The 'Jungle Book' movie review

The Jungle Book is a forthcoming American imaginary adventure film which is directed by Jon Favreau. The film has been written by Justin Marks and then produced by the Walt Disney Pictures. The film is a live-action or CGI reimagining of the animated film which was produced by Walt Disney of 1967 with the same name. The film stars Neel Sethi who acts as Mowgli and includes the voices of Bill Murray, Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson, Lupita Nyong'o, Christopher Walken and Giancarlo Esposito. The release of the film is scheduled to be around April in 2016 in the Disney Digital 3D, IMAX 3D and RealD 3D.

Overview

After being abandoned in the aftermath of an accident, baby Mowgli is raised by a family of wolves. As he grows older, a wise panther Bagheera recognizes that he has to be returned to his own kind in a man-village nearby. Baloo the bear, however, has different ideas. He believes in taking Mowgli under his care and teaching him that the best life is living in the jungle. Bagheera discovers that Mowgli is in danger, especially from the tiger, Shere Khan, who hates all the people. When Baloo comes around finally, Mowgli runs into the jungle whereby he survives a 2nd encounter with Kaa the snake and lastly, with Shere Khan. It is the sight of a beautiful girl however makes Mowgli to go the man-village nearby.

Disney animation showed great inspiration by the Mowgli story. The boy has been raised by wolves in an Indian jungle. The wolves however decide to send Mowgli to a local man-village nearby on hearing that Shere Kahn, the fierce tiger, is nearby. While on his way to the local village, Mowgli meets a number of animal characters in the musical tale. Shere Kahn tracks Mowgli down when he learns about his presence.

Development and cast

Walt Disney Pictures publicized the a live-action remake of The Jungle Book which was in development by July 9, 2013, whereby Justin Marks was ready to write the script. The director Jon Favreau was confirmed later on November 5, 2013. Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn encouraged Favreau to take advantage of the setting of the film and also story as a great opportunity to use the latest developments in computer-generated imagery, photorealistic rendering as well as motion capture technologies.

The cast of the movies was announced in between March 2014 and August 2014. The cast include; Idris Elba; announced as Shere Khan’s voice in the early stages, Bill Murray who confirmed as Baloo’s voice in August 2014. Christopher Walken, Scarlett Johansson and Ben Kingsley were confirmed to play King Louie, Kaa and Bagheera respectively. Favreau opted to cast Johansson to play as Kaa, initially a male character, as he thought the initial film was a little bit too male-oriented. Lupita Nyong'o cast as Raksha since Favreau believed that her voice imbued the required emotion for this role, Lupita has a superb depth of emotion in her own performance. She brings an emotional underpinning, and the strength wanted for the surrogate mother. Favreau decided to alter King Louie from an orangutan to the Gigantopithecus because of the fact that the orangutans are not Indian natives where the latter story takes place.