Summary: After a threat from the tiger Shere Khan forces him to flee the jungle, a man-cub named Mowgli embarks on a journey of self discovery with the help of panther, Bagheera, and free spirited bear, Baloo.
Director: Jon Favreau
Writers: Justin Marks (screenplay), Rudyard Kipling (book)
Stars: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Scarlett Johansson, and plenty freaking more.
A round of applause for one of the most beautiful movies of 2016 everybody! Jon Favreau nails the adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s novel The Jungle Book with one of the most beautiful and emotional cinematic masterpiece out there. If you thought CGI effects would never be able to reproduce life-life creations for another decade, then think again. While there are plenty of movies that are extremely heavy and massively reliant on CGI effects to remain relevant and strong in the box office, this movie doesn’t just get it right for the eyes. Bringing the animals to life and having Neel Sethi (Mowgli) interact with them as if they were actually real made this adventure undoubtedly memorable. I swear. I had to wonder if some of these animals were real, cause I would definitely love to have young wolves that cute yapping at me with so much joy. Although, it would be a serious competition if you’d put Baloo up against the grizzly in The Revenant. But hey, we all know who we’d be cheering for though!
The Jungle Book is one of those stories that we all know about, especially because of that amazing animated musical comedy back in 1967. As old as it is, those characters and those songs have always marked our childhoods (at least for me). The wise black panther Bagheera and the goofy Baloo teaching the young man-cub Mowgli various lessons of life until the big bad Shere Khan wants a piece of Mowgli for breakfast, lunch and supper. What Jon Favreau does to bring this story to life in a live-action adaptation is beyond admirable. His cinematic direction and brilliant casting has given us all the opportunity to watch one of the most endearing tales of self-discovery. Mowgli’s adventure takes us all on a wild ride through the depths of the jungle and the edges of humanity. The Jungle Book successfully captures the hearts of fans and unveils the primal wisdom that hides among animals. Topped off by a talented cast of voice actors, this movie demands to be seen by absolutely everyone and is sure to make feel uplifted by the experience.
News of a sequel is already confirmed and faith in Jon Favreau in making The Jungle Book 2 a success is far from being a stretch.
What a ride. The Jungle Book delivers everything that a fan could want from a live-action adaptation. Neel Sethi sounds and acts like Mowgli. The animals are all so lively and life-life. The jungle feels and breathes like one. It’s hard to even believe that there was barely any major flaws in this movie. The environment alone should be given an award if it was a person. Actually, the jungle felt very much alive to me. The ecological system felt natural and every twist and turn throughout the jungle made the whole area feel authentic and complex. The jungle definitely felt like a place you did not want to mess around with, especially if you’re not in your own natural habitat. The movie sleekly introduces you to every inch of the jungle and delivers the visuals with so much grace. From the depths where lived Kaa to the kingdom where lived King Louie, every zone had its own life. While it was a live-action movie, the jungle itself seemed like a place that was beyond our world. Maybe it’s the anthropomorphic animals that got me to believe that, but I’d like to think the movie simply succeeded in delivering a magical adventure.
The story was very well told. I mean, with the source material that Favreau has, the end result was definitely brilliant. It was nice that they used foreshadowing, regarding the dead trees, for the finale. With all the explosive events that happen throughout the movie, the odds of remembering that detail for the big battle is quite slim. The conflict that arises from Shere Khan’s threat definitely brings great intrigue to the movie. Watching the animals figure out if the man-cub belonged with them or was to be associated to the evil humans was brilliantly done. After all, most of these animals have lived long enough to know the threat that a grown man-cub can inflict on them. This extra layer of conflict that Shere Khan brings—not even physical, just mental—creates an atmosphere filled with doubt and despair. The whole question ends up questioning each and every animal on their desire to live or to stand together. It’s this fight between individualism (keeping you and your family alive) and collectivism (standing as a united entity living in the same jungle) that can really bring a tear out of viewers!
The Red Flower was also ingeniously brought into the story. Its role in Mowgli’s coming-to-age story was primordial and was executed without flaw. When Mowgli finally finds out the truth behind the faith of Akela, his desire to fix the wrongs that were done, while genuine and good, had devastating repercussions in the end. It’s only after Shere Khan confronts Mowgli and forces him to decide on his fate, between good and bad, that Mowgli’s action show a grown man who isn’t the stereotyped evil-doer. That scene alone was beautiful. But, of course, they had to add the whole Jungle Law into the mix and making this one hell of a solidarity statement. I’m probably a huge sucker for these kinds of scenes. Nothing more breath-taking than seeing people animals rally together to fight for a cause. I’m really glad that the showdown didn’t end up taking anymore life. I mean, if Baloo had suffered a darker faith, I would’ve hated this movie so much! He’s a bare necessity to all our lives.
On a final note, can we just take a moment to appreciate how well-casted this movie was? Holy Baloo! I’m a huge fan of Idris Elba (I mean, did you see this dude in Luther?) and he ended up being Shere Khan! Now that’s just double-f*king-YES! The charisma, the power and the fear that emanated from Shere Khan thanks to Elba’s voice was just marvelous. I also really appreciated Scarlett Johansson’s voice acting for Kaa. It was a great choice, even if we don’t see Kaa much in the movie. I mean the level of seduction that oozed through Kaa and Johansson’s voice would have gotten pretty much anybody under her spell. That was just brilliantly done. I would’ve loved to have seen what Baloo did of her though. Honey-filled snakeshake anybody? Oh, and Baloo? Godammit. Picking Bill Murray for that job was just brilliant! I’m also really happy about the musical discovery that he brought to Mowgli’s life. That scene was just reinvigorating. King Louie was a big surprise for me. I had so completely forgotten about Christopher Walken being in it, that his voice just made me laugh out of joy and enjoy his singing skills even more. The best part was that King Louie was basically portrayed as a mafia boss and since I have had a lot of seminars on organized crime for the past months, this made me love King Louie and the monkey kingdom so much. Let’s just say that between watching a crazy-cast-filled Tarzan movie and a crazy-voice-cast-filled Jungle Book movie, I’d put my money on Mowgli and friends.
The Jungle Book (2016) is based off Rudyard Kipling’s very novel of the same name. Mowgli’s adventures has also known an animated movie adaptation (duh!) and is a tale of self-discovery that is quite known by countless people.
Have you read The Jungle Book? Did you see the movie?
I’d love to talk about it with you! Tell me what you thought of The Jungle Book! 🙂
MY OVERALL RATING: ★★★★★/
Roars and Echoes 
I love this movie!
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Yay! Same here! 😀
– Lashaan
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Love your review 😀 AND ISNT THAT TALE ABOUT FIRE ADORABLE? – Trang
*omg did my coblogger just comment on my own post? *YES SHE DID
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Sounds good.
have you seen the live action version from ’94? Just wondering how that compares to this new version.
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I actually haven’t seen that one. It does look A LOT less reliant on CGI effects though. ’94 and 2016 versions are probably two completely different experiences.
– Lashaan
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Yeah, I’m not sure if there is ANY cgi in it.
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I am familiar with an old live action version from the forties. It has no animation for the special effects and it is a wonderful film.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_Book_(1942_film)
The sixties Disney film varies greatly from the Kipling story. I love the voices of George Sanders as the Shere Khar, and Sebastian Cabot as Bhagheera in the Disney film. Though it has wonderful animation and charming characters, it has a racially insensitive song in it. It may have been okay in the sixties, but not any more.
It sounds as if this current movie is more in line with Kiplings work.
Thanks for the review. I am going to watch this movie, soon.
~Icky.
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I’ve never heard of the 1942 adaptation, but it does put into perspective the numerous adaptations out there. I do believe the 2016 live-action is more adapted to modern times and probably more accurate compared to the source material. Your 1942 adaptation seems to have a different story too. Thanks for checking out my review and I hope you’ll enjoy the movie once you get around to it! 🙂
– Lashaan
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Great review! I will have to look up this movie for the holiday 🙂 The title sounds very familiar, but I can’t remember if I read the book or saw an old movie. New movie should be better though 🙂
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Oh, it would be a fantastic movie for the Holidays! Even people who’ve never heard about The Jungle Book (the actual book or even the older live-action/animated movies) will thoroughly love this movie! 🙂 Thanks for checking out my review; really appreciated!
– Lashaan
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I agree the movie is beautiful! But I am going to be the bad guy and admit I just was not connecting with the film the way I had wanted to. After reading your review, I feel like I have missed something and need to give this another fair go.
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Oh nooo, I didn’t think such a thing was actually possible! :O I guess some movies leave better impressions than others on some people. Do you know what exactly didn’t help you connect with the movie? I guess I might have been a bit biased by the voice cast too though. There are some really amazing actors among them, and hearing their voices through animals was just so fun for me. 😀
– Lashaan
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I cannot actually pinpoint it to be honest. I thought it looked great, but could not connect at out. I wasn’t feeling the characters (although the voice-over was not an issue). Honestly, it was probably just my mood. I have to really be ready for certain movies. Maybe it was just a wrong time for me.
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Yesss I’m so glad you liked this one!! The cinematography was astounding, and extremely realistic given the fact that we’re dealing with the wilderness and animals. And the music soundtrack – stunning! I definitely cannot wait for the sequel. 😀
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I couldn’t agree more!! I’m so glad of how beautiful this movie turned out. It was just eye candy, they really did feel real enough to be attached to! 😛 Oh, and the music is GOLDD!! The 2nd movie is going to be an instant must-watch at this point! Thanks for checking out my review! 🙂
– Lashaan
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Wonderful review! I really need to watch it sometime soon 😀
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Thank you so much, Marie! 🙂 You definitely should. The combined cuteness and awesomeness of this movie deserves to be seen! 😀
– Lashaan
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I’m looking forward to catching this one! Bill Murray as Baloo sounds like a brilliant choice.
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Hope you do enjoy it! It has such a heart-warming feeling to have him as Baloo and the movie itself does a wonderful job in making you feel young and energetic (not that we’re that old though..) 😀 😀
– Lashaan
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I’m sold!
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Oh I really wanna see this!!!
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You definitely have to check it out. It’s such a fun movie! 😀 I do hope that you’ll enjoy it just as much as I did!
– Lashan
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Ahh I do!! I’m sure I will! 🙂
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I like this movie. I watched the movie when it came out on DVD.
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I’m glad to hear that! It’s definitely worth purchasing and be checked out on Blu-ray or even on 4k television! 😀
– Lashaan
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Yet another movie I haven’t seen yet, but really want to. This post just makes me want to see it more.
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I’m so glad to hear that! It’s definitely a fun movie to check out, and also a very beautiful one (make sure you got the best quality set up for the experience). Hope you’ll enjoy it just as much as I did when you get around to it. 😀
– Lashaan
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Just put this movie on my Netflix list!
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Hope you love the movie as much as I did! Very entertaining movie, I tell ya’! 😀
– Lashaan
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I saw this movie and I liked the animation. The pace was okay. Although they are not related other than having a jungle setting in common, I liked the new Tarzan movie better than this movie.
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Ohhhh, you’re actually the first person to give me positive feedback on the Tarzan movie. I actually don’t hear too many great things about it and even its hype quickly died down and was quickly forgotten. I actually haven’t seen it (even though I mention that I would have picked The Jungle Book over Tarzan), but I definitely will check it out once it becomes available on Netflix. I was really excited by the cast for Tarzan when the trailer was first released, but then the critics got snappy about that movie and the overall excitement for that movie just died.
– Lashaan
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I try not read the critics’ reviews and I liked the trailer. I liked the special effects and the production. I thought it was entertaining.
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I haven’t really read anything thoroughly (that would probably just ruin a lot of movies), but I definitely haven’t crossed the movie out of my watchlist. I’m sure there’s got to be some entertainment in that, especially with a cast + effects like those.
– Lashaan
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