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. (25/07/2016)

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)

This year the animals rule!! From the opening minutes, The Jungle Book took my breath away with intensity and nostalgia so much that if I hadn't swallowed all the pills on the table, I would probably be dead. This is literally and to the letter a fairytale orgasm! If someone had told me at the beginning of the year that the villain of the year would be a tiger, I would have laughed it off with gusto, and today I would be tapping my forehead because what Sher Khan did here for an animalistic, dominant and superior performance, hats off to him, my respect was as high as ever, and that's not even mentioning the other evil that can lurk in the Jungle, it's just never safe there. The Jungle Book is also very informative, visually breathtaking, at times you don't know if you are looking at the real world or the digital world even though you know it is all digital; the animals are look amazing, they have great characters and I believe that this is how it works in real life. I must also praise the very intense pace, the tension builds up by the minute and so do the emotions – I found myself in tears twice and after each scene with the elephants. I put the film in the top list and this year it will definitely defend the top positions, I haven't had such an experience from a film in a long time. The film has only one fault and that is that it is not an hour longer. 150%. (11/08/2016)

The story is the good and never too old Kipling’s classic enriched with a couple of contemporary metaphors, but when it comes to special effects it is a fantastic joyride through the Indian jungle, almost identical to Avatar. The action in the temple is big and thrilling. Kids will dread monkeys. Which is good. Walken as Louis slightly copies Brando in Apocalypse Now. Even the classic songs and scenes work well and the scenes with Baloo are just overflowing with optimism. (27/05/2018)