'The Jungle Book' Is A Visual 3-D Wonder

By Darlene Donloe

Bagheera: Bears don't hibernate in the jungle.

Baloo: Not full hibernation, but I nap...a lot.

There are any number of reasons to go see Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book.

Go because it’s a classic tale. Go because Favreau has freshened up the story. Go because it is voiced by a fabulous cast. Go because it’s a visual wonder!! Go because the special effects are spectacular!!  Go because it’s inspiring. Go because it’s funny. Go because it’s scary! Go because it’s good!!

You haven’t seen a jungle quite like this one. Except for Mowgli, everything in the film is CG.  The computer animation of the animals and the jungle is mind-boggling. Watching it in 3-D literally puts this film in your face.

Jon Favreau’s (Iron Man) vision for this film is nothing short of inspirational and stunning filmmaking.

What a great movie for kids. Although, I must say there are some very scary, dark moments in this movie. However, none of the children in the theater flinched.

Just like Rudyard Kipling’s beloved original Jungle Book, this 2016, $175 million version, written by Justin Marks, is sure to be an instant, fantastic family classic.

This isn’t the first animated Jungle Book. In 1967 Disney turned Rudyard Kipling’s story about a boy raised by wolves into an animated movie. However, this time the studio wanted to use live-action.  Enter Favreau, who came up with an all new world featuring computer generated animals.

Everyone knows the story.  A little boy named Mowgli, whose father is killed, is left in the jungle and raised by a pack of wolves. They are the only family he’s ever known. Mowgli becomes very comfortable living amongst the animals, well, all but one. Shere Khan (Idris Elba) isn’t exactly a fan.  He would love nothing more than to kill the human because he hates mankind.  But Mowgli has some cool friends. He has a panther named Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) and a too cool for skool bear named Baloo (Bill Murray), watching over him.

The film stars Neel Sethi and Mowgli, who is an adorable child actor. However, the jungle and the animals are all brought to life with the tremendous voices of Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Walken and Scarlett Johannsson.

Directed by Jon Favreau, the film stars Neel Sethi, Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, Lupita Nyong’o and Scarlet Johannsson.

The Jungle Book, a magical film, is currently in theaters nationwide.

Rated PG (for some sequences of scary action and peril); Running time: 1 hr. 51 min.

On the DONLOE SCALE: D (don’t bother), O (oh, no), N (needs work), L (likeable), O (oh, yeah) and E (excellent), The Jungle Book gets an E (excellent).