He truly feels closer in spirit to Kipling than Disney’s earlier portrayal of the character, echoing the 1942 Mowgli portrayed by Indian star Sabu. Jason Scott Lee is emotive and earnest as Mowgli, and while I’m aware he’s not Indian, I feel his performance solidifies his place in the role.
However, Boone hatches a plan to lure Mowgli back to lead them to the lost city by severely wounding Baloo and holding Kitty and Brydon hostage. Unable to adjust to life amidst the British aristocracy and saddened by Kitty’s engagement to Boone, Mowgli returns to the jungle to Kitty’s dismay. Lusting for wealth and power, Captain Boone takes the dagger and learns of the existence of the “Monkey City” and its treasure within from Mowgli. Plumford the power of speech and the ways of civilization and over time, Mowgli begins to fall in love with her. Mowgli follows her back to the British fort and is captured by Boone, but Kitty requests him to be freed and is taught by her and Dr. Plumford and her suitor, Captain William Boone. He later encounters Kitty Brydon, his childhood flame, accompanied by her tutor Dr.
Mowgli grows up in the jungle and discovers a lost city ruled by King Louie the Orangutan and his monkey subjects, there he battles the snake Kaa with a diamond encrusted dagger. Mowgli also adopts a bear cub named Baloo. Bagheera the panther discovers them lost in the jungle and leads them to the wolves, who adopt Mowgli and Grey Brother as members of the pack. In the chaos, Mowgli and his wolf cub Grey Brother are presumed dead. That night after a tour of the jungle, the tiger Shere Khan attacks the camp and kills Mowgli’s father, intending to kill soldiers that were poaching his game.
I re-watched it recently and found it to be very well-made, entertaining and pretty mature for a Disney film.Īt the time of the British Raj, Mowgli is the son of an Indian guide for a convoy of British troops led by Colonel Brydon. Despite diverging in many ways from Rudyard Kipling’s classic novel, I personally love this film. Even then, the few people who have seen Stephen Sommers' Jungle Book are either indifferent to it or think it's just "okay". It's strange reviewing a film that next to nobody has heard about.