Live-action remake of Jungle Book is a thrilling must-see
Live-action remake of Disney’s classic delivers hefty emotional punch
Dir: Jon Favreau With: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba Runtime: 106 minutes
WAS ever so nervous about this one. The animated Disney original from 1967, after all, is in almost everyone’s movie memory treasure chest. Could a live-action take on Kipling’s tale cut the mustard? Would the tale of the man cub raised by wolves thrill and charm? And would I want to dance in the aisle like I was four years old again?
Yes, yes, and yes again. Jon Favreau’s Jungle Book is better than the bare necessities – it’s the big cat’s pyjamas. Whatever your plans for this weekend, if you, or even the children, love animals, and love talking animals even more, cancel them and pad along to the pictures to see this 3D actioner from the director of Iron Man and Elf.
A slight word to the wise before we head into the jungle though. The BBFC says the picture contains “mild threat”, such is Favreau’s commitment to animal accuracy the action becomes decidedly David Attenborough at times – there is no amorous stuff, but when there is a fight to be had, or a chase going on, the fur really does fly to a fairly hair-raising degree.
The opening scene is a taste of what is to come as a pack of wolves tears through the jungle. There is something odd about this wolfpack. It contains a panther, Bagheera (voiced by Ben Kingsley) for a start. Even more curiously, it has a boy among its ranks. Mowgli is the name, “man cub” is the designation.
By the time the chase is over, any jitters about how well Favreau would handle the depiction of the animals and the jungle are gone. It is all CGI, of course, but it is superbly done. Not a strand of fur is out of place, not a paw is wrongly put, and even when the animals talk it does not jar, such is the sophistication of the filmmaking process. It is a relief, too, that the one human on the scene, young Neel Sethi, makes a thoroughly likeable and convincing Mowgli.
The wolves and the panther are impressive until we get to see the real star of the show, the villain par excellence that is the tiger Shere Khan. He is voiced by Idris Elba in classic sinister Englishman style, and what a stinker Khan is (speaking of whiffs, the only way the animals could have been more realistic would have been if we could smell them, too). Khan does not want Mowgli around. This jungle ain’t big enough for the both of them – and it is not the tiger who is going to leave.
So begins Mowgli’s odyssey through the jungle, towards the man village from whence he originally came. Along the way he has several animals to encounter, some of them friendly, others (Kaa the snake, voiced by Scarlett Johansson), not so much.
What everyone is waiting for is the moment when Mowgli meets Baloo the bear. Seeing as the big furry, honey-loving lump is voiced by Bill Murray no less, the meeting does not disappoint. Also a treat is the arrival of King Louie (Christopher Walken) who calls himself, as in Kipling’s stories, a Bandar-log.
But what about the songs, you say? True, as you may have heard, Favreau does not make as much of a song and dance of them as in the original film, but when it matters, he delivers.
The Jungle Book has been done in live action before. There was even an animated Jungle Book 2 in 2003. Not one of these movies can hold a flaming torch to Favreau’s version. While it does not surpass Wolfgang Reitherman’s original for sheer, unexpected magic, it is thrilling, bold, moving, funny, and oh so of its time in the way it is respectful of animals and the environment. The latter makes it sound a tad worthy when it is not. The only message this Disney movie is delivering is about the power of a cracking tale lovingly told and amazingly rendered.