The Jungle Book – Diamond Edition: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
Meet the most unforgettable characters and embark on a thrilling adventure with Mowgli as he journeys deep into the jungle and learns “The Bare Necessities” of life from happy-go-lucky Baloo the bear. Meet Bagheera, the wise old panther, and crazy King Louie, the orangutan. But watch out for the cunning tiger Shere Khan and Kaa, the ssssneakiest snake in the jungle!
It’s probably been about 18 years since I last saw The Jungle Book so watching it again was like experiencing it for the first time. It’s such a fun, lighthearted film that I’ve fallen in love with all over again and now my son loves it as well. The story itself doesn’t feel like your traditional Disney film. It kind of feels like a episodic collection of animated shorts with an overall goal which isn’t a bad thing, it was just different. The real fun starts with all of the great songs that really stick in your head long after the movie is over. From “Trust In Me”, “I Wan’na Be Like You” to the famous and fun “The Bare Necessities” each song will have you humming along and smiling just like you were a kid again. This remastered version of the film is absolutely gorgeous! The painted backgrounds are so beautiful and the colors are vivid and crisp. The animation itself is cleaned up perfectly without taking anything away from the animators’ work. If you’re a child of the 90’s and haven’t seen this movie in a long time you’ll have a realization that this film was the basis for the Tale Spin cartoon. The characters themselves are taken directly from The Jungle Book so that was a neat thing to have pop in ones head. Reliving this adventure brought back some really fun memories and I’m immensely glad I’m creating new memories with my kids while they experience these films for the first time. This truly is an absolutely MUST HAVE version of this classic cartoon and I guarantee you that you won’t be disappointed and knowing that this was Walt Disney’s final film that he was directly involved with makes this one a bit sweeter.
Special Features:
Music, Memories and Mowgli: A Conversation With Richard M. Sherman, Diane Disney Miller and Floyd Norman – A great conversation about the creative process and each person talks about their memories working on the film and of Walt Disney himself.
Alternate Ending: Mowgli And The Hunter – A storyboard alternate ending that has a bit of a darker and more serious feel to it.
I Wan’na Be Like You: Hanging Out At Disney’s Animal Kingdom – Two young kids head to the Animal Kingdom for the day to experience the daily routine of taking care of all the wild animals in the park.
Bear-E-Oke – A fun collection of karaoke versions of the songs from the film.
@DisneyAnimation: Sparking Creativity – A really cool look at the Disney Animation office and all of the extremely talented people involved in some very innovative projects.
Classic DVD Bonus Features – Here you’ll find the original features that were included in the previously released DVD. There’s quite a bit of them so this is a pretty cool that they included these as well as the new features.
