the Jungle Book (2016 film)

DAY 364


Let's go back to around the spring or summer of 2015. Disney's stream of live-action adaptations have been blowing big time and the newest additions of Maleficent and Cinderella weren't helping them gain a good reputation. I was still interested in the idea of turning animation into live-action (hence my L.A.D. series) but they just haven't been paying off. It wasn't really becoming a big thing either. Like, not that many announcements were made that Disney would be doing this for all their old animated movies yet. It was around May or June that updates of the Jungle Book were coming out. Since Disney had already made 2 live-action Jungle Books in the past (one in '94 and Mowgli's Story in '98), why go 4 for 4? And announcements were also coinciding with news of Andy Serkis' future JB movie. Lots of the news I was mixed about, but for different reasons. "Iron Man director Jon Favreau at the helm." OK, well... I never saw Iron Man. What else did he do... oh, he did Zathura? And Chef? And the clown who didn't know who Bozo was? And the doctor from Elf... and Mr. Narwhal... and overall director of Elf?! Hmm... OK, maybe he could know what to do, bringing the fantasy side to elf with some Iron Man levels of action. "The animals would all be CGI" Well, duh, should've expected that. "The child actor playing Mowgli will have his acting debut in this." Oh boy, that'll be a challenge, since good kid actors are hard to come by. How can you separate a Shirley Temple from a Jake Lloyd? "The voice cast announcements." I'll get to that when I talk about the characters. "All of the jungle will be represented in CGI" Are you kidding me? Were they too cheap to fly off to Asia and film on location or something? Or heck, why not a constructed set? That's gonna be a lot of CG to look at and it'll be way to obvious to see that it's fake. It'll be Image Movers Digital all over again. "Richard Sherman is coming back for songs" Dehyuuuwhat? They're actually gonna HAVE songs not just in the credits? And they're gonna have new songs? they're bring back RICHARD SHERMAN?! Oh, man have you been missing that, Disney!  Maybe they can rework some of the original songs from Bill Peet's draft of the story. "Kaa will be a female snake." Understandable; it's the Rafiki in Lion King Broadway show defense which isn't wrong at all. Back and forths like that continued until August 2015. That's when it showed Jon and some of the voice cast at D23 talking about the movie and even premiering the first poster. And I thought... wow, that looks pretty good, looking like a Struzan. It would also be announced that the first trailer would be released in sometime in September and right then and there, I was immediately hooked. . Of course, I heard a lot of "I'm gonna really like this Tarzan movie" and "they're just ripping off Lion King" critiques, but in my head, I already knew they didn't get the trailer formula; after a teaser (if any at all), the first trailer is set like an over-the-top action film separating itself from what the movie actually is (tell me that hasn't happened with OTHER movies! nowadays!). Sure enough, the second trailer was exactly as I said it'd be and even though I was behind it since trailer 1, this live-action adaptation instantly went from "meh" to my most anticipated movie of this year. I even bought a copy of the original stories at Barnes & Noble. It was so difficult trying not to be spoiled on everything, like promotional pictures or video clips. It came out on April 15th (DAY 106, when I covered the original) and I saw it the week after to celebrate (what I first thought was) my completion of college. I saw myself down hyped as hyped could get and this movie DID NOT disappoint.
This is not only currently the 4th highest grossing movie of the year nor is it Disney's best live-action remake constructed so far, but it restored my faith that live-action adaptations of Disney movies can actually be something beyond "just a cheap cash-in" as many are calling these. The story is a perfect 3-way blend, bringing elements of the '67 movie, the original Rudyard Kipling stories and Disney's first treatment by Bill Peet. Does it fully follow the structure of any of them? Not at all, but it still FEELS like it's in the same respect. That's something the 2015 Cinderella missed where, yes, it was a faithful adaptation, but it didn't have any real connection to Disney's animated version and just felt more like an ordinary movie that could've been made by any studio. This one KNOWS it has to live-up to Disney's version and takes every opportunity. It still has the "going from scene to scene, meeting new characters" often fun-spirit of the original movie and also has the more dignified themes of the books. You get a fantastic sense of legacy and atmosphere in every shot and explanation with characters interacting. Mowgli's dilemma of finding his true identity trying to fit in is relateable. There's plenty of quiet moments, a couple tear-jerkers, a chuckle or 2 will come out and there's a lot of great Easter eggs (both really obvious and really subtle). In terms of the action and often dark tone, that's always been one thing that's been needlessly tacked on with modern fairytale movies, feeling way too overblown. Here, it makes sense and is justifiable. The jungle is a deep, dark, dangerous place, the themes and rules of the book are more darker and mature, the action scenes really pay off as they're wonderfully shot and give off dread (even the ordinary encounters feel big), even jump-scare tactics actually jolted me! As for the ending, it does feel a little off with Mowgli saying in the jungle and not joining man again. I see this in 2 ways: 1, since the biggest threat of Mowgli saying in the jungle is gone he's safe to stay. 2, he really does go back and the last scene before the credits is one of his visits. Either way, the story's done great. The production... hooooooooooooooooo... lyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... SHIT, where do I start? Better yet, HOW do I start? The production value of this movie has no words to fully praise it. "Amazing" doesn't do it justice. "Jaw-dropping" is just scratching the surface. Not "stunning", not "beautiful", I think even "the best goddamn computer-generated imagery for a non-animated film I've seen this decade" is putting it lightly! As I said from the start, the only true-blue real thing in this movie is Mowgli and it was all shot in bluescreens and fake set pieces. This usually can end up looking tacky but this is just beyond works as I said above. Each and every environment constructed for this jungle fit the characters they're built for and you really can mistake them for actual areas of India! The rocky hills of the Seeonee wolf pack, the misty broken dull tree Kaa dwells, the grasslands, Baloo's cave, the cold lairs of the Bandarlog, the Man Village, the center of the jungle, the stream, Peace Rock, I mean, GOD! You really want to explore this world! There's also THE COLOR! There's honest to god COLOR in this! You've missed it too in movies, haven't you? Just like an animated movie (which it... practically is), they use the importance to tones and shades adding to a a scene. There's still darker tones as well, but it's not all over the place looking like the movie got coated in bleach. And the use of lighting is also really creative and genius. As for the animals, even when you outright know they're CGI, you still see a soul and can practically feel their breath and fur. It's like ever since Rocket Raccoon and Paddington Bear, we've been getting so much closer to replicating real like animals. Like the backgrounds, it practically looks like they filmed actual trained animals and CG-ed over their mouths. Even for the animals that look more CG than others don't even look as bad as say, the horse kick in Paul Blart 2. I guess what makes this stand out more than CG effects used in movies nowadays is that it really takes its time and is done in a sort of slower pace. Even in the best of modern movie CG effects, they're still done in a very rushed pace. It's hard to properly define. All I'm sayin' is that this HAS to win Best Visual Effects at the Oscars. If it doesn't even get nominated... ! The characters are all fantastic and the all-star cast are perfect fits; some of them even are even improvements of the original. Mowgli is much more identifiable. He's still a kid but he's wise enough to look out for himself, he's more well-rounded of the jungle, his inventing aspect "creating tricks" makes sense (tools and weapons was the start of our evolution from animals to human) and even at the most intense of moments, he's still able to save the land he loves. And at the center of that is Neil Sethi, in his acting debut. Yes, you can tell he's still learning, but as the driving force of the movie, he sells the compassion, stunts, emotion and believability into this lost little man cub. I hope he goes places because this was a great movie to start with. Baloo is done as the same easy-going not-a-care-in-the-world sloth bear, but is still compassionate with helping Mowgli, suave and easy to manipulate others, a fear of climbing. Bill Murray is a perfect choice, as he's got the sarcasm, the easy-going lifestyle and overall natural feeling of laziness of Phil Harris' Baloo. I also wonder if anyone working on the movie knew that Bill's brother Brian Doyle also voiced Baloo for Mowgli's Story (which was my first thoughts on this news). Bagheera is still the same strict figure in Mowgli's life, only wanting what's best for the boy, but has such a hard time doing so. He's still very regal but also gets in a few good battles. As someone who'd only seen Ben Kingsley in Ghandi, I didn't know how his "normal" voice would be, but he had the same class and sophistication as Sebastian Cabot. Shere Kahn is still the most ruthless creature in the jungle, only he's amped up to 10. His cold stare, his calculating mind, booming commands, he's a bloody murderer! He's one of the scariest things in this movie but is just glorious. And Idris Elba really sells it with that. It's no Christopher Lee as I would've dreamcast, but he's so deep and threatening it fits the tiger. An extraordinary performance. Kaa is no longer a side-villain whose more comedic. Instead, we're treated to the wisest creature in the jungle and a foul temptress giving us the backstory of Mowgli. Making Kaa a female I had no issues with because I did understand the "all male cast, thought we should broaden it gender-wise" reasons. She's really creepy being a storyteller and Scarlett Johanson delivers a chilling performance. I only wish she could've been in more of the movie, especially since apparently she had more scenes as a good guy (like in the books). Tell me it would've been great to see her in the climax or fighting the monkeys. King Louie has gone from a jazzy swinging delightful jungle VIP into a gigantic intimidating mob boss. In terms of making the movie more serious, this change also makes sense and I think it totally could've fit in the books. How he views humanity and how close he and his Bandarlog are to becoming human and knows Mowgli is the only key. He's still very king-like, but again, in a mafia sense. And with Christopher Walken, well... he's doing what he does best. The strange pronunciations, pauses inbetween sentences with gaps, hand gestures, piercing eyes, he's still kooky but can also be quite intimidating. I mean, it's a gigantic extinct species of gorilla! How can that NOT be scary? The wolves play a much bigger role here and are all important being the only family Mowgli's ever had. Raksha is a kind nurturing mother, Akella the high leader of the pack and Grey the runt of the litter and the pup who looks the most up to Mowgli. The elephants are silent creatures but you still sense their majesty and importance to the jungle (being "the ones who created it"). The vultures aren't found (unless you count the ones that follow Shere Kahn), the porcupine is a bit charming, the little buddies of Baloo can be amusing and all the other animals serve their part showing the importance of the jungle as well as populate it up. The music is spectacular. John Debney is to Favreau like what Danny Elfman is to Tim Burton or John Willaims to Spielberg as he's done the score to most of of Favreau's films. He's also had a number of times doing scores to Disney movies and this is another stellar symphony of sound. His score has the perfect amount of drama, intensity, dread, light charm and everything else need to make the underscore sound great. There's also a lot of unique touches by including both bits from the '67 movie's score and some of the melodies of the songs (more Easter eggs). As for the songs, maybe I overhyped myself and expected too much. By that I mean that I jumped to conclusions. With news of Richard Sherman returning for songs, I instantly thought that they'd be writing all new songs along with the timeless classics he and Robert wrote almost 50 years ago (like I was perhaps hoping that "Brothers All" could be given the Sherman touch). But that wasn't the case; more was made clear that this wasn't an all-out musical, only 3 songs would be brought back and Richard would only be writing new lyrics. But... even with that, THEY STILL HAD SONGS! That's been one of the things that's been feeling lacking with the other adaptations (on top of other things) and felt sort of empty. And no, sticking the songs at the end of the credits doesn't count. As for how they're utilized here? They do it pretty well. "Trust in Me" isn't in the movie, but the way it's reworked into such a seductive lullaby, oooooo, it's chillingly haunting. The orchestrations and Scarlett's vocals really make it sound like the opening credits to a James Bond film. "Bare Necessities" is still the same ditty about Baloo's outlook about the good life. It starts off as a little hum and then used in the same context of Mowgli and Baloo swimming downstream. The only negative this version carries is that only the first set of lyrics is repeated and not the whole song, not even the proper soundtrack version with Kermit Ruffins. I can sort of understand why, as Baloo's primarily a honey-eater in this version and not an omnivore like the original, so hearing lyrics about him wanting to eat fruit could maybe feel a touch out of place. But on the other hand, it does get a bit tiring hearing the same set of lyrics repeated 3 times in a row with Bill's perfect out-of-tune voice (and by his voice, I mean that in a good way). "I Wanna Be Like You" is made from a lavish dance number into Louie sweetening the deal, tempting Mowgli him and his Bandarlog to join their ranks. Alright, it does feel a bit strange seeing this big mob boss persona sing so spontaneously, but this Louie is such a bizarre beast we know so little about, him breaking out in song doesn't feel that . Besides, it just adds more of that Walken charm. It's also reused as the first of the credits' songs and that one feel more at home like the Louis Prima version (but both versions are great). If you want me to get nitpicky again, the orchestrations for the last 2 songs (soundtrack-wise) are done in a regular dixieland jazz style. Don't get me wrong, they are really great and I know that the songs theirselves are primarily jazz numbers. My personal "issue" is that they don't have a jungle sort of sound to them. The original had a jazz sound as well, with trumpets, clarinets, banjos and all that, but they were still given a treatment to sound naturally in the jungle, like with bongos and ukuleles. "Trust in Me" has that sound, the movie's version of "I Wanna be Like You" is more ominous (and I think you can hear a ukulele), but the soundtrack/credits versions are just regular jazz. But like I said, that's just a nitpick if you really wanted me to search for issues. This really is a fantastic movie, paying beautiful tribute to the literary work of Kipling and MOST DEFINITELY lives to the legacy of the original 1967 movie. On-par even! If Disney's future live-action adaptations can only be as fantastic as this, this new "trend" can really become something that can possibly live up to Walt's standard of film-making. And with the news of all the movies that are expected to come out, next spring's Beauty & the Beast and Favreau gonna tackle the Lion King? In the words of the last spoken lines of this movie: "I could get used to this."


DAY 366

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