have been during the filming. This is a film shot basically all on a sound stage surrounded by green screens. Other than Jim Henson puppets that were supplied to him, Sethi was acting in make-believe land.

I had mixed feelings about the use of some of the classic songs from the animated version. Bill Murray as Baloo, the bear who befriends Mowgli, does a surprisingly decent job belting out "Bare Necessities," but Walken's solo of "I Wanna Be Like You" is very...Walken. It doesn't feel like a big jazzy showstopper but instead an arbitrary act of look-at-me showmanship. Mowgli's mouth seems to hang open more due to shock at how random the scene is in relation to the rest of the movie than to how scared it must make him. Everyone knows Walken is an entertaining dancer, but in regards to singing, he's no Louis Prima. For the rest of the scene, though, Walken is terrific. He plays King Louie, an invented character from the animated film, not Kipling's stories. In the animated film, Louie is an orangutan, a creature not native to India. Here, Favreau and his crew changed the character to a Gigantopithecus, an extinct ape, and he rules his ape kingdom akin to Malon Brando in Apocalypse Now. It's the film's best scene.  

Overall, this is quite a fun movie to watch. The technology would have been unthinkable ten years ago. The animals, in my mind, still look too obviously unreal, but maybe that's how it should be. Just think of what this technology will make the movies of next decade look like. But technology only goes so far. Story is important, and not just a story we've known for over a century. The story coupled with the visual effects make The Jungle Book feel fresh. The movies Favreau directs are not perfect, but this one is quite good. It's the kind of movie you will be thinking about for a while.