The Jungle Book Review

The Jungle Book is directed by Jon Favreau and stars Neel Sethi with the voices of Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Christopher Walken, Lupita Nyong'o and Scarlett Johansson. After Cinderella and Maleficent, Disney's next live action remake is of their beloved, 1967 classic The Jungle Book. Closely following the story of the original, Mowgli (Sethi) is hunted in the jungle by the fierce tiger Shere Khan (Elba) whilst the panther Bagheera (Kingsley) and the bear Baloo (Murray) try and take him to safety. 

When it comes to films that have groundbreaking CGI and are made to be seen on the biggest screen available, three films spring to mind: Avatar, Life of Pi and Gravity. The Jungle Book is now the fourth film to that list. Entirely shot in a studio in LA, Neel Sethi is the only real thing in the film; the backdrops and setting are green screen whilst the animals didn't even exist at the time of filming, leaving the newcomer to have very little to interact with. Fortunately, Jon Favreau's solid direction manages to draw a compelling performance from the movie's lead and Sethi grounds the 111 minute runtime with some humanity. 

Yet whilst the pacing, voice work and direction are very good, it's the effects that are the best thing. Right from the opening shot the screen bursts into colour and the jungle is fully realised, animals and all. Amongst the terrific shots is a long shot of Mowgli and Bagheera walking in front of a cascading waterfall- the imagery is truly tantalising and photorealistic. 

When it comes to CGI characters, Gollum, Ceasar, the T-1000 and Smaug are immediate connotations of well done, visualised creatures. This film has three astonishing CGI characters- the sleek and wise Bagheera, the comic relief Baloo and Shere Khan. Baloo isn't like the bear from The Revenant in terms of species and personality, but Shere Khan can be compared to another deadly tiger: Richard Parker. Khan is easily the better of the two; his scarred face, impressive voice and is eerily poetic monologue about cuckoo birds make him the year's best onscreen villain (so far) whilst his backstory and ideals do make you relate to his objective, even if the protagonist is at stake. 

Christopher Walken is also superb as King Louie, the singing Gigantopithicus gangster monkey king who delivers one of the two revived songs in the film (Bare Necessities is a massive nostalgic trip) and the entire temple set piece is brilliantly handled, if slightly ridiculous (could a bear climb a near-vertical cliff face if he couldn't climb that honey soaked cliff earlier? I guess as a juxtaposition it works). The films fiery climax is somewhat epic, seeing a panther, a pack of wolves and a bear fight Shere Khan is refreshing as an action sequence and is this year's Indominus v T-Rex and Blue battle. 

There are some negatives but this is only nitpicking- the film could have reached a 120 minute runtime if more of Scarlett Johansson's underused Kaa was added and just a little more of Shere Khan because he is do damn watchable, speaking of which, Disney really need to come up with some more imaginative ways of killing the villian.

Sticking close to the original and honouring the source material, The Jungle Book is a visually jaw dropping experience outfitted with a fierce antagonist and delicate performances amongst the humour and thrills. And the Oscar for Best Visual Effects goes too...