THE JUNGLE BOOK (2016)

Barring earlier attempts (including one of this title in ‘94), the current cycle of Disney Animated Classics turned ‘Live-Action’ features began with ALICE IN WONDERLAND in 2000.  (Note scare quotes around ‘Live-Action’ as enough CGI used to make these read as hybrids.)  Over a dozen since (and counting) with Tim Burton’s DUMBO/’19 by some lengths worst of the lot (https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/11/dumbo-2019.html) and this Jon Favreau film pick of the pack.  The story of a boy raised by jungle animals remains intact if tweaked to lean toward Kipling’s Just-So stories, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ TARZAN & Disney’s BAMBI/’42 (now getting its own ‘live-action’ treatment).  As for what’s CGI and what ain’t, hard to say as even real backgrounds and a very real boy (Neel Sethi, okay, but no Sabu*) loaded into the CGI blender.  And that brings up the usual problem: Just how quickly state-of-the-art CGI dates.  Here, animal mouths ‘speak’ oddly, furry coats look stiff and jumps can feel weightless, all distancing us from full involvement.  Once the dramatic endgame gets under way in an action-packed, high-stakes, suspenseful third act, and Favreau’s writers stop burdening Bill Murray and pals with comic relief out of the 1967 animated film, everything finally comes together.  It's not so much that the old hand-drawn animation was more convincing, if anything, it’s far more stylized, but that it’s all-of-piece stylistically so we aren’t constantly jarred out of identification with story & character.  While you wait for the film to turn the corner, check out the rather self-conscious money shots (Favreau all but insists!) and amuse yourself by noting how much Ben Kingsley (heard but not seen) sounds like Patrick Stewart.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *The old Alexander Korda version with Sabu is a treat, a period treat, mind you (1942), but still effective when seen in the fine new restoration out on Criterion.  On the other hand, Andy Serkis’s all CGI attempt (All-Star vocal cast; big budget) was pulled to avoid direct competition.  DOA in a limited 2018 release with Mowgli and most of the critters looking CGI creepy.  Much like Serkis did playing Gollum in LORD OF THE RINGS/’02.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/09/jungle-book-1942.html