Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book

I love this version of the jungle book. I watched it when I was a kid and still love it.

Please re release this version of the Jungle Book on DVD!!! It is one of my favorite films of all time and I can't purchase it anywhere!!! I checked on Amazon and it is only available from sellers!!!

This is perhaps the best version of Jungle Book ever made. The cast is extremely charismatic (especially Jason Scott Lee who is not only an excellent action star but is so damn gorgeous that gay men will catch vapors just watching him run around most of the movie shirtless). There is excitement and danger and romance. What is not to love?

A super production of 1994 that tried to recapture the magic of Kipling's novel. The emphasis is on the love Mowgli feels for Kitty, though we could not understand Kitty if she did not love Mowgli's beautiful body that he lets everyone contemplate and admire and his deep consciousness of the relationship between nature and man, between human fate and the law of nature the way it exists in the deep jungle of India. In other words she can only love this man who can speak to all animals and order them to speak or keep silent, especially when she looks at the officers of Her Majesty's army around her, human animals who only like killing, dominating, stealing and robbing. Vain, criminal and greedy as opposed to free, strong and generous. But by concentrating the film on this only love affair, the director and producers miss so many aspects of the book that are just as fascinating, like the detailed observation of human nature, of Indian society, of wild animals, of English men when their masculinity is at stake, and in those days their masculinity was always at stake which made them cruel in order to prove they were strong and human. It was a time when cruelty was part of a gentleman's education. This is mostly pushed aside in the film. And I must admit the elephants seem to be quite small in a way and the tiger should have been a lot more ferocious. But you can't really shoot a film like that with wild animals. Too bad. And quite many small animals of the jungle are just absent, like snakes, bees, flies and all the other flying, crawling or jumping insects. The film is then only entertaining, but after all it is intended for kids, and even if we are grown-up kids, we are no longer wearing short pants in the office and going to kindergarten.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne

Although "Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book" reminded me more of Tarzan than Mowgli, it is still a good film to watch with the family. Jason Scott Lee does a good job as Mowgli all grown up. Cary Elwes is the perfect British jerk and Sam Neill has a decent supporting role. Lena Heady and John Cleese have the most interaction with Mowgli, and they give the best performances out of the bunch.

The animal cast does a pretty good job as well. Some of the human/animal interaction can be written off as fake-looking, but the majority of the scenes using animatronic creatures look reasonably good.

Young children may be turned off by the deaths in this film, and of Kaa the python, who makes a couple of brief, but scary to a five year-old, appearances. Language, as well as dialogue as a whole, is kept relatively tame. Neill and Elwes let off a few slurs, but nothing worse than the "D" word.

Overall, a decent adventure flick for kids too young for Indiana Jones movies, but who love adventure tales. Another decent suggestion is "The Phantom," starring Billy Zane.