The Jungle Book 2
The Jungle Book 2 is a 2003 animated adventure film produced by the Australian office at DisneyToon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. The theatrical version of the film was released in France on February 5, 2003, and released in the United States on February 14.
The film is a sequel to Walt Disney's 1967 film The Jungle Book, and stars Haley Joel Osment as the voice of Mowgli and John Goodman as the voice of Baloo.
The film was originally produced as a direct-to-video film, but was released theatrically first, similar to the Peter Pan sequel Return to Never Land. It is the fourth animated Disney sequel to have a theatrical release rather than going direct-to-video after The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Fantasia 2000 (1999), and Return to Never Land (2002) and the last one until Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). The film is not based on The Second Jungle Book, but they do have several characters in common.
The film received negative reviews directed towards the animation and similarity in plotline to the first film, but it was a box office success, grossing $135.7 million against a $20 million budget.
Plot
Wild child Mowgli has grown fidgety with his life in a rural village. So he sneaks back to the jungle to be with his animal friends, like the lovable bear Baloo. Mowgli's disappearance worries his family, so his best friend, Shanti, journeys into the jungle to find him. But all is not well there. Mowgli's old foe, the fierce tiger Shere Khan, is out to get him, and he traps Mowgli, Shanti, and Baloo in an ancient temple.
Why It Doesn't Make You Wan'na Be Like Mowgli
- One of the biggest problems with the movie and why it got hugely brought down is that the plot is just a weaker rehash of the first film.
- Mowgli's new voice by Haley Joel Osment sounds ridiculous and very annoying, and barely even sounded like how Bruce Reitherman voiced him in the original film.
- Unfunny and weak humor.
- It has a severe lack of charm that the first film had.
- It was released 36 years after the first film, which is way too late for a sequel.
- It is pointless, as the first film never set up any sequel and ended on a good ending.
- Executive Meddling: The film's concept overall is a huge waste of potential thanks to this. Similar in vein to the early development of Mulan II, in the late-1990s screenwriting duo, Bob Hilgenberg and Rob Muir submitted a screenplay of The Jungle Book 2 which shifted it's focus away from Mowgli to Baloo since the former's story arc was concluded at the end of the original film, in which Baloo, whom has moved on from his days of raising Mowgli as his Man-Cub, ventured to save his romantic interest from a poacher. But no, because of executive meddling on the part of DisneyToon Studios, the original concept was however thrown out of the window which is saddening given that the original concept had huge potential at fleshing out one of the original film's major characters and going on a more original direction for the sequel than in the final film, however, after the original concept was scrapped, the studio went on a completely different direction for this film, hence what we got for this film instead is a lazy plotline which is basically a rehashed plot of the first film, with no effort at all.
- Shere Khan was flanderized into having less personality in this and feels more like a typical "I'm evil!" kind of villain.
- A lot of the movie is mostly compromised up of long talk scenes that last for too long.
- Despite the animation being a very great step-up from the previous film, the animation is a somewhat downgrade from the first film.
- It is pretty boring, as mostly nothing happens until the climax.
- Plot hole: Wasn't Shere Khan supposed to be out of the jungle forever? And how did he survive a massive boulder falling on him and how is he going to get out of there?
- Bland side characters that only serve as filler.
- The Wolf Pack is almost never mentioned or appears.
- Lightning-fast pacing that goes by too fast due to the movie's length.
- Some of the characters are miscolored due to the drastic shift in color palette from the first film from the warm yellowish-green hues in the first film to cold, bright blue-green hues in this film, such as Baloo's fur now more bluish instead of dark grey even if it appeals to kids, Kaa miscolored green instead of yellow, and Flunkey now miscolored red like King Louie instead of his original brown. Although this might be seen as a plus for some as the new color palette is still very appealing to the eye.
- King Louie is absent from this film due to legal issues with Gia Prima (the wife of Louie's original voice actor) back in 2001, resulting his role to be given to Flunkey (King Louie's right-hand man from the original film), whose personality and voice has now been heavily altered into a weak clone of King Louie instead of retaining his original persona.
- Ranjan is an incredibly irritating dime-store Michael from Peter Pan.
Redeeming Qualities
- There are a few people who might still like this film.
- Great soundtrack, especially Smash Mouth's cover of I Wan’na Be Like You.
- Good voice acting for most of the characters (except for Haley Joel Osment as Mowgli); John Goodman, Bob Joles and Tony Jay were decent impressions as Baloo, Bagheera and Shere Khan respectively.
- Gorgeous animation that is a step-up from the original, despite the change in color palette and some slight miscoloring of certain characters.
- There are a few funny moments here and there.
- The climax scene is pretty fun.
- Baloo is still a good character.
- Not to mention, while he's colored grey in the first film, he's surprisingly coloured blue, which is arguably a nice change.
- Shanti, the girl whom Mowgli had a crush on at the end of the first film, has her role expanded as a more complex character and is given more personality than in the original film. In addition, the relationship between Mowgli and Shanti is done reasonably.
- The new character Lucky is an incredibly hilarious comic relief character with tons of funny lines about mocking Shere Khan, and Phil Collins gave a decent voice performance as the character.
- "I SHERE KHAN!"
- Shere Khan, although not as developed, scary or memorable as he was previously, is still an intimidating and great villain.
- Despite the movie being completely unnecessary and pointless, it's great to see another animated The Jungle Book movie in theaters after 36 years.
- Most of the characters are still likable.
Reception
The Jungle Book 2 received negative reviews from critics and audiences with criticism directed towards the animation and similarity in plotline to the first film. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 19% "rotten" based on 91 reviews, with an average rating of 4.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "This inferior rehash of The Jungle Book should have gone straight to video.". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Cancelled sequel
In 2003, a third installment to The Jungle Book was planned. It would have been about Baloo and Shere Khan being captured and sold off to a Russian circus, and Mowgli, Shanti, Ranjan, and Bagheera deciding to save them both. Over the course of the film, Shere Khan regrets his hatred against humanity after the events of the previous two films because of his capture, and eventually reforms after Mowgli and his friends rescued them. The project however never materialized due to the negative reception and poor box office performance of this film.
Trivia
- This movie was not animated by the Disney studios in the United States, but the one in Australia.