Review of The Jungle Book (2016) by Johnmich_123 — 14 Apr 2016

From a Theatre artist’s perspective, music speaks for things at sort here...

The Jungle Book is a roaring success! With its CGI, actions and emotions all intact, there is nothing more I could ask from it. While others whine about how absurd the injection of the two short musical pieces “Bare Necessities” and “I Wanna Be Like You” turned out in the film, I’d rather those were the evoking and gentle areas in the story; likely serving as asides for the emotionally-larger than life characters, Baloo and King Louie. In fact, I could even hum a tone for Shere Khan, the chilling and villainous Bengal Tiger who would do everything to eradicate Mowgli from the jungle.

Technically, music speaks for things at sort here- hatred, fear, love, frustrations, etc. We can’t entirely get away from it. And music, as a good old piece from musicals and other theatrical conventions, gets a fresh touch in this non-musical live-action adventure. Nonetheless, even with the wolf pack’s stoic pronunciation of the “Laws of the Jungle”, familiar notes are already rung in the audience’s hearts. But, had it been that they decided to turn this into a full musical, the film would definitely flop!

A well-presented story….

Eventually, for the first time since Avatar and Life of Pi, I enjoyed a seamlessly presented story. A story that stands on its own- the Jungle Book will always be remembered as it is. It may not be an utter classic, but it is enough a masterpiece to behold.

Ultimately, the Jungle Book goes beyond the Disney branding as a distinct collaboration of talents, Jon Favreau (Director), Justin Marks (for the characters’ well-paced dialogue), Ben Kingsley (voice of Bagheera), Bill Murray (voice of Baloo), Lupita Nyong’o (voice of Rakhsa), Scarlett Johansson (voice of Kaa), Idris Elba (voice of Shere Khan), Giancarlo Esposito (voice of Akela), debuting actor Neel Sethi (as Mowgli) and most of all, Rudyard Kipling for penning the classic story of the same title.

A wholesome package!

The Jungle Book has everything in it. It could be a political satire when it wants to, or a dark and grim propaganda. It may relieve the intense atmosphere off with a wry humor or tearful goodbye, a little bit of music and jovial monkey dancing as “verfremdungseffekt” and even perhaps a wild chorus of primitive growls that speak of more serious human agenda at hand.

Magnanimously, the Jungle Book reawakens the Lion King in its head-docking stampedes, resurrects the Passion of the Christ in Mowgli’s bearing of the weight for the greater good and stupendously animates Alice Walker’s Flowers in Mowgli’s rite of passage, symbolized by the Red Flower (Torch of Fire) he carries facing Shere Khan.

As mentioned earlier this film will roar at all ages since it is more than just a children’s action, adventure and entertainment tale. It will snarl at you, shaking and swinging you from the gut.

(One last note though: Don’t bother watching this if not in IMAX 3D. Otherwise, you might only end up cheating yourself of the spectacle.