The Jungle Book by Disney was a new movie for me. Not being familiar with any of the previous works, comics or movies about this, I went into this thinking it was about young Tarzan. On an aside, Tarzan was a preview played before the movie and it looks like Avatar on Earth (so very so-so). So is it any good?
Well, the answer is yes. But also it could've been better if they took a few more risks. The story is about a young boy abandoned in the woods who is raised by some various animals. A tiger has it in for him due to his past experiences with mankind. So the boy has to run in order to not die. On his coming-of-age journey, he has to learn (and teach others) that being himself is not bad.
The movie is good. Although the child actor used for the main character could learn to have a bit more range than blindly screeching everything to show anger, the movie doesn't make him too grating. They also show a pretty clear character arc for most the characters. Unfortunately, the lead actor here once again has the weakest arc (pretty much involving people telling him what is okay to do and never really changing or learning that much).
The main parts that don't really fit in are the songs. One song is not too bad, but the Gorilla breaking into song as they are trying to build up his threat really broke the tone of the movie. Especially as the song was half-comedic and sung really light. But both songs didn't really match the darker tone they gave to this whole movie (he nearly gets eaten by a snake and the violence is graphic) and felt like they were trying to appeal to kids who would still have nightmares about the rest of the movie. So yeah, could've just left them out.
The other part is doesn't really fit (especially after the excellent Zootopia) there is isn't much effort to show different animals interacting outside of just giving them different human traits (Mob boss, con artist). However, this isn't consistently bad and the water truce is well done. Oh, and someone should show the wolves the Transformers How It Should Have Ended movie ("We fight together. Don't leave me alone with a psychotic tiger especially when it is against the whole Law of Wolves I teach you daily.").
Overall, the movie is pretty good. It is not as good as Zootopia but it is definitely several big steps are above average. I felt that the songs should have been cut and a better child actor could've been better, but definitely worth watching.
3.5 out of 5 Stalking Waffles.
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