From the Page to the Screen – The Jungle Book
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From the Page to the Screen – The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book is an 1894 family novel written by Rudyard Kipling. It is one of the treasured children’s classics of literature but even though it is endearing and with a great attention to detail, it was too episodic in nature and two disconnected to me personally. I liked the book, but I did not love it. It was influential and was adapted into three major films, all done by Disney, so let’s see how they stack up together.
THE 1967 VERSION
The 1967 original animated film is the last film that Walt Disney personally worked on until his unfortunate death. It represents a true end of an era, an era of classic Disney films as afterwards the studio went into their first Dark Age. It is an underrated film today as it is in my opinion one of the ten best Disney films of all time.
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PLOT
The film is very episodic in nature just like the novel, but it thankfully adapted just one major story from the book and is thus much more engaging and well put together. When everybody thinks of The Jungle Book, they immediately think of this movie which is a testament to how amazing it still is and it easily trumps the source material.
WINNER – FILM
CHARACTERIZATION
I liked the characters in the novel, but in the film we get much better and more meaningful interactions between each and every one of them plus Baloo and Bagheera are so much better as these unforgettable, wonderful Disney sidekicks. Shere Khan is also one of the better Disney villains out there.
WINNER – FILM
EMOTION
The original novel is quite cold actually if you do not count that final chapter which is so moving and beautiful. But the rest is lacking. The animated film, on the other hand, is very emotionally rewarding in large part thanks to superb characterization. The entire third act is wonderful and that ending where Mowgli leaves the two and goes to the man village is so touching.
WINNER – FILM
THEMES
This is the only category where the novel is clearly better than the film. I love the film but it is too straightforward and not too sophisticated thematically speaking whereas the book explores animal order, foreignness, courage and principles among others.
WINNER – BOOK
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
This also has to go to the film. Certainly the book features some wonderful descriptive passages from Kipling, but the film takes that to the next level with pleasing, underrated animation style, simply superb character design and one of Disney’s better soundtracks.
WINNER – FILM
BOOK 1: FILM 4
This is one of the rare clear victories in favor of the cinematic adaptation instead of the novel and that is what Disney does best – they took a somewhat boring, very episodic and scattered novel and made a much more straightforward, much more emotional and much better developed in plot and characters film that remains one of their biggest classics to this day.
THE 1994 VERSION
This adaptation is live-action and again it came from Disney and was released in 1994. It was fairly well received, but is in my opinion the weakest of the three by far as it doesn’t hold up particularly well and for the movie called The Jungle Book, there isn’t a whole lot of jungle to be found in it.
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PLOT
As a period, historical piece, the film works. But as a jungle adventure, it fails miserably as it only has a couple of such scenes and they were all some of the worst scenes in the film. I get what they were going for, but the film just wasn’t sophisticated enough to pull that different, more sophisticated approach off. The novel does that much better.
WINNER – BOOK
CHARACTERIZATION
Some characters here are fine, but most are lacking and their book counterparts are so much better developed. It also hurts that the acting is not the greatest, especially from the main actor who is also quite miscast.
WINNER – BOOK
EMOTION
The novel has that heartfelt final chapter, but the film is lacking in this particular aspect. It isn’t too cold, but because the characterization is weak, there was just not a single truly moving scene to be had here.
WINNER – BOOK
THEMES
This is another clear victory for the book as the film tries to be a serious historical drama but fails in that department as the dialogue and the script are not all that great. The novel is much more sophisticated.
WINNER – BOOK
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
The original features excellent writing from the author – mostly the descriptions which are so detailed and they bring the image of India in your head remarkably well. This movie, on the other hand, features solid costumes, but it doesn’t hold up in terms of the effects as it uses real trained animals and thus removes the magic and charm from the story in favor of realism.
WINNER – BOOK
BOOK 5: FILM 0
Now this is another clear slate, but this time around in favor of the book. The movie isn’t bad and is perfectly solid, but mostly just a noble effort at making a very serious, realistic animal film. They failed at that for the most part and what we got was a very forgettable adaptation that is not fun or exciting at all.
THE 2016 VERSION
The newest 2016 live-action Disney film is really an animated film because it relies heavily on special effects with only Mowgli being played by a real human being. But the effects are excellent and the film is mostly stupendously crafted that it received excellent reviews and reactions across the board. It is a very good film, but somewhat overrated as the original film is much better.
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PLOT
I liked the plot of the film quite a bit. It follows the first film somewhat closely, yet it also stays pretty true to the source material. Only the ending was too happy, but otherwise this was such a stupendous adaptation that doesn’t just copy the original film (looking at you ‘Beauty and the Beast’).
WINNER – FILM
CHARACTERIZATION
Everything I said above for the original film also applies here but to a somewhat lesser extent. Baloo is great and so well played by Bill Murray, Bagheera is good, Mowgli is endearing and Shere Khan is quite menacing. The characters are faithful to the original film and very good overall.
WINNER – FILM
EMOTION
The entire third act is quite moving and although the ending is too happy, it was still quite glorious to witness and heartwarming. It isn’t as endearing as the first film, but it is more emotional than the novel.
WINNER – FILM
THEMES
This adaptation actually includes some of the themes from the book and the most fascinating was the role of the elephants in the ecosystem. But still the themes here are rare when compared to the book’s richness of themes.
WINNER – BOOK
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
The special effects are gorgeous here and although the animals are too big, they look great and pretty realistic. The scenery is also frequently gorgeous and the score pays homage to the original film really well in spite of the weak renditions of songs. This Oscar-winning film is a technical marvel that is best to be seen on the big screen.
WINNER – FILM
BOOK 1: FILM 4
Now even though the score is pretty much the same as it was with the original film, this remake is still inferior to the original and never as terrific or as wonderful. But still it is one of the best live-action remakes from Disney in this new string of remakes and mostly an unexpectedly strong, competent film on all fronts.
THE 2018 VERSION
The 2018 Andy Serkis version came out just two years after the previous Disney one so it was attacked pretty harshly and undeservedly so plus it was dumped on Netflix. It received mixed reviews and most people did not care for it. I personally appreciated it more than I truly loved it, but it is a solid effort.
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PLOT
The plot is very strong as the first half deals with the jungle and then later on we get to see Mowgli’s stay at the village. However, the first half goes through the motions and the second one is rushed in pace. I appreciated its darkness, but the plot points, some of them, are more memorable than the overall incoherent whole.
WINNER – BOOK
CHARACTERIZATION
I really liked the film’s characters, albeit I did not love them. Baloo is weak, but other animals, especially the wolves are very good. They are all solid, but Mowgli was better developed in the novel in my opinion.
WINNER – TIE
EMOTION
I found the movie very dark and very action-oriented so the emotional investment was lacking as a result. There are some emotional scenes here, but for the most part it’s not all that warm. The same goes with the book which is only moving in a couple of passages.
WINNER – TIE
THEMES
The movie is somewhat sophisticated, but for the most part it’s never as sophisticated as the novel is as the book explores Mowgli’s dilemmas in much more detail and depth. The movie is good for a film, but the novel is more interesting in this regard.
WINNER – BOOK
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
Despite the animals not looking all that great owing to overly humanized faces, the film was actually shot in Africa and not in studio and that shows as it looks more realistic and much more natural which I appreciated quite a bit.
WINNER – FILM
BOOK 4: FILM 3
In the end, the book is better than this version, though not by much. The movie is solid, as I said above, and even though it’s undercooked and ridiculously rushed, I still ended up appreciating this darker, somewhat different take on this story.
