Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
Directed by: Andy Serkis
Written by: Callie Kloves - Based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling
Starring: Rohan Chand, Christian Bale, Andy Serkis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cate Blanchett, Naomie Harris, Peter Mullan, Jack Reynor, Eddie Marsan, Tom Hollander, Matthew Rhys, Freida Pinto, Louis Ashbourne Serkis
Adventure/Drama - 104 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 4 Dec 2018
Written by: Callie Kloves - Based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling
Starring: Rohan Chand, Christian Bale, Andy Serkis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cate Blanchett, Naomie Harris, Peter Mullan, Jack Reynor, Eddie Marsan, Tom Hollander, Matthew Rhys, Freida Pinto, Louis Ashbourne Serkis
Adventure/Drama - 104 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 4 Dec 2018
Before they were Disneyfied, the Old World fairy tales could veer pretty dark. The original Hansel & Gretel, Cinderella, and Rumpelstiltskin were altered to fit the narrative of the Magical Kingdom. While gushing over princesses, no little girl wants to think about ugly step-sisters cutting their feet off to fit into a glass slipper. Now that Disney ran out of ideas and is in the process of converting its back catalog into live action/CGI versions, the films seem a bit edgier than their cartoon predecessors. Christopher Robin was a morose Winnie the Pooh episode, Beauty and the Beast raised more eyebrows than it did over 25 years ago with the whole kidnapping a little girl problem, and The Jungle Book punched harder with more in-your-face tiger on boy violence. That is all child’s play compared to Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle.
Mowgli arrives with a serious case of bad timing. The Jungle Book story is not strong enough to support two films proclaiming their version is the new and improved live action spin-off. Mowgli is in an intriguing situation, but watching him try to be a wolf, argue with Bagheera, hang out with Baloo, and mess around with some monkeys is enough for one film. However, audiences can’t seem to get enough of these remakes. They already know the story, the scenes, the dialogue, and the ending - yet they continue to run back to theaters and watch them all over again. If Mowgli fatigue is not enough of an obstacle to stiff-arm potential viewers, then the subject matter might be.
Mowgli arrives with a serious case of bad timing. The Jungle Book story is not strong enough to support two films proclaiming their version is the new and improved live action spin-off. Mowgli is in an intriguing situation, but watching him try to be a wolf, argue with Bagheera, hang out with Baloo, and mess around with some monkeys is enough for one film. However, audiences can’t seem to get enough of these remakes. They already know the story, the scenes, the dialogue, and the ending - yet they continue to run back to theaters and watch them all over again. If Mowgli fatigue is not enough of an obstacle to stiff-arm potential viewers, then the subject matter might be.
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is dark. Animals kill each other. Hunters then kill the animals. Most films aimed at youngsters, if they are even going to allude to animal maiming and murder, would keep it off screen. Not director Andy Serkis. Serkis shows wolves taking down elk, wolves throwing each other off cliffs, and includes a scene toward the end so shocking involving taxidermy, little ones will cry themselves to sleep and remember the shock for the rest of their lives. My five year-old is not watching Mowgli. Kids learn about the food chain and the predator/prey life cycle piecemeal throughout their school years. Mowgli viscerally shows it front and center, ready or not.
The most effective thing Mowgli has going for it is it breaks free from the story we all know. This is not a Disney movie; therefore, it is not bound to Disney’s tale. Mowgli still grows up in a wolf family, learns from Bagheera (Christian Bale, Hostiles), and has run-ins with Shere Khan the tiger (Benedict Cumberbatch, Avengers: Infinity War), and a menagerie of menacing monkeys. However, there are no songs - no “Bare Necessities” - and no enjoying the high life with Baloo the bear (Serkis, Black Panther). Baloo is Mowgli’s teacher and is cranky and off-putting, the opposite from the happy-go-lucky, no care in the world Baloo audiences anticipate. Mowgli interacts with other humans this time and tries to adapt to their strange habits - if only he can get past his foul mood. Mowgli (Rohan Chand, The Hundred-Foot Journey) spends a lot of time angry at not being a wolf or a man. He scowls, screams, and throws himself on the ground because he cannot process his place in the world.
The jungle is also changing. Bagheera says “the jungle is eternal” but the man villages spread into the wild disrupting ecosystems. Also, Shere Khan sows chaos between the animals and man trying to start a war by breaking what are known are the laws of the jungle. The most intriguing character slithering around all of this is Kaa the python (Cate Blanchett, The House With a Clock in Its Walls). The animals say Kaa can see both the past and the future; she pretty much runs the jungle. Well then, why is she stuck with such a bit part? Kaa has a lot to say and could have one hell of a back story, but just like both Disney versions, the script ignores Kaa so Mowgli can howl some more and sulk like a moody teenager.
Serkis and writer Callie Kloves have a message about individuality and how many mistake that attribute for weakness. Unfortunately, Serkis made the film so over-the-top violent almost all the kids who should enjoy a message like that will be too busy recoiling from the carnage to take it in and understand it. This Legend of the Jungle version of Kipling’s classic tale is the deepest of the pack and seeks to poke at Mowgli’s emotional baggage rather than spoon feed the audience adventure sequences of snakes, monkeys, and tigers. A human attempting to be an animal within the state of nature would confront a host of psychological pitfalls and is ripe for kids to engage with it. Too bad most of them will be begging their parents to turn off the blood and guts before they reach those parts.
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