jungle book movie review essay

The Jungle Book

Review by brian eggert april 14, 2016.

Less a take on Rudyard Kipling’s famous stories than a recycling of Walt Disney Productions’ 1967 adaptation, The Jungle Book follows Disney’s recent trend of creating live-action versions of their classic animated films. Although not revisionist like Maleficent (2014) but with more life than Cinderella (2015), director Jon Favreau’s peril-toned and wonderful looking film draws from the same sources as the 1967 version—namely, Kipling’s short story “Mowgli’s Brothers”, which appeared in his collection The Jungle Book (1894), as well as elements from The Second Jungle Book (1895). Shot entirely using blue screens and the occasional physical setpiece, Favreau constructs with a digital paintbrush to render his backgrounds and animals, delivering an impressive feast for the eyes. Although, remarkably, the production was all filmed in Los Angeles, it boasts incredible photo-real jungle visuals.

Ironically, the most unreal aspect of Favreau’s film is the unpolished acting by Neel Sethi, playing the young Mowgli. Regrettably, the wobbly child actor appears in almost every scene of the familiar story, which finds Mowgli raised by his adoptive wolf parents Raksha (Lupita Nyong’o) and Akela (Giancarlo Esposito), who do their best to bring up a human child as a wolf. Mowgli’s other invested guardian, the black panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), tries to prevent the boy from relying on his “tricks”, meaning the inherent human quality to make tools. But Mowgli’s presence in the jungle becomes a problem for the malevolent Bengal tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba), who first sees Mowgli when the animals must make a “water truce” during a dry season (a very political moment not sourced from Kipling; instead, it feels more like Richard Adams’ Watership Down ). Having been scarred from the “red flower” (fire) of humans, Shere Khan demands the boy be turned over, but Bagheera leads Mowgli into the jungle, where he’s to be delivered back to a Man Village.

This early section of Justin Marks’ screenplay comes and goes rather quickly, making way for its most inspired scenes, when Mowgli bonds with the informal stylings of bear-friend Baloo, voiced by Bill Murray (whose voicework fits this lazy animal much better than Garfield). If there’s one animal character in The Jungle Book who risks entering the Uncanny Valley of looking like his human counterpart, it’s Baloo. This point is debatable, however, since Murray’s familiar attitude seems to synchronize so well with his character—the audience might just be unconsciously projecting the actor’s face onto the bear. Along with Murray, other characters prove almost distractingly well cast, to the degree that the choices are so obvious, the viewer has difficulty not seeing the voice actor behind the animal character. Orangutan Gigantopithecus honcho King Louie, strangely informed by Colonel Kurtz and Vitto Corleone, comes off quite wacky-then-imposing courtesy of Christopher Walken. Most effective is Scarlett Johansson’s voicework on Kaa, the snake capable of hypnotizing Mowgli (although with a much different outcome than Johansson’s hypnotic efforts in Under the Skin ). The late great Garry Shandling also lends his voice as Ikki, the edgy porcupine.

The casual, playful 1967 version of The Jungle Book was the last animated feature personally overseen by Walt Disney, and so it carries a certain bittersweet quality amid its usual early Disney magic. Favreau’s update ungainly nods back to the original by adopting two of the animated original’s memorable songs. Renewed versions of “The Bare Necessities” sung by Baloo and “I Wanna Be Like You” sung by King Louie (courtesy of Walken, a well-known song-and-dance man) feel like obligatory tissue connecting back to the original, whereas “Trust in Me,” performed by Kaa, curiously appears over the end credits. Other songs from the original are omitted completely, leaving us to presume Disney demanded Favreau acknowledge the original, no matter how inconsistent it left the overall film. Luckily, the impressive FX work allows the film to stand on its own after the tonally off-putting songs pass.

Perhaps it’s insulting to live-action features to call The Jungle Book a live-action production, since the majority of its shots have been painstakingly brought to life by CGI wizards and their impressive computers. The ratio of animation to reality outweighs even Avatar (2009), since there were far more humans onscreen in James Cameron’s film. In many ways, Favreau’s production has much more in common with something like Robert Zemeckis’ The Polar Express (2004), since the animated animals and jungle setting have all been artificially created and animated in such a way that they appear photo-real (at least, when their mouths aren’t moving). Even though it’s strange to watch incredibly realistic-looking animals speak like the cartoons in Disney’s original, the undeniable visual majesty of Favreau’s film overcomes any skepticism. And fortunately, the effect isn’t so off-putting as, say, the motion-capture work on Zemeckis’ other mo-cap features, Beowulf (2007) or A Christmas Carol (2009).

The end result of The Jungle Book requires a post-modern viewer to not get caught up in the details and periodic inconsistencies. Some may just sit back and enjoy the visual spectacle and pretty pictures onscreen, of which there are many, quite undeniably. And, of course, the sheer power of Kipling’s narrative cannot help but bond us to Mowgli’s journey. No matter how rough-around-the-edges Sethi’s acting may be, the animal characters are nothing short of believable. But other viewers may have trouble separating the CGI plane from the rare plane of reality on which Mowgli exists. Occasionally, Mowgli looks as though he’s standing on a studio lot in front of a screen. These rare moments clash with our suspension of disbelief. Younger viewers and audiences oblivious to this separation of the real and animated will savor The Jungle Book as a new classic, while the rest of us anticipate the next Disney live-action update with measured optimism.

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Film Review: ‘The Jungle Book’

Jon Favreau brings a welcome lightness of touch to this visually immersive adventure story.

By Andrew Barker

Andrew Barker

Senior Features Writer

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Of all of the impressive details to appear on screen in Disney’s live-action adaptation of “ The Jungle Book ,” none is more startling than a title card at the close of the end credits reading: “Filmed in Downtown Los Angeles.” So immersively does the film’s visual-effects team craft every tree, waterfall and flower of Rudyard Kipling’s fantastical subcontinental setting, and so carefully are the talking CGI animals rendered, it almost beggars belief that the whole thing was shot in a 12-story building overlooking the 110 freeway. But aside from investing in top-drawer digital craftsmanship, perhaps the canniest move Disney made on this film was hiring Jon Favreau to helm it. Maintaining the buoyant heartbeat beneath all the digital flash, Favreau never loses sight of the fact that he’s making an adventure story for children — no small matter in a kid-pic landscape flooded with inappropriately gritty reboots and frenetic distraction devices — and when positive word of mouth arrives to buttress Disney’s all-out marketing efforts, the studio should have a substantial hit on its hands.

Favreau already has one four-star family pic to his credit with “Elf,” but the most important touchstone from his filmography here is probably “Iron Man,” in which the director hit all the marks of an effects-heavy tentpole while still allowing the film to breathe where it needed to. His lightness of touch proves an enormous asset, as he builds this jungle into the type of dangerous, sometimes pitiless setting that an average 10-year-old would nonetheless never want to leave. It can’t rival the woolly looseness of Disney’s 1967 animated classic, of course, but it succeeds on its own so well that such comparisons are barely necessary.

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Pulling freely from Kipling’s stories, Disney’s own animated treatment, and the inventions of screenwriter Justin Marks, this “Jungle Book” certainly imposes a bit more of a strict hero’s-journey framework onto the source materials, yet rarely does it lapse into the sort of po-faced seriousness that tends to sour so many aggressively modernized fairy stories. Kipling’s story “Mowgli’s Brothers” serves as the film’s jumping-off point, and we open on the 10-year-old man-cub (first-timer Neel Sethi) as he’s deep into his wolf training. Discovered abandoned in the jungle by the sage black panther Bagheera (voiced by Ben Kingsley, all exasperated officiousness), Mowgli has been raised by wolf couple Raksha (Lupita Nyong’o) and Akela (Giancarlo Esposito), but his development is lagging behind that of his lupine siblings, and Bagheera admonishes him for using human “tricks” like tool building, instead of learning the ways of the pack.

When a dry season forces predators and prey into a brief “water truce,” the rest of the jungle gets a look at the wolf pack’s unusual new charge. The despotic Bengal tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) takes exception, having lost his left eye to an encounter with mankind’s “red flower,” fire, and demands the boy be surrendered to him. Akela stares down the tiger, but the conflict is enough to convince Mowgli to travel with Bagheera to rejoin human civilization; on their way, Shere Khan springs a surprise attack, and Mowgli flees off into the deep jungle alone.

It’s here that the familiar plot beats from Disney’s first “Jungle Book” outing kick in, and Mowgli joins forces with an ingratiatingly lazy bear, Baloo ( Bill Murray ). As much as modern blockbuster style might demand some sort of theme-park-ready setpiece for every reel, Favreau clearly understands that the Mowgli-Baloo relationship is the real key to the story, and he slows the film’s pace long enough to build up an effective hangout vibe, with Murray voicing the role as the world’s most charming ursine used-car salesman.

Whether the sloped-shouldered, heavy-lidded Baloo is designed to look a bit like Murray or Murray simply looks like a half-napping bear is open to debate, but it’s only with him that the film ever risks setting foot into the uncanny valley: Otherwise, the animal effects are overwhelmingly successful, taking the standard set by Rhythm and Hues’ CG tiger in “Life of Pi” and applying it throughout. It isn’t just that the animal movements scan as real — Shere Khan in particular is carefully rendered to be intimidatingly weighty when looming in the foreground while lighter than air when in flight — but they’ve figured out just how much to anthropomorphize the animal mouth movements to make their speaking seem natural, without turning them into cartoons.

Not all of it works. The all-but-contractually-obliged reprisals of Mouse House musical staples (“The Bare Necessities,” “I Wan’na Be Like You”) are inorganically threaded in, and the decision to cast King Louie (Christopher Walken) as a a grotesque, Col. Kurtz-esque gigantopithecus only makes the absence of Louis Prima sting even stronger. But when the film gets it right, it sings. The appearance of Kaa the snake (voiced by Scarlett Johansson, in the closest we’re likely to get to an “Under the Skin” sequel) is magnificently done, exploiting the surround-sound capabilities of Dolby Atmos and a sense of slowly shifting scale for an unnervingly trippy sequence that stops just short of something that would trouble children’s sleep.

Tackling his first feature-film role not only as the lead, but also as the only flesh-and-blood character on screen, young Sethi acquits himself well under what must have been challenging circumstances. His line readings don’t always fully pop, but he possesses a loose-limbed naturalness on camera, and perhaps most importantly for a film like this, he genuinely seems to be having fun. Voice work is excellent all around, from Nyong’o’s maternal warmth to Elba’s arrogant malevolence, and the late Garry Shandling has his moments as Ikki, the skittish porcupine. Composer John Debney offers a lush symphonic score, and the 3D work is impressive enough to justify the ticket price.

​Reviewed at El Capitan Theater, Hollywood, April 1, 2016. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 105 MIN.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Disney presentation of a Fairview Entertainment production. Produced by Jon Favreau, Brigham Taylor. Executive producers, Peter Tobyansen, Molly Allen, Karen Gilchrist. Co-producers, Joyce Cox, John Bartnicki.
• Crew: Directed by Jon Favreau. Screenplay, Justin Marks, based on the books by Rudyard Kipling. Camera (color), Bill Pope; editor, Mark Livolski; music, John Debney; production designer, Christopher Glass; supervising art director, Andrew L. Jones; art director, John Lord Booth III; costume designer, Laura Jean Shannon; sound (Dolby Atmos), Ronald Judkins; supervising sound editors, Christopher Boyes, Frank Eulner; re-recording mixers, Boyes, Lora Hirschberg; special effects supervisor, J.D. Schwalm; special effects coordinator, Gintar Repecka; visual effects supervisors, Robert Legato, Adam Valdez; visual effects producer, Joyce Cox; Weta visual effects supervisors, Dan Lemmon, Keith Miller, Joe Letteri; MPC visual effects supervisor, Charley Henley; visual effects, MPC, Weta Digital; stunt coordinators, Thomas Robinson Harper, Casey O'Neill; assistant director, David H. Venghaus Jr.; second unit director/camera, Legato; casting, Sarah Halley Finn.
• With: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong'o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Walken, Garry Shandling, Brighton Rose​

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The Jungle Book

By rudyard kipling.

• The Jungle Book Summary

The Seeonee pack of wolves in the jungle head to their family lair when, thanks to the gossip of the jackal Tabaqui, they hear Shere Khan , the tiger with a pronounced limp but passion for fighting, is approaching. Mother Wolf protects her four cubs but is amazed to see a little, naked, brown human cub running into the cave. He is the prey that the tiger is looking for. Quickly she decides to bring the boy into her family, naming him Mowgli , which means "little frog.” Mother agrees to show him to the pack alongside her own cubs to be identified, so that they can be free to run and play without fear of being killed. At the wolves’ Circle Rock Council, Mowgli's right to be a member of the pack is questioned by Shere Khan, who still feels that the boy belongs to him. The Law of the Jungle states that if there is a dispute, a cub needs to have two members of the pack that are not his mother or father speak for him. As Mother prepares to fight for her man-cub, Baloo , the old brown bear, speaks for him and promises to teach him the laws of the jungle. This is seconded by Bagheera , the black panther, who buys Mowgli's safety by offering up to the pack a fat bull that he has just killed. Mowgli is then accepted into the pack.

Mowgli spends his childhood learning the ways of the jungle from Baloo, hunting with Bagheera, and living with his wolf family. Once he is kidnapped by the Monkey-People, but Baloo, Bagheera, and the python Kaa save him.

When he is eleven years old. Shere Khan again demands that Mowgli be given to him and a fight ensues; Shere Khan has a lot of the younger wolves on his side and they depose Akela , the wise and aging leader of the pack. However, Mowgli has fire that he has been tending, and knowing how much the animals fear fire, he threatens Shere Khan with it and then orders that they leave Akela safe. Hugging his wolf family, who ask him to return one day, he goes towards the nearest village to find his own people.

When he arrives, he is welcomed into the home of a couple who believe him to be their long-lost son who was taken from them as an infant by a tiger. Messua , the woman, decides he is not their missing boy, but a boy sent by the Gods to make up for their son being taken away. She treats him like her own but Mowgli, used to living in the jungle, is not comfortable or at ease in a human home. He sleeps outside. One day, Gray Brother , one of his wolf siblings, wakes him. Gray Brother has learned that Shere Khan is still hunting Mowgli, and brings Akela to the village to try to help. Mowgli works every day in the fields herding buffalo, so they plan to divide up the herd to throw Shere Khan off the scent, then make a big circle uphill to get ahead of the ravine, taking the bulls down into it and trapping Shere Khan between the cows and the bulls. Shere Khan takes the bait and is trampled. When he is dead, Mowgli starts to skin him with his knife, but having come searching for his buffalo, the chief hunter of the village, Buldeo , realizes that there was a price on the head of this tiger who has been killing villagers, and demands the skin for himself so that he can claim the reward. Mowgli tells Akela that Buldeo is threatening him so Akela holds the chief down. With the skin laid over the Council Rock, Akela is leader again.

Buldeo, having convinced the entire village that Mowgli is one with wolves, declares him to be a sorcerer and Mowgli is banished from the village. Buldeo leads a group of hunters into the jungle to try to kill Mowgli, who in the meantime has returned to the village to find Messua and her husband bound, gagged, and imprisoned in their home. He procures the help of Hathi the wise old elephant, who agrees to destroy the village. He and his sons start to put the word out that the best food and best kill is available down by the village. Mowgli frees Messua and her husband, telling them to flee. After they have left, the jungle dwellers start to close in on the village in an effort to make the villagers move away. Hathi and his sons eat all of the stored seed corn, the other animals ruin the fields, and the lack of supplies finally forces the starving humans to leave the village. Hathi barrels through buildings until nothing is left standing and in a few short months the jungle has grown over the land where the village used to be.

Having returned to the jungle stronger, and slightly feared, Mowgli is recognized as Master of the Jungle. One of his favorite friends is Kaa, the giant python, who saved his life. After their customary play-wrestle they go back to the scene of Kaa's life-saving heroics and meet a huge, elderly white cobra who has lived underground for so long that he does not realize the jungle has taken over the old palaces of the Raj that he used to serve. He is the Warden of the King's Treasure and he allows them to take ownership of it, but only whilst they are in his lair. He threatens to kill Mowgli, but after they overpower him Kaa and Mowgli realize his fangs have dried up and he is not a threat at all. Mowgli takes a jeweled elephant head-dress with him, but the white cobra tells him it is cursed and death will follow it wherever it goes. Mowgli doesn't believe him at first, but when a hunter looking to steal the item from them winds up dead followed by six others with a similar goal in mind, Mowgli realizes he was speaking the truth and returns the jeweled spike to him.

The story jumps to Mowgli at the age of seventeen, when his parents pass away. He rolls a boulder in front of their family cave and sings his mourning song. Akela is now too old to hunt for himself so Mowgli hunts for him. The Seeonee pack grows stronger. One day, a lone wolf who lives not in a pack but with his wife and children comes to their part of the jungle, having been involved in an attack by the red dogs. They killed his cubs and wife and almost slaughtered him. He asks for help from the Seeonee pack. Mowgli heads to where the dogs are to count them and devises a plan, along with Kaa, to draw them towards the river at twilight where the bees will swarm and attack them. There is a giant battle but Mowgli's plan puts the red dogs at a huge disadvantage as when they are climbing out of the river the wolves, who attack by biting the throat, are able to attack before the dogs are fully out of the water. Akela is not killed in battle but realizes it is time for him to die. Before he sings his own mourning song, he tells Mowgli to go back to man as he has paid his debt to the jungle. Mowgli does not want to leave and is puzzled by Akela's claim that "Mowgli will drive Mowgli out of the jungle."

Spring comes and with it a strange, unfamiliar feeling in Mowgli's stomach that leaves him unable to fight properly and generally feeling grumpy and depressed. He decides to undertake a Spring Running and begins a journey on foot that takes him to a village where again he sees Messua and re-introduces himself to her. He is feverish and rests with her for a few days while she takes care of him. As he is headed back to the jungle, Gray Brother finally answers Mowgli's call, and they trot back together as Mowgli breaks the news that he is going to rejoin the humans. He says farewell to his family - Baloo, Kaa, and Bagheera, who tell him how much they love him, and his wolf brothers, then sets off to live among men once more.

As for the other tales, the most well-known is that of “ Rikki-Tikki-Tavi ,” the tale of a feisty and brave mongoose who is washed away from his parents during the rains and finds himself living in a house with an English family of three. He discovers Nag and Nagaina , a cobra and his wife, who want the humans to leave so that they can have the bungalow to themselves when their children are born. Rikki-tikki surprises the male cobra and disables him until the man comes to shoot the snake dead. The family is grateful to Rikki for saving their lives, but he is mindful that the snake's wife will be even more determined to kill the family. He decides to smash all of her eggs, saving one to barter, which draws her away from the house and into her tunnel. Rikki-tikki follows, not knowing if he will make it out alive, but happily does after killing Nagaina. The family realize he has saved their lives three times now, and remain grateful to him, However, he is very humble, living with them and making sure the garden is kept free of snakes.

In “The White Seal,” Kotick , a young seal known for his incredible and rare white coat, journeys to find an island where all of the seals can be safe from men clubbing them for their pelts.

In “The Miracle of Purun Bhagat,” Purun Dass becomes Prime Minister of a province of India, but willingly gives up his rule for peace and quiet as a holy man. He travels on foot to the Himalayas and takes up residence in a craggy mountain near a small village. The villagers respect and honor him and he lives a pleasant existence. He befriends the animals, who warn him that the mountain is coming down one night. Purun Bhagat, as he is now known, warns the villagers of this and they flee. Purun Bhagat perishes, and the villagers mourn and honor him.

In “Toomai of the Elephants,” Little Toomai , the son of an elephant driver, travels deep into the jungle with his elephant, Kala Nag , to see the mysterious and mythical dance of the elephants – something which no man ever gets to see. When he returns, the Englishman Peterson Sahib , manager of all the Indian Government’s elephant operations, as well as the rest of the Indians involved, honor and celebrate the boy.

In “Servants of the Queen,” a collection of animals in the service of the Indian Government – a troop-horse, two mules, two bullocks, a small dog, and a camel from a visiting army – discuss their services, their masters, and their lives.

In “The Undertakers,” a crane, a jackal, and a crocodile who live by a river near a village converse. The crocodile remembers the events of the Mutiny of 1857. He recalls a young boy whom he tried to eat and how the boy escaped; later that very boy returns to kill the crocodile.

In “Quiquern,” an Inuit teenager named Kotuku travels into the vast, wild winter wasteland in the far North to find seal for his starving village.

The Jungle Book Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Jungle Book is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Who was purun Dass

I think he's from the second Jungle Book. Purun Dass .was a high caste Brahmin, whose father had been an important official in an old-fashioned Hindu Court.

The jungle book

What chapter are you referring to?

Briefly explain why "growing up involves facing tough situations" is a good theme for the story.

Mowgli becomes a young man as the book progresses, and the reader watches him grow from an impulsive and earnest man-cub into a leader. Like most adolescents, he believes he is not allowed to do as much as he wants to do, but readers see him grow...

Study Guide for The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book study guide contains a biography of Rudyard Kipling, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Jungle Book
• Character List

Essays for The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.

• War and Womanhood in Rudyard Kipling’s Mary Postgate (1915)
• Loyalty in “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”

Lesson Plan for The Jungle Book

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Jungle Book
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Jungle Book Bibliography

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The jungle book (2016), common sense media reviewers.

Fangs and fur fly in visually dazzling but intense update.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Encourages teamwork, friendship, and helping other

Mowgli is curious, kind, and intelligent. He's

Characters die; one death is particularly sudden/s

One "shut up," and one "heck."

Nothing in the movie itself, but Disney has all so

Baloo is fixated on honey.

Parents need to know that The Jungle Book is a live-action/CGI update of Rudyard Kipling's classic book of short stories that has many scary/intense scenes involving menacing wild animals. With its blend of live-action and photo-realistic computer-generated effects, this action-packed adventure -- which…

Positive Messages

Encourages teamwork, friendship, and helping others. Family is where you find/make it, and change and innovation aren't to be feared. The wolf pack's motto is "the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack." There's also a sweet message for adoptive/non-traditional families, since Akela and Raksha view Mowgli as the same as their wolf cubs.

Positive Role Models

Mowgli is curious, kind, and intelligent. He's courageous enough to try to protect both friends and strangers. Bagheera, Akela, and Raksha all took care of Mowgli from a young age and treated him as a member of their jungle family. Raksha and Akela raise Mowgli as one of their own, and Bagheera is a godfather of sorts who loves and protects him. Baloo is a faithful, if a little sneaky, friend to Mowgli, and by the end, the entire jungle has opted to protect their man cub. Shere Khan is driven by the thirst for revenge, which is clearly portrayed as an unhealthy obsession.

Violence & Scariness

Characters die; one death is particularly sudden/shocking and upsetting. Others sometimes seem badly hurt/near death. Many scenes of peril, danger, and pursuit in which Mowgli is chased and menaced; he occasionally has some blood on his body due to scratches/abrasions/other wounds (he's also stung by bees in one scene). Animal characters fight each other in intense battles that involve teeth, claws, snarls, and roars. Shere Khan is cruel and scary; he and the snake Kaa both nearly kill Mowgli. Several jump-worthy moments when menacing animals pop up suddenly/threateningly, as well as when the monkeys kidnap Mowgli and King Louie gets angry. He commands his army to dispose of Baloo and chases after Mowgli fiercely. Forest fire scenes portray the "red flower" as deadly and unpredictable; a rainstorm leads to a mud avalanche that sweeps Mowgli into a raging river. It's sad when Mowgli leaves his wolf family; there are other scenes with hurtful words. Music intensifies many of the potentially scary scenes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

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Products & Purchases

Nothing in the movie itself, but Disney has all sorts of Jungle Book merchandise, games, apparel, toys, and more available.

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Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Jungle Book is a live-action/CGI update of Rudyard Kipling's classic book of short stories that has many scary/intense scenes involving menacing wild animals. With its blend of live-action and photo-realistic computer-generated effects, this action-packed adventure -- which was inspired by Disney's 1967 animated musical and has an all-star voice cast that includes Idris Elba , Bill Murray , Ben Kingsley , Christopher Walken , and Scarlett Johansson -- tells the story of young Mowgli (Neel Sethi), the orphaned "man cub" raised as a wolf and hated by the jungle's most vicious predator, tiger Shere Khan. There are several jump-worthy, intense moments (including one sudden and particularly sad death and several vicious animal fight sequences involving fangs, fur, claws, snarls, and roars) that are very likely to scare younger viewers (especially when seen in 3-D). Kids who are familiar with the story and know the animals they're seeing aren't real will probably be fine, but preschoolers and younger elementary-aged kids who have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality may not be able to handle Mowgli's frequent peril. All of that said, on the definite upside, the movie is gorgeous, and there are clear, strong messages about the importance of courage, teamwork, family (especially the non-traditional kind), and friendship. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (30)
• Kids say (101)

Based on 30 parent reviews

Beautiful but intense take on a classic.

Action packed family favorite, what's the story.

Based on Rudyard Kipling's tales, THE JUNGLE BOOK follows young "man cub" Mowgli, the only human co-existing with animals in the jungle. Found by the panther Bagheera ( Ben Kingsley ) Mowgli (Neel Sethi) was raised by wolf alpha male Akela ( Giancarlo Esposito ), his mate Raksha ( Lupita Nyongo ), who considers him one of her own cubs, and the rest of their pack. But when Mowgli draws attention to himself while all the animals gather during a drought-provoked truce to drink water, Shere Khan ( Idris Elba ) proclaims his intention kill Mowgli before he has the chance to become a man and endanger the jungle like all humans do. The pack tries to protect Mowgli, but the boy decides he'll save his lupine family by allowing Bagheera to return him to the world of men. On the journey to the human village, Mowgli ends up dealing with various predators and befriends a new pal, honey-obsessed bear Baloo ( Bill Murray ). Meanwhile, Shere Khan violently punishes the pack for not turning over Mowgli and lies in wait for Mowgli to return so he can kill the boy who doesn't belong in the jungle.

Is It Any Good?

Visually stunning and expertly acted, this retelling of a classic pays tribute to the original adventure while erasing the insensitivity of parts of Disney's '60s version. Sethi is a compelling young lead, making viewers really care about a boy who has only known the jungle and doesn't understand why he's being hunted. Elba is pitch perfect as the villainous Shere Khan, who in a misguided way makes sense -- man does cause destruction in the jungle -- but is so blinded by vengeance that he can't be made to see that Mowgli truly loves the jungle. All of the supporting actors are strong as their animal counterparts, and (with the exception of Murray and Christopher Walken , whose voices are too iconic to forget who they are) they don't come off as mere A-list cameos. With her husky purr, Scarlett Johansson is very well cast as giant python Kaa, who hypnotizes Mowgli with the tale of the boy's own origins.

There are only a few musical numbers in The Jungle Book , all of which are rearranged from the original: Kaa's transfixing "Trust in Me" (which really doesn't show up until the credits), Baloo's "Bare Necessities," and "I Wanna Be Like You," which Walken sings as the ambitious Gigantopithecus (an extinct giant orangutan) King Louie. That character's portrayal was problematic in the original Disney film, prompting criticism for being racist, and it's wonderful that director Jon Favreau 's interpretation of the story isn't culturally insensitive (just scary -- Louie is huge!). The pacing can be leisurely, but there are also plenty of heart-stopping thrills and action sequences to keep audiences riveted -- and, in a few cases, jumping out of their seats.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Jungle Book 's scary fights, chases, and deaths. Which scenes made you jump? Were you expecting them? What tells us to expect something scary when we're watching a movie? How much scary stuff can young kids handle?

Which characters in the movie do you consider role models? Why? How do they demonstrate courage and teamwork ? Why are those important character strengths?

What mistakes does Mowgli make? What are the consequences for those mistakes? Why is it important for kids to see consequences in movies?

Do you agree with Bagheera that Mowgli belongs in the man village? How do his talents and skills impact the characters around him? Is changing the way the jungle animals have always done things wrong?

How does this Jungle Book compare to Disney's classic animated one? Which do you like better, and why? The original has been criticized for the culturally insensitive way it depicts the apes. How does this version address those issues?

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 15, 2016
• On DVD or streaming : August 30, 2016
• Cast : Idris Elba , Neel Sethi , Bill Murray , Ben Kingsley
• Director : Jon Favreau
• Inclusion Information : Black actors, Indian/South Asian actors
• Studio : Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Book Characters , Friendship , Wild Animals
• Character Strengths : Courage , Teamwork
• Run time : 105 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : some sequences of scary action and peril
• Award : Common Sense Selection
• Last updated : February 18, 2023

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The Jungle Book

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Director Jon Favreau conjures up a magical place to get lost in. And that’s just one of the dazzling delights in The Jungle Book, a visual marvel that cuts a direct path to the heart. Favreau, the director of films as diverse as Elf, Iron Man and Chef, has managed to blend what’s best in the jungle stories of Rudyard Kipling and the 1967 animated Disney version into something unique and unforgettable. See it in reach-out-and-touch 3D if you can, and prepare to be wowed.

Ready-for-anything newcomer Neel Sethi — the only human in a cast of talking computer-generated animals,  plays Mowgli, a 10-year-old man-cub. After the murder of his father, Mowgli is found in the jungle of India by the panther Bagheera (voiced by Ben Kingsley) and left in the care of wolf parents, Raksha (Lupita Nyong’o) and Akela (Giancarlo Esposito). A water shortage has persuaded different species of animals to come together in peace and sharing. The truce is disrupted by the hostile Shere Khan, a Bengal tiger growled by Idris Elba in a voice guaranteed to induce fear and trembling. Blinded in one eye by fire, the “red flower” that the tiger blames on man, Shere Khan demands that the wolfpack turn over Mowgli to him for certain death. After a tearful farewell to his mother (Nyong’o speaks the role with touching gravity), Mowgli — with Bagheera keeping a watchful eye — sets out to connect with a tribe of humans he’s never known.

Scary, yes, but also thrilling. That’s because Favreau, screenwriter Justin Marks, cinematographer Bill Pope ( The Matrix ) and a miraculous special-effects team have made everything so vivid and vibrantly alive. Image and sound design reach new heights as Mowgli moves into the darkness. The mouth movements of the creatures, from ape to turtle, are appealingly natural in the manner of the talking pig in Babe. Be on the lookout for Kaa, a giant python so seductively hissed by Scarlett Johansson that it takes a while to realize she’s just warming up Mowgli up for the kill.

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Just when we get hungry for laughs, there’s Baloo, a lazy hustler of a bear given voice by the incomparable Bill Murray . Baloo helps restore the good-natured, hibernating, honey-slurping, fat-slob sauciness to a mammal that took a hit for turning Leonardo DiCaprio into a chew toy in The Revenant. Murray is pricelessly funny, especially dueting with Mowgli on “The Bare Necessities,” the Oscar-nominated ditty from the Disney cartoon. We also get a song from Christopher Walken who croons “I Wan’na Be Like You” to Mowgli in the role of King Louie, a gigantopithecus who rivals Kong’s role as king of the jungle. No one combines mirth and menace like Walken, whose looks begin to fuse with Louie’s to uncanny effect.

The Jungle Book weaves its way to a happy ending without getting dragged down in the mire of silliness and soppy sentiment. Favreau earns giggles and sniffles through the warm humor he brings to the story. The natural bounce in Sethi’s performance is echoed in the film. There’s nothing cynical about Favreau’s approach to the material.  You get the feeling that he’s having as much fun as we are. Working far from the jungle in a building in downtown Los Angeles, Favreau and his VFX team have built a fantasy world to rival James Cameron’s in Avatar and Ang Lee’s in Life of Pi. Favreau’s Jungle Book fills us with something rare in movies today — a sense of wonder.

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Friday File

Predicting the Staying Power of ‘The Jungle Book’

By Mary Jo Murphy

• April 7, 2016
• Share full article

117 Years Ago

You don’t have to agree with George Orwell to wonder about Hollywood’s long love affair with Rudyard Kipling. “A jingo imperialist,” “morally insensitive,” “aesthetically disgusting” and possessing “a definite strain of sadism” were among Orwell’s descriptions of him. On the other hand, “ The Jungle Book ,” whose stars are mostly animals, is at least somewhat inoculated against not only Kipling’s harshest critics but also the range of views about him that have emerged over the last century.

And so here we are with yet another adaptation of “ The Jungle Book ,” a live-action feature from Disney based on its 1967 animated classic, set to open next week, and Warner Bros. has its own version in the pipeline. It’s hard to keep track of all the film adaptations, but they date back to 1942, with one starring Sabu.

An essay in The New York Times in 1899, when Kipling was still in his prime, predicted his sticking power, and seemed in particular to get to the heart of how he would secure his place in the firmament of childhood. The essay, in what was The Saturday Review of Books and Art, was headlined “ Kipling’s Claim on Posterity ” and began like this:

“At the age of thirty-three Rudyard Kipling has attained the dignity of being a classic. In other words, he has achieved immortality.”

The essay went on to examine all aspects of Kipling’s work to see how they might be remembered, if it all. “The work of Kipling is, as a whole, of such high order that one hesitates to pronounce any of it ephemeral,” the article said.

On the other hand: “In the nature of things he cannot be to our descendants what he is to us; they will demand a fresh message adapted to their needs, and, despite all we may say, will judge him by the dispassionate, impersonal standards of ‘mere’ literature, unmoved by contemporaneous thrills of sympathy and interest.”

But then the essay found its answer, among not the humans but the animals:

“Were his work at an end, upon what would his claim to the consideration of posterity be founded? What has he produced thus far that entitles him to immunity from oblivion? Of all his prose works the ‘Jungle Books’ possess most indubitably the elements of immortality; in regard to the longevity of his fiction there may fairly be a difference of opinion, but hardly so as to these animal stories.

This is by no means tantamount to saying that they are pre-eminently superior to his other tales or more interesting to present-day readers; it is simply a statement based upon historical teaching; the perpetrator or creator of the animal epos is sure of a permanently sympathetic audience. The reason for this is not far to seek. The brute creation is the incarnation of the basic elements of humanity, which are eternal, changeless despite modifications in the forms of civilization. It is, therefore, hardly cause for wonder that mankind everywhere and at all times feel an interest in the avatars of their own constant passions and instincts. There is, indeed, a great deal of humanity in a dog.”

Dr. Dolittle could not have said it better. Certainly the essay went to greater lengths to examine the work than the brief review that appeared in The Times five years earlier, when the work was first published. “Perhaps Anglo-Indian children would understand ‘The Jungle Book’ better than American ones,” that review concluded.

The essay concluded differently: “We may rest assured that our children’s children will buy the ‘Jungle Books’ for their children and will read them aloud with the same enjoyment for big folks and little folks as that experienced by reader and listener to-day.”

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The Jungle Book

Review and Interpretation of the Movie Jungle Book

The Jungle Book is one of Walt Disney’s early works, and the last he was to oversee in his lifetime. It opens in the jungles of India, where Bagheera the black panther finds a crying baby. This baby is revealed to be Mowgli, our protagonist. Bagheera brings Mowgli to a wolf pack, where he is raised to be a young boy. As he is brought up, he learns to live in the jungle, until news comes of Shere Khan. The tiger Shere Khan is tipped that Mowgli is living amongst the jungle animals, and aims to kill him before he becomes a hunter like all the other humans. His wolf family asks Bagheera to take him to the man-village, away from safety. As Mowgli realizes what happens, he argues that he wants to stay in the jungle. They find Kaa, the snake, who tries to hypnotize the two. Mowgli proves a point by fending him off and they get a day’s rest before they progress to the village. In the morning, they wake up to elephants parading, where Mowgli finds a friend and joins the march. Bagheera, frustrated with Mowgli straying from the travel to the village, leaves him to fend for himself. As Mowgli and Bagheera storm off, Mowgli meets Baloo, the bear. They find companionship in one another, and hearing Baloo’s bellowing, Bagheera thinks Mowgli is in trouble. He comes to the rescue, but he is frustrated as he finds the carefree Baloo. As Mowgli and Baloo are just having a good time together, Bagheera is about to leave, but Mowgli gets abducted by the monkeys. As Mowgli is taken to the king of the monkeys, King Louie, he is asked for the secret to man’s fire. Bagheera and Baloo come to save him, and the monkeys are routed as their ancient ruins collapse. As the three escape, Mowgli takes the night to rest while Baloo and Bagheera talk. Baloo agrees to take Mowgli to the man-village for his own safety, albeit reluctantly – Baloo now sees Mowgli as his own child, and he knows he will miss Mowgli. The two start off, but Mowgli finds that they are going to the village and he again runs off on his own. Shere Khan appears, stalking Bagheera and finding out that Mowgli is missing. Kaa is stumbled upon by Mowgli, and by Shere Khan not shortly after. Shere Khan interrogates Kaa, but does not find Mowgli. As Mowgli continues to wander, despondent, he finds the vultures. The vultures comfort Mowgli and make him an honorary vulture. Shere Khan appears again, ready to attack Mowgli. As the tiger pounces, Baloo appears and thwarts him. The two battle and Baloo is knocked out, but Mowgli scares him off with fire. In the aftermath, Bagheera and Mowgli mourn Baloo, but Baloo awakes not soon afterward. The two are ecstatic and walk off together, but they walk by the village and they see a girl. Mowgli, intrigued, follows her, and joins the man-village. The film concludes as Bagheera and Baloo walk off, happy, and Mowgli walks off with his girl.

The cast of The Jungle Book helped bring the characters to life. It’s hard to point out a bad choice in casting, as each voice really fit each character. Bruce Reitherman is the director’s son, but fulfilled the childlike and adventurous voice of Mowgli. Phil Harris gave Baloo life and soul, and as the 2016 remake is about to release, it’s hard to imagine anyone else voicing Baloo. In specific, Phil Harris’s voice will be greatly missed in the performance of “Bare Necessities”. Bagheera and Shere Khan, voiced by Sebastian Cabot and George Sanders respectively, also fit their characters and performed their lines well.

The Jungle Book’s plot advancement was perfectly simple and very well-done. The incomplex intro of each character was perfect and was great for a family movie, while also being clever setups for the personalities of each character. Bagheera is introduced as the caring parental figure, Baloo is carefree and a wandering soul, Kaa is snakelike and conniving, and Shere Khan is confidently cool. One thing that was simply mediocre was the animation style. There was not much interesting going on in the animation, although it was done up to standard. This can be easily excused, though – the film was made in 1967 and, when compared to other Disney films, the technology was not there to make these intricately computer-generated graphics.

The theme of The Jungle Book is one of acceptance despite differences. Each character deals with Mowgli in a unique way, some accepting him and some treating him as an outsider. Bagheera and Baloo are Mowgli’s companions through and through, with each acting as a sort of parental figure in his jungle life. They enjoy the time they spend in the jungle and are blessed with a young boy alongside them. On the flipside, the people who treat Mowgli as an outsider are hit smack in the face by karma. Kaa is knocked around Tom-and-Jerry style for messing with Mowgli. King Louie of the monkeys covets man’s secret of fire and has the ruins he calls home destroyed for his greed. Finally, Shere Khan is turned into a coward for his hunting of Mowgli with a simple burning branch. The characters that accept Mowgli despite him being human are rewarded, while the ones that do not are duly punished.

The Jungle Book is a great family film that withstands the test of time. It is easily recommendable to families across the world, as it’s entertaining, lighthearted, and simply elegant – not to mention its catchy songs. However, if you’re looking for something serious, The Jungle Book isn’t the film to go to, as it’s fairly simple and jovial in nature. The film was Approved in 1967 and it was correctly so – there is not a drop of suggestive content. In closing, The Jungle Book is a great movie that’s nearly impossible to outgrow. Seeing this film at an early age and recently rewatching it, it is only natural that it would stick in a child’s mind; it is a measly 88 minutes, making it easily rewatchable, the catchy tunes are simple to sing along to, the characters are lovable, and it has a great moral for children to learn while they are young. Overall, a classic for families throughout the years, and for good reason.

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Screen Rant

Disney's the jungle book: 10 differences between the book and the animated movie.

Disney's The Jungle Book is the most famous adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's book. But there were a lot of differences between the text and the movie.

Walt Disney gave a copy of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book to one of his writers and said: "The first thing to do is not to read it." (As per Art and Animation: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by Bob Thomas.) So from this alone, it's clear that Disney 's final movie was intended to not be a loyal adaptation to Kipling's novels.

RELATED: 10 Reasons The Jungle Book Is Disney's Best Live-Action Remake

This is understandable, as the original book had a number of tales and characters, and is darker and more sinister than the light-hearted animation audiences know and love. From character changes to character cutting, there were a number of changes made from the original book when making this beloved animated classic.

There's No King Louie

Although "I Wanna Be Like You" is one of the best songs in The Jungle Book , and one of its most memorable scenes, King Louie does not even exist in the book. This isn't a surprise, as orangutans are not even native to India (this is why King Louie was made into an extinct species of ape for the live-action remake). The character of King Louie was an original creation by Disney and was voiced by jazz musician Louis Prima.

The monkeys are still antagonists in the book, collectively called the Bandar-log, who kidnap Mowgli for reasons unspecified - not the "red flower" that King Louie craves.

There Are More Humans

In the animated movie, there are only two humans - Mowgli, and the young girl from the man village (named Shanti in The Jungle Book 2 ). In the book, there are many more humans. Mowgli actually joins the man village about halfway through the story rather than at the end, where he is adopted by Messua, who believes Mowgli is her long-lost son.

Other human characters from the book include Messua's unnamed husband, and Buldeo, the chief hunter who wants to kill Shere Khan for the value his hide can bring. Although there are more humans in the direct-to-video sequel, none of these characters appear there either.

The Wolves Are Much More Important

The wolves who adopt and raise Mowgli are barely given enough screen time to be fully characterized in the movie. They play a significantly larger role in the book, such as protecting Mowgli from Shere Khan early on. Even the mother wolf has a bigger part, where she doesn't even speak in the movie.

RELATED: Baloo's 10 Best Quotes, Ranked, In The Jungle Book (1967)

The biggest notable difference is the character of Akela, the leader of the wolf pack. He is one of the most forgettable characters in the movie, perhaps even in the Disney franchise. That is not so in the book. Akela is an important figure for Mowgli, even sacrificing himself to save Mowgli out of love for him, and it is this action that makes Mowgli decide to stay in the man village - not pre-pubescent hormones like in the movie.

Kaa Is A Good Guy... And A Bad Ass

The sneaky Kaa is arguably one of Disney's most memorable villains, renowned for his swirly hypnotic eyes and his quest to eat Mowgli. In the book, Kaa is not only one of Mowgli's allies but a very formidable and feared force to be reckoned with.

Although he has his sinister moments and a wonderfully creepy villain song, Disney's Kaa is accident-prone and is one of the movie's main sources of comic relief. In the novel, Kaa is called upon to rescue Mowgli from the monkeys, all of which he defeats single-handedly - a far cry from the sniveling snake in the movie. The only similarities that the two Kaas share are immense length and size, and hypnosis powers.

Shere Khan Isn't So Scary

Although he doesn't appear on screen until much later, the erudite Shere Khan is a formidable yet underappreciated Disney villain , feared by all who reside in the jungle (except Mowgli). He is even nastier in the live-action remake.

This isn't the case in the book. Shere Khan is arrogant and believes he should rule the jungle, but whereas the wolf pack is too fearful to protect Mowgli in the movie, they are more than a match for Shere Khan and fend him off in only the first chapter. Making Shere Khan stronger and more of a threat was a smart decision on Disney's part - defeating the main villain too early on would have made a dull movie.

Shere Khan Had A Sidekick

Almost all Disney villains have a sidekick - usually funny and incompetent. So it's a bit of a mystery why Disney did not give Shere Khan his sidekick from the novel. Tabaqui the cowardly jackal is the only character in the book that is loyal to Shere Khan and is hated just as much as the tiger.

On one hand, it would have been interesting to see Shere Khan with a zany sidekick, especially give the basis of Tabaqui's personality in the book. On the other hand, Disney Shere Khan is a great character on his own and there are plenty of comic relief characters in the movie already. Perhaps the closest Shere Khan has to a sidekick is his rather hilarious interaction with Kaa.

Baloo And Bagheera Swap Roles

One of the most likable characters in Disney's The Jungle Book is easily Baloo, the laidback lazy sloth bear who just wants to have fun with his newfound buddy Mowgli. His counterpart is the good-hearted but rather strict Bagheera, who is one of Disney's more underrated characters.

Interestingly, these two key characters had their personalities switched over for the movie. In the original book, it is Bagheera who coddles Mowgli and develops a close bond with him, and Baloo who is the strict one, whose role is to teach the wolf cubs the law of the jungle, Mowgli included. Imagine how different "The Bare Necessities" would be if Disney's Baloo was a strict teacher!

Hathi Isn't A "Pompous Old Windbag"

In the novel, Hathi is the patient leader of the elephants and believes strongly in law and order. This might have provided a basis for the Disney version but Hathi in the novel is taken far more seriously by his peers than his Disney counterpart.

RELATED: 10 Old School Disney Movies That Are Still Worth Watching Today

Disney's version of Hathi ("Colonel Hathi, if you please!") is a stuffy, pompous, forgetful old elephant who provides a good amount of comic relief in the movie, particularly when confronted by his long-suffering wife Winifred. Whilst something of a mockery of the book version, Disney's Hathi is undoubtedly an entertaining Disney creation.

The Baby Elephant Has Siblings

Hathi's son, named Junior, is the main source of cuteness in the Disney movie. Unlike Hathi, Junior quickly befriends Mowgli and shows him how to be an elephant. It is also because of him that Hathi, who unconditionally loves his son, even considers helping look for Mowgli.

As the movie's cutest character, it's a bit of a shame that Disney didn't follow the book in this instance. In Kipling's text, Hathi had not one but three children. With three cute baby elephants for Mowgli to befriend, there would have been not only triple the adorableness but Hathi perhaps would have been much quicker to help Mowgli.

There Are No Vultures

It's hard not to forget the quartet of sluggish barbershop-singing vultures who console Mowgli when he's perhaps at his lowest. This might be due to their similarity to the legendary band The Beatles, who were originally intended to voice the vultures .

There are no vultures in the book at all. Like King Louie, the vultures are an original Disney creation. Only unlike King Louie and the other monkeys, there's not so much as even a mention of vulture characters in the book and they didn't even make it into the live-action remake.

NEXT: 10 Behind The Scenes Facts About Disney's Alice in Wonderland

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“The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling Essay (Critical Writing)

There is a great number of different masterpieces of literature in the world. Each of them describes some peculiar phenomenon or event. The majority of books are devoted to human beings and their feelings and emotions. There are, however, some works which are devoted to animals and their touching allegiance to people. Being very popular, this issue has always interested people. However, there are not many works which manage to combine description of the life of human beings, animals behaviour and visions of nature, trying to show the authors way of to reflect the real world. One of these works is called The Jungle Book and is written by Rudyard Kipling.

Devoted to the description of the life of a human being, the book, though, manages to combine this description with the visions of nature of the jungle and the laws according to which animals live there.

The main character of the story is a boy called Mowgli. The main peculiarity of this boy is the fact that he was raised by wolves and acts according to their code. In certain period of time this fact was taken as ridiculous and impossible. However, boys like Mowgli were found. That is why, it is possible to say that Kipling created a very interesting story which could be based on some real facts. Mowgli is able to understand animals and communicate with them, following the rules accepted in the jungle. All these facts make him a unique character who is very interesting for people.

Having created his story in the form of a tale, Kipling romanticized the life of animals and human beings in the jungle. However, there is one very important aspect of the jungle which the author describes. It is the law according to which animals live. Kipling uses the term the law of the jungle to describe existing set of codes according to which the community of wolves and other animals is structured. They all should follow it or they will not be able to survive.

All rules which are described by this law are wise and created by generations of animals in order to guarantee their survival. The law of the jungle outlines the main activity of animals, their main food and relations with other species. However, the Bandar-log do not accept these rules. They can be taken as rebels, who do not want to follow the majority. However, Kipling describes them as primitive and disorganised tribe which is not able to guarantee its prosperity. Outlining this fact, the author wants to show great importance of the law and norms which regulate behaviour in society.

Being created by Rudyard Kipling, the term the law of the jungle became very popular, though having changed its main meaning. Nowadays, it is widely used in order not to describe some set of codes accepted in society, but to show special kind of human attitude to the rest of people and his/her role in society. Everyone should take care only of himself/herself and be the strongest to survive in coherent society. This is the meaning of the term which prevails nowadays.

Besides, having read the book, it is impossible to remain indifferent. Having created interesting and fascinating world, Kipling also introduced the new term which described existence of animals in the jungle. The term the law of the jungle became the metaphor which is widely used nowadays.

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IvyPanda. (2020, July 5). "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-jungle-book-by-rudyard-kipling/

""The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling." IvyPanda , 5 July 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/the-jungle-book-by-rudyard-kipling/.

IvyPanda . (2020) '"The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling'. 5 July.

IvyPanda . 2020. ""The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling." July 5, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-jungle-book-by-rudyard-kipling/.

1. IvyPanda . ""The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling." July 5, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-jungle-book-by-rudyard-kipling/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . ""The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling." July 5, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-jungle-book-by-rudyard-kipling/.

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In 1981, Yossi Ghinsberg , all of 21 years old, traveled to South America with dreams of adventure. He ended up in La Paz, Bolivia where he befriended Marcus Stamm, a Swiss teacher, and Kevin Gale, an American photographer. Together, they set out on an expedition into the uncharted Amazon led by the mysterious Karl Ruprechter, an Austrian man who claimed to have knowledge of hidden gold. After traveling for several days with low supplies and frayed nerves, the four men separated—Karl and Marcus would walk while Yossi and Kevin set out on the river in a raft. But as the raft neared a waterfall, Yossi and Kevin lost control and got separated from each other. Yossi spent three weeks stranded in the jungle with no supplies and little food before being rescued by a search mission just before they were about to abandon hope.

Yossi’s remarkable tale of bravery and fortitude feels ready made for a film adaptation, one that delves into the psychological horrors he faced alone in the jungle, uncertain if he’d ever make it out alive. Director Greg McLean (best known for his debut horror film “ Wolf Creek ”) delivers on this promise with the gritty, yet ultimately overwrought “Jungle.” Starring the always-game Daniel Radcliffe as Yossi, “Jungle” succeeds in communicating the young Israeli kid’s horrible situation, as well as the camaraderie between him and his new friends, but falls short when trying to visually explicate his mental state.

For most of the film, McLean coasts on the real-life details of Yossi’s story to great effect. He and Radcliffe wonderfully capture Yossi’s open, yet reckless mindset as he lands in La Paz and meets Marcus (played by Joel Jackson ) and Kevin ( Alex Russell , who conveys just the right amount of American arrogance). McLean strikes the right tone during Yossi and the crew’s first few days out in the jungle, hovering somewhere between dangerous and exciting. He’s also perceptive about how the unstable environment creates a hierarchy amongst those who dare enter it—Yossi and Kevin adapt right away, but Marcus immediately feels out of place and his blistered, cut-open feet are unable to keep up with his buddies. Marcus begins to lose it while Yossi and Kevin resent him for dragging them down.

Ironically, “Jungle” starts to lose its way when Yossi loses his. As soon as McLean has only Radcliffe and the jungle as his two main characters, he starts over-relying on cheap effects and hoary psychological clichés to express Yossi’s fraught state of mind. Yossi certainly suffered from hallucinations and near-fatal exhaustion during his harrowing journey, but “Jungle” illustrates this with faux-delirious imagery and wholly unnecessary flashbacks that exist only to break up the monotony of the action. There seems to be great trepidation on McLean’s part to simply allow Radcliffe to communicate the character’s own internalized emotions. Instead, he employs visual gimmickry as cheap support.

It’s a shame because Radcliffe carries “Jungle” on his shoulders, when McLean or Justin Monjo ’s script lets him. He admirably throws himself into this role and plays Yossi as a kid who got into an adventure that was way over his head. He excels at channeling Yossi’s frustration with his own rudimentary exploration skills, like when he realizes he’s spent the day walking in a circle or when he can’t get the rescue plane overhead to see his location. He stumbles occasionally when he has to monologue his own fears (his shaky Israeli accent is mostly to blame), but it’s primarily a physical role, and luckily he’s up to the task. There’s still great charge in watching the former Harry Potter as an emaciated wreck, crawling through the brush whilst screaming for help.

Despite its many obvious flaws—shaky dialogue, unsubtle sound design, a strong tendency to visually explicate simple ideas—Yossi’s story has enough weight on its own to render “Jungle” a moderately compelling survival flick. The film is on solid ground when it relies solely on the unique dangers of the Amazon, like in the film’s best scene when Yossi finds a parasite lodged in his forehead and must use tweezers to extract it. Moreover, Yossi’s straightforward plight makes him a strong protagonist and keeps the audience invested in his struggle to stay alive. Sometimes a compelling reality is all you need to make a good fiction.

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Jungle (2017)

Rated R for language and some drug use.

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Daniel Radcliffe as Yossi Ghinsberg

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The Jungle, Book Review Example

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Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle . Charleston: Forgotten Books, 1935 .

Upton Sinclair was a son of the ruined Southern aristocrats who moved to New York when he was 10. The family had to work hard to earn for a living, and Upton himself, even despite successful writing attempts from as early as 14, was forced to work at the meatpacking plant in the yards, where he became the witness of multiple violations of labor legislation and safe handing of food. The result was the plot of The Jungle where the author unveiled the terrible conditions in which the workers were forced to work, and revealed the corruption existing in the Meat Trust leading to neglect of safety regulations and improper handing of meat products. The work was first ignored by publishers, but the writer insisted that he would still publish the work himself, after which he really received a great number of orders. The work had a series of significant legislative changes, including the adoption of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act initiated by the President Theodore Roosevelt. Thus, the overall effect of the book involved both social and legal consequences that altered the public understanding of meatpacking work and the true safety of food they bought (Sinclair).

The book tells about the Lithuanian family, immigrants to the USA, with Jurgis Rudkus as a head thereof and the main character of the novel. The family moves to the USA in the pursuit of better life, but they find out that they have to work in inhumane conditions at the meatpacking plant where they see how exhausted and neglected the workers are, how unsafe the work is and how horrible the quality of produced products turns out. All members of the family have to work, including Jurgis’ pregnant wife and weak old father, but they are still urged to exist in dangerous, intoxicated surroundings, in homes full of rats and poisonous chemicals (Sinclair). Jurgis is driven to despair as soon as his wife and small son die, so he leaves the plant and goes to the countryside where he loses the last ties with a decent life. Returning to Chicago, he gets involved in criminal activities with his new friend from a jail, and degrades. The savior is his introduction to the principles of Socialism; Jurgis enters a Socialist party and learns the roots of inequality, finds a decent job and tries to help the family he abandoned (Sinclair). The ending part of the book serves a Socialist propaganda with the speech about the forthcoming force of the Socialist party and its future coming to the rule in the city (Sinclair).

There are several main messages and themes in the book; the first call of Sinclair refers to the inhumane working conditions of that time, and the corruption existing in the meatpacking industry, as well as in other areas such as the police force, the politics etc. The author offers dreadful descriptions of where the workers had to live to make the reader understand how unacceptable the conditions were:

“There were mountains and valleys and rivers, gullies and ditches, and great hollows full of stinking green water. In these pools the children played, and rolled about in the mud of the streets…Swarms and flies…hung about the scene, literally blackening the air” (Siclair 26).

The book is also full of depictions of corruption that surrounded meat production; Sinclair focused on numerous malpractices of officials, making the audience realize how dangerous their activities could be for the consumer health: it is enough to recollect the fragment about processing pregnant cows that were officially considered inappropriate for food or the words about the attitude to materials from which the products were made: “They use everything about the hog except the squeal” (Sinclair 31).

Speaking about the general effect of the book and its value to readers, one should note that Sinclair provides a true picture of the production at the beginning of the 20 th century. Malpractices, labor exploitation, inhumane conditions for existence – all this was a part of the daily reality for workers at the rise of the Industrial Revolution. People had to agree to the miserable payment and live in insanitary conditions just to be able to provide for their living; hence, the rise of the Socialist movement finds a precise reflection in the work of Sinclair. The work will be of invaluable interest and help for any person studying the history of the working class in 1900s and the formation of the labor movement that marked the next few decades.

Works Cited

Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle . Charleston: Forgotten Books, 1935.

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Short Essay On Jungle Book

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Introduction

The jungle book is a story about an orphaned boy or man-cub named Mowgli who was abandoned in the jungle and was found by a panther named Bagheera who takes the boy to grow up with a pack of wolves where he was raised by Raksha. The stories are set in a forest in India. The book is one of the classic stories written by Rudyard Kipling. A major theme in the book is abandonment followed by fostering, as in the life of Mowgli, echoing Kipling's childhood.

A ten-year-old Mowgli becomes well acquainted with life in the jungle with the help of his wolf family. But being a human living in the jungle Mowgli was always in danger of some form. The wolf pack leader Akela tells Mowgli not to use his man tricks in front of the other animals when Mowgli uses the shell of fruit to grab water for himself during the drought that makes other animals look at him oddly (Akşehir 138). Then arrives the fearsome Sher Khan who is aware of Mowgli’s presence and considers Man to be forbidden in the jungle. Akela covers Mowgli and tells Sher Khan that he cannot have the boy. Sher Khan vows to come back for Mowgli once the river runs again. When the other wolves of the pack and Bagheera learned of the danger, they decided to take Mowgli back to the man-village. On their journey to the man village, Mowgli and Bagheera get separated once they come across a field of buffaloes where they are ambushed by Sher Khan. Bagheera holds the tiger off for Mowgli to run. The boy escapes and Sher Khan returns to the Peace Rock to confront the wolves where he throws Akela off the cliff and assumes leadership over the other animals and awaits for Mowgli to return. Now wandering alone in the jungle, Mowgli is met by yet another foe that tries to kill him. The snake called Kaa kept Mowgli under her spell with her hypnotic voice and eyes. Kaa told Mowgli of where he came from. She told him that he was an infant when his father came across a cave in the jungle and protected him from Sher Khan with the "red flower” (fire). Mowgli’s father blinded Sher Khan’s left eye and the tiger killed the man. As the boy was lost in her story, Kaa almost ate him by wrapping herself around Mowgli but a bear named Baloo saved him. Since he saved Mowgli’s life, he asked the boy to help him gather some honey. In the process of breaking off some honeycomb, Mowgli gets stung a few times but Baloo and Mowgli form a bond of friendship (Asghar and Muhammad 150). Baloo showed Mowgli that the human village is nearby and that he can go whenever he wanted, but Mowgli decided to stick with Baloo, who shows him all about the bare necessities of life.

As the story unfolds, we see Bagheera telling Baloo that he needed Mowgli to get to safety and away from Sher Khan.  Baloo reluctantly tells Mowgli he never thought of him as a friend and wanted him to go away. Heartbroken, Mowgli retreats to a tree and gets captured by a group of monkeys. Baloo and Bagheera see this and follow. The monkeys bring Mowgli to the temple of King Louie, a massive orangutan. Louie claims he can protect Mowgli, but he wants to learn the secret of the red flower (fire) and thinks Mowgli can solve it. Mowgli says he cannot, sending Louie into a fit of rage. Baloo and Bagheera arrive in the nick of time and fight the monkeys while Louie chases Mowgli, taunting him as he tells him that Akela, the pack leader has been killed by Sher Khan and Bagheera knew about it. As Louie tries to get Mowgli, he runs through his temple, causing it to crumble and crush him. Infuriated that  Bagheera didn’t tell him about Akela, Mowgli runs away and enters the man village undetected and takes a burning torch back into the jungle. As he runs back, the other animals see him with fire and follow (Park 228). A piece of ember falls from the torch and slowly starts a fire. Mowgli confronts Sher Khan as the other animals gather to watch. Sher Khan tries to turn the animals against Mowgli by stating that man has brought the red flower into the jungle. Mowgli tosses the torch right before Baloo and Bagheera show up. They along with the other animals, stand by Mowgli and against Sher Khan. Baloo battles Sher Khan. Bagheera tells Mowgli that he must fight like a man and not as a wolf. Sher Khan takes Baloo down, but before he can kill him, Raksha and other wolves attack Sher Khan. Mowgli sets a trap in the trees and waits for Sher Khan there (Mutiarani et al. 27). Escaping the wolves and Bagheera, the tiger climbs the tree and walks the branch where Mowgli is standing but Mowgli jumps to safety. Sher Khan ends up falling and is consumed by the fire. Mowgli returns to the other animals, and the river, aided by grateful elephants, turns its flow, putting out the fire. Mowgli finally reunites with his wolf brothers and Raksha. Baloo now lives close with Mowgli, Bagheera, and the other animals. The story of Mowgli later ends with Mowgli leaving the jungle bringing tears to the eyes of his friends in the jungle.

This story teaches us valuable life lessons as Mowgli undergoes an epic journey of self-discovery guided by a no-nonsense panther and a free-spirited bear.  It is entertaining as the adventures described are so exciting. This story teaches us about the bond of friendship and unconditional love. It also explains to us the laws of nature and to face our fear. Mowgli was afraid of Sher Khan, but he faced his fear and so could defeat it. The stories also illustrate the freedom to move between different worlds, such as when Mowgli moves between the jungle and the village. The book describes the amazing bond between man and animals. The Jungle Book is the perfect book for a person who loves fun and adventure like me.

Akşehir Uygur, Mahinur. "PERCEPTION OF NATURE AND THE LANGUAGE OF IMPERIALISM IN RUDYARD KIPLING’S THE JUNGLE BOOK." Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 16.1/2 (2018): 129-140.

Asghar, Jamil, and Muhammad Iqbal Butt. "Contrapuntal Reading of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book: Theorizing the Raj through Narrativity." NUML Journal of Critical Inquiry 15.1 (2017): 144-160.

Mutiarani, Mutiarani, Hasanul Misbah, and Aliya Nafisa Karyadi. "Rudyard Kipling’s Novel the Jungle Book as Moral Literacy Material on EFL Learning." English Language in Focus (ELIF) 3.1 (2021): 23-30.

Park, Minjin. "A Cognitive Approach to the Formal Aspects of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 45.3 (2020): 224-243.

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