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I saw the newest Disney version of "The Jungle Book" in the company of my enthralled 12-year-old son, and there were moments when I envied him—but not too many, because the film is so surefooted in its effects, so precise and simple in its characterizations, and so clear about what it's trying to say about the relationship between humanity and nature, that it made me feel about his age again, too. Maybe younger.

From the opening sequence of young Mowgli ( Neel Sethi ) racing through the jungle in the company of his adoptive wolf family and his feline guardian, the black panther Bagheera ( Ben Kingsley ), through its comic setpieces with the layabout Baloo the Bear ( Bill Murray ) and its sinister interludes with the python Kaa ( Scarlett Johansson ), the despot orangutan King Louie ( Christopher Walken ), and the scarred Bengal tiger Shere Khan ( Idris Elba ), the movie bears you along on a current of enchantment, climaxing in a thunderous extended action sequence that dazzles while tying off every lingering plot point, and gathering up all the bits of folklore, iconography, and Jungian dream symbols that have been strewn throughout the story like Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumbs.

It's not accurate to call this "Jungle Book" a "live-action" version, since so much of it has been generated on a computer. But screenwriter Justin Marks , director Jon Favreau and their hundreds of collaborators render such distinctions moot. Combining spectacular widescreen images of rain forests, watering holes and crumbling temples, a couple of human actors, and realistic mammals, birds and reptiles that nevertheless talk, joke and even sing in celebrity voices, the movie creates its own dream-space that seems at once illustrated and tactile. It's the sort of movie you might inadvertently dream about after re-reading one of Rudyard Kipling's source books or re-watching the 1967 animated Disney film, both of which contributed strands of this one's creative DNA.

The Disney animated version was the last cartoon feature personally overseen by Walt Disney , and its release one year after his death marked the start of a period of creative wandering for the company (though other features that had been in development for years, most of them lackluster, would appear throughout the decade that followed). Like a lot of the company's 1960s and '70s output, it was relaxed to a fault—a succession of beautifully rendered, mostly jokey set-pieces strung together by memorable songs, including "The Bare Necessities," "I Wanna Be Like You" and the python’s seduction song "Trust in Me"—but it still made a deep impression on '60s and '70s kids like the 49-year-old Favreau. This incarnation is a more straightforward telling that includes just two brief, according-to-Hoyle musical numbers, "The Bare Necessities" and "I Wanna Be Like You"—performed by Sethi with Murray and Walken, respectively. It relegates a longer version of the ape's song and a torch-song-y version of "Trust in Me," performed by Johansson, to the approximately seven-minute end credits sequence, which is so intricately imagined as to be worth the ticket price by itself. Other numbers, including the elephants' marching song and "That's What Friends Are For," performed by a barbershop quartet of mop-topped vultures, are MIA, presumably in the interest of pacing.

I mention all this not because I consider the film's lack of music a shortcoming, but because it gives some indication of how gracefully this "Jungle Book" juggles the competing interests of parents and kids. Musically, visually and tonally, there are enough nods to the 1967 version to satisfy nostalgia buffs, but not so many that the film becomes a glorified rehash. Kipling's tales are a stronger influence, down to the scenes where the wolves, Mowgli and other creatures recite a stripped-down version of Kipling's poem " The Law of The Jungle " ("...For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf/and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack"). And there are nods to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan stories and the masterful comics illustrator Burne Hogarth's adaptations , which seem to have influenced the way the movie's CGI artists render the movie's trees: as gnarled, knuckled, pretzel-twisted, vine-shrouded wonders, rising from the forest floor.

The film creates its own, more politically evolved version of Kipling's literary ecosystem, with its ancient animal beliefs and practices, such as predators and prey declaring a "water truce" during a drought so that they can all drink unmolested from a parched watering hole. And it invests Mowgli with a touch of optimistic environmentalist fantasy: where human mastery of fire and tools was presented in earlier films as a threat, and Mowgli's fated exit from the jungle as an unfortunate necessity, in this film the boy is shown using his ingrained ingenuity to solve problems beyond the capabilities of his animal pals, as when he builds a rappel and pulley system to help Baloo claim honey from a cliffside beehive he's been coveting. The idea here seems to be that humanity is not necessarily fated to subjugate and destroy nature. People and animals can live in harmony if we behave with kindness and mercy while showing reverence for the ancients of other species, like the elephants that Bagheera credits with creating the rain forest and directing the flow of water by digging canals with their hooves and tusks.

The movie takes these ideas and others seriously, but in a matter of fact way, so that they don't feel clumsily superimposed, but rather discovered within a text that has existed for more than a century. Kingsley's unhurried storybook narration hypnotizes the audience into buying everything Favreau shows us, as surely as Johansson's Kaa voice-work hypnotizes Mowgli. (The latter sequence includes one of the new movie's most extraordinary embellishments: as Mowgli stares into one of Kaa's eyes, he sees his own origin story play out within it.)

Another kind of balancing act is happening in the voice actors' performances. Favreau leans on distinctive-sounding stars to earn knowing chuckles from the audience, and lets some of their familiar physical and facial tics seep into the animal "performances": Murray is a shambling pleasure-seeker in life as well as in many of his movie roles. Walken is legendarily good at playing funny-scary villains who love to mess with heroes' minds (he's merged here with Marlon Brando's performance as Kurtz in " Apocalypse Now ," entering the story swathed in Rembrandt gloom). Kingsley has aged into one of the cinema's great mentor figures. And so on.

But the film is never content to use our affection for its voice actors as a storytelling crutch. These are strong, simple, clearly motivated characters, not movie star cameos wrapped in CGI fur. The most impressive is Elba's Khan. His loping menace is envisioned so powerfully that he'd be scary no matter what, but the character becomes a great villain through imaginative empathy. As was the case with Magua in Michael Mann's " The Last of the Mohicans " and General Zod in " Man of Steel ," we understand and appreciate his point-of-view even though carrying it out would mean the death of Mowgli.

In every way, this quietly majestic film should be considered a triumph. The familiar, picaresque story of a young boy raised by forest creatures but fated to re-join Man has been re-imagined as a funny, scary, affecting family adventure with mythic heft but a refreshing lack of swagger. It was made with the latest in movie-making technology but has the ethical values and wide-net storytelling sensibility of an Old Hollywood classic. At its best it feels as though it always existed and we are only now discovering it.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Film credits.

The Jungle Book (2016)

Rated PG for some sequences of scary action and peril.

105 minutes

Neel Sethi as Mowgli

Bill Murray as Baloo (voice)

Ben Kingsley as Bagheera (voice)

Idris Elba as Shere Khan (voice)

Lupita Nyong'o as Raksha

Scarlett Johansson as Kaa (voice)

Christopher Walken as King Louie (voice)

Giancarlo Esposito as Akela (voice)

Emjay Anthony as Gray (voice)

Sara Arrington as Nilgai Mother

• Jon Favreau
• Justin Marks

Writer (book)

• Rudyard Kipling

Cinematographer

• Mark Livolsi
• John Debney

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The Jungle Book

By rudyard kipling.

Kipling's 1894 masterpiece is a collection of exciting tales in fable form, imparting life-transforming wisdom, while evoking imperialist themes.

About the Book

Article written by Ebuka Igbokwe

Bachelor's degree from Nnamdi Azikiwe University.

‘ The Jungle Book ‘ is a collection of short stories featuring anthropomorphic animals told in fable style. In the main stories, Mowgli, an abandoned baby, is adopted by wolf parents in the Indian jungle and raised by the panther Bagheera and the bear Baloo. He has several adventures in the jungle and tries to avoid death at the hands of a tiger, Shere Khan, his mortal enemy. The novel explores abandonment, belonging, rules and responsibility, loyalty, and coming-of-age themes.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was a British author and poet best known for his captivating storytelling and exploration of colonial and cultural themes. Born in Bombay, India, Kipling spent his early years there and returned to India after a decade in England, and his Indian experience influenced his work . His notable achievements include iconic works such as ‘ The Jungle Book ‘, ‘ Just So Stories ‘ and ‘ Kim ‘, and the classic poem If— ‘, known for its timeless wisdom. Kipling’s writing often reflects the cultural blend of the colonial British living in and immersed in the Indian culture. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907.

Hardly any children’s book has had, and continues to have, the far-reaching influence of ‘ The Jungle Book ‘. Since it was first published in 1894, it has been reissued in different print editions and audiobook formats. It has inspired books by other writers like Heinlein and Gaiman. This masterpiece has been adapted into popular movies, radio broadcasts, and cartoons every decade since the 1930s and the inception of mass media. It is a credit to Kipling’s narrative genius that this work still resonates with many readers, even today.

Kipling’s storytelling prowess is evident in the engaging narrative that weaves together the adventures of Mowgli and other characters in ‘ The Jungle Book ‘. The stories’ premises are wild and exciting and transport young readers to an exotic world rich and full of life. The episodic structure also keeps readers intrigued. The structure of the stories is straightforward, and the conflicts are resolved cleanly and swiftly. However, this simplistic structure limits how deeply the characters may be developed. Also, its episodic formula and the lack of a continuous and overarching plot stand in the way of more elaborate storytelling.

Most of ‘ The Jungle Book ‘ is set in India, and for most of the English reading world of his time and certainly for us modern readers, it is an exotic world. Kipling richly draws it with lush vegetation, colorful and exciting wildlife, and captivating vistas. Kipling’s vivid descriptions create an immersive environment that captures the imagination of readers. The setting allowed Kipling to explore the contrasts between cultures and how rich their diversity is, as he infused elements of Indian folklore, mythology, and traditions in his stories.

In addition, this choice setting lends a vibrancy and authenticity to his fables, making them more believable in their exotic context. However, Kipling has been criticized for colonial biases, perpetuating certain stereotypes about the exoticism of India and its wildlife. his portrayal is mainly Eurocentric, and he does not fully represent the cultures he highlights in treating the place he portrays as the other.

Characterization

The characters in ‘ The Jungle Book ‘ are diverse, well-developed, and memorable. From the wise and crafty Bagheera to the upbeat and earnest Baloo and the menacing Shere Khan, each character is well-defined and unique to bring an explosive reaction, and the narrative comes alive with their personalities. Kipling does not present us with “good” or “bad” characters; each character’s motives and actions seem justified and natural even when we disagree with them. Shere Khan is a man-cub eater because he is lame and cannot hunt as effectively as other predators. And our hero, Mowgli, is not above using sneak tactics to attack and eliminate his tiger archenemy.

A strong criticism against ‘ The Jungle Book ‘ for its characterization is that the book is limited in its representation of female characters. The focus is predominantly on male characters, and the absence of strong female voices is a noticeable limitation.

Themes and Symbolism

The Jungle Book’s timeless appeal and ability to speak across generations lies in the universal themes it explores . These also make it enjoyable to readers of various ages and backgrounds. These themes include courage, friendship, and living harmoniously with nature and society. Kipling embeds moral and ethical themes throughout the stories, offering valuable lessons and giving readers opportunities for reflection.

Modern reviewers criticize Kipling colonial biases, reflecting the imperialistic attitudes of the time, and he comes across as condescending or ethnocentric at times. However, Kipling’s storytelling also demonstrates a cultural sensitivity by incorporating ideals and elements of Indian folklore and mythology.

‘ The Jungle Book ‘ dialogue is conversational, paunchy, and vibrant. The characters’ speech is rich in humor and idiom, and Kipling’s skill as a masterful poet shines here as he creates a dialogue with a rhythmic quality. The only shortcoming is that the characters talk in a dated style that might have been appreciated in his time. People, especially young readers, may prefer a more straightforward speech style.

• Writing Style

Kipling’s narrative style is known for its vivid descriptions and his masterful employment of language to create rich imagery. Readers can vividly imagine the lush landscapes and diverse characters, enhancing the immersive quality of the storytelling. Kipling’s rhythmic prose adds a musical quality to the narrative, contributing to the oral storytelling tradition. The cadence of the language can make the stories engaging and enjoyable to read aloud. Kipling skillfully employs anthropomorphism, giving human qualities to animals. This literary device allows a unique exploration of human themes and behaviors through the animals living in human-like social groups.

The Jungle Book Review: A Series of Rollicking Adventures with Anthropomorphic Animals

Book Title: The Jungle Book

Book Description: 'The Jungle Book' by Rudyard Kipling is a timeless collection of stories set in the Indian jungle. The main stories follow Mowgli, a young boy raised in a wolf pack by Father and Mother Wolf, his foster parents, and the panther Bagheera and the bear Baloo as mentors, as he faces off against his nemesis, a lame tiger Shere Khan. Filled with vivid descriptions, moral lessons, and a sense of adventure, Kipling's classic work explores themes of identity, belonging, and what it takes to live in harmony in society.

Book Author: Rudyard Kipling

Book Edition: Ape Books Classics

Book Format: Paperback

Publisher - Organization: Ape Books

Date published: August 16, 2016

Illustrator: John Lockwood Kipling

ISBN: 978-3961300402

Number Of Pages: 154

• Lasting Effect on Reader

The Jungle Book Review

‘ The Jungle Book ‘ by Rudyard Kipling presents memorable characters in exotic plots, crafting eternally enchanting tales with mastery and sensitivity. However, a tinge of imperialism, reflecting the prejudices of his time, pervades Kipling’s narratives.

• lively adventure tales
• replete with moral lessons
• narrated in colorful and rhythmic language
• promotes imperialistic views
• broken-up narrative
• lack of female characters

About Ebuka Igbokwe

Ebuka Igbokwe is the founder and former leader of a book club, the Liber Book Club, in 2016 and managed it for four years. Ebuka has also authored several children's books. He shares philosophical insights on his newsletter, Carefree Sketches and has published several short stories on a few literary blogs online.

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The Jungle Book review – spectacular revival of Disney's family favourite

Hyperreal digital animation meets old-fashioned storytelling in this faithful remake, which loses the songs but brings new, ingenious twists on the original

W hat on earth is the point of remaking Walt Disney’s great and possibly greatest masterpiece, the glorious animated musical from 1967, based on Kipling’s tales, all about the “man cub” Mowgli, brought up by wolves in the Indian jungle – famously the last film to get Disney’s personal touch? A remake which furthermore leaves old-fashioned animation behind, departing for the live-action uncanny valley of hyperreal CGI, which heretically loses most of the songs and which also abandons the original’s final, unforgettably exotic glimpse of a real-life human girl?

Well, no point really … other than simply to create a terrifically enjoyable piece of old-fashioned storytelling and a beautiful-looking film: spectacular, exciting, funny and fun. It handsomely revives the spirit of Disney’s original film, while also having something of old-school family movies about animals like The Incredible Journey (1963) – it almost feels like something I could have watched as a kid on TV. Yet also, weirdly, there’s a touch of Mel Gibson’s jungle nightmare Apocalypto (2006).

Perhaps most strikingly of all, it re-imports into the story elements of the Disney classic The Lion King (1994) which The Jungle Book influenced in the first place: there’s a special rock for the animals to gather round, a stampede scene and an evil feline with a facial disfigurement.

Newcomer Neel Sethi plays Mowgli himself; Ben Kingsley voices Bagheera the panther; Idris Elba is the evil tiger Shere Khan; Scarlett Johansson is the hissing snake mesmerist Kaa; Christopher Walken is the voice of King Louie the fire-hungry ape and inevitably – but pleasingly, and very amusingly – Bill Murray is an outstanding vocal turn as the notorious ursine slacker and pleasure-seeker Baloo the bear who teaches Mowgli the importance of kicking back and enjoying the bare necessities of life.

I’ve never seen digital rendering of talking animals look so persuasive and this film also creates witty and ingenious twists on the story we all know, including a new plot development concerning wolf-leader Akela (Giancarlo Esposito) and Shere Khan – and even creates a backstory for Mowgli which explains how he got that modesty-preserving loincloth of his.

It’s not a musical and yet the deployment of two famous songs – The Bare Necessities and I Wanna Be Like You – feels easy and natural. Actually, the film emphatically revives Kipling’s poem The Law of the Jungle with its collective all-for-one ethic: “The strength of the pack is the wolf/And the strength of the wolf is the pack.” Baloo prefers songs to poems and calls that one “propaganda”.

Interestingly, where the first film finally sticks to a never-the-twain-shall-meet attitude to humans’ long-term cohabitation with animals, this one posits the idea of living together happily (though that size of loincloth can’t last for ever). As I said, this sacrifices the original’s bittersweet acknowledgment that Mowgli must one day grow up and look for romance.

But what a tremendous success this is. The Jungle Book 2.0 is the unexpected treat of the week.

• The Jungle Book
• Walt Disney Company
• Rudyard Kipling
• Film adaptations
• Ben Kingsley
• Scarlett Johansson

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Film Review: ‘The Jungle Book’

Jon Favreau brings a welcome lightness of touch to this visually immersive adventure story.

By Andrew Barker

Andrew Barker

Senior Features Writer

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Of all of the impressive details to appear on screen in Disney’s live-action adaptation of “ The Jungle Book ,” none is more startling than a title card at the close of the end credits reading: “Filmed in Downtown Los Angeles.” So immersively does the film’s visual-effects team craft every tree, waterfall and flower of Rudyard Kipling’s fantastical subcontinental setting, and so carefully are the talking CGI animals rendered, it almost beggars belief that the whole thing was shot in a 12-story building overlooking the 110 freeway. But aside from investing in top-drawer digital craftsmanship, perhaps the canniest move Disney made on this film was hiring Jon Favreau to helm it. Maintaining the buoyant heartbeat beneath all the digital flash, Favreau never loses sight of the fact that he’s making an adventure story for children — no small matter in a kid-pic landscape flooded with inappropriately gritty reboots and frenetic distraction devices — and when positive word of mouth arrives to buttress Disney’s all-out marketing efforts, the studio should have a substantial hit on its hands.

Favreau already has one four-star family pic to his credit with “Elf,” but the most important touchstone from his filmography here is probably “Iron Man,” in which the director hit all the marks of an effects-heavy tentpole while still allowing the film to breathe where it needed to. His lightness of touch proves an enormous asset, as he builds this jungle into the type of dangerous, sometimes pitiless setting that an average 10-year-old would nonetheless never want to leave. It can’t rival the woolly looseness of Disney’s 1967 animated classic, of course, but it succeeds on its own so well that such comparisons are barely necessary.

Pulling freely from Kipling’s stories, Disney’s own animated treatment, and the inventions of screenwriter Justin Marks, this “Jungle Book” certainly imposes a bit more of a strict hero’s-journey framework onto the source materials, yet rarely does it lapse into the sort of po-faced seriousness that tends to sour so many aggressively modernized fairy stories. Kipling’s story “Mowgli’s Brothers” serves as the film’s jumping-off point, and we open on the 10-year-old man-cub (first-timer Neel Sethi) as he’s deep into his wolf training. Discovered abandoned in the jungle by the sage black panther Bagheera (voiced by Ben Kingsley, all exasperated officiousness), Mowgli has been raised by wolf couple Raksha (Lupita Nyong’o) and Akela (Giancarlo Esposito), but his development is lagging behind that of his lupine siblings, and Bagheera admonishes him for using human “tricks” like tool building, instead of learning the ways of the pack.

When a dry season forces predators and prey into a brief “water truce,” the rest of the jungle gets a look at the wolf pack’s unusual new charge. The despotic Bengal tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) takes exception, having lost his left eye to an encounter with mankind’s “red flower,” fire, and demands the boy be surrendered to him. Akela stares down the tiger, but the conflict is enough to convince Mowgli to travel with Bagheera to rejoin human civilization; on their way, Shere Khan springs a surprise attack, and Mowgli flees off into the deep jungle alone.

It’s here that the familiar plot beats from Disney’s first “Jungle Book” outing kick in, and Mowgli joins forces with an ingratiatingly lazy bear, Baloo ( Bill Murray ). As much as modern blockbuster style might demand some sort of theme-park-ready setpiece for every reel, Favreau clearly understands that the Mowgli-Baloo relationship is the real key to the story, and he slows the film’s pace long enough to build up an effective hangout vibe, with Murray voicing the role as the world’s most charming ursine used-car salesman.

Whether the sloped-shouldered, heavy-lidded Baloo is designed to look a bit like Murray or Murray simply looks like a half-napping bear is open to debate, but it’s only with him that the film ever risks setting foot into the uncanny valley: Otherwise, the animal effects are overwhelmingly successful, taking the standard set by Rhythm and Hues’ CG tiger in “Life of Pi” and applying it throughout. It isn’t just that the animal movements scan as real — Shere Khan in particular is carefully rendered to be intimidatingly weighty when looming in the foreground while lighter than air when in flight — but they’ve figured out just how much to anthropomorphize the animal mouth movements to make their speaking seem natural, without turning them into cartoons.

Not all of it works. The all-but-contractually-obliged reprisals of Mouse House musical staples (“The Bare Necessities,” “I Wan’na Be Like You”) are inorganically threaded in, and the decision to cast King Louie (Christopher Walken) as a a grotesque, Col. Kurtz-esque gigantopithecus only makes the absence of Louis Prima sting even stronger. But when the film gets it right, it sings. The appearance of Kaa the snake (voiced by Scarlett Johansson, in the closest we’re likely to get to an “Under the Skin” sequel) is magnificently done, exploiting the surround-sound capabilities of Dolby Atmos and a sense of slowly shifting scale for an unnervingly trippy sequence that stops just short of something that would trouble children’s sleep.

Tackling his first feature-film role not only as the lead, but also as the only flesh-and-blood character on screen, young Sethi acquits himself well under what must have been challenging circumstances. His line readings don’t always fully pop, but he possesses a loose-limbed naturalness on camera, and perhaps most importantly for a film like this, he genuinely seems to be having fun. Voice work is excellent all around, from Nyong’o’s maternal warmth to Elba’s arrogant malevolence, and the late Garry Shandling has his moments as Ikki, the skittish porcupine. Composer John Debney offers a lush symphonic score, and the 3D work is impressive enough to justify the ticket price.

​Reviewed at El Capitan Theater, Hollywood, April 1, 2016. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 105 MIN.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Disney presentation of a Fairview Entertainment production. Produced by Jon Favreau, Brigham Taylor. Executive producers, Peter Tobyansen, Molly Allen, Karen Gilchrist. Co-producers, Joyce Cox, John Bartnicki.
• Crew: Directed by Jon Favreau. Screenplay, Justin Marks, based on the books by Rudyard Kipling. Camera (color), Bill Pope; editor, Mark Livolski; music, John Debney; production designer, Christopher Glass; supervising art director, Andrew L. Jones; art director, John Lord Booth III; costume designer, Laura Jean Shannon; sound (Dolby Atmos), Ronald Judkins; supervising sound editors, Christopher Boyes, Frank Eulner; re-recording mixers, Boyes, Lora Hirschberg; special effects supervisor, J.D. Schwalm; special effects coordinator, Gintar Repecka; visual effects supervisors, Robert Legato, Adam Valdez; visual effects producer, Joyce Cox; Weta visual effects supervisors, Dan Lemmon, Keith Miller, Joe Letteri; MPC visual effects supervisor, Charley Henley; visual effects, MPC, Weta Digital; stunt coordinators, Thomas Robinson Harper, Casey O'Neill; assistant director, David H. Venghaus Jr.; second unit director/camera, Legato; casting, Sarah Halley Finn.
• With: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong'o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Walken, Garry Shandling, Brighton Rose​

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Book Review: The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Kipling wrote this book in 1894 while living in India. Born to British parents in Bombay, he was raised and educated in England, and lived in England most of his life; but he spent many of his happiest years in India.  The Jungle Book  and its sequel,  The Second Jungle Book , are testimonies to his fascination with the legends and natural wonders of the Subcontinent.

The chief thread in  The Jungle Book  is the myth of the wild boy, raised by animals in the jungle. In this case the wild boy is Mowgli, who as an infant (or, “man-cub”) strays from his village and ends up being raised by a family of wolves, like one of their own pups. The growing boy survives the malice of the great tiger Shere-Khan and the wiles of the serpent Kaa, by a combination of his own pluck and cleverness, the protection of his wolf brethren, and the friendship of the bear Baloo and the black panther Bagheera. He learns to hunt, fight, go to ground, and be careful of the wicked monkeys. He also returns to civilization for a while–just long enough to learn who his true family belongs, and where true civilization lies. And he vanquishes his greatest enemy.

Not all of  The Jungle Book  is the story of Mowgli, however. In and amongst the many poems and songs that Kipling lavishes on us, there is the adventure of a young white seal who searches for a safe place for his people to mate…the battle between the mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and a nest of cobras…the secret dance of the elephants, ever seen by only one human being, and that a boy…and the boasting rivalry of the pack-animals of Her Majesty’s forces in India, which brings the book to an ironic close.

Children of all ages will love to read these stories and have them read to them. If you’ve only seen the  Disney animated feature , but have never read the book, you don’t know what you’ve missed! Here is a kind of magic that, to us, is very strange and foreign; for it is not only the magic of a strange and faraway land, but also of a time that is no more. American children will not be as quick to understand and identify with the settings and characters, because (unlike British children) India and the Empire are not part of their nation’s history or their cultural background. For us children of the Rebels, the  Jungle Books  will always have the same fascination as any story of exotic climates, cultures, and myths, or any story that depicts man’s relationship with nature from nature’s point of view.

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The Jungle Book

Where to watch.

Watch The Jungle Book with a subscription on Disney+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

As lovely to behold as it is engrossing to watch, The Jungle Book is the rare remake that actually improves upon its predecessors -- all while setting a new standard for CGI.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Jon Favreau

Bill Murray

Ben Kingsley

Lupita Nyong'o

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Movie news & guides, this movie is featured in the following articles., critics reviews.

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THE JUNGLE BOOK

The story of mowgli & shere khan.

by Rudyard Kipling ; adapted by Tom Dolby & Drew Frist ; illustrated by Nigel Buchanan ; developed by Electric Type ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 26, 2011

Infused with both humor and drama, the animated and interactive features maintain an organic flow with the text throughout....

Set to Buchanan's lush, luminous illustrations, this adaptation of the adventures of Mowgli introduces the classic to a new generation.

Pub Date: May 26, 2011

Page Count: -

Publisher: Electric Type

Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011

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by Rudyard Kipling ; illustrated by Jonas Lauströer

by Rudyard Kipling ; adapted by Laura Driscoll ; illustrated by Migy Blanco

by Rudyard Kipling ; illustrated by Ian Wallace

PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

by James Dean ; illustrated by James Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among

Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.

If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”

Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

More by Kimberly Dean

by Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean

by James Dean & Kimberly Dean ; illustrated by James Dean

by Joan Holub ; illustrated by James Dean

TALES FOR VERY PICKY EATERS

by Josh Schneider & illustrated by Josh Schneider ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2011

Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)

Pub Date: May 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1

Publisher: Clarion Books

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

More by Josh Schneider

by Josh Schneider ; illustrated by Josh Schneider

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Review: Recycled ‘Jungle Book’ Puts a Real Boy in a Forest of Pixels

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By Manohla Dargis

• April 14, 2016

Disney’s new take on “The Jungle Book” is being touted as a live-action movie, though there’s scarcely anything alive in it. That goes for the gaudy and glorious flora, the gathering clouds and the wind stirring them, all of which were created, with various degrees of believability, via computers. The child playing Mowgli — the human orphan turned wolf child — is played by an actual kid, who frolics with computer-generated critters, a smart call, given that animals can be tricky to work with and that some of this menagerie’s real-life equivalents are (sorry to be a bummer) endangered.

Studios are in the recycling business, and while this “The Jungle Book” is lightly diverting, it is also disappointing, partly because it feels like a pumped-up version of Disney’s 1967 animated film, with more action and less sweetness. It also feels strangely removed from our moment. About the only thing that feels of today is that its lush and arid environments and padding paws were digitally created. The resulting look, pitched between photorealism and impressionism, hovers between the realistic and the uncanny. It turns out that the movie was shot in a Los Angeles warehouse , which paradoxically seems like an old-fashioned way to make worlds.

Disney’s first version opened in the United States a year after the country created its first list of endangered species. The studio may not have been thinking of “Silent Spring,” Rachel Carson ’s 1962 environmental shocker, but “The Jungle Book” hinges on a barefoot child who lives in a furry, fanged commune right out of a pastoral idyll. The film features tangy vocal performances, hand-drawn animation and the ear-worming ditty “The Bare Necessities.” But it also has queasy-making passages, none more so than the scene in which Louis Prima , as the orangutan King Louie, sings a Dixieland version of “I Wanna Be Like You” — “An ape like me/Can learn to be human, too” — which the songwriters Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman wrote with Louis Armstrong in mind.

Richard M. Sherman later said that Disney rejected casting a black man, fearing potential trouble with the N.A.A.C.P. For all the ostensible timelessness of its storytelling, Disney has always made movies that speak to its audiences and the world they live in. Even so, it’s hard not to squirm through the number with Prima’s scatting ape because of the troubling signifiers it throws out. At the same time, the film partly alleviates, however unwittingly, Rudyard Kipling ’s weighty colonialist baggage, both by giving Mowgli, an Indian child, a golly-gee American voice, and by casting George Sanders as the villainous tiger, Shere Khan, who sounds just as you would expect a world-weary British royal to sound after centuries of pillaging. So, a mixed Disney bag, as usual, with a hippie kid, confusing politics and fuzzy-wuzzies.

Movie Review: ‘The Jungle Book’

The times critic manohla dargis reviews “the jungle book.”.

Directed by Jon Favreau, the busy redo continues Hollywood’s infatuation with British actors, though this time it’s Idris Elba who puts the purr into Shere Khan. Much like the 1967 movie, this one has a loose relationship with the Kipling tales, originally published in 1894. It’s no surprise, given Kipling’s gravity, that the 2016 movie sticks close to the first film in its boyish bounce and sunny vibe. Written by Justin Marks, it opens with Mowgli (Neel Sethi) as a prepubescent, racing alongside his protector, the panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), who years earlier placed him in the care of a mother wolf, Raksha (Lupita Nyong’o). Much of the story involves Shere Khan’s plotting against Mowgli amid adventures with Baloo the bear (Bill Murray), Kaa the snake (Scarlett Johansson) and others.

Shere Khan is still the baddie, but now he’s lethally, instead of imperiously, cool, which seems unfair, given that Bengal tigers are endangered. The rest of the adult animals, meanwhile, largely register as noble, particularly the elephants that Bagheera and Mowgli bow down before. In the 1967 film, the elephants are amusingly buffoonish and march in a pachyderm parade as their leader invokes his time with the maharajah. The 2016 movie doesn’t refer directly to our environmental catastrophes, including the decimation of the elephant population. Yet when Bagheera now instructs Mowgli to bow before the elephants, it feels as if the filmmakers were gesturing to the truth that this fantasy and its relation to the real world are now tragically different from what they were in Kipling’s time.

And when Mowgli helps out the elephants, there’s a suggestion that humans can play their part in their rescue, which is a comforting moral for the children who are this movie’s main audience. At the same time, it would be heartening if Disney took a more environmentally aware stance in the sequel that’s already been discussed, especially given that the company’s brand owes as much to the natural world as to princesses. In recent years, the Disney princess has undergone a radical makeover, evolving into a can-do figure who exists in that cinematic sweet spot between her fantastical world and our real one. The studio’s animal kingdom could use a comparable makeover.

In the Kipling stories, every creature abides by the Law of the Jungle, a decree that’s been read as a proxy for British imperialist rule. Both the 1967 and 2016 Mowglis, by contrast, live under the Law of Disney, which dictates that humans can exist with nature, as long as nature isn’t too wild. There’s an argument to be made against that kind of cuddly domination of nature. Yet it’s also true that generations have grown up loving and respecting animals (as animals, not just human surrogates) because of the peaceable kingdom that Disney has created. Here’s hoping that next time Mowgli shows up onscreen, he trades in his four-legged foe for some two-legged villains — before the only wild worlds we have left are computer-generated.

“The Jungle Book” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested) for child and animal action-movie peril. Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes.

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‘The Jungle Book’ Review: Born to Be Tamed

While the film is undeniably a visual marvel, Jon Favreau’s adaptation is a bit remote due to its overwhelming technical prowess.

Jon Favreau ’s The Jungle Book is the new high watermark in visual effects. He’s not merely standing on the shoulders of giants and calling himself tall. Yes, we’ve seen Richard Parker in Life of Pi and we’ve seen all-digital jungle environments with Avatar , but Favreau is taking the next step forward in a film that constantly had me trying to figure out what was real and what was fake, which ultimately proved to be a bit of a distraction. The Jungle Book is an odd film because it’s a movie set in nature and yet it’s constantly reminding us about the power of technology.

Loosely based on the Ruyard Kipling novel and more closely based on the 1967 animated movie, The Jungle Book follows Mowgli ( Neel Sethi ), a “man-cub” raised by wolves. When the malicious Shere Khan ( Idris Elba ) senses the young boy’s presence, Mowgli is forced to go on the run. From there, the movie delves into a bit of episodic storytelling where Mowgli meets up with threats like the hypnotic snake Kaa ( Scarlett Johansson ) and the wily yet lovable bear Baloo ( Bill Murray ). However, with Shere Khan waiting for him, eventually Mowgli must go to face his enemy.

Although the film can be distracting with all of its visual wizardry, there are also times when it’s surprisingly emotional. Because Favreau and his team of artists have absolutely nailed the photorealism of these animals, we can immediately buy into the mother-son bond Mowgli has with his wolf-mother Raksha ( Lupita Nyong’o ), and we feel the pain of them being torn apart by Shere Khan’s cruel decrees. The movie also nails the bond between Mowgli and Baloo, and Murray absolutely charms in the voice role. In fact, the whole voice cast is so good that I would be more than happy if The Jungle Book 2 was just a feature length Tale Spin movie. Sethi, for his part, is fine, but he’s better at pulling off the physicality of the role rather than some of the emotional beats where he at times comes off as a bit wooden.

But everyone is dwarfed by what Favreau has accomplished on a technical level. Watching the film in IMAX 3D, I was completely enraptured by the amount of detail, and found myself wondering how much of the ground was real and how much was digitally created. In a way, Favreau has made another animated Jungle Book ; it just happens that there are a few flesh-and-blood humans this time around.

What’s more curious about this Jungle Book is how it defines Mowgli as a human. His teacher Bagheera ( Ben Kingsley ) and wolf-father Akela ( Giancarlo Esposito ) chastise him for using “tricks” when really he’s just using technology. On the one hand, the simple message is “Play to your stranges, and don’t try to be something you’re not.” (There’s also a nice message about being part of a pack, although it comes in the form of uniting against a common enemy) But it’s telling that Mowgli is an engineering hero. He’s not heroic because he’s particularly kind or nice or even has any ideological squabble with Shere Khan. What defines Mowgli in 2016’s tech-marvel The Jungle Book is that he’s a marvel with technology.

This turns the jungle into something that is to be, if not tamed, then certainly utilized. The film doesn’t really consider if Mowgli upsets the natural order of things or if there’s a way to establish equilibrium between men and the animals of the jungle. Instead, it boils things down to technology being good because technology helps the animals and helps save Mowgli. It’s a story about the power of opposable thumbs and a fully functioning frontal lobe.

The film does lose track of itself a bit when it takes a side-trek to visit the Gigantopithecus, King Louie ( Christopher Walken ), who comes off as a mob boss of sorts that wants to strike a deal with Mowgli to bring back the “red flower” (i.e. fire), which will give Louie all the power he needs to rule the jungle. It’s nice that the film tries to flirt with the idea of technology as a threat, but it’s a hollow flirtation when you can see all the beauty technology wrought thanks to countless CPUs.

The Jungle Book could be a much tighter movie, both narratively and thematically, and yet emotionally, it has a lot of heart. Favreau movies tend to be achingly earnest, and Jungle Book is no exception. This heart is what beats beneath the technological wonder, and its what draws us into the stampedes, the mudslides, the wolf packs, and the rest the jungle has to offer. It’s just sometimes not enough to see the film as anything more than a man-made wonder.

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The jungle book, common sense media reviewers.

Mowgli and more in timeless, suspenseful tales.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

In itself, The Jungle Book is a classic work of li

The Jungle Book features a few different protagoni

Young characters learn a lot from mature ones in t

There's certainly violence in these stories, but m

Animals insult each other in animal terms -- a sna

Humans smoke a Hookah (water pipe) in one of the M

Parents need to know that Rudyard Kipling's book of short stories The Jungle Book is far less whimsical (and musical) than Disney's classic animated film, and it includes stories with different central characters besides Mowgli, the "mancub" raised by wolves and befriended by Baloo the bear. However, in part…

Educational Value

In itself, The Jungle Book is a classic work of literature, a point of reference for subsequent works that personify animals. This book also encourages readers to see the natural world from different points of view and gain an understanding of the intricate relationship between animal populations that share the same environment.

Positive Messages

The Jungle Book features a few different protagonists, but all of the stories show the importance of respect for the natural world, and the ways that creatures large and small (even children like Mowgli) can gain respect and success by using their own intelligence and understanding.

Positive Role Models

Young characters learn a lot from mature ones in this book. Mowgli, especially, has a strong role model in Akela the wolf, who teaches through leadership and dignity. Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther also protect Mowgli and teach him the ways of the Jungle animals. In his story, Rikki Tikki Tavi, the brave mongoose, uses intelligence and ruthlessness to best his enemy and protect his family.

Violence & Scariness

There's certainly violence in these stories, but most of it takes place "offscreen," such as when Rikki Tikki Tavi disappears into a hole, where he apparently kills a cobra, and then emerges victorious; or when Shere Khan is duped by Mowgli, but he's hidden all the while by a herd of cattle. The most overt violence is when Mowgli skins a dead animal, and he "slashed and tore and grunted for an hour." Animals in the stories often talk about killing other animals for food.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Animals insult each other in animal terms -- a snake is offended by monkeys that call him an "earthworm," for example -- but there's no cursing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Humans smoke a Hookah (water pipe) in one of the Mowgli stories.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Rudyard Kipling's book of short stories The Jungle Book is far less whimsical (and musical) than Disney's classic animated film , and it includes stories with different central characters besides Mowgli, the "mancub" raised by wolves and befriended by Baloo the bear. However, in part because of the charming movie, Mowgli's stories are probably the best loved and best known pieces in the collection. These wonderful stories, which alternate with lyrical poems about the characters, depict a complex and sometimes dangerous natural world in which creatures must respect the "ways of the jungle" in order to coexist. Creatures hunt and kill each other in suspenseful scenes, but almost all violent acts happen "offscreen." In one scene, Mowgli uses his wits to trick an adversary into being killed by a stampeding herd of cattle; the animal's death is not shown, but Mowgli is later described skinning the animal. In general, animals talk about killing others for food. The Jungle Book has been made into a number of film and TV versions , and a sequel to the book, The Second Jungle Book , contains more stories about Mowgli and other jungle creatures.

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What's the Story?

Rudyard Kipling's classic book of short stories THE JUNGLE BOOK contains several pieces about Mowgli, the \"mancub,\" who was taken from his human parents and ends up being raised by a wolf family. The book also includes stories about animal characters: \"Rikki Tikki Tavi,\" about a brave mongoose; \"The White Seal\" about a young seal that swims the Bering Strait; and \"Toomai of the Elephants,\" about a young elephant handler. All of the stories personify animals, and they show the complex relationship between creatures that hunt and fear each other in the wild. In Mowgli's stories, the most well known Jungle Book tales, the young boy grows up surrounded by his wolf family and his loyal friends Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther. Mowgli struggles for acceptance in the wolf pack while trying to learn the ways of the jungle, avoid being tricked by mischievous monkeys, and evade Shere Khan the tiger, who's always lurking in the shadows.

Is It Any Good?

The Jungle Book has fascinated readers for more than 100 years with its unforgettable characters and beautifully rendered animal society. There's loads of action and adventure -- as Mowgli engages in a battle of wits with Shere Khan the tiger, or when Rikki Tikki Tavi protects his family from cobras -- and inspiring messages, too, about respecting the laws of nature and the ways intelligence and understanding can be more effective than brute strength. However, readers who are more familiar with Disney's rendition of The Jungle Book may need some encouragement to appreciate the beauty of the less whimsical original.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how the Mowgli in the book different from the one in Disney's animated Jungle Book. What differences are there in the story?

What's difficult for Mowgli as he tries to fit in to the human village?

Tweens and teens can learn more about Rudyard Kipling's world by watching the PBS series My Boy Jack , starring Daniel Radcliffe as Kipling's son.

Book Details

• Author : Rudyard Kipling
• Genre : Adventure
• Topics : Adventures , Friendship , Science and Nature , Wild Animals
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Sterling Publishing
• Publication date : January 1, 1894
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 8 - 14
• Number of pages : 192
• Available on : Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Audiobook (abridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
• Last updated : June 4, 2020

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Book Review: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Jungle is possibly one of the most referenced books in history and political science classrooms all across the United States. Sinclair's novel has generated worldwide renown and it achieved a great deal of public awareness (and public anger) about unsavory meat-packing processes. Though Sinclair wrote over 90 books, his name is synonymous with The Jungle. Almost without fail, textbooks describing meat-packing practices refer to Sinclair's masterpiece as the standard for comparison.

Immediate response to concerns aroused by the book was evident in 1906 legislation such as the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The Jungle became an instant classic in 1906; it has retained this status today and can easily be found in your local bookstore. What follows is a synopsis of the content, intent, and purpose behind the beautifully-written novel of The Jungle.

The Jungle follows the story of Jurgis Rudkus and Ona Lukoszaite, who are newly-married Lithuanians and recent immigrants to the United States. The story starts with their wedding reception banquet in Packingtown, a section of Chicago whose purpose is evident from the title. Although the celebration is a happy one and Jurgis and Ona look forward to their future together, dark clouds are already gathering on the horizon.

At the conclusion of the reception, it is found out that not enough money has been collected to cover the celebration. It turns out that a number of young men have a habit of attending receptions uninvited and leaving without paying. Thus, Jurgis and Ona receive an abrupt introduction to the moral decay in and around Packingtown.

Life was hard in Lithuania, and Jurgis and Ona traveled to the United States in search of the American Dream. Sinclair continually praises Jurgis' physical strength and massive size in an effort to indicate how the years of hard, merciless labor will wear Jurgis down. While his family and friends were nervous about how they were going to survive without jobs in the weeks after their move, Jurgis was immediately selected from a crowd for a job based upon his impressive physical appearance of strength.

At every turn, Upton Sinclair outlines the exploitative nature of the system of Packingtown. He describes the cold, wet, moldy, disease-ridden, and unhealthy working conditions facing laborers and the meat which they process. He mentions how milk is adulterated with formaldehyde and sausage with potato flour (a nutritionless ingredient by essence).

He illustrates the lack of job security, workers' rights, and fair treatment in general. Medical knowledge of cancer is not high at this time, and Marija, one of Jurgis's friends, is overjoyed when she learns that she has netted a job painting metal cans, which is one of the more lucrative tasks available in Packingtown. None of them suspect anything, however, even when they learn that few women make it longer than ten years painting the cans (with paint that is likely to be filled with lead and other carcinogens).

With the effort of his children to add their wages to the family and a gargantuan effort by Jurgis and Ona, the family manages to make ends meet for a while. The first bad times happen, however, when Jurgis sustains a slight ankle roll on the cattle-processing floor that happens to result in a torn ligament. By continuing to work, Jurgis aggravates the injury and necessitates further rest. Once he is recovered, he discovers that his job is gone and he has difficulty finding work. To make matters worse, Ona is approached by an unsavory character at her job named Phil Connor and raped after working hours. Once Jurgis finds out, he goes mad with rage, finds the man, beats him to a bloody pulp, and is immediately sent to jail.

The falling action of the novel is a continuation of Jurgis' struggle for survival. Ona dies, his family falls apart, and Jurgis leaves and becomes a "hobo." Eventually, however, Packingtown draws him back, and he enters back into the fray minus the idealism he left Lithuania with. A jail acquaintance named Jack Duane convinces him to become a professional street thief, and Jurgis is soon offered a job by one of the local party bosses. Though Jurgis earns a great deal more money as a foreman responsible for the "speeding up" (pushing workers to exhaustion) he is consumed by guilt and drinks on a frequent basis. During a second encounter with Phil Connor, he is again consumed by rage and beats the man. Apparently, however, Connor turns out to be a man of some importance (the local party was grooming him to be a state congressman). Jurgis is forced to run for his life, and he again finds himself out in the cold.

The final few chapters of the novel reveal Sinclair's deeply-held political opinions. Jurgis attends a number of Socialist rallies and is caught up in the fire of reform and workers' rights. He spends a great deal of time attempting to undo some of the damage of the sanctity of human life that he found himself temporarily a part of. At the closing scene of The Jungle, Sinclair reveals the surprisingly strong performance of the Socialist Party and describes the hope of a bright new future that this will bring to the nation and its workers. Thus, Sinclair's true motivation behind the book is revealed.

Although he does attempt to push for support of socialism and to decry the disgusting meat packing plant procedures, his true purpose is to advocate the rights of workers. Sinclair believed that the legislation brought about by his book was not for the benefit of the nation, as the inspection procedures would cost the government a great deal of money. As he put it, "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach." Sinclair's wishes were eventually satisfied, however, by legislation in the latter half of the 20th century that would protect and promote workers' rights. The Jungle provides vivid imagery and a fantastic storyline that should be an integral part of every book collection. Its impact is evident today in the popularity of stories about bad food and the way the media propagates information like this as hot news, such as the "Jack-In-The-Box" virus E. coli.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Upton_Sinclair_grave.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beef_inspection_USDA.jpg

Den of Geek

The Jungle Book Review

Jon Favreau brings Rudyard Kipling’s beloved Jungle Book back as a live-action adventure. Read our review...

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Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book is one of the most beloved of all children’s books, and it’s no surprise that Disney – which made the classic animated version in 1967 – would be interested in creating a new live-action version using all the technological tools at its disposal. It also makes sense that the studio would hire Jon Favreau to direct it: his extensive work with visual effects and the warmth and wonder he brings to his best work ( Elf , Iron Man , Chef ) seems like it would be a natural fit.

And to a large extent, it is. There is a lot to love about Favreau’s The Jungle Book , starting with the movie’s incredible visual effects. As you watch this film that takes place in jungles, on mountaintops and plains, down rushing rivers and high atop trees, it’s simply incredible to think that the whole thing was filmed in a 12-story building in downtown Los Angeles. Every single element of the film, save the young actor Neel Sethi as lead character Mowgli, and the voices of the other actors playing the film’s animals, is digital and stunning. I don’t often advocate to see a film in 3D either, but like Avatar , Prometheus, and a handful of others, The Jungle Book looks just as splendid and even more immersive in stereoscope.

There’s also the genuine warmth that Favreau brings to the material, the characters, and their relationships. A huge fan of the 1967 film, the director clearly loves this world and the beautiful and sometimes frightening creatures that inhabit it. He’s blessed with a terrific voice cast, starting with Ben Kingsley as the noble black panther Bagheera, Lupita Nyong’o as the wolf mother Raksha, Giancarlo Esposito as the wolf leader Akela, Scarlett Johansson as the seductive snake Kaa, and Idris Elba as the terrifying, villainous Shere Khan.

Then of course there’s Bill Murray as the bear Baloo, who gets all the funniest lines and, in the screening I attended, got laughs simply by opening his mouth. But while Sethi can be charming and gives his all, he’s not a strong enough actor yet to create a strong presence as Mowgli and comes off a little too much like a modern kid who has just landed the best play-acting opportunity of his life. It’s far from a fatal flaw, but is nonetheless an occasionally distracting one.

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However, it’s in the narrative structure of the movie and its pacing where Favreau runs into most of any trouble he has. The original book was a collection of fables, and Favreau and screenwriter Justin Marks attempt to hammer a more cohesive narrative out of the various tales. But the film never really gathers any momentum. It’s episodic, and some exciting set-pieces are followed by long periods where the story seems to stall out. That’s not a problem isolated to this film: Favreau’s last three outings – the woeful Iron Man 2 and Cowboys & Aliens , along with the much better but still a bit shaggy Chef – were not edited nearly as tightly as they could have been.

The tale’s opening scenes follows Mowgli, the abandoned human boy adopted by Raksha and integrated into the wolf pack, as he is going through his training as a wolf and learning not to rely on human behavior. While a “water truce” keeps the peace amongst the various animal species, the sinister Shere Khan distrusts Mowgli – he’s a human, after all – and wants to devour the boy, leading to a standoff between Shere Khan and Akela. But soon an all-out attack by the tiger forces Mowgli to flee and get lost in the wilderness where he is eventually befriended by the laid-back Baloo. Their friendship fills out much of the movie’s middle section, leading to the frenetic and considerably darker third act.

It’s in that third act that Baloo, Bagheera, and Mowgli meet Louie, the gigantopithecus (giant ape) living in an abandoned temple with an army of other primates and voiced by Christopher Walken. Louie is a strange and even grotesque creation (he was just a plain old orangutan in the book), and the fact that he sings one of the songs carried over from the animated film, “I Wan’na Be Like You,” doesn’t change his weird nature. The encounter with him leads almost directly into the climactic confrontation between Shere Khan and Mowgli, and the ramping up of the film’s intensity during these sequences is a bit jarring and might prove a bit too much to handle for the younger audience members at whom this is ostensibly aimed.

The inclusion of the songs (Murray also warbles “The Bare Necessities”) is somewhat of a strange move, considering this is not a musical. They represent odd moments in a film that also lacks a strong thematic through-line to tie it all together. There are some words about the strength of the wolfpack and all the different species living together in harmony, but it’s not developed enough to deliver the emotional payoff that Favreau clearly wants.

And yet despite its flaws, The Jungle Book is still a movie to see and relish on the big screen. The director gets so much right and creates such an amazingly detailed and fully-fleshed out world that you cannot help but get drawn into it. Even when the movie loses steam, it always picks up again, and if not there’s always the remarkable visuals to watch and the voices of the cast to pleasure your ears with. Fans of the 1967 version of Kipling’s classic might remain partial to that film, but this Jungle Book has enough going for it that a new generation will absorb it cover to cover.

The Jungle Book is in theaters next Friday (April 15).  

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3.5 out of 5

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

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