Jungle Book

I went to see the new Jungle Book in 3D. If I were to sum the film up in one word I would say "beautiful". The sheer beauty and realism amazed me, knowing how the whole film was shot in a studio and the only human actor you see is the boy who apparently first had to be taught how to act. In the film he is superb, so natural, such a good match to the younger Mowgli in Kipling's original stories. Stories that were an essential part of my childhood and which I still love to read.

There have been various Jungle Book films including 1942 and 1994 but till now the only one that has counted had been the 1967 Disney cartoon which I will gladly re-watch any number of times. The plot of the new film is a predictable but satisfactory mix from the cartoon and the original book - but I went for the experience rather more than the plot, and the experience did not disappoint.

Virtually everything else you see in the film, apart from the boy, is CGI. I found a good description of the making here and here:

When you have that much hair on an animal, and you have 5 to 15 animals in a scene, and then you have every blade of grass and piece of floating dust, you’re into a tremendous amount of computing power.”... That required “literally thousands of computers,”... and sometimes it would take two or three days to render a shot... as powerful as the computers were, they ultimately were just taking cues from the human innovators who spent years on the film.

This film defines new standards, just as its predecessor Avatar was. I honour Jon Favreau for his achievement and look forward to the sequel.

And what's with everyone filing out now-a-days when the credits begin?  Back when I was a boy one was obliged to stay until the National Anthem finished. Because I went with a group it would have been antisocial of me to stay to the bitter end - but I just don't get it.  If a film (or a book, or a concert) is at all good I want to extract every last ounce of goodness as well having some interest in who did what. In this instance I sadly missed reprises from the cartoon's musical numbers.

Take Finding Forrester for example, a film that ranked reasonably high - if you had walked out before the credits you would have missed Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's most excellent medley Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

And as for popcorn, rustling paper bags and talking during a movie - I just cannot understand the mentality. If a film is an audio visual smörgåsbord as this one was then it is plain disrespectful to do ought but become satiated. A film in which I would deign to eat popcorn must rank very low on my scale.