34. The Jungle Book (2016)
The Jungle Book stars and introduces Neel Sethi as Mowgli, an orphaned human boy who, guided by his animal guardians, sets out on a journey of self-discovery while evading the threatening Shere Khan. The film also features the voices of Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito and Christopher Walken.
This is a pretty straight forward adaptation of the 1967 Disney animated version rather than of the Rudyard Kipling book, although the film does have several interpretations of some of the darker elements of the book and even references the imagery of the Chuck Jones animated version from the 60s, especially towards the end.
I gotta say, the trailers did a really good job giving us an indication of what this was going to be but even those trailers couldn’t predict the awesomeness that this movie really was. I really found myself enjoying this a lot.
When it comes to Disney and their live-action adaptations of their animated classics, Cinderella last year set a new bar in terms of making a great quality live-action adaptation of an animated Disney classic but The Jungle Book not only surpasses that bar but it exceeds your expectations for the things they do in it.
The greatest aspects in the movie comes down to two things, the cast and their performances and the visual effects.
They couldn’t have gotten a better voice cast for this if they tried. You’ve got Ben Kingsley giving one of the best and most subdued performances of his distinguished career as Bagheera. You’ve got Bill Murray as Baloo, which that alone already equals quality entertainment value, but he’s fantastic in this giving us a different Baloo compared to the animated version but still equally as enjoyable. You’ve got Christopher Walken as King Louie and what Walken brings to this performance is both fun and very menacing. The same could also be said for Scarlett Johansson’s Kaa, who really does bring that creepiness to that character in terms of her voice and just the design of the character. I swear to god, I was leaning back in my seat when she zoomed in on the screen, it really did feel like this snake was in the theater with me, that’s how good a performance that was. Now, if you want to talk about a menacing performance in this, Idris Elba as Shere Khan, you needed to get somebody who can come off as threatening playing this character like how George Sanders to play him in the 1967 movie or even when they got Tony Jay to play him in Tale Spin and The Jungle Book 2. And boy, Idris Elba hits it right out of the park, he comes off with the perfect amount of fear and hostility you need for a character like him and as you watch the film, you get that sense of “okay, I found this character to be very threatening, I need to stay the F away from him.”
You also have Lupita N’Yongo & Giancarlo Esposito playing Raksha & Akela, who are also great in this as well and they even have some cameos from director Jon Favreau, the late Garry Shandling, and even Sam Raimi voices a Indian Giant Squirrel in this.
The biggest surprise of the whole movie is the visual effects and how the film was made. This entire film was shot on a soundstage in Los Angeles, which is incredible when you consider than many of the shots look like they shot this out in the jungles of Africa and it just shows off the power of what CGI can do if it’s done right. It’s like what they were trying to do with Sky Captain & The World Of Tomorrow 12 years ago but this one gets it right.
Also what the power of CGI is able to do is actually give the animal characters a sense of emotion to them. Much like what they were able to do with Caesar in the Planet Of The Apes films, what Disney has done with these characters is make these animals act like humans and give them real emotions that can be seen on their faces and not feel fake or phony, each one has these looks that give these animals character and a reason to actually care about them and the situations they have to face in the film.
As far as Neel Sethi as Mowgli goes, I thought he was just okay. I don’t think he was a terrible actor in this but he does really come off as one note in his performance, it’s not Jake Lloyd in Phantom Menace bad but it’s pretty close. Though to his credit, the kid did do a good job working off the CG animals, I just wished that he had put a little more emotion into his role like the rest of the cast was.
The rest of the movie worked itself, the script by Justin Marks is very good, the music by John Debney works, the new interpretations of the classic songs are nicely done, there was never anything else about this movie that I didn’t like, just a couple of nitpicks here and there.
But other than that, The Jungle Book not only sets a new standard for these live-action versions of Disney’s animated library but it also sets a new standard in what CGI can do for entertainment, it’s not only an excellent adaptation of The Jungle Book but it’s a great fun action packed family adventure that’s yet another winner for Disney who has really been able to deliver quality family entertainment 9 times out of 10 in the last few years and hopefully, that stretch will continue on for many years to come.
33. Inside Out (2015)
Inside Out is a 2015 American 3D computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Pete Docter and co-directed by Ronnie del Carmen, with a screenplay written by Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley, adapted from a story by Docter and del Carmen. The film is set in the mind of a young girl named Riley Andersen (Kaitlyn Dias), where five personified emotions—Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling)—try to lead her through life as her parents (Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan) move from Minnesota to San Francisco, and she has to adjust to her new surroundings.
Docter first began developing Inside Out in 2009, after noticing changes in his daughter’s personality as she grew older. The film’s producers consulted numerous psychologists including Dacher Keltner from the University of California, Berkeley, who helped revise the story by emphasizing the neuropsychological findings that human emotions affect interpersonal relationships and can be significantly moderated by them.
After premiering at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in May 2015, Inside Out was released in North America on June 19, 2015, accompanied by the short film Lava. Critics praised the film’s concept, screenplay, subject matter, Michael Giacchino’s musical score and the vocal performances, particularly of Poehler, Smith, and Richard Kind. The film grossed $90.4 million in its first weekend, making it the highest opening for an original title at the time. It accumulated over $857 million in worldwide box office revenue. The film received several awards, including a BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, Critics’ Choice Award, Annie Award, Satellite Award, and Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In 2016, the film was named as the 41st best film of the 21st century, from a poll of 177 film critics from around the world.
At this point, it’s kind of cliché to say that this is Pixar’s return to form after a couple of meh turns. I mean, Cars 2 was bad, Brave was just okay, and Monsters University was a lot of fun but Inside Out really is a return to what we love most about Pixar, their ability to tell great stories and tug at your heartstrings too. And what better movie to do it with than Inside Out.
This movie really is damn good, I don’t know what more I could say about it than everybody else have said.
I mean, honestly, there really isn’t a whole lot that’s wrong with the movie. I guess one of the small complaints I had with the film was that the way they kind of treat Sadness in the beginning but even then, that’s kind of the point, nobody wants to be sad and you can understand why the other emotions are like that but it was still kind of too harsh the way they treat Sadness at first. That’s the only really big complaint I had with the film.
Everything else, I really loved. This is probably Pixar’s most perfect movie they’ve made since Wall-E.
The story works so perfectly, combining a lot of great comedy, great elements of drama, and great character traits. It’s interesting that the film doesn’t have a villain to the plot, I think the last animated movie that doesn’t have a villain to it was Hotel Transylvania, another great animated movie. One of the writers for this is Meg LeFauve, who’s going to be writing Captain Marvel next, so this is a welcoming sign ahead for that.
The characters are all very likeable and their voice actors perfectly fit their parts easily. Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling, Lewis Black, & Phyllis Smith each fill their parts out as the emotions so very well, it’s hard to choose which one I liked the best of the bunch. It’s like The Lego Movie again, so many great characters in that, it’s hard to choose the best one. Even characters who could’ve been obnoxious like Richard Kind as Bing Bong, even he was really enjoyable and a lot of fun and when he’s written out of the film, it’s very similar to Dexter’s Laboratory when Dee-Dee’s imaginary friend disappears forever.
The emotional moments in here perfectly fit into what Pixar movies can usually bring us, there’s a lot of great moments where the emotional levels peak very high but the ending is what got to me and the way the story wraps up, I thought that was brilliant and didn’t feel forced at all.
Lastly, the animation is spectacular in this, not only is this Pixar at its’ best but there’s also a great scene where Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong end up entering abstract thought and it allows them to create some pretty impressive forms of animation, both 3D & 2D.
I mean, what more can I say about Inside Out at this point? It’s friggin’ awesome, it’s one of the best movies of the year so far. There’s so much about it that works, it’s a lot of fun, it’s very funny, it’s got a lot of great characters, and it packs on a lot of emotions. It’s Pixar back at the point we’ve been waiting for them to return to since Toy Story 3. This is Pixar at its’ finest.
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