Le livre de la jungle: L'histoire de Mowgli

First of all, what I found interesting-the only thing I found interesting-in this film (and my 5 year old fell asleep ten minutes in) was the weird set design in this movie. Basically, the film was shot in the Malibu foothills with a bunch of supermarket plants thrown around an obvious fake lagoon to simulate some kind of jungle environment, which looked more like something you'd see in a dentist's office or indoor mall. The scenes of Mowgli running among the oak trees with animals thrown together from all corners of the world (I kept waiting for a cute penguin to show up)was just so strange I found it entertaining.

I wonder who decided that this was even release-able-and it's obvious to me that everyone associated with the film must have decamped to drug rehab immediately afterwards. A career ender if I've ever seen one.

The only thing that would have made this film worse would have been using CGI to make the animals mouths move. Listening to the horrible dialog performances was bad enough, without having to watch them speak as well.

After seeing the previews for most of Disney's live-action films, I'm convinced that we need to add an amendment to the Constitution banning Disney from making any more.

Sober writers might have been a plus, as well.

How can one studio make so many bad films--one after another. I mean, seriously, these things wreak.

My kids enjoyed this movie. I thought it was well done, even though I do NOT like Fred Savage's work. Good rental for kids 9 and under.

I loved this movie as a little kid. I was about 7 years old when it came out on VHS. I did see some characters were missing in the movie and some stuff didn't make sense. I didn't see Kaa. 1. I was asking why wasn't Kaa in this movie? 2.Since when did Mowgli have a wolf sister (instead of a wolf brother)? 3. How was Mowgli the adopted son of the wolf-leader Akela? 4. How come they only had a 7 year old kid lost in the jungle being taken in by wolves and he is still wearing clothes-the next scene his pants are torn (which look like shorts), he carries some kind of knapsack-the other scene he still wears the same pants he wore when he was in the human camp and vest but doesn't wear the shirt (still wears the satchel). That one scene when Mowgli grows a little older, the part when he swings on a vine and sees a human who is in a military uniform (and he narrates he wondered about his past). Then after running away for blaming himself about his mother's death he gets curious when he sees a human camp with real pack of man. Wouldn't a 7 year old kid if they grow up in nature around 11-12 years know about their human past? :/ 5. When Mowgli is lured by the chimps they call it "monkey-town." Looks more like a zoo place instead of being in a ruined city. What was with that abandoned hut full of old things? Who lived in that place?

A retelling of the book from the kid's perspective. Which changes little, unsurprisingly. But it is not exactly the same as what we saw in the 1967 one.

This feels distinctly like it was perceived to be an easy way to make some more money off a property Disney already could use, and that had been profitable for them in the past. It isn't even the first live-action adaptation of the book. After all you just got to get animal wranglers to the location and that's it. It doesn't take CG. The human on-screen cast is minimal, though there are some extras. There's only one song, the very catchy and completely meaningless Monkey Time, which I'm sure drove some parents up a wall when this first came out, because their offspring wouldn't stop singing it. I appreciate that it sets up the danger of Shere Khan, as well as the fear of man's fire, almost immediately. We don't see those for a while in the original animated classic. He works with other species, somewhat like Scar. The film focuses on the threat the tiger poses to the man cub, and him learning how to hunt so that he is safer. Through this, they explore the coming of age themes of finding out where you belong, discovering who to trust and not making rash decisions.

This does manage you to get a lot of mileage out of some of the critters being cute and others being intimidating. Honestly, it would be so much better if not for the 90s children's film aspects. There's a near constant chatter - including the largely unnecessary narration, usually literally just spelling out what's plainly obvious from the visuals. I wouldn't rule out that it was a studio note, rather than always the plan. It never really stands still for very long, not trusting children to have a little more patience the way that the animated classic did, at least by today's standards. The puns are too plentiful, and so often they go for the most obvious one. Some of the voice cast is well chosen, and they do the best they can with what they're given. Considering how much of a boys club a bunch of these are, I do appreciate that Eartha Kitt (Catwoman herself!) lends her silky smooth vocals to Bagheera. I'm not sure I would claim that I thought Brandon Baker did that strong of a job, but considering his age and the script, he could be significantly worse. Certainly there's a sincere conviction to his performance. I mean, he spends a lot of this literally directly talking to creatures as if they understand him, and will answer, which of course they didn't on set. 4/10.