The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book is based off of the children book written by Rudyard Kipling. The screenplay was written by Justin Marks and was directed by Jon Favreau. It stars Neel Sethi (as the only human main character), Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, and Christopher Walken.

Summary: Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is a a human boy found by the panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) and is raised by a pack of wolves. When drinking from the water hole the animals of the jungle are confronted by the tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) who thinks he is going to kill them all when he becomes a man so he wants to kill Mowgli to stop that from happening. The wolves defend the boy and that night they discuss whether or not he should leave the pack and go to a man-village. Mowgli says he wants to leave so that no one gets hurt; he is lead by Bahgeera into the jungle. As they are crossing a field of grass Bagheera senses something wrong, Shere Khan jumps up from the grass and Mowgli flees. Bahgeera and Mowgli are separated and soon the boy finds himself hypnotized by the snake Kaa (Scarlett Johnasson) and the bear Baloo (Bill Murray) saves him. When Mowgli wakes up Baloo tells him what happened and asks for a favor since he saved the boys life. He sends Mowgli up the side go a cliff to retrieve honey for him. When Mowlgi is done he starts to leave for the man-village; Baloo tells him that they can team up and be themselves together and have fun. Mowgli decides to stay until winter. Bagheera finds Mowlgi and finds out that the boy wants to stay with Baloo. Bagheera and Baloo talk and they decide that it is best if Mowgli leaves to the village. Ball lies to Mowgli and says that he doesn't want him there anymore, which causes Mowgli to take refuge in a nearby tree. Monkeys whisk the boy away and Baloo and Bagheera pursue them. Mowgli finds himself at the home of King Louie who says he wants Mowlgi to make him fire but Mowgli doesn't know how. Bagheera and Baloo enter and all of the monkeys attack them as Mowgli is try to escape King Louie. King Louie tells Mowgli that Shere Khan killed the leader of the wolf pack, the "father" of Mowgli, and then the palace of King Louie collapses on top of him. Mowgli runs away from Baloo and Bagheera and heads to the man-village where he takes fire from them. He is running through the jungle and gets to where the wolf pack and Shere Khan are and tells him that he isn't afraid of him and that he won't turn out like the men Shere Khan talks about. As he says that Shere Khan tells Mowgli to look behind him and the jungle is on fire. Mowgli throws the touch into the water and Shere Khan tell him that was stupid of him to do. Baloo attacks Shere Khan and is bitten on the neck, the wolf pack charges at Shere Khan and Mowgli runs into the jungle. Where Khan fights through the wolves and pursues the boy. Mowgli gets a vine and a tree branch and ties them together all the while keeping an eye out for Shere Khan. The tiger finds him and they run through the branches; Mowgli walks across a dead branch and Shere Khan tries to follow him but Mowgli jumps to the branch tied to the vine and swings out of the way as Shere Khan falls to his death in the fire below. Mowgli returns to the other animals and they greet him as a hero. The elephants put out the fire and peace is restored to the jungle.

Review: This movie could not have been more perfectly cast. I absolutely loved Neel Sethi and was impressed by his acting skills since this was his first film. This is very true to the animated film and to the book more so. It was aesthetically stunning and the animals were very real looking, they weren't cheesy looking and they blended well with the human boy. I highly recommend this movie for anyone who loves and grew up with the animated film because it does not disappoint!