Just like director, Jon Favreau, I grew up watching “The Jungle Book” as it was one of my first “Disney” films that I had in my VHS collection that my parents bought for me and that was a real blessing for me. Years later, Father bought me the original book and fell in love with the many stories that Rudyard Kipling had written in those pages.
For years, I’ve followed a lot of the home releases of the “Disney” version as I usually rented the 2007 DVD Special Edition and in 2014 I bought the Blu-ray special edition that is still with me and that I truly cherish in both audio tracks of English and Spanish which are both audios that I grew up listening to.
2013 was the year that a new version of the animated film was announced and that it would be a live-action adaptation with Justin Marks writing the script and Jon Favreau directing and surely I was excited to know the product at hand and how it would then evolve into something marvelous.
The movie was then announce to have a good cast and also the introduction of Neel Sethi to the role of “Mowgli” and from there on we had to wait and see the awesome trailers and waited for the film to be pushed from late 2015 to early 2016.
The story is like the original “Disney” film, but has some notable differences from the original film as it takes cues from the original story and also takes different approaches to how the story was likely linear in the original film.
The story is about a “Man Cub” name “Mowgli”, who lives in the jungle with the wolf pack and also with his friends. One day, during the water truce, “Shere Khan” returns to the jungle and vows to take revenge on “Mowgli” and then it is decided that the boy will return to the “Man Village”. Along the way he meets different dangers and other adventures at hand.
I was excited this weekend to finally watch the film and then I bought my tickets in the fastest way as possible through “FANDANGO” and went on to watch the movie on IMAX 3D which is the most recommended theater experience I can tell you guys about.
The movie just opened with a different “Disney” logo and also opened with the original overture of the 1967 film and it was a real treat to hear that same theme again in this movie and also some themes that take cue from themes of the original film like the theme for “Kaa” returns for this them and also original songs from the Sherman Bros. return with some new lyrics that match the film and more. John Debney does an an amazing job again with his partnership with Jon Favreau and keeps those touches of a jungle from India and makes the story become more alive than it does.
As for things that are included from the books… There are quite many. “The Law of the Jungle” is included and recited in various occasions in the film and it was really nice to hear that powerful poem recited in the film. Characters that weren’t named or even had no voice actor were included in the film like “Ikki, the porcupine” and “Chil, the kite bird” and you just kind of know that because they some of them were featured heavily in the book or mentioned. “Seonee” is also mentioned as it being from where “Akela’s” pack is from and also using the term “Bandar-Log” and also naming “Mother Wolf” as “Raksha”. The “Water Truce” scene also takes inspiration from the “Second Jungle Book” chapter that was named “How Fear Came” and was a really cool reference to the book as I remembered those great memories of that great book.
As an interesting and quick fact: the character of “Rocky the Rhino” that was cut from the original film was included into this movie as a quick cameo in the scene of the water truce.
While watching the movie and watching the story unfold, the story did make say some “WTF!” moments as to how dark and daring this story was and also I want to watch it again to see those great moments again. I’ve still to wait for the Blu-ray to come out and watch it as many times as I want in my living room and my own room with my buddies and family.
Ok, now we’re going for the most impacting and the most anticipated commentary: “How good are the effects?”. The effects for this movie were the thing that most media had a big coverage for this film and the effects are really as amazing as they say and they look and behave such as real animals and sometimes I thought they were actually real and also the sets were also photo realistic and looked like remote jungles from India and the feel of them were really something great to look at and I totally loved those effects and they could easily win the award for best visual effects from this year.
The direction of Jon Favreau is always top notch and the acting for the animals was great with the voices of great actors like Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansonn, etc. and the great part was from Neel Sethi as “Mowgli” as he made you believe that it really was a kid acting the part of a kid and it was really a great decision to cast this kid in this movie.
My final comments for this film are: If you love “The Jungle Book” as much as I do, you will love the film and also even go and watch it again and even if you are not a fan of the original film, then you are still going to enjoy the adventure and thrills that this film has to offer to the movie audience. But, if you are a fan of the original book… then you won’t like this film, although it does have the elements of the original book, but it is not an adaptation of the novel.
The movie won me over and I totally loved every second of it as it didn’t even waste a scene and it totally made me feel as if I was in an actual jungle of India.
Go and watch the film in 3D or IMAX 3D as it is the way it was meant to watch the film.
El Rincón de Yayo 