Movie Review/Dose of Disney: The Jungle Book

The other night, I finally got out to see Disney's The Jungle Book. It. Was. Amazing. I'm not even sure where to start! 
Let's start with the music. The original animated film got so many wonderful songs stuck in our heads, like "The Bare Necessities" and "I Wanna Be Like You". These two were redone in a way respectful to the original, but in a new upbeat fashion. I was, however, disappointed that "Trust In Me" appeared only in the credits. In this movie, the talent was phenomenal. Of course Bagheera will always be my favorite character, but every other voice actor was perfect too, from Kaa to Baloo to King Louie (even though I'm not sure Christopher Walken's best role is a singer- yet still better than Iago). The actor who played Mowgli just blew me away, and I'm excited to see him in more movies hopefully soon. 

It was really nice that they expanded the story a bit. Very similar to how they gave Cinderella and Prince Charming more of a family history in the live action Cinderella, here Mowgli is shown how he comes to the jungle. There is also a larger focus on the wolf pack, which is only appropriate to the theme of family and friendship throughout the movie. Not only was it fairly accurate to the original animated movie, but it also included some references to other Disney darlings. As in The Lion King, there is a stampede in a gorge (Simba's down there!), an evil big cat villain with a physical scar, and said villain falls to a fiery death while trying to attack the hero. There's also a bit of Tarzan sprinkled in, especially with all of the Mowgli-runs-on-tree-branches scenes, and I can't help think Baloo's quest for honey is in homage to Winnie the Pooh.

Conservation-wise, the movie has a pretty obvious message: man destroys. But even deeper than that, man doesn't always destroy on purpose, it often happens from their carelessness. We can see the metaphor in Mowgli running through the forest with a torch and accidentally setting acres of woods ablaze. That's something we can all learn from. 

In conclusion, this is a great movie about love, family, and belonging, that keeps to the old story but adds in new ways. I think all Disney fans, young and old, will love this film. 


Thanks for reading everyone!