Disney’s latest attempt to transmogrify one of their
animated classics into a live-action spectacle is The Jungle Book. This production takes their 1967 Rudyard Kipling
adaptation, a simple, rambling, musical story, down to its bare necessities,
building it back up into a pleasant jungle adventure. In the process it loses
most of the cartoony energy and all but hints of two songs. But some of what it
loses in vibrant animated silliness it gains in the weight and heft of the best
imitation wilderness money can buy. It’s CGI made with an eye for live-action,
computer animated with a real boy running through. The amiable feature tracks
along leafy green oasis and rocky cliff, swampy waterhole and cavernous ruin,
getting undemanding picture book tableau out of every development. It’s high-stakes
and kid-friendly, a child’s eye view of the jungle as a place where, if you
believe in yourself, you’ll survive just fine with the help of your animal
friends.
In this jungle-as-playground we meet Mowgli, the kid who was
found abandoned as a baby and raised by a pack of wolves. He’s played by
newcomer Neel Sethi, an agreeable boy who seems to enjoy scampering about the
scenery and speaking to the animals who growl and howl around him. (He also
doesn’t mind wearing only red shorts, the traditional garb of the Jungle Boy,
from Bomba on down. Nice of the
animal parents to understand the need for pants.) He’s enjoying life as a wolf,
playing with pups and looking up to his canine parents (Lupita Nyong’o and
Giancarlo Esposito). Alas, the menacing tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) knows the
danger man poses and demands Mowgli be killed for the good of all jungle kind.
This leads wise panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) to decide the best option is
taking the man cub to be safely reunited with his own kind. There’s not much to
it, the characters filled in by typecasting and cultural memories, but the
movie has a sturdy construction on which to build its digital sights.
What follows is a trip through beautifully fake scenery,
with towering waterfalls and sun-dappled trees, swinging vines and staggering
vistas. It’s as much like a jungle as a greenscreen stage in downtown L.A. can
be these days. Top-notch effects work creates an often-convincing vision,
fitting a movie that’s content to poke along through episodic little vignettes
enjoying the company of a variety of animals. The creatures Mowgli encounters
will be familiar to anyone who knows Disney’s original. Screenwriter Justin
Marks makes sure to include the expected cast of characters, some voiceless (elephants, birds), others voiced
capably by recognizable performers, like sneaky snake Kaa (Scarlett Johansson,
slithery seduction), sweet lazy bear Baloo (Bill Murray, warm and loveable),
and the envious orangutan King Louie (Christopher Walken, making eerie musical
use of his usual unusual punctuation). Every majestic creature – a menagerie
that would barely look out of place in a motion-capture Planet of the Apes – is animated with uncanny accuracy and
remarkably authentic textures, real enough to pull off the illusion, but fake
enough to not scare too many kids.
Director Jon Favreau is a good fit for this sort of film.
Think of his work on Christmassy Elf,
sci-fi board-game trip Zathura, and
kicking off the Marvel Cinematic Universe with two Iron Mans. He knows his way around bright, clean, clear popcorn
imagery, bringing a fine workmanlike competence to the spectacle that works
because he believes in the movie magic of his effects and has the cast and crew
to pull it off. There is some real majesty to its best moments, and at its
worst a sense of predetermined comfort. We know where we’re going, but the way
there is reasonably entertaining. There are primal fable-like qualities to the
images of an innocent boy standing next to these dangerous beasts and finding
his way to be their equal. It’s not a story of man conquering the flora and
fauna, but becoming a part of them, an age-old
scamper-through-the-wilderness-to-find-yourself tale.
Favreau realizes the Kipling tale’s cinematic heritage as a
red-blooded boy’s adventure story, eager to admire the beauty of its setting
and creatures so cheerfully faked for our amusement. It may take direct inspiration
from Disney’s own classic in story, character, and music cues, but it’s as
indebted to the Kordas’ Technicolor 1942 version, or Stephen Sommers’ 1994 pulpier-ish iteration. It’s always about giving a man cub a fantastical place in
the natural spectacle of nature, to play with danger and emerge safe and sound.
Favreau concludes his Mowgli’s story with appealing lessons about standing up
for what you believe in, using your talents to protect others, and being proud
of becoming your best self. Though it is interesting to note where the boy ends
up. This isn’t a story about emerging from the wilderness to become a man, but
engineering a way to remain boyish forever. Seems a fitting message for a
company that hopes we’ll keep paying to see new versions of old childhood
staples.
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