Its a different take on the familiar story which is more adventurous than about family. The ending is heart-warming but its not as smart as it tried to be. The visuals are great in some scenes but in most part it looked like a lesser version of The Good Dinosaur where characters (specially Mowgli) felt out of the background. There are a couple of songs during the movie but none of them are memorable. The voice cast is brilliant, I thought it would be distracting but they grew on me. Neel Sethi does a great job as Mowgli and Murray comes out of the best as a character, being funny and emotional. Elba is rightfully praised, he is great as Share Khan moreso the character is MUCH more scary as there are a lot of scenes where visuals do the scary bits. Share Khan is the most haunting when he makes his presence felt rather than saying.

I didn't like the visuals in general and some scenes in particular felt too long like the temple scenes which is why a little lower rating but this is a great film to enjoy with families.

6/10

I felt the visuals were only good when they focused on panoramic views of the Jungle like the waterfall scene in the trailers. The entire movie felt like you are in a visual imagery rather than actual scene.

I loved it. I thought the visuals were great throughout, the voice cast excellent, Mowgli was well cast, and overall I just enjoyed it a lot. I saw it in 3D and I thought the 3D was really well done, and not gimmicky. I loved the credits too.

The only flaw I'd say is that I'll remember it more for the visuals than the story, which will mean more to some than others.

Favorite line:

"Excuse me, am I in the right monkey temple?"

A-

Better than I was expecting. The film enhances the story of the animated version and adds more heart to the story. I will say that though I liked the use of Bare Necessities I thought 'I Wanna Be Like You' was pretty cringe worthy, and they used it for the end credits! Meh. The visuals are very good though for being CG and the kid is pretty great.

This Jon Favreau film is an astonishing visual achievement. It is also a functional-if-slightly-generic adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling stories or, more to the point, the 49-year-old animated Disney version of those stories. Every gaudily extravagant 3-D frame is a ravishing swirl of photo-realistic computer-generated imagery, rapid motion, and vivid color. As for the story and characters, it is diverting, and there are definitely inspired flourishes (it is hard to imagine voice casting more perfect than Bill Murray as slyly avuncular bear Baloo), but I would be lying if I said this run-through of the Mowgli motions deeply touched my heart or fired my imagination. And the retro songs feel out-of-place and shoehorned in, particularly a halfhearted and logy version of "I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)" by Christopher Walken in his unflattering Peter Pan Live! mode.

B

Eh it was ok, but I honestly don't get the hype. From a technical standpoint it's pretty impressive, but even then I could still tell it was 99% CGI. At times the environments/animals looked good, and some times not so much. The movie also felt a bit more hollow story wise than I was expecting like the emotional element just wasn't there. The kid is alright and the voice cast works with exception of SJ who is only in one scene as Kaa which I found disappointing. The best thing about this was easily Idris Elba as Shere Khan who is the definition of perfect casting. The voice, the anger, and the viciousness was all there.

It's a solid update of the classic tale, most noteworthy for its sumptuous production values. This is a beautiful movie to look at throughout, though it doesn't necessarily do anything different with the confines of the story. B

Kind of echoing what the consensus here seems to be. It's an absolutely gorgeous and visually stunning film and pretty entertaining, with great vocal work across the board (particularly from Idris Elba - who was the standout in my opinion). That being said, the story is very been-there-done that and I felt that overall it felt a little pointless aside from pushing the bar technologically and provoking nostalgia for the original film. Also, the song sequences are out-of-place and awful. Still though, definitely worth checking out. It's a solid family film. B

Outside of the songs, I really dug this.

A-

The Jungle Book does justice to its great characters. Bill Murray's Baloo is the standout, making an already beloved even more loveable. Elba is menacing as Shere Khan and Kingsley hits the perfect and the wise/loving yet stern mentor. The CGI animals are gorgeous with very emotive faces and the voicework seems natural.

There's a certain magic, warmth and wonder missing from the world itself though. And I was never able to become fully immersed because of it. Instead it starts feeling like the script is just checking boxes. Was Ka needed at all?

So the amazing animals this movie inherited keep it enjoyable, but Favs and the crew aren't able to build much on top of it. A little disappointing, still fine.

I thought it was mediocre.

I'd probably lower my grade for this if I saw it again. It's so forgettable and pointless.

good movie, but mowgli sucks brah

I thought it was ok but nothing special. We went to see it in a drive-in, unfortunately on the one screen that is too dark (due to lights from the 50s style diner reflecting on it) so some of the night scenes were painfully difficult to see. For these reasons i wont grade it.

It also didn't engage my 2 and 5 year olds who were (rightfully) transfixed on Civil War playing on the next screen.

This was surprisingly fun. It's great and impressive visually and I definitely liked the old-school scene setup. A lot of scenes reminded me of the classic old Hollywood jungle movies.

The only thing that bothered me were the songs. Besides the fact they were horrible sung, they felt tacked on and not really like they belong in the movie. I guess they wanted to have "Bare Necessities" as an ultimate classic song from the cartoon and could't make it the only song in the movie which is why they added two more, but every time there was a song it definitely killed the pacing of the movie.

But the rest of it was fun.

***1/2 / ***** (B-)

This was surprisingly great and an improvement on the good but not great 1967 film. The whole thing is very thrilling with a real sense of stakes. The viewer really fears Shere Khan, Kaa, King Louie, etc. because the film takes itself seriously and doesn't over rely on silly jokes. The end chase through the fire is really amazing to behold. This certainly should be the front runner for the visual effects award this year. The only issue is that it's a little slow at points.

A-

The Jungle Book

I have no idea how they made this. The visual effects are second-to-none. Sublime and so lifelike in movement and textures. The cute young foxes and elephants are adorable. Baloo is funny, though I wish they'd included more humour with his character. Neel Sethi isn't a great actor, but he's cute and that's all that was required. Shere Khan is awesomely fierce and brilliantly voiced by Idris Elba. I was slightly peeved that the finale was at nighttime, but there is still plenty of daytime action. All-in-all an entertaining film, and thankfully slim on songs, though it's still respectful to the original.

B+

I liked this a bit more than when I first saw it, but I still don't get all the overwhelming praise this movie gets, especially the visuals which to me looked better in Favreau's TLK. I remember being pretty dissapointed with it at first, but now that my expectations are in check I can enjoy more for what it is. Like Mulan I can at least appreciate that its not a shot for shot remake and tries to do its own thing, but I still wish they did more with the story instead of it feeling so by the numbers and basic.

Idris Elba as Shere Khan is still fantastic though and probably one of the best villains in any of these live action Disney remakes. I still think the kid from Andy Serkis's Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle was a much better fit for Mowgli, but Neel Sethi was okay. I also enjoyed the final showdown with all the animals standing up to Shere Khan a lot more than I remembered even if it is a little too dark at times and the CGI fire hasn't aged all that well either.

B-

Seeing it after the Lion King makes the visual effects less impressive. But Bill Murray makes everything better, and I liked I Wanna Be Like You since I was a kid. Idris Elba was excellent. The scene with the snake should've just been cut out if they weren't going to do anything with her, but they wanted Scarlett. I wish they kept the ending of Mowgli seeing a human female and immediately leaving the jungle which is probably one of the most memorable scenes from the original. Overall solid Disney remake.