Over the course of 6 years, Jon Favreau has went downhill in Quality. After the critical bomb we know as Iron Man 2, Favreau made Cowboys and Aliens, an awful Cowboys and Indians science fiction film that bombed. Now when The Jungle Book Came out, I was hoping this movie wouldn't be another bad film by him. Having not seen Chef, I went in hoping it wasn't bad.
Oh my god! It was actually great! Favreau has made his first successful blockbuster in over 8 years!
I'm not a fan of the original Jungle Book animated film, not to say it wasn't bad, it was good. But I felt it lacked a lot of plot like a lot of Disney Animated films did in that period. Unlike other remakes of movies (Footloose) the movie actually made a bunch of changes that would work and make the movie better.
This is a loose remake of the original book, mostly basing it's plot around the 1967 animated film. So if you've seen the animated film, you already know the plot. But there are a few changes which I have to spoil.
Mowgli of course, lives with the wolves and has to get out before Shere Khan can kill him. The wolves have more depth to them then they ever did in the animated film and even one of them is killed off by Khan which is a huge surprise.
Kaa is a female in this version (Scarlet Johansson) and is a big part of the exposition in the movie where we find out that Shere Khan killed Mowgli's father when he was an infant. Although we never see her again in the movie after this, she is unsettling to watch.
The climax is even awesome. The battle between Mowgli and Shere Khan is spectacular and has lots of flare (literally) and beauty to it. King Louie (Christopher Walken) is played as more of a bad guy in this movie then he really was in the 1967 Animated film. I never really thought of him like that, but it's very interesting to see how everything turns out.
But enough about how good the movie's changes are. The voice actors (Bill Murray, Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Lupita N'Yongo) and Neel Sethi are sometimes off on their acting, but most of the time they absolutely nail these performances especially Kingsley as Bagheera.
The movie is scary, exciting, intense, funny, fun, rewarding and a huge success for Disney. After Seeing Cinderella, I didn't know if they could do as good or better than that, but Disney has made something on par with the it. If anything, I would love for Disney to do more of their classic remakes in the future. The Jungle Book is a success, plain and simple.
91/100 A-
Oh my god! It was actually great! Favreau has made his first successful blockbuster in over 8 years!
I'm not a fan of the original Jungle Book animated film, not to say it wasn't bad, it was good. But I felt it lacked a lot of plot like a lot of Disney Animated films did in that period. Unlike other remakes of movies (Footloose) the movie actually made a bunch of changes that would work and make the movie better.
This is a loose remake of the original book, mostly basing it's plot around the 1967 animated film. So if you've seen the animated film, you already know the plot. But there are a few changes which I have to spoil.
Mowgli of course, lives with the wolves and has to get out before Shere Khan can kill him. The wolves have more depth to them then they ever did in the animated film and even one of them is killed off by Khan which is a huge surprise.
Kaa is a female in this version (Scarlet Johansson) and is a big part of the exposition in the movie where we find out that Shere Khan killed Mowgli's father when he was an infant. Although we never see her again in the movie after this, she is unsettling to watch.
The climax is even awesome. The battle between Mowgli and Shere Khan is spectacular and has lots of flare (literally) and beauty to it. King Louie (Christopher Walken) is played as more of a bad guy in this movie then he really was in the 1967 Animated film. I never really thought of him like that, but it's very interesting to see how everything turns out.
But enough about how good the movie's changes are. The voice actors (Bill Murray, Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Lupita N'Yongo) and Neel Sethi are sometimes off on their acting, but most of the time they absolutely nail these performances especially Kingsley as Bagheera.
The movie is scary, exciting, intense, funny, fun, rewarding and a huge success for Disney. After Seeing Cinderella, I didn't know if they could do as good or better than that, but Disney has made something on par with the it. If anything, I would love for Disney to do more of their classic remakes in the future. The Jungle Book is a success, plain and simple.
91/100 A-