TheMovieSearch R
The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story is an adaptation that tries to give us a look at Mowgli’s younger years, set in a live-action world where real animals take the place of the animated or CGI creatures we’ve seen in other versions. The catch here is that these animals don’t have moving mouths—they’re real-life animals with voiceovers layered on top to make them “talk.” On paper, it might sound like an interesting experiment. In practice, it’s an absolute mess.
The biggest problem is how confusing and disjointed it all feels. Because the animals’ mouths don’t move, you’re left guessing who’s actually speaking in any given scene. When multiple animals are on screen at the same time, the voiceovers blend into one another, and you’re forced to rely on camera angles or editing to figure out which animal is supposed to be talking. That’s not just distracting—it completely takes you out of the story. Instead of engaging with Mowgli’s journey, you’re stuck playing a game of “whose voice was that?”
The screenplay doesn’t do the film any favors either. It feels like whoever wrote it had no idea how to craft a compelling adaptation of Kipling’s material. The story meanders, the dialogue is flat, and the tone shifts in a way that makes the whole film feel inconsistent. There’s no real heart, no magic, no spark that makes The Jungle Book resonate the way other versions do. Instead, it’s just a strange patchwork of half-baked ideas held together by the gimmick of using real animals.
The sad thing is that there’s potential here. With a little creativity—some animation, some early CGI, even puppetry—they could’ve at least made the animals’ communication more believable or charming. Instead, the choice to go with live animals and voiceovers feels cheap, awkward, and unpolished. What should have been whimsical or enchanting comes across as clunky and frustrating.
Watching this movie feels less like an adventure and more like a chore. It’s not fun, it’s not clever, and it’s not even remotely engaging for most of its runtime. You go in hoping for a fresh take on a classic story, but what you get is a train wreck of a film that misses every opportunity to be memorable.
At the end of the day, The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story is the kind of project that might have seemed like a good idea in the boardroom but collapses in execution. It could have been cute. It could have been an interesting little addition to Disney’s long legacy of Jungle Book adaptations. Instead, it’s a complete disaster. I don’t recommend it, and unless you’re trying to check every single Jungle Book adaptation off your list, this one’s best left forgotten.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
09/28/25
Full Review
Audience Member
Bem bonitinho, Mogli na versão Mogli, adorei os animais, o menininho muito perfeito, Mogli mais perfeito não imagino, adorei as relações entre os animaizinhos, bem convincente, talvez um pouco exagerado, mas manteve a fidelidade a obra com suas devidas adaptações e criações…
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/12/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Cringy money-grab Disney flick not worth your time or attention. Stick with the classic 1967 original.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Bad watch, won't watch again, and can't recommend, even for younger audiences.
Maybe kids won't see all the faults, but that's more the reason not to recommend it for them.
To be fair, working with animals is hard (and inadvisable) as they have no natural instinct to do anything you'd want to do with them.
I honestly can't tell if the kid was a decent actor because the majority of his live action (non voice over / narrative) lines were pretty garbage and / or between animals that clearly weren't talking back at the time.
Most of the voice over work for the animals wasn't good, I feel like they weren't told the animals or situations they were in. Even the voices I recognized and like the actors felt disconnected from the story.
This was also a really strange mix of animals. This is set in India. As a nature fan, I can tell that there were a lot North American animals, and South American birds. It's one thing when you're drawing whatever you want, but when you get animals for a setting it's distracting when they don't look like they belong there. I think they even switched Leopards, as the eyes changed from blue to green. Chimps and Hyenas are only native to Africa so added them when they weren't part of the original story didn't make any sense.
The gender swapping didn't bother me as much, but making Bagera and Baloo a psuedo-couple was a bit odd, and they could have been two gay dads for just as much sense. The "Two Men and a Baby" vibe was a lot more intuitive. Appropriating the wrong sexed voice to the animals was distracting though. It would be different if they established a character to be transgender, but it was very clear they thought little enough of the audience to notice.
Also, since this isn't animation, the animals don't convey the emotion or delivery that gives the original its charm. They also leave out the song and dance aspect, for which the original is famous.
The writing itself was by far the worst. Bad single lines aside, having Mowgli take over narration and assertion in the story were both mistakes. Being old enough to be a human BEFORE living life in the Jungle not only takes away his cuteness factor for the believability of the animals to want to raise him would also dissuade him from staying in the Jungle to begin, at least long enough to learn "wolf". And at every turn where I thought it might just get a little better, Mowgli has full control of the situation and does something silly.
Maybe knowledge is a curse, but I really think, if I could suspend my disbelief long enough, this would still be a bad movie no matter how you present it.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
Full Review
steve d
OK adaptation with some fun scenes.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I don’t think this movie was necessary
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
05/29/18
Full Review
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