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Nov 29, 2018 · Advertisement. And the story, as written by Callie Kloves and directed by Serkis, is in a different kind of valley, somewhere between a film that's for kids and yet, in its persistent cruelty and bleakness, definitely not for kids. The whole movie feels oddly stranded and dramatically inert, despite the obvious passion that went into making it.
Nov 29, 2018 · 52% Tomatometer 107 Reviews 51% Audience Score 1,000+ Ratings Human child Mowgli is raised by a wolf pack in the jungles of India. As he learns the often harsh rules of the jungle, under the ...
- (107)
- Andy Serkis
- PG-13
- Rohan Chand
Dec 8, 2018 · Film Review: ‘Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle’. Performance capture guru Andy Serkis’ ill-conceived adaptation of 'The Jungle Book' focuses too much on technology, not enough on character. Let ...
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- A cerebral retelling marred by inconsistent VFX.
- Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle Images
- Verdict
By Jim Vejvoda
Updated: Apr 21, 2020 4:46 am
Posted: Nov 30, 2018 11:20 pm
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle begins an exclusive limited theatrical engagement on November 29, 2018 and launches globally on Netflix December 7.
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is a somber, serious retelling of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, a tale which has become, for better or worse, inextricably linked in the public consciousness with Disney’s animated, family-friendly adaptation. Director Andy Serkis’ Mowgli intentionally avoids any such cuddliness in favor of a less playful coming of age story set in a world full of danger, where learning to keep your guard up is a key lesson for survival. Forgetting about your worries and your strife will get you killed in Andy Serkis’ Jungle Book.
Mowgli is not a mainstream crowd-pleaser like Jon Favreau’s 2016 blockbuster remake of the Disney classic, which Warner Bros. clearly realized as they unloaded the film to Netflix after three years of working on it. Serkis’ grave and almost scholarly interpretation is decidedly not kid-friendly and it is not, with the exception of a few lighter moments, “fun” in the broad popcorn flick sense.
The voice cast does its best to be emotionally engaging, with solid work from Christian Bale as Bagheera, Benedict Cumberbatch as Shere Khan, and Serkis himself as Baloo (depicted here more as a Cockney drill instructor than a sweet buffoon), but their strong performances alone can’t make one fully suspend their disbelief.
Thankfully, the film’s central performance isn’t a digital character. Rohan Chand’s Mowgli almost single-handedly keeps the story emotionally authentic and engaging when the visual effects falter. This intense young actor finds the anger and sadness in a character who endures abandonment and loss. His Mowgli already seems mature despite his tender age and small stature; he’s literally battle-scarred from his experiences, making him less a character who loses his innocence and more one steeled by conflict and hardship.
Other human characters include Matthew Rhys as Lockwood, a British hunter brought in by the Man-Village to slay Shere Khan, and Freida Pinto as Messua, a villager who helps care for the feral Mowgli. Both characters aim to “civilize” this wild child, with one representing the dark side of human nature and the other its kinder side. Pinto imbues Messua with compassion and sweetness, but she definitely has the least dimensional role of the three human leads.
Rhys’ hunter is an archetypal colonial figure who immerses himself in the native culture even as he dissects and destroys it. His few scenes lend the film a sense of menace whenever Shere Khan isn’t on screen. These human characters serve their functions in the film fine, but it’s a testament to the story itself and to the voice cast that the animal characters have more dimension and humanity to them than the supporting human characters.
Andy Serkis’ Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is a relatively mirthless adaptation of The Jungle Book. It’s intellectually intriguing and well-acted, but the inconsistent visual effects undermine the necessary suspension of disbelief when it comes to mixing live-action humans with talking CG animals in such a serious and somber adaptation of the Kiplin...
Nov 28, 2018 · By Glenn Kenny. Nov. 28, 2018. The latest movie adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” can’t quite be called a “gritty reboot” of the often less-than-faithful cinematic ...
- Andy Serkis
- Glenn Kenny
- 3 min
A bloodier alternative to the classic Rudyard Kipling novel for those who like a little grit with their fairy tales. Full Review | Jan 28, 2021. Of all the versions of The Jungle Book, Mowgli sure ...
Nov 30, 2018 · The jungle is a richly realised backdrop, dense with lurking dangers and creeping, crawling biomass. The slight uncanny valley effect of the motion capture performances notwithstanding, the ...
