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Unimaginative sequel
BARE NECESSITIES: Baloo helps Mowgli run away from the village.
The Jungle Book 2 (ENGLISH)
Voice cast: Haley Joel Osment, John Goodman
Dir: Steve Trenbirth
BASED ON Rudyard Kipling's classic tale, The Jungle Book was released in 1967 (incidentally the last animated feature Walt Disney personally supervised) and it quickly attained cult status. The songs (Bare Necessities, Trust in Me and Colonel Haathi's March among others) and the characters including the party animal Baloo, the wise panther Bagheera, the treacherous snake Kaa, mad Louis the monkey and the pompous Col Haathi all had a place in the collective unconscious.
The sequel Jungle Book 2, unfortunately adds nothing to the original.
The plot is wafer thin - Mowgli feels like a fish out of water in the village while Baloo misses his man cub friend. Shere Khan is on the look out for Mowgli to avenge his humiliation while Kaa wants a snack.
A group of vultures including new addition Lucky with a cockney accent add to colour.
Mowgli's new family includes cutie Ranjan and of course Shanti who wooed him to the village in the first place. The film has action and songs and keeping the vacation in mind, parents would do well to treat the little ones to a fairly undemanding film. There is however nothing in the film that makes you feel like watching it again and again.
The music clings to the original with a distressing lack of imagination. While one agrees with producer Mary Thorne's comment that "the original film left the door wide open to explore the future of these wonderful characters," one wishes the exploration had been done with some creativity and flair.
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Metro Plus
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Chennai
Coimbatore
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Visakhapatnam
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