This is one of those movies that is going to hold no surprises for anyone. Not because it’s predictable or unoriginal but because if you’ve seen any of the trailers for this film then  you know exactly what you’re going to get.

If you watch this movie you will probably either see the next Academy Award-winner for Best Visual Effects or the movie we’ll say was robbed if another film should take the Oscar.

You also know you’re going to get a Disney remake that’s actually not ashamed to be a Disney remake. It relishes on adding just enough callbacks to the 1967 animated classic to make us get the nostalgic warm-and-fuzzies without confusing references for actual plot or content.

Bill Murray is Bill Murray: perfect as always.

Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, and Scarlett Johansson? No surprises here, wonderful performances from a fine A-list cast. If I sound blasé about that it’s only because highly engaging and entertaining performances are to be expected from a group of actors who collect Oscar and BAFTA awards and nominations like trading cards.

Christopher Walken does what he can as King Louie but he’s no Louis Prima. Then again, who is?

The only real surprise here is Mowgli, played by Neel Sethi in his feature film debut. The original Disney Mowgli was a mostly recycled rotoscoped character from previous Disney films and was more like a piece of stage furniture that the other characters pushed and moved around to the next song number. Sethi’s Mowgli manages to be an actual character here, a young child who feels isolated from a family that he desperately wants to belong to but also can’t stop giving in to his human nature by using his reasoning and intellect to make up for his lack of size, speed, teeth or claws.

This is solid storytelling wrapped up in state-of-the-art CGI. It’s a benchmark in the same way that “The Matrix” or “Avatar” is: Not quite original stories told remarkably well with innovative visual effects. These are the films that keep Hollywood playing catchup until the next technological benchmark comes along.

However, there is something inherently charming about cutting edge technology being used to retell a classic story. In fact, it’s what a remake should be.

Check out my video review below to see me go on about The Jungle Book a bit more. Thanks!