If there is a Disney factory movie that I could consider in my list of the three essentials, it would certainly be “The Jungle Book”.
So when I find out that in a couple of weeks a new version will be released in which the animation joins with the "Human persons" as my son said, because I have time to review this classic in which Mowgli is the child who lives and learns with the animals of the jungle. "The jungle book" returns to the big screen next April 15 and many are looking forward to reliving this adventure.
Of course, to be fair you have to remember that the original story is titled “The book of the virgin lands” and it is Rudyard Kipling who publishes it back in 1894.
It is a series of tales of animals from the Indian jungle that will be presenting a series of moral lessons to the reader.
The Korda brothers They are the first to bring these stories to the cinema almost fifty years later, in 1940, and they do not do so by precisely following the Kipling text, but rather by adapting it very freely, but retaining some of its key elements.
Walt Disney it will be finally who in a personal capacity and in the mid sixties, be involved in this project but also with a very free adaptation of the adventures of Mowgli. The film opens specifically in December 1967 in the United States, the year of Walt Disney's own death has not yet passed.
A children's adaptation of a book that was not
No, Kipling's book is not directly aimed at children but the Disney movie, as you can see because you have surely seen it more than once, yes it is, which is explained by seeing the differences between one and the other the time of the adaptation that was made by the team of scriptwriters of the filmmaker.
Could anyone think that the human child was going to walk the big screen completely naked (as the book and common sense pointed out ... ) in the North America of the 60s? No, it was unfeasible and this is only a small detail of the changes that were made to the initial story.
Baloo, Baghera, Akela, Kaa are common characters in the book and in the movie, however King Louie (one of my favorites and protagonist of one of the best musical moments of the movie) is a character that introduces Disney into the story.
Magnificent soundtrack
"The Jungle Book" is the nineteenth feature of the Disney factory and it has one of the most worked and most easily recognizable soundtracks by different generations of viewers, of all the films that have released this label and yes, they have already released a few.
In fact, even the possibility of The Beatles lending their voices to the vultures' characters was considered, but in the end the idea did not work.
Five of the songs in the movie were composed by the Sherman brothers, common in some of Disney's best soundtracks such as "Mary Poppins" or "The Aristocats."
One of the main songs was nominated for an Oscar for the best song, Terry Gilkynson composed it and that of Baloo, which in its Spanish version was titled "Search for the most vital no more", a statement of intent!
“The book of the jungle” is a great movie and as it is logical after a few years in 2003, his first sequel comes out with a kind of second part of the story “The Book of the jungle 2” that did not have the projection or the importance from the first.
Reviewing the classic
And now, as I was saying, next April 15 comes to the screens again the story of Mowgly who plays a child, Neel Sethi. It will be a mixture of animation and real image directed by Jon Favreau, who has accustomed us both to direct Marvel superheroes ("Iron Man", where in addition to directing he interprets the character of "Happy") and to surprise us with stories of more the street, like that of the “Chef” of the “food truck”, in which he is the main protagonist of the story.
The expectations are high, the animation technology is clear that it has advanced a lot since 1967 and the voices that accompany the characters in their original version will be the best of the Hollywood scene, from Bill Murray to Ben Kingsley through Scarlett Johanson or Christopher Walken to name just a few of the names that will ensure that Baloo, Baghera or Skar have the sound presence they deserve on the big screen.
Want to see her? In my case many, many. My own childhood memories are mixed with those of my children who have also seen it several times, so when the time comes ... I'll tell you!
You can watch movie here HBO max
