Recycling movies of the past has been a growing trend in today’s Hollywood; however, the recent remake of Disney’s 1967 ‘Jungle Book’ was not made for nostalgia. Instead, it was a tribute to today’s technology and included some of the most impressive CGI to date.
The 2016 remake of Disney’s ‘Jungle Book’ has been a box office hit, raking in over $680 million along with rave reviews from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. The movie has been claimed to fall into the category of live action, as only one young actor (Neel Sethi) fights and frolics with some very realistic looking characters that were entirely made by CGI. It was a clear contrast from the original cartoon film that was based on author Rudyard Kipling’s stories, with more action, a deeper storyline and new ideas.
All the favorites remained the same though. The film did of course include Mowgli (Sethi), the adventurous young boy raised by wolves; Bagheera (Ben Kingsly), the stern and protective panther; Shere Khan (Idris Elba), the terrifying Bengal tiger; and who could they leave out Baloo (Bill Murray), the carefree and somewhat lazy bear, who's song "Bear Necessities" played twice in the movie to bring an older audience back to their younger, Disney-movie watching days.
The film opens with Mowgli with his wolf brothers and sisters, who are running from Bagheera as he trains Mowgli on the wolf way. Immediately, a common subject of the film is introduced, which is Mowgli’s use of “man tricks” to smartly get himself out of situations. Bagheera scolds Mowgli, and reminds him that he cannot use these tricks in the jungle, yet, it is these "man tricks" that will save him and the animals of the forest in the end -- possibly Disney's way of showing that man can in fact do good.
Soon after, we are introduced to the evil and intimidating Shere Khan, the Bengal tiger that rules the jungle, with no regards for Mowgli and his wolf family. Shere Khan is out for blood, as Mowgli’s father injured him with the “red flower” years earlier, and now he seeks revenge.
This “red flower” is another subject expressed throughout the movie, revealing a message about the impact of human touch on the forest. However, while Disney’s “do good” message is usually very clear, the storyline in this film had Mowgli actually use the “red flower” (a.k.a open flame) to kill Shere Khan, which also burned down half the forest. So, this was not your average feel-good Disney movie by any means. Instead, this time it seems that Disney really focused on truly building the animation to the point that you really had to think about how fake these animals - and scenery - really are, and critics claim that this film, in particular, showed extreme technological promise for the future of the movie industry.
Although this was not the same upbeat and goofy film that we grew up with, the amazing use of CGI and live action, along with adding some more intensity to the storyline really did make this new "Jungle Book" a version all its own.
