JUNGLE BOOK POO (The Jungle Book 2 (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	The Jungle Book 2 (DVD)
Date:	04/05/03 (181 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Just like the original with new characters

Disadvantages: Aimless sequel

Easter holidays come with the added pressure of keeping your children occupied. One obvious ploy is to take 'em to the flicks so it was with a spring in my step and a song I my heart that I hurled the kids into the car and, nay, flew to my local UCG to catch Jungle Book 2. I did have the concern that I really don't like sequels though. Inevitably, they are re-hashed workings of the original with pretty much the same story made solely to generate more greenbacks for the film studio concerned. But surely Disney wouldn't disappoint? Read on to find out.

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Main voice cast:
Anders Byström .... Bagheera
Phil Collins .... Lucky the Vulture
Jim Cummings .... Kaa/Colonel Hathi
Connor Funk .... Ranjan
John Goodman .... Baloo
Tony Jay .... Shere Khan
Bob Joles .... Bagheera
Haley Joel Osment .... Mowgli
John Rhys-Davies .... Mowgli's father
Mae Whitman .... Shanti

Running Time:72 mins
Cert: U
Director: Steve Trenbirth
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Jungle Book 2 picks up where the original left off. Fondly remembered for its characters and voice overs, JB2 employs a virtually identical cast list including a few extras this time around in the form of Mowgli's new adopted family.

For those that can still remember (the original was made in 1967!), JB ends with Mowgli being lured into the man village by the site of a dusky, if very young maiden attending to her ablutions in the river. JB2 kicks off with Mowgli still in the village but feeling rather restless. As his new parents say "You can take the boy out of the jungle but you can't take the jungle out of the boy" - profound stuff indeed. Not surprisingly, poor old Balu the bear is feeling similarly restless, desperate to se
e his old pal again. So it's only a matter of time before Man cub makes a break for it to be re-united with his jungle pals. However, the variation on a theme this time around, is that two of the village children - Ranjan the ebullient whipper snapper and Shanti, Mowgli's love interest - follow him unbeknown to our rather short hero. This triggers a mass village search, which kind of runs parallel to the story without actually ever getting in the way.

Cue the villain of the piece, the terrifyingly English Shere Khan. Sadly, George Sanders wasn't around to do the voice over for the upper class rapscallion but Tony Jay does a passable imitation when confronted with the almost impossible task of filling in for such a legendary voice over. Anyway, old SK is prowling about the jungle still miffed at his humiliation after having fire torches attached to his tail last time out. Just to compound his feelings of low self-esteem, the Beatles inspired vultures are back led by the new court jester of vultures, Lucky voiced by Phil Collins. With a slip of the tongue, old Lucky let's SK know that Mowgli is back in town (or should that be the jungle?) giving the tiger a chance for revenge. After all, it was either that or more of those flipping Frostie ads.

With all of this going on, there are a few sub plots thrown in. Well, there sort of sub plots although hard to reason why they happen apart from the fact that they do. The elephants are back trying to prevent Balu from getting to the man village; Bagheera is back acting as a rather ineffective conscience for Balu again and the monkeys are back in their hidden jungle ruins although with Louis' retirement, they hold little threat this time. Kaa the snake is still hanging around in his tree waiting patiently to do his Paul Mckenna impression on some poor unsuspecting soul but his efforts at hypnosis followed by throttling backfire as he is literally made to swallow a distressingly large bould
er by the irrepressible, Ranjan (an even smaller version of Mowgli)

Well, I guess you should be able to work out the rest. Shere Khan chases after the children and the audience is left on the edge of its seats wondering whether our well spoken villain will outwit his opponents and..erm...eat them.

Best bits:

 The songs are there with a funky rendition of "Jungle Rhythm" and several reprisals of "Bare necessities"

 There are some eye catching chase scenes in and around some lava laden ruins in the jungle

 Similar exchanges along the lines of Balu the popa bear and Mowgli and friends serve to remind just what a classic the original was.

Ultimately, this movie doesn't work. Crikey, at a mere 72 minutes I couldn't help feeling that the film had ended before I'd had chance to sink my teeth into my hotdog (never had dried onions on one before). As ever, Disney goes totally antiseptic in it's efforts to sterilise any thought of misdoing in the cartoon world. With Lucky the vulture pushing his luck baiting Shere Khan, the snooty English tiger grabs the unfortunate bird to proclaim that it is somewhat unfortunate that it's name is Lucky. Clearly intending to eat this poultry in a jungle body, Lucky turns up later to bait the poor tiger once more. Oh, there's also a bit where a huge chunk of temple lands on Shere Khan. Falling from a great height, the audience is already writing the obits for poor old SK when it turns out that the missile from the sky happens to be hollow so allowing SK to start practising his lines for JB3.

On the plus side, Disney on celluloid is as good as ever with immaculate animation serving to enhance the studios reputation for quality imagery. The main voice overs manage to re-create the original to a point, with the overworked John Goodman leading the way as Balu along with Haley Joel Osment dragged away from his studies

for a few days to reprise a respectable Mowgli.

I honestly couldn't recommend this movie. It's too short, dull and ultimately pointless but then it is a sequel. I'd read the Kipling book instead if I was you.

Thanks for reading

Marandina

Jungle Book 2 is playing at Cinemas nation-wide.

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