Mowgli is just a kid, and in the medium of animation, the abrasive edges of reality can be sanded away. THE JUNGLE BOOK 1994 NETFLIX FREEThis "hyperreality" is present throughout Disney's work, but especially when it comes to depictions of the past: The France of Beauty and the Beast is one free of starving underclasses and the guillotine Song of the South looks at the end of slavery with the rose-tinted glasses of the Confederacy and puts black Americans "in their place," where being enslaved seemed to make them happy The Jungle Book pretends colonialism never happened. When the Italian theorist Umberto Eco famously visited Disneyland, he wrote about the "absolutely fake cities" of the theme park and how the wildly popular attraction made reality bigger, brighter, and a whole lot more entertaining than it really is. Long before Jon Favreau remade it, Stephen Sommers of The Mummy fame brought us The Jungle Book. However, these discussions almost entirely omit the remake that came beforehand, a whole two years before the Dalmatians ran amok. There is a case to be made that 1996's 101 Dalmatians, with Glenn Close gloriously chewing the scenery as Cruella De Vil, inspired Disney thanks to its respectable commercial success and a screenplay penned by John Hughes. The current trend of inescapable remakes that follow a highly specific narrative kicked off in 2010, when Tim Burton remade Alice in Wonderland and its billion-dollar gross made some executives' eyes open wide at the House of Mouse. Still, audiences flock to see them and will probably continue to do so until Disney runs out of things to remake.ĭebates continue over what the first true Disney live-action remake is. Fans often grumble about how pointless it feels to do what frequently feels like shot-for-shot remakes of our favorite films, but devoid of the originals' charm and vibrancy. This is the new business model for Disney, a company that has always thrived thanks to its uncanny ability to tap into audiences' nostalgic desires and inextricably entwine itself with our inner state of childhood. In 2019 alone, audiences were treated to five of these movies, with a mega-budget remake of Mulan set for March. Scarlett Johanssen lends her voice to Kaa, the totally creepy python, and Lupita Nyong'o plays Mowgli's adoptive wolf-mama that he has to leave behind (tear!).Over the past decade, The Walt Disney Company has released no fewer than 13 remakes of its back catalog of classic animated titles. Ben Kingsley plays Bagheera, the panther who watches over Mowgli throughout the film, while Shere Khan, the tiger villain, is played by Idris Elba. (It's also valuable to note that Baloo, this time voiced by Bill Murray, does sing "The Bare Necessities" in the updated film as well, hooray!).īut Murray isn't the only familiar voice who is involved in the film, according to Vox. So, in order to keep him safe, his wolf family decides he should go back to his village, and adventure ensures. That is, a baby boy named Mowgli is abandoned in the jungle and raised by the animals as a "man cub." The other animals mostly welcome and protect him, except for the tiger, Shere Khan, who is decidedly not a fan of little Mowgli. Of course, there is also always the DVD/Blu-ray route if that's more your style, in which case Amazon can hook you up with that as well.Įither way, one thing that's worth noting is that, according to Vulture, the plot line of both the 1967 animated version and Jon Favreau's live-action CGI version are more or less the same. But the good news is there are a number of other options available if you want to watch it online: iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and YouTube all have The Jungle Book available for download, but only for purchase, not for rent (groan). Unfortunately, The Jungle Book isn't available on Netflix, which totally sucks if that's your online streaming go-to. THE JUNGLE BOOK 1994 NETFLIX HOW TOSo here's how to watch the original Jungle Book movie, because unless you still have a functioning VCR hanging around, that dusty VHS tape sitting in a box in your mom's basement isn't going to cut it. But if you haven't yet seen the 1967 Disney animated version it's based on? Well, you need to get on that immediately, because it is pure, classic, sweet-childhood-memories, Disney perfection (just try to watch "Bare Necessities" and not smile. THE JUNGLE BOOK 1994 NETFLIX UPDATEDon't get me wrong, Disney's new live-action update of The Jungle Book looks pretty amazing - it's got an Avatar-esque, grand, computer-generated style, an A-list cast of actors providing voices, and so far, it's getting fabulous reviews.
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