I will give credit where credit is due — Disney films were the bedrock of my burgeoning interest in movies. As a child in the 60s, going to the local cinema to see Disney on the big screen was a promise of love for a lifetime. And the 1967 animated feature The Jungle Book, with its jovial protective father figure and its sing-along tunes worthy of a Broadway musical, was a favorite for a long time.
But of course it is no longer 1967, I’m no longer nine, and my fondness for Disney’s contribution to the cinematic art form is more nostalgic than anything these days. So it was with some trepidation that I approached the live-action The Jungle Book remake. Fortunately, with the exception of a medium-sized blip on the radar, the end result is a rousing adventure that will win over cynical critics and nine-year-olds alike.
You would have had to grow up in the titular jungle not to know the Rudyard Kipling source material: Mancub Mowgli is raised by a pack of wolves, but after being threatened by the tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba), he embarks on a journey back to a man village, aided by the loyal and devoted panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) and Baloo the bear (Bill Murray). Along the way, the often dangerous adventures help Mowgli grow into a man, both emotionally and physically.
And what adventures they are. Directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man), who certainly knows his way around an action sequence, the story is an exciting series of set pieces that actually serve to move the plot forward, even as the gorgeous camera work of Bill Pope captures the visual beauty of the landscape. An attack by Shere Khan, which also involves a stampede and a mudslide in the rain, is a nice early addition. The sequence in the Monkey Temple is thrilling, even though King Louie, the orangutan ruler, is rather unfortunately voiced by Christopher Walken as a New York-style gangster (and only becomes infinitely more interesting when he turns suddenly feral).
And then there is that aforementioned medium-sized blip. Ever since The Life of Pi, computer-generated animals can exist quite realistically with human actors. But that begs the question of this movie — why go to all the trouble to achieve such stunning realism, only to have the animals talk and cancel that realism out? The juxtaposition is jarring, and it takes the movie a long time to recover. It gets even worse when Disney shamelessly shoehorns two songs from the original (including Baloo’s Bare Necessities) into the proceedings. Imagine walking through a beautiful Florida park and you encounter a bear. Instead of growling and attacking, it sits back on its haunches and sings at you – that’s about how silly this feels.
Thank goodness the voice talent here is top notch, especially Elba (who makes the most of Shere Khan’s villainy) and Murray, who is given many of the best lines in the script (including “Not full hibernation. But I nap.” to justify his sleeping and foraging habits). And twelve year old Neel Sethi is a real find as young Mowgli, effortlessly holding the screen without being overly cloying or cute. So in the end, I was taking the talking animals with a healthy serving of salt. It became easier to take because the rest of it was so fun and well-made — and well-made fun might be just what one needs to feel like they are nine again. For a tiny little while, it certainly felt that way for me.
This article appears in Apr 14-20, 2016.