The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story

Even by the already slim standards of direct-to-video and/or made-for-TV Disney movies, The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story is particularly grim. It occupies a no man’s land between the animated film and the original text by dropping many of the inventions of the studio, no King Louie or “Bare Necessities,” and restoring some of the characters and darkness, including Tabaqui and a bloodthirsty Shere Khan. Except, none of it is done well or even with much care or thought. The whole thing looks like it was filmed on maybe two sets, the voice cast is wasted (including Clancy Brown, Eartha Kitt, Sherman Howard, and Brian Doyle-Murray), Brandon Baker is awkward in the lead, and the humor is beyond condescending. Kids are smarter than this version of The Jungle Book thinks they are, and I have a hard time thinking they’d much entertaining or diverting about this version. After all, this is an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s beloved text where Fred Savage narrates as an adult Mowgli. It is an interminable hour and sixteen minutes.