Jon Favreau tackled the beloved 1967 version of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and the result is one of the most visually sumptuous blockbusters this side of Avatar. From the off, we are plunged into extraordinarily immersive surroundings — lush green forests, stark desert tundras, waters so enticing you might want to bring some trunks. The Jungle Book follows young "man cub" Mowgli, the only human co-existing with animals in the jungle. Found by the panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) Mowgli (Neel Sethi) was raised by wolf alpha male Akela (Giancarlo Esposito), his mate Raksha (Lupita Nyongo), who considers him one of her own cubs, and the rest of their pack. But when Mowgli draws attention to himself while all the animals gather during a drought-provoked truce to drink water, Shere Khan (Idris Elba) proclaims his intention kill Mowgli before he has the chance to become a man and endanger the jungle like all humans do. The pack tries to protect Mowgli, but the boy decides he'll save his lupine family by allowing Bagheera to return him to the world of men. On the journey to the human village, Mowgli ends up dealing with various predators and befriends a new pal, honey-obsessed bear Baloo (Bill Murray). Meanwhile, Shere Khan violently punishes the pack for not turning over Mowgli and lies in wait for Mowgli to return so he can kill the boy who doesn't belong in the jungle.
A photo-realistic world demands a photo-realistic populace, and here Favreau doesn’t disappoint, filling his jungle with wolves, tigers and bears that look like they’ve stumbled into the film from a National Geographic documentary, until they open their mouths of course. The CG cast will undoubtedly be the focal point — it’s hard to take your eyes off them, frankly — which might be a blessing in disguise, for the sole human performance, by newcomer Neel Sethi as Mowgli. Sethi is a compelling young lead, making viewers really care about a boy who has only known the jungle and doesn't understand why he's being hunted.
Visually stunning and expertly acted, this retelling of a classic pays tribute to the original adventure with an all new ensemble. The voice-casting of his animal companions is shrewd to the point of unnerving. All of the supporting actors are strong as their animal counterparts, and they don't come off as mere A-list cameos with the exception of Bill Murray and Christopher Walken, whose voices are too iconic to forget who they are. With her husky purr, Scarlett Johansson is very well cast as giant python Kaa, who hypnotizes Mowgli with the tale of the boy's own origins. Lupita Nyong’o brings a gentle dignity to the role of Raksha, the mother wolf. While Bill Murray’s Baloo is so blissfully mellow and does an outstanding vocal turn as the notorious ursine slacker and pleasure-seeker who teaches Mowgli the importance of kicking back and enjoying the bare necessities of life.. The real coup, though, is Christopher Walken’s magisterial King Louie: no orangutan, but the last remaining Gigantopithecus, awaiting extinction in a trove of gold and glistening fruit. A funny, unnerving monologue about papayas is delivered in a Cosa Nostra croak, shortly before galumphing after Mowgli through the temple ruins in a genuinely tense set-piece escape.
Elba is pitch perfect as the villainous Shere Khan, who in a misguided way makes sense, man does cause destruction in the jungle, but Shere Khan is so blinded by vengeance that he can't be made to see that Mowgli truly loves the jungle. The real star of Disney’s new adaptation of The Jungle Book is a computer-generated talking tiger. Shere Khan, who’s voiced by Idris Elba, is a wholly computer-animated creation. But he’s realised in such extraordinarily hair-perfect detail, and moves with such persuasive physicality and weight, he might as well be the real, red-in-tooth-and-claw deal. Elba’s Shere Khan rings with magnificence.
Jon Favreau's beautiful CGI update of Disney's animated classic keeps the songs and the fun, and adds real emotional weight. There are only a few musical numbers in The Jungle Book, all of which are rearranged from the original: Kaa's transfixing "Trust in Me" which doesn't show up until the credits, Baloo's "Bare Necessities," and "I Wanna Be Like You," which Walken sings as the ambitious Gigantopithecus (an extinct giant orangutan) King Louie. The pacing can be leisurely, but there are also plenty of heart-stopping thrills and action sequences to keep audiences riveted and, in a few cases, jumping out of their seats. In every way, this quietly majestic film should be considered a triumph. The familiar, picaresque story of a young boy raised by forest creatures but fated to re-join Man has been re-imagined as a funny, scary, affecting family adventure with mythic heft but a refreshing lack of swagger. It was made with the latest in movie-making technology but has the ethical values and wide-net storytelling sensibility of an Old Hollywood classic. At its best it feels as though it always existed and we are only now discovering it.
Easter Eggs
#1 Cameos
In a little family reference, all of the wolf pups in the film are named after motion capture actors and other crew members (though only Gray is really mentioned in the film itself). The sons of actors Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber - Sasha and Kai - make their film debuts voicing two of the pups and director Jon Favreau's son Max joins them. His daughter Madeleine plays Raquel the Rhino (Rocky's daughter) and Favreau himself appears as the pygmy hog who gets a licking from Baloo in the honey climb scene. And cult director Sam Raimi voices a giant squirrel and American Dad's Dee Bradley Baker provides other animal voices.
#2 The Genie's Lamp
The treasures in King Louie's temple include a familiar artefact from Disney's wider universe. Barely visible among the detritus is the unmistakable shape of the genie's lamp from Aladdin. Incidentally, the chase sequence through the temple that sees King Louie attempting to catch Mowgli was said to have been based on the Monstro chase in Pinocchio.
#3 Rocky The Rhino
Though he's not a major character in the film, one Disney creation who was intended to be included in the 1967 was rescued from the cutting room floor. Rocky The Rhino, who is voiced by comedian Russell Peters, was originally planned to appear in the cartoon as part of the sequence with the vultures, which was ultimately changed when the Beatles had to pull out. Rocky was a visually-challenged rhino who would have been voiced by Frank Fontaine and animated by Milt Kahl before he was edited out. The live action version also sees the restoration of the key buffalo stampede sequence that was excised from the animation but was in the book. In the book that stampede is actually what kills Shere Khan, though obviously here it just helps spirit Mowgli away from him. Meanwhile Ikki the porcupine - Garry Shandling's final role before his death - is based on a minor character from the book.
#4 The Original Book
A trope of Disney movies, including The Jungle Book, used a real storybook at the beginning that would open up into the animation. That inspired Favreau: “I noticed that The Jungle Book starts with a real book on blue velvet opening up and there’s a drawing. And you push into the drawing and it becomes a cartoon. But the book never closes. So my fantasy was to close that book. So I talked to Disney and they said, ‘Well, it might be in the archives.’ I say, ‘Please see if you have the book.’ They dug it up. They found the leather-bound book from the movie. “But they said, ‘You can’t touch it.’ Somebody showed up with a white glove. Nobody could handle it. We set up to match the table exactly. So the end of the movie we freeze on the frame. It goes to a drawing.” There was one catch: Favreau wanted the book to bounce along with Walken’s rendition of “I Wan’na Be Like You” and then open up. “So there was the archivist with a broom handle under the table bouncing the book up and down,” the director says. “Then once it opens it goes back to digital and the pages flip with little vignettes from the movie. It’s super-cool.”
#5 The Lion King
It might be a tiny moment on screen, but the shot of a warthog and a meerkat standing side by side in the final battle with Shere Khan at the Truce Rock is a lovely little nod to The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa. Neither spoke or were given names, but their moment was there for Disney fans to appreciate. The Lion King was announced as Jon Favreau's next project with Disney so it was a fun nod for what's to come.
Comments