Review of Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) by Tim W — 08 Dec 2018

Coming so soon after Jungle Book, it will.inevitably be compared to it. For my money, this is better, but then I thought the other was was a massive disappointment. This is way more sinister and visceral, and I'm guessing it's why it was made.

No ridiculous singing animals here. It's inconsistent, however. Some of the voice acting is superb, oarticularly Cumberbatch's Shere Khan (who is also visually jmpressive) and Bale's Bagheera.

Less convincing is Cate Blanchett's echo chamber Kaa. Most disappointing is Serkis's Hofmeister bear who I half expected to don a pork pie hat. Baloo, the jungle's resident scrapper, fixer and smart arse still needs gravitas and not sound like a Cockney gangster.

An actor like Chris Hemsworth would have been a better choice. Khan aside, some of the animals - Baloo guilty again - are that bit too human looking. The albino wolf and Khan's hyena sidekick are great new characters though.

It's biggest advantages over the other is that the story is much more powerfully told and the actor playing Mowgli is vastly superior to the cute but duff kid in the previous outing. It can drag and it's that, along with some truly upsetting and frightening imagery that rules It out for kids under about 12.

I watched it with my not particularly sensitive 10 year old and we had to turn off at the taxidermy scene. I'm not really sure, then what the target audience is. At best, it's interesting and I'll watch the rest by myself.

A mixed bag that seems unsure of it's audience and smacks slightly of vanity project. Still way better than the other one, though.