The Jungle Book (2016)

And now for the "live-action" version of The Jungle Book.

The Movie:

Following the success of Cinderella, Disney's next live-action remake was the 2016 version of The Jungle Book.  In reality, most of the movie was done in realistic CGI, with Neel Sethi's Mowgli being the primary live-action element.  The Jungle Book received positive reviews and was one of the highest grossing films of 2016.  Among its accolades was the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

This version draws primarily from the 1967 animated version, as director Jon Favreau wanted to retain much of the charm of that movie while grounding it in more realistic visuals.  Some elements of the Kipling's book are added to this film, such as the Law of the Jungle, the Peace Rock, and the Water Truce.  The wolves also get a larger role in this movie like they do in the book.  This film opens with Mowgli already a boy and not a toddler, though his story is told through narration and later a flashback.  This Mowgli is more accepting of his need to go to the man-village than his animated counterpart and is generally much less whiny.  Kaa is now female and somewhat larger, while Louie is now a large gigantopithecus rather than an orangutan (a decision made by the director on account that the later are not native to India).  The vultures, who were not in the book, don't appear here, and the elephants are much more dignified.  Shere Khan, who in the animated version doesn't appear until the third act, gets more presence in this version, and the final confrontation is the result of a conscious choice by Mowgli to face him rather than Shere Khan tracking him down.

Spoiler Alert - The other big difference in this movie is that it ends with Mowgli still in the jungle, as Shere Khan's death eliminated the urgency for him to move to the man-village.

Personally I like this movie, probably even more so than the animated version.  The visual effects are stunning, and the voice actors, including Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Lupita Nyong'o, Giancarlo Esposito, and Christopher Walken, do a marvelous job.  Even though the movie is slightly longer than the animated version, to me the story is more focused and feels less episodic, though that may be partially due to the elimination of most of the songs.

Music-wise, The Jungle Book gets a nice score from John Debney, who incorporates some elements of the George Bruns score and also makes nice use of a couple of different instrumental settings of "The Bare Necessities,"  including in the final scene of the movie.  However, the movie's biggest oddity is that, unlike Cinderella, it didn't jettison all the songs to the end credits, or Beauty and the Beast, which was a straight-up musical, here just two of the songs are retained in the film, "The Bare Necessities" and "I Wan'na Be Like You" (with some new lyrics from Richard Sherman).  While both are nice, they almost feel out of place with the rest of the movie.  The later song does get a reprise over the ends credits, along with Scarlett Johansson as Kaa covering "Trust in Me" and a Dr. John cover of "The Bare Necessities."

In another nice nod to the original, which opened with an actual book of The Jungle Book being opened, this movie ends with the exact same book being closed.

Of note: This wasn't Disney's first live-action version of The Jungle Book.  They did one in 1994 that focused more on a slightly older Mowgli and his interactions with other humans, with the animal characters being pushed mostly to the side.  (A decision that makes sense given the limits to the technology of the day.)  Also, a non-Disney version directed by Andy Serkis called Mowgli is set to open later this year that is supposed to adhere more closely to the books.  Interestingly, this version was announced before Disney announced theirs, but this one ended up being pushed back, first for production reasons, then to give more space from the Disney version.

Presence in the Parks:

When Animal Kingdom first opened, it closed earlier than the other parks, largely out of consideration for the zoological nature of the park.  However, this led to the reputation of the park as being a half-day park, and Disney looked to ways to expand the park's offerings.  In anticipation of the opening of Pandora, Disney announced a night time show called Rivers of Light that would begin in 2016 as a way to keep guests at the park longer.  However, due to delays, Rivers of Light was pushed back to 2017, so as a placeholder, Disney turned to their recent hit animal-themed movie for a temporary nighttime show.  This was The Jungle Book: Alive With Magic, which ran during the summer season of 2016.