I was 6 years old when Walt Disney’s THE JUNGLE BOOK was released in the summer of 1978. I had a huge stuffed Kaa in my bedroom and well, like any sensible kid watching that animated classic… I fell madly in love with Phil Harris’ Baloo, Sebastian Cabot’s Bagheera & Louis Prima’s King Louie. That’s true of any and all kids that grew up on that classic animated tale. Sterling Holloway’s Kaa was a bit of a trip, but George Sanders’ voice of Shere Khan terrified me. And Clint Howard was awesome as the baby elephant! It’s a perfect Disney film. Great designs, songs, spirit.
Spirit is key to that film. There’s a wonder to it. My one little bitch as a six year old was that Mowgli would never leave Baloo for some GIRL!?!?!?! Ahhhh, a boy’s innocence.
Favreau would’ve been around 10-11 when that rerelease hit – and at 10 & 11, that ending wouldn’t have made a ton of sense. The great thing about Jon Favreau is that he’s an enormous kid. He wants to believe in the tangibility of things, the connection through a character’s interaction with the unreal, that makes it real. This film is about how the Jungle lights these characters, but how these characters movements in turn effect that Jungle around them. The lessons wolves could teach a boy. But the lessons that boy could teach them.
The best effect in the movie? The one Mowgli has over us. Neel Sethi’s a damn great kid. Favreay gives him actions that show us his natural ingenuity, his problem solving intelligence, which gives him that needed edge. Neel is so perfect for this character, it was unbelievable. A friend of mine refused to believe the boy was real until I pulled an interview up on my phone to show him. He's just, so perfect. I mean, there’s this moment in the film where two characters are watching Mowgli do something that, in a zillion years was beyond them intellectually. They could never have done that, but watching it happen they come to just be in awe of the boy. That’s Favreau making the unreal convince you of the greatness of the Boy, just as he does to them. It's beautiful.
Shot in Los Angeles – and I never doubted it. Hollywood is, despite all of our desires to cynically paint it as a cruel business that destroys and exploits lives… that’s there. That’s everywhere. But everyonce in a while something like this comes out of there.
Jon Favreau’s JUNGLE BOOK is by far the best film he’s every made… it works as pure fantasy that is as emotionally powerful as BABE II: PIG IN THE CITY.
Ben Kingsley’s Bagheera & Bill Murray’s Baloo… you’re watching two of your very favorite digital characters come to life so completely that you just forget those actors cease to exist… That’s Bagheera and Baloo up there. Baloo’s pursuit of Honey is as great as anything Winnie the Pooh did with Christopher Robin in pursuit of the golden elixir of life did. It’s magic. Magic cuz it isn’t just the two of them… It’s Baloo being a tad Br’er Rabbit… and other animal critters come in to just comment and watch the spectacle of the Man-Cub and Honey… And you realize you’re watching this death-defying child endangerment… but you don’t care cuz you really want Baloo to get his Honey. At least I did.
The wondrous Den of Honey… It’s just bliss. I found myself not wanting any conflict for these three. I don’t need Shere Khan and his THREAT. I just want Boy & Beast having Jungle Fun!
The detail of this magic Favreau has gotten from the MPC heavy lifting on this film is spectacular. One of my favorite moments is just a little bitty tiny bit with a jungle tree frog that pauses to wipe a raindrop from his brow… so tiny, but magic. Completely beautiful character animation! Beautiful.
Then… then there’s Christopher Walken’s MIGHTY JOE YOUNG sized King Louie, by Weta… This stuff. Man. MAN! MAN! How great is the scene unfolding of Louie’s introduction? Mowgli shoved into a pile of man made metal objects… and there’s a friggin Cowbell. Nobody says it, no dialogue addressing it. Mowgli makes it make a couple sounds – then… the shadows begin to move – and there was a part of me that was in interior hysterics, cuz the scene was also… RIVETING – and you’re in awe… Here Comes Walken.
King Louie, I could just watch wallowing in his sinister conquest of the Jungle power trips for an entire feature. Imagine visual effects used for MAGIC seamless heart warming character work…. Done dramatically and for all the marbles and always working. Walken’s Louie is entrancingly magnetic… Just watching him, discussing “Man’s Red Flower” and his plans for it, it’s as great as Ben Folds working with Shatner on HAS BEEN. It’s just Fuck me Brilliant!
Families going to this film, they’re in for a treat of rare quality and true wonder. Sure there’s tension, but Mowgli uses his noggin, not needing Tarzan’s great tooth or something like a spear. Now, he prepares the ground for his battle like that boy was friggin BATMAN! And when Shere Khan comes leaping into the terrifying destructive nightmare that Mowgli has fearlessly gone into to lure him from his friends… You will be so enraptured, so warm in the middle…
And if you’re seeing this in 3D or even better IMAX 3D… I saw it in REAL D 3D to spectacular ends… and on IMAX, I’m actually giddy in anticipation of seeing it that way. It just puts you there in the middle of this amazingly satisfying magical adventure. See it with people you love or hell, see it if you just need to feel love for something beautiful. Cuz this film… It’s Beautiful in every way that makes you wonder what piece of magic is coming next!
The enormous amount of artists of every form that put their efforts into this thing did so at the top of the form. Bill Pope’s lush beautiful cinematography – his love of light… so beautiful here. John Debney’s score perfectly complemented things. The sound design also felt magically jungle like.
OH – the water hole. Just, wow. The Water Truce. If only our world was this magic, if we could live in complete natural harmony developing deeply nuanced and life long relationships with Jungle critters. Gotta say, there’s an innocence to this film that was right there in the soul of the original Disney animated telling… and Favs nailed it!
This is a truly cool film!
