O Livro da Selva: A História de Mogli

The jungle book mowgli's story is a direct to video movie and i thought man is this movie trying to be like the three direct to video movies yeah i get that 1998 was a year we had direct to video sequels so speaking of that i'm gonna talk about the jungle book mowgli's story a movie that makes the 1994 adaptation look like a masterpiece mainly because it's based on the Rudyard Kipling book of the same name sure there some disgusting scenes like not even gonna ask at least the movie did have some funny moments like tabaqui face flopping into the river after being launched by shere khan which was funny.

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.

"Now your whole family can relive Disney's 'The Jungle Book', from Mowgli's point of view."

Haw! Now THAT is some serious false advertising.

This takes the concept of The Jungle Book and reduces it down to merely "boy is raised by wild animals and shenanigans happen". This film has no real sense of thrill or danger nor any of the mystic charm that was present in all other depictions of The Jungle Book. It takes all that and replaces it with corny gags and bare bones storytelling.

Kids deserve better than this.

Lastly, on a VERY petty, nitpicky note, there is a LOT more misplaced wildlife in this movie than in all, but one other depiction of The Jungle Book (The Jungle Book 2 in case you're wondering). Macaws, chimpanzees, and American black bears are not in India.

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.

Colors = pretty; Animals = beautiful; Story = lame with insultingly-stupid-and unrealistic dialog; Acting = bad; Special-effects = the worst, just horrible.

In fact, about the latter: if you've seen the sci-fi movies of the 1950s, particularly Ed Wood's movies, you get an idea how bad this film is in that regard.

If you want details of exactly how hokey some of these scenes were, how cheaply-made this film was, then read several of the others viewers' comments here. I agree with them: this film is so poorly constructed, it was embarrassing to watch. I only viewed it because I was impressed with the 1994 version of "The Jungle Book," with Jason Scott Lee, and I remembered the only animated fondly, as well. I was hoping this would be entertaining, too. Well......wrong!!