Overall, I don't think that a single live action remake of a Disney animated classic was called for. However, this is one of the better ones. It sets up immediately some of the stuff that in the original only came up around the midpoint, such as our species ability to work with tools(and how that can be appealing to friends and frightening to enemies), the threat that fire poses and why it is so feared personally by Shere Khan, who has a more physical presence here, instead of just being mentioned a lot until he finally shows. He's also got a bit of a Scar thing going here, much like the 1998 live action adaptation; it's apparently also in the original book.
This fares better when it comes to photorealistic animation than some of the others, and helps underline that it is entirely possible for this approach to allow for striking use of lighting color and camera movement - Bill Pope remains a legend. Yes, the characters are redesigned. The faces are allowed to be much more expressive than The Lion King remake. Also, the fact that it isn't trying to directly recreate every scene with minor changes, rather brings in new ones that are created from the ground up with purpose is a major strength. The element of the allegory for race with Mowgli being ogled at and treated as different by all the animals sadly remains extremely relatable to minorities to this day. This manages to explore it with more nuance and detail then the first one. It doesn't feel as episodic.
The best of the songs make it in. A bit of Bare Necessities, I wanna Be Like You, and over the end credits, Trust In Me. This delivers what we expect from animated Disney. It's exciting, fun, cute, sad and dramatic. The phenomenal actors are all well cast; this is jam packed with talent. Idris Elba brings his intense presence, Giancarlo Esposito his soft spoken intelligence, Lupita Nyong'o her deep well of emotional vulnerability, Ben Kingsley his regal air, Bill Murray his charisma, Scarlett Johansson her smooth as honey seductiveness, and Christopher Walken is literally summoned by cowbell. I haven't seen Neel Sethi in anything else. I can confirm he nails it here. I mean in reality he's running around a green screen set surrounded by performers in skin tight colored suits that are later replaced. The fact that he is at all convincing is a miracle, and it goes far beyond that. 7/10.
This fares better when it comes to photorealistic animation than some of the others, and helps underline that it is entirely possible for this approach to allow for striking use of lighting color and camera movement - Bill Pope remains a legend. Yes, the characters are redesigned. The faces are allowed to be much more expressive than The Lion King remake. Also, the fact that it isn't trying to directly recreate every scene with minor changes, rather brings in new ones that are created from the ground up with purpose is a major strength. The element of the allegory for race with Mowgli being ogled at and treated as different by all the animals sadly remains extremely relatable to minorities to this day. This manages to explore it with more nuance and detail then the first one. It doesn't feel as episodic.
The best of the songs make it in. A bit of Bare Necessities, I wanna Be Like You, and over the end credits, Trust In Me. This delivers what we expect from animated Disney. It's exciting, fun, cute, sad and dramatic. The phenomenal actors are all well cast; this is jam packed with talent. Idris Elba brings his intense presence, Giancarlo Esposito his soft spoken intelligence, Lupita Nyong'o her deep well of emotional vulnerability, Ben Kingsley his regal air, Bill Murray his charisma, Scarlett Johansson her smooth as honey seductiveness, and Christopher Walken is literally summoned by cowbell. I haven't seen Neel Sethi in anything else. I can confirm he nails it here. I mean in reality he's running around a green screen set surrounded by performers in skin tight colored suits that are later replaced. The fact that he is at all convincing is a miracle, and it goes far beyond that. 7/10.