My Thoughts on The Jungle Book Movie

I watched The Jungle Book live-action movie when it came out, and I just recently had enough time to share my thoughts on it. So, if some of my comments seem a little off, it may be because the material isn’t fresh in my brain.

I’ve posted the trailer below, just in case you, for some unfathomable reason, haven’t seen it yet.

Okay, so I was skeptical when the idea of creating a live-action The Jungle Book was mentioned. Why? Because I’m not a huge fan of The Jungle Book cartoon version. It was okay, but there are a lot of other Disney movies that I liked 100x more (*cough* The Lion King *cough*). However, once I saw the first trailer for this movie, I automatically knew I’d be watching it in theaters.

I had watched Disney’s live-action Cinderella, and while I enjoyed it, it wasn’t amazing or anything. When I watched The Jungle Book though, feelings of childhood nostalgia rose up in me. I had never even been that connected to Bagheera, Baloo, and Mowgli, but once I saw that first beautiful opening sequence, I was hooked.

Every scene had such vivid detail, yet apparently, pretty much everything besides Mowgli was CGI-made. That’s insane. The animals alone would have been exhausting to create, but to do the plants and tress too, ugh. Some people just have too much talent. As for the actor who played Mowgli, he was really, really good. I can’t believe how fantastic he was considering he was acting at nothing.

Now, there are probably people out there who are unsure of seeing a movie that is essentially a reproduction of the cartoon, however, it’s really not. While the general plotline is the same, there are completely different scenes and some new introductions to characters that were very minor in the cartoon version. Additionally, Mowgli’s wolf brothers are absolutely adorable in this film, and what happens to that wolf family was incredibly shocking. I couldn’t believe Disney did that!

Despite my raving, I did have a few minor qualms. I didn’t like the voices for a couple of characters, like Scarlett Johansson as Kaa, but most of the main characters’ voices were spot on. I also thought King Louie was just too big. I know there was an actual ape that got to be that large once upon a time, but Louie was simply too big for the time period he was in.

All in all, even if you simply thought the cartoon The Jungle Book was simply an okay movie, you need to go watch the live-action film. It’s so much better and more detailed, and the action scenes are incredible. I for one can’t wait to see what they do with the sequel.