Mowgli, a boy stranded in the jungle when his father is killed by tiger Shere Khan, is found by Bhageera the panther and entrusts the wolves headed by Akela to protect him from the dangers of the forest. Shere Khan is scarred by former events and vows to kill Mowgli when he learns that he is with the wolf pack. With Shere Khan on his heels, Mowgli is forced to flee, exposing him to the real jungle where he has to fend for himself. Will he stay low or strike back at his nemesis is the rest of the movie’s premise.
Language:
English
Running Time:
106 min
Rating:
U/A
Release date:
07 April 2016
Directed by:
Jon Favreau
Produced by:
Jon Favreau
Brigham Taylor
Written by:
Jon Favreau
Justin Marks
Based on:
The Jungle Book by
Rudyard Kipling
Starring:
Bill Murray
Ben Kingsley
Idris Elba
Lupita Nyong’o
Scarlett Johansson
Giancarlo Esposito
Christopher Walken
Neel Sethi
Music by:
John Debney
Shot by:
Bill Pope
Editing by:
Mark Livolsi
Distributed by:
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

What’s Hot

  • Anthropomorphic animals from Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book are brought to life in the most astounding fashion imaginable. The sheer amount of effort and detailing gone into every frame is evident when the majestic animals of the jungle own the screen. It’s hard to believe they are not live animals – a result of top notch work from the animation department and the digital artists involved.
  • Neel Sethi as Mowgli is an excellent choice – a fruitful outcome of hundreds of hours of casting calls we presume, for he has superior command over his abilities to maintain the air of innocence needed for his character while showing surprising levels of maturity in the performance.
  • The voices rendered for the animals are so effective and life like to suit the nature of the characters. Idris Elba’s Shere Khan sounds menacing and means business as it ought to while making veiled threats and sinister taunts at the wolf pack. A fun and cool Indian Sloth bear is a welcome character which is made more enjoyable as Bill Murray’s Baloo.
  • Apart from playing a loyal adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s book that modelled the imaginations of kids worldwide for decades, the movie does have an underlying theme that highlights the innate conflict between man and animal spawned by man’s conscious and subconscious ignorance towards preserving the flora and fauna in his bid to evolve and survive – which is depicted to good effect.

What’s Not

  • Once the euphoria of wading through the jungle in 3D and motion capture subsides, the expectations of the movie taking off to another level of imagination remains a distant dream. As Mowgli just keeps interacting with various animals in a build up to the showdown, the awe feel wears away in due course probably because it stayed too true to the book.
  • There seems to be an issue of overloaded scary scenes that may not be suitable for all kids who will be the primary target audience. The perils that Mowgli finds himself subject to could be a touch unnerving for the tiny tots and might have them cringing rather than rejoicing.

Badges

VFX
Story
Acting

Verdict

Verdict Stamp

This Jungle book might not be quite flawless conceptually, but the mastery from the technical team is pure enchanting wizardry which has the magic to iron out the flaws and hypnotize the viewers in a spell of audio visual enjoyment like no other!