Kipling classic loses jungle touch in remake

Kipling classic loses jungle touch in remake

By Dini S. Djalal

JAKARTA (JP): In Disney's 1995 reworking of Rudyard Kipling's
The Jungle Book, the film's childlike hero Mowgli puts forward
the question: "What is hate?" To which followed much "deep"
philosophizing amongst the audience about the so-called civilized
world's wicked ways.

All I could think of was: where's all the song and dance gone?
What happened to those great tunes Baloo and Mowgli crooned
together in the cartoon version? And why is Mowgli no longer a
skinny little runt but, instead, has grown into a contender for
the Mr. Universe title?

Wild Kingdom

Unlike of most of its fans, who grew up singing Just the Bare
Necessities, I discovered The Jungle Book in college, and only in
its 1967 animated movie version. But the wide-eyed innocence of
Mowgli, the huggable bulk of Baloo the bear, even the slithery
charm of Kaa the snake, immediately became like old friends. As
in most Disney films, the animals spoke like humans, and behaved
more humanly than many of us.

During the planning of the new version, the film's producers
decided that the animals speaking like humans would be too easy.

"It was an enormous challenge to write animal scenes without
the simplicity with which all the animals in the Jungle Book
stories talk to one another," said screenwriter Ronald Yanover.
Instead the film crew hired more than 50 trained animals to roll
around and act cute in front of the camera. It is as amusing as
watching the circus or Wild Kingdom -- if you go for that sort of
thing.

Perhaps this is merely the voice of a Kipling-illiterate, with
no pets. Producer Raju Patel hopes the film will further the
cause of environmentalists, but a Hollywood-trained domesticated
bear, able to do the waltz, seems an inappropriate mascot for the
Green movement.

Director Stephen Sommers further contends that "We stayed as
close to the book as we possibly could." Yet Kipling's
colonialist mentality never appealed to me, so I am neither
familiar with his jingoistic novel Kim or the collection of short
stories which came to be known as The Jungle Book. The many new
versions of The Jungle Book, available in dozens of languages,
now spotlight the animal characters and sidesteps Kipling's heavy
moral preaching.

The film does not. Here the animals are little more than
scenery -- the shaggy mutts in formula Hollywood films get more
screen time. Instead the film centers upon the bland human
characters -- Mowgli, his object of affection Kitty, and her evil
suitor Captain Boone -- and the parallels between the savagery of
the jungle and civilization.

The story is similar to Tarzan or The Blue Lagoon, except
without a half-naked Jane or Brooke Shields. Mowgli, a young
Indian boy, and Kitty, the daughter of British military man Major
Brydon (stern Sam Neill of Jurassic Park), become friends in
colonial India. Their playful childhood is interrupted when,
during a riot, Mowgli is carried off into the jungle by a wayward
carriage. Hence Mowgli grows up in the jungle, living amongst the
animals and behaving as they do. When he and Kitty accidentally
meet again, they are both young adults. The difference is that
Mowgli can no longer speak her language.

So Kitty, with the help of Dr. Plumford (played with typical
wit by John Cleese), re-introduces Mowgli to civilization, and
Mowgli relearns the English language quicker than a circus tiger
learning to jump through fire hoops. Along the way, the seeds of
love between the hunky Mowgli (Jason Scott-Lee from Dragon: the
Bruce Lee Story) and the vivacious Kitty (Lena Headley from
Remains of the Day) are sown all over the alphabet table, causing
great distress to Kitty's father and the persistent Captain Boone
(Cary Elwes of The Princess Bride).

Isn't it just like Hollywood to turn a perfectly innocent tale
of bear & boy camaraderie into a sizzling menage a trois?

But a love story alone cannot carry a multi-million dollar
epic. Suspense! Action! Adventure! That's what brings in big
bucks. In Indiana-Jones style, The Jungle Book cast embarks on a
treasure hunt involving all sorts of mayhem -- falling down
waterfalls, crawling through rat-infested dungeons, wrestling
with pythons.

But whereas Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones faced grave danger,
with a twitch-in-the-eye trepidation and unfailing humor, Mowgli
just flexes his rippling muscles and treads on fearlessly. Jason
Scott-Lee is an excellent actor in a hopeless role. We feel
sympathy for Mowgli, but not because his big brown eyes grow
misty at the thought of a married Kitty. Rather because he has to
utter inane dialogue, engage in gratuitous slapstick, and prance
half-naked in a loin-cloth throughout the film.

Director Sommers said that he, "took all the animals in the
book and gave them human counterparts" in the film. So, Cleese's
bumbling Dr. Plumford is Baloo, Neill's Brydon is the pompous
elephant, and Elwes' sinister Captain Boone is Kaa the snake.
Perhaps this explains why the characters seem like one-
dimensional caricatures. As the adventuress Kitty, Headley stands
out as a breathless English rose, breaking out of convention.
Ultimately she plays a damsel in distress, but she breathes vigor
and individuality into her performance.

If one is not familiar with previous versions of The Jungle
Book, the film offers great family entertainment. It's got
action-adventure, great-looking actors, some funny lines, and
lots of cute animals -- like an Indiana Jones film produced by
the National Geographic Society. And lest we forget, it's got
great moral messages. A) Greed kills, and b) animals are our
friends! Sunday Matinees are a great way to indoctrinate
preteens into campaigning for the World Wildlife Fund. If the
annoyingly loud and sweeping music (written by the same composer
of other over-the-top soundtracks, Robocop and Conan the
Destroyer) can be muted out, I may even rent The Jungle Book one
day on laser disc. Only if the 1967 cartoon version is not
available.