The Jungle Book

The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.

I haven't seen the original animated Jungle Book, so I unfortunately can't compare these two movies. That being said, here we go.

From the moment the Disney castle fades away, I was suddenly surrounded by dense greenery, vivid water, and beautiful light playing off of resplendent plant life. For the first time in a while, I was delighted to be somewhere that I wasn't physically - in the middle of a freakin' jungle. The Jungle Book reminded me of one of the powers of film as a medium that I often take for granted - the ability to completely immerse you in another world.

It's one thing The Jungle Book does extremely well - utilizing its setting to guide the tone and mood of the movie. The jungle is almost as much of a character as Baloo or Mowgli - a living, breathing, cohesive environment that guides the course of the story. And the jungle is such a fun place to be.

Everything looks so good. The animals, the surroundings... Off the top of my head, it's the best talking animal CGI I've ever seen (Sorry, bear from The Revenant. Speak up next time. Use your words.). The voice acting is nothing short of spectacular, and the characters are brought to life in a way that made me want to go make animal friends.

A major "bandwagon complaint" in film lately is bashing on remakes and reboots, especially those that seem to take on a darker or grittier tone than the source work. While the ethics of Hollywood originality is a different subject, and though I haven't seen the original, I would cite The Jungle Book as an example of how a remake can be done correctly - telling the story in a new and exciting way.

I wouldn't even call this movie dark or gritty - the action is intense, but, like a good friend pointed out to me, it's intense in the same way that Simba vs. Scar is intense in The Lion King. It's suitable for kids. It's a tale of grand adventure.

The music is interesting - I was delighted to hear Bill Murray as Baloo take on the familiar "Bear Necessities". I had no idea how much I wanted that. Christopher Walken as King Louie taking on "I Wanna Be Like You" was also fun, but definitely weaker - in part because there's a lot less for King Louie to do while he sings. I still enjoyed both songs, they're both short and nice nods to the original.

Let's talk about the credits - they're so much fun, wonderfully unique, and beautiful to look at. I'll let it be a surprise, but it got me thinking about why other movies don't go the extra mile, creatively, in that regard.

There's been something on my mind lately after watching my Force Awakens Bluray bonus features. Going into writing The Force Awakens, writers JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan thought to themselves about what they wanted the next installment in the Star Wars universe to be. They thought about it a lot, and reached this simple conclusion - they wanted it to be "delightful".

More and more lately, I realize that this is what I look for in a movie. More often than not, I'm able to look past a movie's minor flaws if it meets this simple qualification, in the truest sense of the word - the movie needs to be delightful.

To me, The Jungle Book was that.