In the woods? Sure. In the jungle? Remains to be seen.
CGI animals voiced by famous actors? In all likelihood the more disparaging among you would gag at the thought. But if you are inclined to occasionally check your cynicism at the door, there is something altogether rousing, joyous and sumptuous about this telling of the Rudyard Kipling novel; taking more than a pinch from the 1967 animated Dinsey-fication of the story than the now-antiquated post-colonial vision of the ‘jungle’ from the original source material, what director Jon Favreau has done is effectively an old-fashioned bit of storytelling with state of the art visual effects to make something entirely engaging, beautiful and authentic.
As authentic as a tiger speaking with an English accent can be.
Kid films, I can take or leave. Not the target demo, all that. But good film making doesn’t know of genre or ratings classification. And it takes the kind of benevolence (stay with me here) that Favreau as a film maker brings to his exploits – he took the staple of the superhero origin story and made something more than just a by-the-numbers action picture in Iron Man (not so much the case with the sequel); and pulled off similar tricks with Elf, and the took everything back to basics with his small, intimate character piece, Chef. That he can go back to the visual effects well and take a story that’s been done countless times before, and invest in it a new sense of fun, craft, spectacle and artistry is something else. He makes four-quadrant movies, this man. It’s something to behold.
Great voice acting is a marvellous thing when it gets done right – think of the best vocal performances in animated films, or TV shows, and know that it’s not easy to do well, consistently. This film is filled to the edges with tremendous vocal talent, from Idris Elba’s eloquent, sinister tiger Sher-Khan, Ben Kingsley’s stern yet loving panther, and Bill Murray’s sad-eyed bear. In terms of the odder casting decisions, there’s one which pays off brilliantly: Christopher Walken as King Louie, a massive orang-utan overseeing a monkey army, occupying a decrepit temple and initially emerging from the shadows like Brando in Apocalypse Now. Has to be seen to be believed.
You know what I like most about this film? It’s the fact that the animals look and move like animals. The bear’s lips protrude when he speaks. The panther’s top lip moves, with whiskers. It’s the little details – we don’t have cartoon characters plonked in the middle of a live action film: these are wild animals brought to life. Not sure if it was performance capture or just some really talented geeks with computers, but kudos to the geeks no matter what.
It’s a wonderful film, this one. The kids will probably love it. I did.