Recently I went to see The Jungle Book, which is a 2016 remake of the Disney classic, except this time it's CGI, directed by Jon Favreau and has a few more famous voices.
If you can't remember the original, which to be honest I wasn't 100% sure of myself, man cub Mowgli has to flee the jungle after the nasty threat from Shere Khan, on his way he meets different creatures who are there to help, and disrupt his journey.
I was a little cautious when going to view the film as I know Disney seem to be rebooting everything at the moment, and they aren't always for the better. I have to say though that this is the best reboot I've seen of a Disney film so far. The CGI was really great, the voices were acted brilliantly, it was dark enough for adults but still had a childish charm, and the actor who played Mowgli was fantastic considering he was the one face you saw in the entire film.
Ben Kingsley as Bagheera was absolutely fantastic and easily the best part, he was suited for the role perfectly. The same goes for Bill Murray, who I easily saw as Baloo. One that didn't quite fit was Christopher Walken as King Louis, as although he was great and I enjoyed the mafia vibe he was going for, him singing I want to be like you was just a little too funny and killed the serious vibe he seemed to be going for.
I did like the use of the songs, however I think they didn't need to be in the film, in fact it was only until the movie was playing that I realised there would be songs in the film, as I thought it would just make reference to them for example Baloo whistling like in the trailer. I think they were the weakest part as neither Christopher Walken nor Bill Murray are great singers.
The singing shouldn't put you off from seeing this film though as otherwise it's a brilliant way of updating the original Jungle Book and I really enjoyed it.
★★★☆☆
Have you seen The Jungle Book? What did you think?
