Movie Review: Jungle Book

Kishore C.S. (September 2001)

Yesterday I watched movie "Jungle Book" by Disney for the 10th time along with my daughter who enjoyed the movie. I felt I should share this with everyone.

I watched this movie when I was a kid. At that time in India Jungle Book collection as part of "Gold Spot" soft drink campaign. Everyone used to collect soft drink caps and paste the images in the "Jungle Book". But when I watched this movie again this year, it was a completely different experience. Though the story is something that every kid will understood and love, it had elements of a perfect movie. Dialogs, Screen play, songs, animation every thing was excellent and made a perfect movie. First I watched the movie when I rented the DVD, but finally purchased this "collector's edition".

The Story: Movie is story of "Mowgli" kid who is found in the jungle by Panther "Bagheera". Mowgli grows up and fearing that tiger "Sher Khan" will not let Mowgli stay in the jungle, Bagheera thinks of taking the kid to village. But Mowgli does not want to go back. He argues with Baheera and Baloo the bear takes care of the kid. Mowgli's adventures take the toll as he is kidnapped by monkeys and later "Ka" the snake try to harm him. Mowgli comes face to face with the tiger and he is rescued on time. Finally he gets to the man village.

 Movie highlights:

- Elephant parade headed by 'Colonel Hathi' who is commanding his herd.
- Baloo sings a simple and meaningful "Bare Necessities" song
- 'Ka' sings a song to put Mowgli to sleep that is really a sweet lullaby to everyone
- 'Shere Khan' carries a royal stature in its behavior.

Though the above are just a few good parts in the movie, entire movie is filled with more interesting dialogs and songs. Animation is excellent. My daughter also enjoyed the movie so much and she also read the story of Mowgli in the 'Disney' story book. She got the story by heart and wants us to read the story again and again.

My Final Recommendation:

Watch the movie at the earliest opportunity. You will be glad that I recommended this movie.