SummaryMowgli, Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther, and the sly tiger Shere Khan return in this swinging sequel to the animated classic, The Jungle Book.
SummaryMowgli, Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther, and the sly tiger Shere Khan return in this swinging sequel to the animated classic, The Jungle Book.
The feel of a direct-to-video title that's been upgraded to theatrical status in the hopes of wringing a few extra bucks out of it and improving its not-too-distant homevid marketability.
I enjoy it. I'm not pure anti-Disney sequel, this could have been made a direct-to-video instead theatrical release, but this is better than the first one.
This is a by-the-numbers rehash that will leave anyone much over 5 enormously grateful that, if you duck out before the lengthy end credits, it lasts just over an hour.
The new tunes sound like Buster Poindexter mainlining Sweet 'n Low, and at a critically song-starved moment, John Goodman's Baloo admits, "King Louie? He split!" Before the third defibrillation of "Bare Necessities," you and your kids might too.
This was just an exact replica of the original Jungle Book that would only work for kids of the 90's and it should've been straight on to video instead of being theatrical.
I love the original Jungle Book. It's one of my favourite childhood movies and I still consider it one of the best animated movies of all time. It had great songs, unforgettable characters and animation that still holds up pretty well. This movie has songs that are mostly forgettable, one-dimensional characters, and mediocre animation. John Goodman gives it his all, but there's only so much he can do with a script that is so content to steal from the original. Baloo the bear has been made into a bland parody of himself, Bagheera does nothing but nag constantly and Mowgli has lost any character that he had. Overall, this is pretty much any inferior copy of the original. If you want a good version of Rudyard Kipling's book, either watch the first movie or the recent remake. Both are much better than this.
Due to the relevancy of the recent remake, I decided to pay a retrospective to the original classic from 1967. Unfortunately since it is not available for review, I am stuck reviewing the sequel. This was made during the time when Disney was in clear financial ruin so they had to make many direct-to-DVD and Video sequels to get a profit for their box office performances. This sequel unfortunately reflects the quality of most of these sequels though. It is a shame because some effort was put into the production side of things. The animation is bright and colorful with an attempt to put some attention to detail. The voice talents also try to add life to the performances. John Goodman, Tony Jay, Jim Cummings, and Haley Joel Osmond do an admirable job at replacing the original voice cast. Unfortunately their talents are wasted in a script that has no passion behind it. Granted the opening title sequence was creative with the shadow puppet animation but no other bits of the film follow that line of creativity. On top of that, the new characters that has been introduced are either annoying or inconsequential to the plot. The new musical numbers are also generic. Granted this film is inoffensive to the younger children watching this but they are better off sticking to the original.
When I first saw this movie as a kid, I loved it, but now that I'm older, I can see how it's actually a disgrace to the first movie, which I still love.
Production Company
Walt Disney Pictures,
Disneytoon Studios,
Walt Disney Animation France S.A.,
Walt Disney Television Animation (Australia) Pty. Limited