Aside from this being a lot less interesting than the original stories, it also gives us a film with more characters than the story has any use for, and that in turn makes what there is of a story feel baggy and drawn out.īecause the original Jungle Book was a collection of short stories, any successful film version should either focus on one particular story, or else find some way of joining them together. What we end up with is an anodyne road movie, with the plot revolving entirely around Mowgli's journey to the Man Village and the various characters he meets on his way. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Kipling's stories are either bowdlerised or completely disregarded by Disney. Even if not all the details of the stories were retained, stories of animals interacting with humans and exploring moral problems are always packed with potential. They are also of historical significance, partly due to their context British Empire literature, but also due to their adoption by the early Boy Scout Movement. Kipling's original stories are narratively interesting, being positioned somewhere between Aesop's Fables and early adventure stories like King Solomon's Mines (from which we eventually get Indiana Jones). The next big disappointment with The Jungle Book is its story.
And the film has a terrible tendency to shake the composition to hide where frames have been reused - a technique that's used far too often and doesn't work in throwing us off the scent. The colour scheme is very flat, with the Xeroxing technique lacking the bright, richly textured colours available to animators in the Technicolor era. Like The Sword in the Stone, the animation is pale and scruffy, with the characters models having broad outlines and movement being much more in easily repeatable strokes than the movements in Sleeping Beauty or 101 Dalmatians. In The Sword in the Stone it was possible to forgive this, since the film was funny enough to make the rough edges feel charming, but here it's so obvious that it dents our ability to suspend disbelief. Bagheera's runs, Kaa's falls from the treetops, the marching elephants, even Shere Khan's head tilts - all of them are established at the characters' first appearance and then repeated without even the slightest attempt to cover it up. Unfortunately, we need to address this a little more, since all the things I previously highlighted are in abundance in The Jungle Book.įirst and foremost, the reuse of footage from scene to scene is near-constant and completely blatant. In fact I've talked about it so much that the sensible thing would be to take it for granted, pointing any newcomers to my older reviews and moving on to something more interesting. I've also made clear my reservations towards Reitherman as a director, and how the various shortcuts he makes within the animation more often than not compromise the quality of the film. On the contrary, I want every Disney film to be good, and when their highs are so high, it makes any low feel all the more disappointing. I get no cruel pleasure from bashing Disney's weaker efforts, even when, as with Atlantis, I feel that I'm morally justified.
As for the other arguments, I am just as capable of having fun as the next viewer - and I seek out fun in films more often than you might presume. I've already dealt with the "It's a children's film" argument in my review of Atlantis: The Lost Empire - in short, I disagree with it to the point of utmost contempt. It's not intended to be a proper adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's novels, and if it succeeds in being fun then that is all that matters. Some may even go so far as saying that I shouldn't worry so much, since it's a children's film, and therefore not worthy of detailed analysis by me or anyone else. This last remake will no doubt spawn a litany of angry voices, accusing me of sacrilege and taking things too seriously. But while The Sword in the Stone gets a pass on entertainment value if nothing else, the same can't be said for this film, which more than anything else is shapeless and a little boring. Coming at a time when Disney was playing it safe and looking to cut costs, its fans will argue that it is every bit as fun and entertaining as the classic films that preceded it. Among all the meagre offerings of the Wolfgang Reitherman era, The Jungle Book is often held up as the exception to the general rule.
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