Disney: The Jungle Book 2 (2003)

Since the early 90's, Disney, for some reason, has decided that a good majority of its classic animated features need one or two sequels. While the sequels to Aladdin and The Lion King were actually quite enjoyable and well made, most of them, while not out and out horrible, do nothing more than make you ask one simple question: what's the point? Not only are these sequels not needed seeing as how most of their parent films were perfect on their own, they almost always end up adding nothing to the story and by the end of each one, you're left wondering why this was necessary in the first place. And that leads us to our subject here, The Jungle Book 2, a sequel produced by Australia's Disney-Toon Studios thirty-five years after the release of the beloved original. The only difference is that this was actually released in theaters, even though it was originally planned to be straight to video. I actually first heard about when I picked up an issue of Disney Adventure magazine in the grocery store one night and saw an article about it. My reaction was surprise. The last thing I was thinking of was that there was going to be a sequel to a movie from my childhood. I was interested in seeing it, although that wasn't until a year later when it was on cable. My thoughts? Same as always with these sequels: it's okay but it's so generic that it's not even worth existing.

Taking place some time after the events of the original, this film shows Mowgli adapting to life in the man-village and with his adopted family. Although he's made friends with Shanti, the girl he followed into the village at the end of the original film, and her little brother Ranjan, Mowgli misses the freedom of the jungle and his animal friends, especially Baloo. At the same time, Baloo is not dealing well with the fact that Mowgli is no longer with him and he sneaks off to visit him. After he does so, a commotion causes him and Mowgli to run back into the jungle. Unbeknownst to Mowgli, who's resolved to live in the jungle for the rest of his life, Shanti and Ranjan, as well as most of the villagers, are in the jungle looking for him. Also, the evil Shere Khan, furious at Mowgli for what he did to him, is determined to have his revenge against the boy.

You can immediately tell that this film was originally meant to be direct to video. It has that low budget, generic look to it that all of Disney's direct to video sequels have. To be fair, the look of the movie is nice and colorful, but the animation and production design are nowhere near the level of the original. I don't know if it's the low budgets or what but this stuff just never has the same level of animation and design as their predecessors. A good thing is that the character designs are kept very true to those in the original, except for one: Kaa. For some reason, he's now green instead of brown. Why? Did someone just decide green was more snake-like in color or something? Other than that, though, the character designs are pretty much the same. But the technicality is the least of this film's problems.

Mowgli is voiced by Haley Joel Osment this time around. First off, Osment's performance isn't half bad with what they give him to work with but to me, Bruce Reitherman sounded more natural as a kid. The set-up for Mowgli's character in this film is acceptable: he misses the jungle and wants to experience the freedom of being wild again. But as soon as he gets into the jungle, he begins to miss Shanti and the other villagers, mainly after he hears they're looking for him. He's actually surprised that they're looking for him, since he'd been punished earlier for almost leading the village kids into the jungle. And that right there is something that gets me: because he was punished, he thought that everyone in the village hated him? All that time he was living with the wolf pack, did he never get punished for doing something wrong and learn that when adults are mad at you, that doesn't mean they hate you? I know Mowgli's just a kid but ten to eleven-year olds shouldn't be that naive. For another thing, the whole conflict between Mowgli wanting to stay in the jungle but also missing his village family could make for an interesting film but they never do anything with it other than have Mowgli mope around for each part of the problem and his ultimate decision as to where he's ultimately going to leave has no purpose since he and Shanti begin regularly visiting the jungle at the end of the film. So, there's no drama. Also, Mowgli's been living in the village for a good while now, right? Well, why is he still in just his underwear? Did they have no extra clothes for him or something? Give him some pants or a shirt, at least!

Baloo is voiced by John Goodman who, while being fairly good at emulating Phil Harris' personality, just doesn't have the same actual feel to him (maybe it's just because the voice is so much different but still). Baloo is fairly one-dimensional: he misses Mowgli, ends up accidentally kidnapping him from the jungle, the two of them go through the Bear Necessities and the same shtick as before, he tries to keep Shanti away from Mowgli, briefly tussles with Shere Khan again, and, in the end, makes the same decision he did in the middle of the original: Mowgli belongs in the man-village. And again, what was the point of Baloo's hard decision when he's going to see Mowgli every now and then? That happy ending really derails the implications of the major conflict of the story.

Bagheera is voiced by Bob Joles, who actually does an excellent job of capturing Sebastian Cabot's wisdom and authority figure personality. And he's barely in the film. Yeah, he's the returning main character from the original that has the least amount of screen-time. When he is onscreen, he's involved in ridiculous slapstick involving either Colonel Hathi, Baloo, or Ranjan. Such a shame that they get someone who has the same feel as the great actor who portrayed the original and yet they do little with him.

Jim Cummings plays a multitude of characters in this film and while he gets to show his range of voices, he fails to capture the spirit that the characters' original actors did. The character he plays who's onscreen the most is Kaa, back to haunt your dreams with his hypnotic powers and questionable morals towards his younger victims. Like Sterling Holloway, Cummings also often voices Winnie the Pooh but unlike his predecessor, he just can't seem to shake his Pooh voice when he's doing Kaa. I don't if it was because Holloway did Kaa just a tiny bit deeper in voice or what but Cummings just isn't as menacing and sounds like Pooh with a hiss. His hypnotic encounter with Shanti, while nowhere near as much as those in the original with Mowgli, does have some of the same sexual connotations as he actually brushes her hair while hypnotizing her, makes her follow his gaze wherever he turns, and leads her onto a rock so he can eat her (Ranjan saves his sister, however). It's weird how he didn't even try to hypnotize Mowgli this time. Cummings also plays Col. Hathi, using a pompous English voice I've heard him use many other times and he honestly doesn't sound much like J. Pat O'Malley. Other than voicing one of the vultures (I honestly can't remember which one), he also voices Flunkey, who turns out to be that monkey who annoyed King Louie during I Wanna Be Like You. I don't really have an opinion on this voice since Flunkey never spoke in the original. Oh, and by the way, King Louie isn't in this film. It was due to some sort of legal issues and they never explain his absence other than he just left. Way to go, above and beyond.

The best returning character in this film by far is Shere Khan. In this movie, he's voiced by the awesome actor Tony Jay, a British guy who had one of the deepest, most commanding voices ever. Jay sounds so much like George Sanders here that it's like he's risen from the grave. He brings the same kind of cool sophistication and menace to the character that his predecessor did and does it very well. Shere Khan's first appearance in the movie is awesome, with his paw crushing the coconut head of a makeshift Mowgli that Baloo had made and growling Mowgli's name in pure hatred. Since he's out for revenge, Khan is portrayed with a whole lot more rage than before, but he doesn't lose his droll sense of humor. Not only does Jay sound like Sanders but the animators did a good job of keeping the mannerisms Khan had in the original. He also lurks in the shadows for most of the film, making him all the more menacing. His best moment is when he finally finds Mowgli and tells him why he's going to kill him. The conflict between him and Mowgli should have been the focus of the entire movie, maybe with Khan kidnapping Shanti and having Mowgli venture into the jungle into a trap. (That's almost what he does to begin with.) Also, while Shere Khan isn't killed at the end of the movie, you still have to realize that he has no way to escape the trap he's imprisoned in and will probably starve to death eventually. Kind of dark when you think about it.

The girl whom Mowgli followed into the jungle at the end of the original film is revealed to be Shanti, a young village girl who lives with her parents and little brother Ranjan. Voiced by Mae Whitman, Shanti's personality isn't that interesting, to be honest. While she's not a bad character, there's not much to her. She denies liking Mowgli, even though she flirts with him; she has to babysit her little brother during their trek through the jungle; gets her feelings hurt and runs off when she finds out that Mowgli had Baloo intentionally scare her; helps Baloo somewhat to save Mowgli from Shere Khan; and in the end, goes with Mowgli in his little visits to the jungle. She at first thinks the jungle is dangerous but by the end, finds out that's not entirely the case. And that's it. She's just a blank slate. But she's not as bad as her little Ranjan, voiced by Connor Funk. This little guy is nothing but a handicap to Mowgli and Shanti while they're in the jungle. He causes trouble, tries to act all brave, and looks up to Mowgli as some big brother figure but they never do anything with it. He's just the typical rambunctious little kid that's supposed to make you go, "Aw!" I don't find him to be anything other than annoying. Also, he's apparently picked up some bad habits from Mowgli because he too wears nothing but underwear.

John Rhys-Davies voices Shanti and Ranjan's father. It pains me for Rhys-Davies to have be involved with this because he's a good actor. His character literally has nothing to do other than to be the jolly father with a strict rule system who feels bad for punishing Mowgli after he goes back to the jungle. One thing they could have made something out of is when he tells Mowgli that the jungle is dangerous and to prove it, shows him some scarred claw marks on his arm. Could those be the work of Shere Khan? Never touched on and it's too bad because that could have made for an interesting conflict with him meeting up with the animal that originally attacked him and is now after Mowgli. Instead, all he does is spend a good portion of the movie searching for Mowgli, Shanti, and Ranjan with the search party in the jungle. Such a waste. And as for the last new character, there's Lucky, a new vulture voiced by Phil Collins(!). This guy is entirely pointless. He's strictly comedy relief and not a very good one either, constantly taunting Shere Khan for how Mowgli humiliated him. At one point, Khan grabs him and evilly says, "Isn't it ironic that your name is Lucky?" before apparently killing him. I loved that moment when I first saw it because it seemed so dark for Disney nowadays... and then, Lucky shows up at the end to taunt the imprisoned Khan some more. That irritated me so much. What did Khan do to him instead of eating him? Did he just beat him up? That shouldn't have been the case. When you cross Shere Khan, your ass should be grass! I can't get across how disappointed I was in that turn of events.

Biggest problem with the film? The story or rather lack thereof. Granted, I said the story of the original film wasn't that strong either but the characters, animation, and songs picked up the slack there. As we've seen here, though, this movie's animation isn't up to snuff, the characters from the original as well as the new ones are one note for the most part, and most of the songs are just retreads of those from the original (I'll get to the actual new ones in a minute). In fact, this movie is like a half-hearted xerox of the original: Mowgli spends time with Baloo in the jungle, singing the Bear Necessities and going through the same shtick; Kaa hypnotizes someone; there's a scene at the ancient ruins minus King Louie; there's a final confrontation with Shere Khan, where Baloo tries to save Mowgli (why can't Bagheera battle Khan?); and Mowgli, although he does actually decide this time, follows Shanti to the village. This movie is doing nothing more than going through the motions that fans of the original remember. Instead of telling a new story, the filmmakers are just retreading the same old ground with some new characters thrown in and making Mowgli's return to the jungle an overnight sleepover more than anything else. There are hints of better stories to be hold here, as I described, but they do nothing with them. They also retread material from other Disney films. When Shanti's father scolds Mowgli for almost leading the kids into the jungle, he says lines such as, "I'm very disappointed in you" and, "You deliberately disobeyed me!" Sound familiar? (*cough* The Lion King *cough*) And by the way, "Yeah, man!" was awesome in the original but it's used way too much here.

Unlike the atmospheric and mysterious music score of the original, this movie's score by Patrick Griffin is completely forgettable. I don't remember a single tune from that generic score. Songs from the original like Bear Necessities, My Own Home, and I Wanna Be Like You are given new versions here. While I thought John Goodman and Haley Joel Osment's singing of Bear Necessities was okay, Smashmouth's I Wanna Be Like You was not up to par. It's like, "Yeah, King Louie's not in this film but his song was memorable so we're going to put in a less than acceptable version of it." As for the new songs, Osment sings Mowgli's song Jungle Rhythm. The song itself and Osment's singing aren't that bad but it's not memorable. As John Goodman singing Baloo's song W-I-L-D? Again, Goodman isn't bad but the song itself... are you kidding? Once again, generic! (Also, Timon and Pumbaa appear in that song. Why? Despite the continuity logistics that they live in Africa instead of India, all it does is make me wish I was watching The Lion King instead of this.)

The Jungle Book 2, like so many of these other Disney sequels, has no reason to exist. In its short running time of 69 minutes, it accomplishes precisely nothing other than giving us an uninspired retread of the original, only with the characters we love not as interesting and new characters that we don't give a crap about. But, this movie made over $135 million worldwide so I guess little kids who either liked the original or had never seen it but thought this looked cool won out. I have no problem with Disney making sequels to their classic films but the bottom line is that they seriously need to actually try and not treat their audience like morons when they do so.