I had the pleasure of taking my family to see the new movie The Jungle Book this past Friday. Let me be upfront and say that I did fall asleep a few times.
Was it worth seeing? Yes.
My favorite performance in the movie has to be Bill Murray as Baloo. Let me just say this casting was perfect. When I was a kiddo and saw the original Disney Jungle Book movie I loved Baloo. As a 31-year-old guy, I think Bill Murray is just as awesome and possibly even more. The character was great and I loved the friendship between Baloo and Mowgli as portrayed in this movie.
Mowgli, I have 5-year-old boys so to see a Mowgli character in live action was great. The kid fumbles around a bit physically and he seems like a genuine good natured character. It didn't occur to me until halfway through the movie that Mowgli was the only person on the screen. I can't imagine how the filming of this movie would have been for the actor. The special effects were premium enough in this movie that I was immersed and believed that this boy and this jungle existed. Kudos to the actor and to the character of Mowgli, I hope my boys and my daughter like the character. He had some great lessons in the story and turned out to be quite remarkable.
King Louie, was voiced by Christopher Walken. Second to Bill Murray this was my favorite character. Not that I like King Louie but that Christopher Walken did a fantastic job. My wife leaned over to me during the movie and told me the character looked like the actor King Louie. It is amazing what can be done with CGI these days. The voice was perfect and King Louie did get to sing a song. It was different, but I enjoyed it as performed by Mr. Walken.
Bagheera, voiced by Sir Ben Kingsley. Bagheera is incredible as an adult I now see Bagheera as a bigger hero than ever. The movie is narrated by Kingsley and Bagheera is wonderful. In this movie I think they respected the friendship even more between Bagheera and Mowgli. There was a high level of respect and Bagheera was very proud of Mowgli.
Shere Khan, voiced by Idris Elba. This Shere Khan was incredible. One of the best and most relentless villains I can think of. I was trying to figure out who the voice was during the movie but didn't realize who it was till the credits rolled. Just thinking about this character makes me want to go and see this movie one more time. As I mentioned at the beginning I did fall asleep, not enough sleep the night before followed by a hard day at work.
When I take time to think about the character and the quality of this movie it makes me want to see more remakes. We have HD now and we are getting 4K. I'm not saying a resolution makes a movie any better. It is a luxury we have though to see beautifully shot movies. It makes it even better when the movie is high quality and not just HD. This is a movie that I will definitely see again and I can't wait to add it to our family collection.
