Disney's The Jungle Book Review

The Jungle Book delivers the epic feel of adventure that is great for the whole family.

I have to admit I have never read Rudyard Kipling's book but from what I can grab it focuses a little on the adventures of Mowgli, a young boy being raised in the jungle, but also includes short stories like "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and "Toomai and the Elephants". When it comes to the film adaptations of this story, most movies stick with the Mowgli plot save for its conclusion. If you're looking for a faithful adaptation of Kipling's novel, you'll be kind of disappointed.

This new adaptation from "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau is more of a live action/ CGI adaptation of the Disney animated movie from 1967. The story is about Mowgli having to journey to the man village in order to escape the wrath of the vengeful, man hating tiger Shere Khan. Along his journey he meets animals like a python named Kaa, lazy brown bear named Baloo and a monkey king named Louie. It's beat for beat a re telling of the 1967 movie except for the ending and having less songs. Yes there are songs in this movie but it's only the two well known songs ("Bear Necessities" and "I Wanna be Like You").

What separates this version from the animated one is it's look and performances. It blends CGI and real performance together nicely and gives us some incredible visuals. The animals look great and the voices they have are near perfect. Idris Elba gives Shere Khan a menacing cunning feel that only Elba can bring and Bill Murray and Ben Kingsley were pretty much born to play Baloo and Begheera. The only ones I had an issue with were Christopher Walkin as King Louie and Scarlett Johansen as Kaa. They do okay but every now and again I felt like all I heard was Christopher Walkin and Scarlett Johansen, not the characters. Everyone else does okay.

While not at times seemless, the backround and set pieces are nice to look at. My favorite has to be King Louie's palace. It looks like one of those abandon Indian temples that looks like danger is every corner, again, like Indiana Jones would do. And that's not a bad thing, as it fits with the whole journey aspect of the story.

It can get shockingly dark and scary at times, like a jungle would be. This comes not only from the jeapordy Mowgli is put through but also the little hints at how dangerous humans can be to the natural world. Fire, or "the red flower" is a key part of the movie depicted as the one thing that can give you absolute power through its use, be it destructive or protective. While not a spot on adaptation of the classic novel, Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book takes audiences on an adventure the whole family can enjoy together or by themselves