If, like me, your exposure to modern animation has been limited to cartoons and Plasticine, you'll be amazed. The animals in Jungle Book look like the real thing, and move like real animals do. They are not prettified or humanized in any way. It's hard to believe they are animations, and not photographs.
The storyline is simple but terrifying: a human child is pursued through the jungle by a man-eating tiger. Because the visuals are so realistic, you get swept up in the story. At times I wondered how they could let children in to see this: it was so frightening!
What lets the movie down is the talking. The animals are given the sorts of voices and dialogue you would expect to find in a cartoon comedy. A ferocious-looking bear starts talking English in a Bronx accent. Other animals have various British accents. It jars with the visuals. It feels like two separate movies have been glued together: a superb nature documentary and a second-rate comedy.
But the visuals are so astonishing that they outweigh the clumsy soundtrack.
The storyline is simple but terrifying: a human child is pursued through the jungle by a man-eating tiger. Because the visuals are so realistic, you get swept up in the story. At times I wondered how they could let children in to see this: it was so frightening!
What lets the movie down is the talking. The animals are given the sorts of voices and dialogue you would expect to find in a cartoon comedy. A ferocious-looking bear starts talking English in a Bronx accent. Other animals have various British accents. It jars with the visuals. It feels like two separate movies have been glued together: a superb nature documentary and a second-rate comedy.
But the visuals are so astonishing that they outweigh the clumsy soundtrack.