Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
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Weird
Weekend Watch is here for you. Every Friday we’re going to recommend the best of what’s new to rent on VOD or stream for free. It’s your weekend; allow us to make it better.
What to Stream This Weekend
More and more, when it comes to mainstream filmmaking, you can’t just review the movie, you have to review all the other movies that are part of that movie’s marketing strategy. One Marvel movie exists within a landscape of all the other Marvel movies. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Rogue One both exist within established cinematic universes that must be tended to, even if their plots aren’t explicitly tied to anything. Even something as simple as an Adam Sandler comedy is difficult to extricate from the whole Thing with Adam Sandler comedies.
So when sitting down with Disney’s The Jungle Book, it’s not just the adventures of Mowgli you’re watching; it’s the latest in Disney’s push to roll out live-action remakes of their animated classics. This started back in 2010 when the Johnny Depp-starring Alice in Wonderland made an ungodly amount of money, and Disney execs got those little cartoon dollar signs in their eyes. After that came Maleficent ($758 million worldwide) and Cinderella ($543 million worldwide), plus plans for Beauty and the Beast and Mulan, and as long as the money keeps rolling in, you can expect this to continue indefinitely. Nobody knows how to get every last drop out of their properties better than Disney.
Which is why I approached The Jungle Book with more than a little trepidation. Because as profitable as Alice and Maleficent and Cinderella were, their quality ranged from competent (Cinderella) to godawful (Alice). I can’t deny that part of me had already begun writing the “Disney’s live-action remakes are a cure on the world” portion of my review. But there is good news: The Jungle Book managed to surpass my expectations by a good margin, and while it’s far from perfect, it probably ranks among the better blockbusters of the year.
Based on the books by Rudyard Kipling (but more accurately based on the 1967 Disney classic), The Jungle Book tells the story of Mowgli, a “man cub” raised by a pack of wolves in the jungles of India. Director Jon Favreau (Jumanji; Iron Man) makes a few crucial changes from the animated version that are important. For one thing, he beefs up the role of the wolves, and in particular Raksha, the mother wolf who adopted Mowgli as her own. Now there’s a much stronger pull for Mowgli to return to his family after he’s left to set out on his own. And of course, as is mandated for every movie that updates an older story these days, The Jungle Book has now become darker, more sinister, and more dangerous. The villainous tiger Shere Khan is terrifying, and the computer animation on the beast is flawless (and you know my standards for CGI tigers are high). All the animals in this movie are completely computer-animated, and it’s seriously impressive stuff.
But it’s the voice cast that really knocked me over. These days, star-studded casts for animated movies are incredibly hit-or-miss, and it often seems like studios shell out for big-name voice actors for no good reason. But the job that Idris Elba does in voicing Shere Khan is enough to justify every name actor doing voice work for the whole year; he’s just massively intimidating and genuinely scary, and he’s crucial for giving the films the stakes it has.
Lupita Nyong’o voices Raksha with a genuine warmth; Scarlett Johansson slithers deliciously as the python Kaa; and Bill Murray lives up to big expectations as Balloo. The big, lazy bear is easily the most-remembered part of the animated film, and Murray manages to deliver on the nostalgia of “The Bare Necessities.”
Less successful in this regard is Christopher Walken as King Louie, whose “I Wanna Be Like You” sounds like the hyperventilations of a dying man.
Overall, though, Favreau scores another hit here, contributing to what might be one of Hollywood’s more underrated filmographies. Sure there’s a Zathura here and a Cowboys and Aliens there, but: Jumanji, Iron Man, the little-seen but kind of wonderful Chef. And now The Jungle Book, where Favreau gets to lay claim to the best of the nouveau Disney live-action remakes. Have at him, Beauty and the Beast.
