MOWGLI: LEGEND OF THE
JUNGLE:
DARK, VISUALLY
STUNNING, AND CLOSER TO ITS SOURCE MATERIAL, BUT UNEVEN!
By Nico
Beland
Movie
Review: *** out of 4
NETFLIX
AND WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Mowgli
and Bagheera in Mowgli: Legend of the
Jungle
Motion-capture royalty, Andy Serkis
(The Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong (2005), Planet of the Apes (2011 trilogy)) is given the task of directing a
darker take on Rudyard Kipling’s classic story, The Jungle Book in Mowgli:
Legend of the Jungle. There have been several adaptations of The Jungle Book over the years, most
notably Disney’s hand-drawn animated
version as well as their live-action/CG remake from 2016, but this one gained a
lot of hype because unlike its predecessors which were more family oriented, it
was going to be darker and more faithful to the original book, no Bare Necessities or Christopher Walken
King Louie here.
The film has been through development
hell with different titles to boot, originally titled as simply Jungle Book, then changed to Jungle Book: Origins to avoid confusion
with the 2016 Jungle Book that had
just came out, and then to Mowgli with
the Legend of the Jungle subtitle
added shortly before its official release. It was originally supposed to be
released theatrically in October of 2016, but it got pushed forward as Disney’s live-action Jungle Book was released a few months
prior, but after several announcements and delays later, it was finally given a
limited theatrical run before landing on Netflix.
Now that the movie’s been released,
does Andy Serkis do the story justice and manages to deliver a faithful and
thrilling retelling of The Jungle Book?
Well…yes and no, it is definitely a more adult version of the story with elements
from the book that Disney probably
would never use in their adaptations, but it also lacks some of the magic and
sense of wonder from previous versions and also suffers from a rather rushed
pacing.
I’m assuming you all know the basic plot of The Jungle Book, but for the two of you
who haven’t seen the Disney versions,
I’ll give a basic synopsis. The film follows a young boy named Mowgli (Rohan
Chand-Homeland, Lone Survivor, Bad Words)
who was raised in the jungle by a pack of wolves after his parents were
brutally killed by a tiger when he was just a baby.
When Mowgli’s life is threatened by
the vicious tiger, Shere Khan (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch-Sherlock, The Imitation Game, Marvel
Cinematic Universe), he makes a run to the Man-Village where his protector
and mentor, Bagheera the black panther (voiced by Christian Bale-American Psycho, The Dark Knight trilogy, Vice)
claims that Shere Khan will never look for him there and that he will be safe
with his own kind.
While Mowgli is gone, Shere Khan
manages to take control of the jungle with only a man-cub standing in his way. As
he takes a journey of self-identity and purpose, Mowgli and his animal friends
must rise up and put an end to Shere Khan’s wrath in hopes of gaining peace.
The film also stars Matthew Rhys (The Americans, Brothers & Sisters, The
Post) as John Lockwood, Frieda Pinto (Slumdog
Millionaire, Rise of the Planet of
the Apes, Guerrilla) as Messua, Cate
Blanchett (How to Train Your Dragon 2,
Cinderella (2015), Thor: Ragnarok) as the voice of Kaa, Tom
Hollander (Gosford Park, Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Bohemian Rhapsody) as the voice of Tabaqui,
Andy Serkis as the voice of Baloo, Peter Mullan (Trainspotting, My Name is Joe,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
Parts 1 and 2) as the voice of Akela, Naomie Harris (Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3, Skyfall/Spectre, Moonlight) as the voice of Nisha, Eddie
Marsan (Mission: Impossible III, Sherlock Holmes 1 and 2, The World’s End) as the voice of Vihaan,
and Jack Reynor (Transformers: Age of
Extinction, Macbeth, Sing Street) as the voice of Brother
Wolf.
Overall, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is visually stunning and offers a dark
and thrilling alternative to the previous Jungle
Book adaptations that’s closer to its source material, but Serkis’ passion
for the project and being more faithful to the book aren’t quite enough to save
it from the cutting room floor. It’s a decent attempt but I felt there were
several scenes that were cut out from the movie at the last minute to make its
deadline, and it comes off as disjointed in the pacing.
There’s no King Louie, we barely
have a Kaa encounter, and Mowgli ironically doesn’t spend much screen-time
together with Baloo. It almost feels paint by numbers in certain areas except
missing other familiar aspects of the story.
But with that said, there are a lot
of things to admire with this movie, the CG animation is impressive for the
most part, the scenery is beautiful, and as mentioned before the film adapting
the book more closely than Disney by representing the darker side of Kipling’s
story and exploring other plot points that most of the other Jungle Book adaptations skipped over.
There is quite a bit of focus on Mowgli
interacting in the human village which you rarely see in the other versions.
While we would eventually see more of Disney’s
village being explored in 2003’s The
Jungle Book 2 most of the previous adaptations focus more on the jungle
with very brief scenes in the village.
Here we see Mowgli interacting with
other kids and adults, bonding with them, and even learning how to use a knife.
Improvements over the Disney animated
one and 2016 live-action adaptation in that regard.
This is a more faithful telling of The Jungle Book than Jon Favreau’s movie
from 2016 but having more of an understanding of the source material doesn’t
quite equal a better movie. The Jungle
Book (2016) is more family-friendly but it has more familiar parts from the
book whereas with this one it focuses more on the darker aspect not shown in
other movies, but cliff note versions of everything else.
Between this and The Jungle Book (2016), you can see a perfect
film adaptation of the story trying to get out and both of them succeed in a
lot of areas and offer a different perspective on a very familiar story. So,
pick your poison and enjoy your jungle adventure.
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