The Jungle Book

Lots of people have a nostalgic attachment to Disney’s first take on The Jungle Book, but I'm not one of them; there are a couple of catchy songs in there, but there’s not a whole lot in the way of story, or even characters. So I thought it was an odd choice for a live-action remake, but the fact that there’s so much space to fill in means that on reflection, it probably makes more sense than Beauty and the Beast or The Little Mermaid.

And it really works - the script fleshes out the world and the characters, and builds a more robust plot with actual stakes. The credits describe it as "based on the books by Rudyard Kipling", so perhaps the changes come from this being a more accurate adaptation, but either way, it's a much better story than the 1967 version.

The thing looks spectacular, too, as you no doubt already know; the VFX is, at times, distractingly impressive - I kept getting pulled out of the story by sheer awe at just how amazing everything looks. The whole movie was shot on a stage in LA - zero location work at all - but if I hadn’t known that before going in, I’m not sure I would have guessed.

The cast is universally great, especially Neel Sethi, who has to almost carry the movie as the only actual human on-screen for approximately 99% of the run time. Idris Elba’s (enhanced?) throaty rumble gives Shere Khan real menace, and Ben Kingsley's Bagheera has a sense of nobility, heart, and gravitas that was missing from the "preachy square" animated version. Before going in, I wasn’t sold on the idea of Bill Murray as Baloo, but he’s a lot of fun, and plays the part with tons of charm.

The only casting choice that doesn’t work for me, really, is Christopher Walken as King Louie. Murray and Kingsley have immediately-recognisable voices, but Walken's New York drawl is just too distinctive, and ends up being jarring - especially once (spoiler alert) he starts singing. This isn’t a musical version, and only features two songs; The Bear Necessities, which works, and King of the Swingers, which… doesn’t. It comes completely out of nowhere, and worse, doesn't really fit this more threatening version of the character. I can't help but think it's only in there because it’s one of the three songs people actually know from the original.

And it’s a shame, too, because aside from that, the music is great - in a counterpoint to King of the Swingers, a dreamy, woozy instrumental version of Trust In Me runs behind Kaa’s scene, as she (Scarlett Johansson) hypnotises Mowgli. She also gives a chunk of exposition for reasons that are unclear (why tell your dinner its backstory?), but I guess it had to go somewhere, and it works okay in the moment.

It's a fun hour-and-fifty, with gags and action in roughly the same levity-and-gravity mix that Favreau worked so well in Iron Man. I'll be astonished if The Jungle Book doesn't win a mountain of awards for the effects, but it would be a shame if that was the extent of its recognition; it's pretty much the whole package.