Time and time again, classics are rebooted and brought back to the light of day. When I first saw the preview for Jungle Book, I immediately got excited! Jungle Book is one of the oldest and most popular tales that I love from my childhood. This is the third version of the classic, but from the trailer it definitely seemed to be the most intense and action packed! The graphics were obviously my favorite part of the movie. It definitely did a good job of taking a nice, soft, childhood story and making it an action packed thriller. If there is anything that I can say was second to the graphics, then it would be the casting. The characters were ON POINT. If you remember the original, you'd understand what I'm saying. Baloo and Bagheera were almost identical. Baloo was careless, happy, and a goof ball just like the cartoon. King Louis was awesome! He had the same, blues/jazzy feel as in the cartoon. Baghera was a wise, careful, and serious character. But most of all, Sherekhan! Idris Elba was perfect! Sherekhan was just as sly and witty as in the cartoon. It was almost like he was a smooth, evil, yet genius criminal. Side note: am I the only one who agrees with his mindset? I mean, if you were him, how would you feel?
Although the movie wasn't a musical (thank God), they did manage to capture two of the movie's biggest songs! "Bear necessities" and "I wanna be like you" kept the movie in somewhat of a jolly mood instead of too adult-like.
There were a couple of scenes that I paid attention to that were very similar and ironic references to the original. The first was when the Wolves were having a meeting about what to do with Mogli. In the cartoon, Baghera was sitting in a tree during the meeting, and he was doing the same in the movie! The elephants origin in the reboot was a little different, but it was creative. The use of fire was pretty cool, I caught that hint that it would have the same ending about midway through the movie. My only negative about the movie was the Vultures! They were shown for a quick second early in the movie, but why didn't they have a couple of scenes? They were a key to Sherekhan's defeat in the cartoon, they could've at least had 5 minutes to bring some humor to the movie. But, overall I was pleased, I give it an 8/10!