Walt Disney was never a fan of sequels. One of his favourite self-coined sayings was "You can't top pigs with pigs", referring to his studio's failed attempts to capitalise upon their Academy-Award-winning cartoon short The Three Little Pigs (1933) by churning out various follow-up cartoons, none of which even remotely achieved the original's enormous success.
Since his passing, however, Walt's saying has presumably been forgotten at Disney, as many of his classic movies have spawned sequels there, but most of them lacklustre, straight-to-video/DVD efforts. A few, however, have been given cinema releases, one of which was my 16 April 2022 movie watch – The Jungle Book 2. (Incidentally, Disney has currently produced no fewer than 6 different movies inspired by Rudyard Kipling's two Jungle Book novels: namely, two animated, three live-action, and one CGI/live-action combo.)
Directed by Steve Trenbirth and released by Disney via Buena Vista in 2003, The Jungle Book 2 is a direct animated sequel to Disney's original classic 1967 animated feature. It picks up where the latter ended, with Mowgli the wolf-raised man-cub now living in the man village, but missing Baloo the bear and his other jungle friends, and, unbeknownst to all of them, still being stalked by a vengeful Shere Khan following Mowgli's humiliating defeat of this human-hating tiger in the first movie.
Visually, the lush jungle settings are vibrant and verdant, but the storyline contains a number of scenes that closely echo those in the first movie (especially the extended 'Bare Necessities' replay), and overall it is much less entertaining – except, that is, for anyone like me who obtains much innocent nerdy joy from spotting zoogeographically incorrect animals in films. Here, in what is supposed to be the Indian jungle, I spotted African hippopotamuses, a gazelle, and warthogs, plus some South American scarlet macaws and ocelots!
Equally underwhelming are the new songs, not one of which has lingered in my mind afterwards, unlike all of those instantly memorable, catchy 1967 ones. Moreover, as all of the original voice stars are either dead or too old now to reprise in this sequel movie their 1967 roles, an entirely new voice cast has been assembled, including John Goodman replacing Phil Harris as Baloo, Tony Jay replacing George Sanders as Shere Khan, and Haley Joel Osment replacing Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli in by far the best soundalike performance. Sadly, due apparently to certain legal issues, the character of King Louie does not appear here (although he is briefly referred to on one occasion), but a new, fifth vulture, Lucky, does feature, voiced by British rock star/actor Phil Collins.
Overall, The Jungle Book 2 is by no means a bad movie and should certainly entertain younger viewers, but imho it is very much a pale shadow of its beloved predecessor, and was, I feel, more suited to a direct-to-video release than a cinematic one. Looks like Walt was right about pigs after all...
And indeed, in 2003 plans were aired for a second direct sequel to the 1967 original animated movie. This one would have seen Shere Khan finally reform, regretting his previous sins, following the capture and selling of both himself and Baloo to a Russian circus and their daring rescue by Mowgli and various of his jungle friends. However, no such movie ever came to pass – perhaps the predominantly negative reviews received by The Jungle Book 2 influenced its cancellation?
But everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so to help you formulate yours with regard to The Jungle Book 2, be sure to click here to watch an official trailer for this movie on YouTube.
To view a complete comprehensive listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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