The Jungle Book (2016 Film)

Source: IMDb

What is it?

The 2016 British-American fantasy adventure movie The Jungle Book.

What is it about?

This is how Metacritic describes this movie:

Mowgli (Neel Sethi), a man-cub who’s been raised by a family of wolves, finds he is no longer welcome in the jungle when fearsome tiger Shere Khan (voiced by Idris Elba), who bears the scars of Man, promises to eliminate what he sees as a threat.

Urged to abandon the only home he’s ever known, Mowgli embarks on a captivating journey of self-discovery, guided by panther-turned-stern mentor Bagheera (voiced by Ben Kingsley), and the free-spirited bear Baloo (voice by Bill Murray).

Along the way, Mowgli encounters jungle creatures who don’t exactly have his best interests at heart, including Kaa (voice by Scarlett Johansson), a python whose seductive voice and gaze hypnotizes the man-cub, and the smooth-talking King Louie (voice by Christopher Walken), who tries to coerce Mowgli into giving up the secret to the elusive and deadly red flower: fire.

My Thoughts

While I think that children will likely enjoy this movie, I did not like it as much as I thought that I would, and it was not as good as what the critics and some people I know said it was in my opinion.

While the visuals were good and the main character did a good job, this movie just did not connect with me, and I probably like the animated version better.

My brother GC and I saw this movie at the end of last year along with three other movies, and this was my least favorite out of the four movies.

The child actor Neel Sethi who played Mowgli did a good job making things seem like he was really talking to real talking non-human animals, and he brought a unique personality to his character.

The visuals do give me hope that if they were to make a live action Princess Mononoke movie one day then it could be done.

The end,

-John Jr