The latest movie adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” can’t quite be called a “gritty reboot” of the often less-than-faithful cinematic versions of the 1894 story collection.
“Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle” has a lot more dirt, blood and death in it than any movie from the Kipling source I’ve seen. That stands to reason, as many such films have been Disney products. This isn’t; it was made by Warner Bros. and acquired by Netflix.
In addition, it’s directed by Andy Serkis, who’s best known as an actorworking largely in the motion-capture realm ( like as Gollum in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” films) . “Mowgli” opens with a flesh-and-blood baby abandoned in the jungle, lifted and carried by a formidable digital panther, Bagheera, voiced and performed for motion capture by Christian Bale. Bagheera deposits the “man cub” with a family of soulful wolves, who adopt him over the objections of some of their fellow creatures.
