The Jungle Book

Rudyard Kipling wrote The Jungle Book in the early 1890s, and published it serially in magazines in 1893 and 1894.  The work, considered a masterpiece of English literature, was originally a collection of stories, mostly centered on Mowgli, the man cub raised by wolves, but also included are the stories of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, the mongoose, and Toomai of the Elephants.  The stories were an immediate hit, and continue to be popular around the world.  Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, asked Kipling’s permission to use the book as a motivational aid for the Cub Scouts, and the leader of a Cub Scout group is often called Akela after the leader of the wolf pack who adopted and raised Mowgli.  Imdb.com member dbone828 has compiled a list of 35 feature films, short films, and tv series based on the work, from the 1942 Zoltan Korda live action film starring Sabu as Mowgli up through the 2016 Disney animated film now playing at the Llano Theatre.  Over the years, many notable actors have taken part in the story-telling, including Orson Welles, Roddy McDowall, Sally Struthers, John Goodman, Dana Delaney, etc, and the 2016 Disney version is no slouch with Bill Murray as the voice of Baloo the bear, Ben Kingsley as Bagheera the black panther, Idris Elba as Sheer Khan, Lupita Nyong’o as Raksha the mother wolf, and Scarlett Johansson as Kaa the Cobra.  Garry Shandling and Christopher Walken even lend their voices to the story.

We have come to expect the best in animation from Disney Studios, and here again, we can have no complaints.  The film is so natural that at times, especially when the “camera” is focused on Mowgli, it’s easy to believe we’re watching a live-action film, not animation.  Now in my experience, animals don’t talk, and certainly don’t sing actual songs, but hey, it’s a cartoon, even if a very well done, very long cartoon (106 minutes).  The songs themselves are from the 1967 Disney version, this time with Bill Murray singing “Bear Necessities”, Scarlett Johansson singing “Trust in Me” and Christopher Walken (yes!) singing “I Wanna Be Like You.”

Produced and Directed by Jon Favreau who also brought us The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man and Iron Man 2, and Cowboys and Aliens, the film has been a box office success, making $103,261,464 on its opening weekend (April 15, 2016) and a gross of $289,124,137 by May 9^th, easily repaying the estimated $175,000,000 budgeted for the film.  There was some question as to whether the Llano would be able to show the film so early in its distribution, but it’s here, playing to a large audience last week and one hopes a large audience this coming weekend as well.  Having seen it myself last Friday, I heartily recommend an evening at the movies with this great story.

And for your future entertainment, 2018 is supposed to bring us two Jungle Books, Jungle Book 2 by Favreau and The Jungle Book, directed by Andy Serkis with more big names:  Christian Bale, Benedict Cumberbatch and Cate Blanchett, most notably.  Not sure how that will actually play out.  Guess we’ll have to wait and see.   The current movie is playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 13-15, at 8:00 p.m. with a Sunday matinee at 3:00 p.m.

Upcoming Films:  (subject to change)

May 20 - 22  MOTHER'S DAY PG-13

May 27 - 29  CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR PG-13

June 3 - 5  THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE PG

June 10 - 12  X-MEN: APOCALYPSE PG-13

June 17 - 19  ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS PG

June 24 - 26  TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS PG-13