By Renzzo Castaneda /
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]t the D23 expo last year, director Jon Favreau came out to talk to the fans about his new movie a live action adaptation of The Jungle Book. During his speech explaining what this movie was and how it was created he said, “This movie is going to be the most technologically advanced movie ever made.” He was completely right when he said it, this movie is not only amazing but it is visually stunning and beautiful. What is even more impressive is that everything on screen was filmed on a sound stage in Los Angeles; the only real and practical thing in the movie is the little boy that plays Mowgli (Neel Sethi).
Everything in this movie is incredible from the visuals, to the voice cast, to the story; this is the most faithful adaptation to live-action movie I have ever seen. This isn’t the first time we’ve ever had a live-action version of The Jungle Book, first was The Jungle Book (1942), then Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book (1994), The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo (1997), and The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story (1998). This 2016 version of the Jungle Book is the most superior version of them all.
Although, the animated version of The Jungle Book (1967) is a great movie it has also become a little dated mainly because we don’t really use hand-drawn or traditional animation as much anymore, after seeing this new adaptation of the movie I firmly believe this live-action/CGI version will become the definitive Jungle Book movie.
The entire voice cast was spot on it was like they were born to play these animals, Bill Murray as Baloo, Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, Idris Elba as Shere Khan, Lupita Nyong’o as Raksha, and Christopher Walken as King Louie. The little boy who played Mowgli (Neel Sethi) was also very good, but the most impressive thing about his performance is the fact that he was acting alongside nothing. Most actors feel very uncomfortable when they act towards a green screen because it makes it harder for them to react to another actor’s line without having the actor right in front of them. Neel Sethi was able to pull it off tremendously especially as a child actor.
This movie follows the same premise that the animated movie from 1967 does, a boy named Mowgli becomes lost in the jungle and is raised by wolves and by the Black Panther Bagheera, as he grows up he begins to look more and more like a man which scares the animals in the jungle. One day he becomes threatened and hunted by the tiger Shere Khan and the wolves have decided what’s best for him is to go live with man. On his way to the man village he meets a much laid back bear named Baloo and the adventure begins.
This movie is a must-watch not only because the visuals are out of this world, not just because of the voice cast or the little boy, or even because the movie is an adaptation of an animated movie but because this is one of the best movies I have seen on the big screen, it’s not perfect but it’s pretty damn close.