So worried are Disney that you may mix them up, the official title for this film includes the date. They needn't have bothered.
A friend recommended the film and I certainly had misgivings. Even if this second version was from Disney it couldn't live up to the original cartoon version could it?
I started watching and within 15 minutes I had to turn it off. It didn't compare with the original and so I had to take a decision and alter my state of mind.
Second time round I started watching a film called The Jungle Book made last year. And from then it improved once I disassociated the two films.
Jungle Book has a special place for me as I grew up going through the Scout Movement from Cub to Venture. One of my best friends at the time's family was immersed in our local pack. His mother was Akela, his Dad - Hathi, Sister - Bagheera, Uncle - Kaa. his brother, on becoming of age, was Mowgli.
But back to the film. As one would expect, the CGIs are very good and to have a real life Mowgli, Neil Sethi, didn't seem out of place with the background. The story follows the original, and by that, I mean the original book, well enough. And as it is CGI'd characters other than Mowgli it is not really viable to comment on their acting ability. By the end of the film I had got used to seeing the characters as depicted in this film although I wasn't that enamoured with Kaa the Snake, perhaps I wanted to be mesmerised by the kaleidoscopic eyes of the original animation. The character I found completely out of place though was King Louis. There was nothing regal about him, just his enormous size. Too enormous in my book.
The soundtrack contained the original songs Bare Necessities, Trust in Me and I Wanna Be Like You. To my ear, not one of these matched the versions of the animated film.
I think this film would be best enjoyed having never seen or heard the original film and soundtrack. It would then stand on it's own merits, but you cannot remake such a classic film and hope to score a similar success, although they are now trying it with Beauty & The Beast. Just because technology moves on and you have more bells and whistles doesn't mean you can automatically improve things no matter how you market it and hype it up. Just don't try to fool me man-cub!
New to the Jungle Book franchise? - 3 vines out of 5.
Seen the original? - 1 Prickly Pear out of 5
3 comments:
Thing is: why did they even bother?
The first - and original - The Jungle Book, is just perfect as it is.
It has stood the test of time admirably. There was no need for an update of any kind.
I'm with Young Masher, there was no need to remake a film that didn't need remaking anyway.
Indeed. But I think there are many more to come of these "updated for a new generation" remakes.
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