Sunday, September 4, 2016

The Jungle Book 2016


     This film is based on the writings of Rudyard Kipling.  Mowgli was left in the jungle when his father was attacked and killed by the tiger Shere Khan.  The panther Bagheera brings Mowgli to a wolf family for the wolf mother Raksha to accept him as her own cub.  Everything goes well until one dry season when Shere Khan comes to the watering area and declares the man cub needs to leave the jungle.  Khan will not abide by the truce between the animals that has been established for order if this doesn’t happen.  He really wants to kill Mowgli because he will grow into a man and he will be a threat to them all.  Bagherra and Raksha agree they have no choice but to have Mowlgi return to the man village at the edge of the jungle.
    This movie was filmed in a studio and everything is CGI except for 12-year-old Mowgli.  The rain forest, watering hole, crumbling temple, animals, birds and reptiles seem very real.  The voices seem to belong to the characters and there is no distraction because you recognize the voices.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

106 min, Adventure directed by Jon Fevreau with Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Walken, Garry Shandling, Brighton Rose.

Note:  Imdb 7.7 out of 10, 95% critic 88% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 4*, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 360 reviews.
Special Note:  There is a mistake with the size of the elephants.  They are depicted as large African elephants but the elephants in India are smaller in size.  Also, wolves in Indian do not have the dense fur shown because of the heat.  The wolves resemble Tibetan wolves with the amount of fur needed for the cold.  Filmed in Los Angeles Center Studios, 450 S. Bixel Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California.  There is also a 1967 animated Disney film of this story.  It was the last feature film personally overseen by Walt Disney and it was released one year after his death.

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