The Jungle Book

A beautiful rendition of The Jungle Book. Probably the most successful one I've seen so far. The kid who played Mowgli was excellent, but the animals keep up with him nicely too. Always something to look at. The only thing I thought was a little unnecessary was the monkey segment. I could have done without the singing monkey in particular. And those few minutes are the reason why I’m not giving it full marks. Still, I recommend it and will gladly watch it again. 4.5 stars. (24/07/2016)

I do admit that at first I didn’t really feel like watching this flick. It was somehow getting under my skin that animals in a real, non-animated world could speak and that they spoke English. But after about ten minutes and several nice shots, I decided to bear with the film to see what would come out of it. I mean the book itself, written by Rudyard Kipling, had a very clever plot. And well, what eventually came out of it was one of the most beautiful digital films that I have ever seen. I don’t think you will be able to see such beautiful shots of the jungle anywhere else. It might be because of the digital effects. But it is a treat to watch it and once you’ve watched it, you will realize that you will never see a better adaptation of Kipling’s book in your lifetime. (01/11/2016)

The 1967 animated film was more entertaining, but this is such a visually bombastic and convincing adaptation of Kipling's novel that it has given it readership and an audience sheen for years to come. There are no emotional fireworks and Favreau orchestrates the narrative concept on the levels of a safe family flick, but the amazing CGI at times perhaps surpasses anything we've seen so far, the unconventionality and majesty of the setting and characters radiate from every frame, and the fantastic original voice acting is the cherry on top. It's been a long time since I was so sorry I missed a movie at the cinema. (21/06/2016)

An unadulterated, magnificent adventurous family film that pays homage to its genre and has a great chance of becoming a children's classic, which in a few years may have a status similar to that which The NeverEnding Story has today. Breathtaking visual and tricks, a gripping, moving and emotional story and a number of excellent, dynamically directed passages. (14/04/2016)

Jon Favreau never really appealed to me as a director. Iron Man is a retrospectively weaker Marvel movie that stands and falls mostly on Robert Downey Jr. (and don’t get me started on the second one), Cowboys & Aliens is awful and Zathura is pretty good. Nothing more. So when he took a swipe at The Jungle Book, which everyone knows, I didn't particularly care for it. Which makes the result all the more enjoyable. It's not that it's a perfect film, at times it's quite choppy in terms of story (the part with monkeys could have been shorter), but as a film with ambitions to entertain young and old viewers alike, this journey among digital animals simply works. Favreau handles the action scenes, the suspenseful moments and the humour, and he also keeps an eye on the visuals. The Jungle Book is gorgeous, and the wilderness can even bear comparison to Avatar's Pandora. There's plenty to look at and I imagine the little ones will stare at the screen with utter delight, whether it's Baloo cackling, Sher Khan terrifying or Scarlett Johansson hissing. This is not a cinematic revolution or a film that will go down in history, but it’s a very proper genre film where almost everything works as it should. Well done. And I wouldn't mind seeing it a second time. (15/05/2017)