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
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 simplyJungle 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 Knighttrilogy, 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 otherJungle 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 2most 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.
From the blog www.moviewatchinpsychopath.blogspot.com
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