Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)

4/10

Starring the voices of

Christian Bale

Benedict Cumberbatch

Cate Blanchett

Directed by Andy Serkis

No matter what some say about it being unfair to compare this with Disney’s 2016 version of Rudyard Kipling book(s), I believe it deserves to be compared.

This movie is passion project of the director Andy Serkis, which was supposed to get a theatrical release, until bought by Netflix. It comes to us as a dark version of Rudyard Kipling Jungle Book tales about a child named Mowgli.

Disney decision to take a comedic spin with beautiful memorable music and very nice re-writes to the original tale was more than welcomed when you get to see the final result.

In this here movie, things go same path. Mowgli’s parent were killed by Shere Khan, a crippled Bengal tiger. Bagheera, a black panther found him and took him to a wolf family where he was adopted.

He is being trained in the way of the jungle by the bear Baloo and he is being tasked to complete a trial that will have him move up in ranks.

Mowgli’s struggles are not just that he is different from his wolf-brothers, but Shere Khan is also after him. Khan and his side kick Tabaqui, a striped hyena, are plotting and counter plotting to get to kill Mowgli with Khan breaking every known Jungle rule.

Mowgli has to tough up and be at alert, because more things await him ahead.

After seeing the movie I can see why Warner Bros. opted to sell the distribution rights to Netflix. The movie reminded me of Pan (2015) Warner Bros tried to give a twist to this tale, when all we can recall about this is what Disney has given us. Pan (2015) was a box office bomb and this would have been too, of all we do is compare it with Disney’s Jungle Book (2016) [this live action was based on the animation, by Disney – The Jungle Book (1967)]

It is safe to say, that Disney has reshaped many tales in our minds. The downside to this is, when they do it, they do it well and when others try to do their version of the same tale, it never meets up. I’m sure they are exceptions, but I cannot think of one now.

This is not Disney’s fault, but the other studios not getting enough backing in writing and marketing to give Disney a run for their money.

In the end, I feel like this movie should have just stayed on the shelf, it didn't hit home for me.