Review: The Jungle Book
Special effects and CGI are so prevalent in films nowadays, so commonplace that it is all too easy to take them for granted. Even viewers heavily inured to all the technological wizardry on display in the past decade may experience a frisson of disbelief at viewing the title card included at the close of Disney's live-action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. "Filmed in downtown Los Angeles," it reads and, looking back upon the spectacularly and meticulously rendered jungle setting and talking animals, one may be inclined to believe in magic.
The only real thing in the whole enterprise is Neel Sethi, an energetic and often empathetic find as Mowgli, the 10-year-old boy raised by wolf couple Raksha (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o) and Akela (Giancarlo Esposito) after being discovered abandoned in the jungle by the wise black panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley). Screenwriter Justin Marks hews close to the template set by Disney's 1967 animated classic: Mowgli is admonished by Bagheera for using human "tricks" instead of following the ways of the pack. A dry season forces all of the animals into a "water truce," where predators and prey set aside their differences and drink side-by-side from the only water source, and where everyone is able to view Mowgli the man-cub for the first time.
Danger arrives in the form of Bengal tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) who, having been burned by the "red flower" (the animals' term for fire), deems Mowgli a threat. The boy will grow up to be a man and man always destroys everything around him, Shere Khan warns and demands that the boy be handed over to him. When Mowgli is sent off for his safety, Shere Khan vows that all the animals shall suffer his wrath until Mowgli is surrendered to him. It should be noted that Elba makes for a fearsome Shere Khan, chilling the spine and running one's blood cold with his serene menace. Though a fierce warrior, he can frighten even more with his stillness - watch as he approaches Akela before lounging beside him on a rock, or how he gathers Raksha's cubs for story time.
Elba is a prime example of how director Jon Favreau has married actor to character. The animators behind all the animals deserve years of applause for how unnervingly real all the creatures appear and behave. Their gestures, whether it be a twitch of a tail or the tilt of the head - are natural and their personalities are well etched. Yet all of the craftsmanship would be for naught were it not for the superb work done by all of the actors, and what Favreau has done so cleverly is to have the actors play the character but also be themselves. One only has to look at Bill Murray as Baloo and Christopher Walken as King Louie to see how effective this decision is.
Walken makes King Louie one of those old-time New York gangsters from the Prohibition Era. It's a bizarre delight to have him sing-speak the staple, "I Wan'na Be Like You," his vaudevillian stylings at odds with the Kurtz-like facade of King Louie. Who else but Walken could spin gold out of such an incongruity? And who else but Murray could have been Baloo, the honey-obsessed bear who counters Bagheera's strict teachings with a more leisurely, but no less well-meaning, approach? Brimming with bonhomie and endearing in his manipulations, Murray's Baloo may arguably be the best performance of his entire career.
The film does have its faults - it drags at times and the bond between Mowgli and his various parental figures is not as strongly forged as it could have been. Both the camerawork and the editing can tend to the overcaffeinated. Nuance and subtext have been sacrificed, which hampers the tale's thematic resonance. Nevertheless, there's no denying the film's many pleasures, which far outnumber its weaknesses.
Parents, be forewarned: the film is far darker than its PG rating would suggest. Shere Khan is not the only malevolent figure; there is also Kaa the snake (seductively voiced by Scarlett Johansson, who also breathlessly croons "Trust in Me" over the end credits), whose seemingly endless length and wide open jaws may disturb a little one's sleep.
The Jungle Book
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Written by: Justin Marks; based on the book by Rudyard Kipling
Starring: Neel Sethi, voices of Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong'o, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Walken, Giancarlo Esposito, Garry Shandling, Brighton Rose, Jon Favreau, Sam Raimi, Russell Peters
