In this installment of Triple Takes, three Emerald writers share their thoughts on the new film The Jungle Book.
Chris Berg
Jon Favreau took one hell of a leap of faith by committing to remake The Jungle Book as a live-action/CG film. With one single human actor in the entire film and an environment generated wholly by computer imagery, it’s easy to see how this trip into the jungle could’ve ended in disaster. But the end result is a modern piece of movie magic.
Boasting the most convincing digital scenery since Avatar, the world on display feels unquestionably real. Even the animals, voiced by an all-star cast and occasionally breaking into song, are crafted with immaculate detail. Unlike James Cameron’s tour of Pandora, The Jungle Book has to contend with reality as a comparison point. We all know what a tiger looks like, and convincing our brains that a digital recreation is the real thing is no easy task. But every animal in this Jungle passes with flying colors.
The narrative is simple and charming, working ideally as a path to take us through two hours of visual splendor. Captured in stunning 3D to create a wonderful panorama display, The Jungle Book is bound to be one of 2016’s top cinema experiences.
Daniel Bromfield

The Jungle Book feels like an instant classic. It’s the kind of movie people go back to, either for the taut action or for the stunning visuals; about every five minutes, there’s a shot that feels iconic as Jack’s stroll down the spiral hill in Nightmare Before Christmas. If all this movie had going for it was the end credit sequence, it’d still be worth it.

The characters are mostly tropes, though they’re believable, especially Ben Kingsley as big-hearted stick in the mud Bagheera and Idris Elba as hyper-violent Shere Khan. The most poignant character arc is that of Bill Murray’s Baloo, whose love of the “man-cub” Mowgli turns him from cold-hearted conman to blubbering papa bear. The only distracting celebrity was Christopher Walken, whose King Louie was basically just a scarier version of Baloo.

The Jungle Book’s biggest flaw is that it’s a bit confused. It starts with operatic grandeur, then turns into a lighter-hearted movie where animals talk in New York accents. Some of the comedic elements seemed out of place, as in when Mowgli jostles beasts that exclaim “Excuse me!” There are also only two musical numbers; I wish they’d either included all or none of the original 1967 Jungle Book songs, which mostly seemed there for nostalgia.

A lot of the kids watching this won’t have seen the original, so nostalgia might not have been the best approach for this project. But when those kids revisit it down the road, they’ll have tons to marvel at.

Anna Lieberman
Although actor Neel Sethi, who plays Mowgli in Disney’s newest remake of The Jungle Book, may be one of the only completely real visual elements of the film, every anthropomorphic animal and environment feels just as true. Creators have brilliantly reintroduced classic and loved characters in a form that’s endearing, believable and entertaining.
It’s inspiring to see just how tangible collaborators of The Jungle Book have made talking bears, wolves and snakes feel, all with unique and animated personalities. The voice cast behind each animal face from Raksha (Lupita Nyong’o) to Baloo (Bill Murray) make each element of the film even more brilliant and charismatic.
The real star, though, is Sethi, who carries audiences through the entire duration of the film. He’s never acting directly on screen with real people, but his interactions with the animals he befriends are admirably convincing. Disney has introduced the world to a young, impressive talent.
The heroic and compassionate score is also a highlight of the film. Composer John Debney integrates classic songs like The Bare Necessities and I Wanna Be Like You into the film in a way that’s sentimental, yet refreshing. The rest of the score successfully matches each emotional interaction or fast paced action sequence and serves as a form of entertainment in itself.
The Jungle Book is the latest installment in the recent trend of transforming animated Disney classics into live action movies, and it is a remarkable success.