Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

As a child, Disney films were a big favourite with me and my sister, so when I saw they were doing a live-action film of The Jungle Book… I was immediately interested in seeing it.

I found this movie to be a lot more intense than the cartoon version and there was a lot more violence involved. Shere Khan was suitably intimidating and it was really interesting to see the way things worked in the jungle, especially with the water truce. The hedgehog made me smile and I felt he added a lot to the story.

I really liked Mowgli’s relationship with the wolves. I thought Grey was especially sweet and I really liked the fact that the wolves had accepted Mowgli as a member of their pack… even though there were a lot of problems after Shere Khan’s appearance.

I did think there was some really good visual imagery in this film. I especially liked the images where Kaa was involved… and there were some really nice bits of humour involving Baloo.

I did especially like Mowgli and how he formed friendships with the animals in the forest. It was interesting to see him refer to the animals as having different languages… and I would have liked to see a bit more about that, since he seemed to have no trouble understanding the languages of any of the animals, even Shere Khan, who Mowgli probably hadn’t met before.

I did think it was interesting to see the way fire was referred to and I felt that wording worked better than the original Disney version of the Jungle Book.

I did think that both Baloo and King Louie were at very impressive sizes… and I especially liked that Mowgli was able to use what was around him, despite being told not to. And I really liked seeing him and Bagheera interacting together.

There was a lot about this movie that kept me on the edge of my seat, involved with the storyline and the characters. This is a film I wouldn’t mind seeing again… but I wouldn’t recommend taking very young children to see it.