The Jungle Book (2016)

My husband really wanted to see this movie in the theatres, so he took me in the morning.  I was not looking forward to it, because I have already seen The Jungle Book, and its going to be the exact same movie.  The same story, same characters, and the same songs.

The difference is this film can be considered live action.  The animals are computer animated, but they look pretty real.  The main reason he wanted to see the movie is that Christopher Walken played King Louie and Bill Murray played Baloo the bear.  Mowgli is played by an actual human in a realistic jungle setting.  It is a lot different than the first live action Jungle Book film by Disney, the one from the 90s, because that one focuses more on Mowgli's adulthood.  This film is basically a shot for shot remake of the cartoon.

The film does have a more realistic feel to it.  There's nothing more realistic than a 30 foot monkey singing jazz.  There are actually a few scenes that more closely follow the book than the original movie.  They also gave the wolves a bigger part in the film, which makes sense because they raised him.  Also, the elephants are portrayed as wise stewards of the jungle, not a group of marching idiots.  That's because our knowledge of elephants has changed drastically since the 60s.  We now know how intelligent and caring elephants are, when before we thought of them as simply large and destructive.

If you're wondering if the animals sing, they really do.  They sing "The Bare Necessities" and "I wanna be like you".  I have never heard Christopher Walken sing and it is hilarious.  If I had to choose to watch a Jungle Book film again, I would choose this film over the animated one.  I will give this film an 8/10.