The Jungle Book

A kids film guaranteed to give children everywhere heart-warming nightmares. Starring still-quite-obviously-CGI animals and the kid version of Slumdog Millionaire.

You were the chosen one Mowgli.

Why do you make a film? To tell a story.
Why do you make a film that already exists? To capitalise on the human emotion of nostalgia without having to waste any effort on creating a story. To make money.

To quote an earlier post I have made “Nostalgia means sales, sales means money, and money means investment into the inevitable Lion King or Aladdin live action remakes”. Unsurprising then, that the folks over at Disney have chosen to reproduce The Jungle Book. This film adds nothing to the original, except some terrifying CGI animals and an ending quite different from the original.

Spoiler Alert: Actual ending screenshot.

The film is not badly made, however, and manages to stick fairly closely to the original plot. All the characters are there, the filmic techniques are sound, and I even got to relive my childhood singing ‘The Bear Necessities’. While the child actor should of been chosen on acting skill rather than resemblance to Mowgli, the voice actors were all well chosen and scripted. They were probably all pretty expensive too. I wonder how Disney continues to afford them.

There is no doubt that The Jungle Book is a children’s film. It is the story of a boy, learning to live in a world where he doesn’t belong. How strange it is then, that this remake contains realistic animal fights intermingled with high suspense scenes, put there as if to hold the intrigue of an adult. An adult that went to see the film because it reminds them of a simpler time. An adult that has money.

Would I recommend this film? If you have seen the original Jungle Book (i.e. had a childhood), then no. There’s no point. Unlike a book where a second reading might give you further insight into characters, this film will only give you further insight into how many times Disney can swindle you (in case you can’t read in between the lines, this film was a massive cash grab). If you haven’t seen the original, still no. Go watch the original.

I give this one 4/5 Disney remakes that are probably already in production.

P.S. Since Disney wants to save on energy by not writing originals, so will I. This review now applies to all Disney remakes including, but not limited to, Tarzan, Snow White, Cinderella, Peter Pan and Bambi.