Weekly Post 2

Walt Disney  vs Jon Favreau

The past month one of Disney’s classic “The Jungle Book” returned to the movie theatre. In this new cast the voices of Scarlet Johanson, Bill Murray and Ben Kingsley were used to give life to the characters of Bagheera, Baloo and Kaa. The movie tried to highlight the details of the book written by Rudyard Kipling in 1894 but, can this movie overcome the success of the Disney movie filmed in 1964?

The story is about a little boy (Mowgli) who was raised in the jungle. When Mowgli was little Bagheera (a panther) found him lost in the jungle so he decided to take him with the wolves and these ones raised him as a member of the herd. All the animals were living in peace until one day Shere Khan (the tiger) threatened Mowgli and started the chaos in the jungle.

In one hand the new film has only one actor Neel Sethi (Mowgli) and even though the actor is only twelve years old his performance reaches your heart making you feel desperate for his situation. When Mowgli decides to leave his herd, his wolf mother tells him how much he loves him and how sorry she feels about the painful situation.

And in the other hand Walt Disney shows an animated story full of songs and with a different ending. There is a scene where Mowgli and Baloo (a bear) are singing along while they are swimming in the river. In the new movie you do not get to listen the complete song you just get a small part of the song.One of the biggest differences between both movies is the ending. Disney’s movie ends with Mowgli returning with his tribe but, in Favreau’s movie Mowgli continues his friendship with Bagheera and Baloo. He also return with the wolves herd learning how to be and act like a wolf.

In my opinion both movies are great and both try to have a happy ending. The animated version does it by highlighting that Mowgli returned to the place where he belongs and with the people that are just like him. The new version shows that the only family that matters is the one that was with you since the beginning, it does not matter how different they are. My favorite version would be the animate one because, of the music that they sing at every situation, it does not matter if it is a good one or a bad one.