Return to the Jungle in the new adaptation of Disney’s The Jungle Book

Post date: Apr 22, 2016 5:09:30 PM

By: Robby Timmler, Staff Writer

Posted April 22nd, 2016

The Jungle Book is the story of Mowgli (played by Neel Sethi), a man-cub who was rescued by Bagheera (voiced by Ben Kingsley) and sent to live with the wolfpack led by Akela (voiced by Giancarlo Esposito) and Raksha (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o). As Mowgli grows up, word of Mowgli’s existences gets to Shere Khan (voice by Idris Elba), a tiger who's against man and wants to kill Mowgli. This threat causes Mowgli to leave the wolfpack with Bagheera’s guidance. After a scuffle with Shere Khan, Mowgli is alone until he meets Baloo (voiced by Bill Murray), who becomes Mowgli’s friend and protector. From there, we meet King Louie (voice by Christopher Walken) and have a chase scene that leads to the big fight against Shere Khan.

The Jungle Book (2016) is a live-action adaptation of the Disney classic animated film, therefore in this adaptation all the animal characters in the story are Computer Generated Images (CGI), yet still look and move like real animals from the wild. Only two of the songs from the original film are in the new version (“Bare Necessities”, sung by Baloo and Mowgli and “I Want to be Like You”, sung by King Louie). This new Jungle Book adaptation does include things that wasn’t in the original animated film, such as the elephants being the creators of the jungle, and seeing Shere Khan kill another animal. In the end, The Jungle Book (2016) is a grittier adaptation of a childhood classic with great Computer Generated Images (CGI), great voice acting and acting in general, especially from newcomer Neel Sethi, and the message of family and growing up.