Review of Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) by Todd K — 12 Jan 2019

Despite its flaws in mocap and occasionally clichà (C)e writing, Mowgli is a refreshing and daring film that manages to surprise and occasionally thrill and amaze. It was very agreeable to see it tackle the story-lines and themes from the book intelligently and without softening them. The problem might be that rather than counter-balancing those serious themes of quest for identity, suffering and the violence of nature with moments of sincere goodness, compassion and brotherhood, the writer chose to include cliche cartoonish characters and humour that not only momentarily spoiled the movie's atmosphere but also did nothing to provide any real answer to the harshness of the world the characters inhabit. The only parts that did achieve this were the running act of accompanying a kill's soul by looking into their eyes, and the brotherly relationship shared by Mowgli and Bagheera.

Overall, I would have wished to see more focus on the goodness of Mowgli's relationship with his wolf parents, brothers and with Akira at the start of the movie to really feel Mowgli's loss later on. Still, this is definitely worth a watch!