Review of The Jungle Book (1994) by Spangle — 23 Apr 2016

The Jungle Book is everything it ever should have been. A truly magical experience, The Jungle Book features stunning visuals, a great score, and fantastic special effects. This classic tale of a boy living in the jungle has been told before obviously and its certainly not the most original plot nowadays to boot, but this does not prevent the film from still sweeping you up in its truly heartwarming tale.

The Jungle Book bears its soul for all to see and the result is a truly touching and thoroughly emotional film. I honestly had to fight back tears repeatedly while watching, a feat that does not happen much.

Yet, when director Jon Favreau is in control, this seems to be a regular occurrence. He honestly may be a master at emotional manipulation and touching your heart through his films, as evidenced here, as well as in Elf and Chef.

Though this one is a big budget film, it feels wholly intimate. Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, and Idris Elba, are all phenomenal here as voice actors. Neel Sethi is about as good as you can expect of a child actor.

He never soars above expectations, but never disappoints either. Overall, The Jungle Book is about as good as a film of this type can be. It can be a little cardboard cutout at times, but it really touches your heart and entertains throughout thanks to great writing, direction, and voice acting.