"The Jungle Book" Topic

We watched the new "Jungle Book" last night and right away I can say that if anyone is looking for a faithful adaptation, this ain't it. It was entertaining and in many ways amusing and funny, but I wish they would have kept in the stories that had a moral to them, like "The King's Ankus" and "Kaa's Hunting". The animation was spotty. Sometimes very convincing and sometimes very fake looking. I found Bill Murray's conniving Baloo to be pretty funny at times and Bagheera was suitably noble. They did a great job with Sher Khan though, and little kids will probably wet their pants. They turned Kaa into a villain to further the plot line and added the character of King Louis, who I believe was in the cartoon. There were a couple of unnecessary and distracting songs. A nod to the cartoon I suppose. And the climax, except for the battle with Sher Khan, had almost nothing to do with the original story. My opinion? It's fairly entertaining, but if you're looking for Kipling, you'll be disappointed.

I really liked it, never read the books it is inspired from (based on the cartoon really).

Just about everything except for the boy is CGI, for people that say CGI causes bad movies I would put this one up and say that is not the case.

Although there were a couple spots where the physics of the CGI were off it was excellent almost all the way through, and I loved the songs – I mean getting Christopher Walken singing anything is always a treat.

It was entertaining, but after that cartoon which I thought was garbage. Over all I was disappointed.

Of course…this is How It Should Have Ended…

YouTube link

If you want Kipling, go read Kipling. Why is it that nearly all wargamers believe the be-all end-all for rating a movie is whether it slavishly follows the book? This movie was really well done, I'm surprised it's getting a negative reaction, and surprised anyone would expect that it would be just like the book.

I think the 1967 cartoon is great. Haven't seen the new one.

Go see it. It is greatly improved over the cartoon. The Laws of the Jungle are actually quoted, for one thing.

On individual performances, Baloo (Bill Murray v. Phil Harris) is a tossup,
Bagheera (Ben Kingsley v. Sebastian Cabot) is advantage Kingsley,
Shere Khan (Idris Elba v. George Sanders) advantage Elba,
King Louie (Christopher Walken v, Louis Prima) big advantage Prima but the role was written for him,
and finally Kaa (Scarlett Johanssen v. Sterling Holloway) is no contest, slam dunk Johansson.

I'll have to check this out. I never read the Kipling unabridged, I believe I had a junior's version when I was younger.

I liked the Disney movie, and apparently this is one were there not rewriting the formula as a celeb vanity project. I'm intrigued to see Idris Elba play Shere Khan. Been a fan of Khan since both the old movie and Tail Spin( If you haven't seen it it's classic TMP, the anthropomorphized Jungle Book characters living in this pulp era archipelago flying planes that belong more to pulp than history, it's awesome track it down guys.).

It's the film of the cartoon, and not bad at that. Neither are anything more than "inspired" by the original book.

I love the Kipling stories, liked the original movie, and loved the new movie. I found the CGI astonishing – the most immersive use of it since Avatar, and all the more impressive since it was a depiction of a real world environment.

Doug

I don:t know. George Sanders has a pretty beautiful accent and speaking voice. Here's some highlights from Rebecca: YouTube link

I'll withhold judgement until I see it, and I love Ben Kingsley.

>>Why is it that nearly all wargamers believe the be-all end-all for rating a movie is whether it slavishly follows the book?<<

I don't believe that the film had to "slavishly" follow the book. What i'm saying is that a key element of the The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book is that the stories had a moral. They are loosely connected short stories, so it would be hard to make a direct adaptation, but at least two of the stories; "Kaa's Hunting and "The King's Ankus" were very impressive to me as a child, and i'd rather see them depicted on screen than listen to a couple of children's songs. "Kaa's Hunting" is about the dangers of falling into the wrong crowd of lazy frivolous fools. They will drop you as quick as they picked you up. "The King's Ankus" is about the harm that greedy people will do to each other to acquire wealth, and about listening to the warnings of older and more experienced people.

Here are synopsis of the two stories. "The King's Ankus" is first:

Cold Lairs was a deserted city that had fallen to ruins. A fabulous treasure was lying in a secluded place. A cobra thought that he was the Warden of the King's Treasure. He believed that the city was still inhabited, and faithfully guarded the riches entrusted to him.

Included in the treasure was an ankus studded with jewels. Mowgli took this ankus in spite of the cobra's efforts to prevent the theft. As Mowgli departed, the cobra warned that the ankus was death. After showing it to Bagheera the black panther, Mowgli threw it away.

Bagheera and Mowgli later noticed that someone had picked up the ankus and carried it away. They decided to follow his trail to see if he would die as the cobra had said. They found his body with an arrow through his back.

They followed the trail of the killer and found him dead, killed by four men. They later found the bodies of these four men also. One had been killed by the other three, and the other three died from poison that their companion had put in their food before he died.
Mowgli decided to return the ankus to the cobra so that no one else would die.

The seven-year-old "man-cub" Mowgli, raised by wolves in the Indian jungle, is being tutored in the Law of the Jungle by Baloo the bear, but "runs off in a temper" when Baloo spanks him for inattention. Bagheera the panther, who disapproves of this corporal punishment, persuades Mowgli to return and recite his lessons. These include the "Master Words" for various species that identify the speaker as a friend.

Bagheera is impressed with Mowgli's progress, but both are horrified when the man-cub then reveals that he has been visiting the Bandar-log ("Monkey-People") who are shunned by the rest of the jungle.

Mowgli is chastened, but soon afterward is abducted by the Bandar-log through the treetops. Seeing Chil the Kite, Mowgli gives the kites' Master Word and tells Chil to find Baloo and Bagheera. The bear and the panther, unable to follow the monkeys, recall that the monkeys' only fear is Kaa the python, and Bagheera goads the python into helping them by repeating (or inventing) some of the Bandar-log's insults against him. Here, Chil tells them Mowgli has been taken to the 'Cold Lairs', an abandoned human city, and they set off to rescue him. In the Cold Lairs, Mowgli soon realizes that the monkeys only captured him as an amusing novelty. They soon become bored of him but refuse to let him go. When Kaa and Bagheera arrive the monkeys throw Mowgli into an abandoned "summer-house" inhabited by cobras, whereupon Mowgli hastily uses the snakes' Master Word to prevent them from striking. When the bear and panther arrive, a furious battle ensues. Kaa is delayed by a large section of city walls, but breaks down the wall of the summer house and frees Mowgli, who thanks him courteously. The python then scatters, and afterward hypnotizes the Bandar-log into submission to himself. Baloo and Bagheera are also hypnotized; but Mowgli frees them. Once away, Bagheera advocates corporal punishment and Baloo opposes it. After "six love-taps" from Bagheera, the score is settled and the three of them go home.

IMHO, both of these stories could have been incorporated rather than the section with King Louis, and the story would have been better.

George Sanders has a pretty beautiful accent and speaking voice.

Also a great singing voice, even though the only time Hollywood let him use it was Cal Me Madam. But Elba's portrayal is much more ruthless and menacing, which is what Shere Khan is all about.

This movie is pretty much just a live action adaptation to the cartoon. If you want to see a more book accurate version, there will be another adaptation in 2018 directed by Andy Serkis, which I think will be using the original story as its basis.

> which I think will be using the original story as its basis.

It will have to if it is not backed by Disney – if they use anything from the Disney version of the story that is not in the original books Disney will sue them blind.

I know nothing about Kipling and would have never assumed that the new live CGI action version of the Disney animated film would have much to do with the original books.

By the way I liked the film and I thought the CGI was just amazing!