The Jungle Book Review

The Jungle Book

The story of The Jungle Book has traditionally been pretty thin. The plot can basically be summed up as “tiger hates boy but takes his sweet, sweet time doing something about it,” so I was ultimately watching the movie for the spectacle itself. And on those grounds, it was good. The CG animals were very convincing (much more than, say, Noah), and the scenery was equally captivating. I also liked this rendition of Mowgli, because he didn’t come across as a little brat (like I remember him from previous versions) and was actually useful to the other animals. In fact, kudos to Disney for finding a child actor who acts like a child!

I was not so impressed with the rest of the “cast,” however. Most of the voice acting felt really off to me, which is usually the case when big budget cartoons hire famous people who aren’t necessarily great voice actors. Honestly, The Jungle Book is already a well-known tale, especially under Disney’s care, so why the need to bring in names like Scarlett Johansson? I can’t imagine anyone buying a ticket, because they heard she was in this (for all of five minutes, by the way). Bill Murray as Baloo was about the only one that I didn’t find incredibly distracting. You can always count on old Baloo…

But being a Disney movie, they also slipped in a few musical numbers. And this kind of ruined the tone, since everything else about the movie’s presentation was so down to earth and even dark in places. Granted, hearing Baloo sing his trademark song still worked, because it fit the character, but why did King Louie keep his musical number? He was revealed to be a mobster of sorts, and then he starts singing “I Wanna Be Like You,” and… just… ugh… Disney needs to be more willing to shut off its history and do something new, because the best parts of this movie were the things that weren’t trying to remind you of the 1967 cartoon version.

Reviewer

Clark
I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.

Published by

Clark

I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.