It has been a great year for Disney movies and one of the absolute highlights has been Jon Favreau’s remake of The Jungle Book, which was praised for the photorealistic environments created specifically for it. There are a lot of movies released that have been converted into 3D, but rarely do you get to see ones that were born for 3D and that is the best way to describe The Jungle Book and now it is available to own in a 3D Blu-ray Collector’s Edition. Let’s talk about the best parts of this release.
The Jungle Book
Disney has been loving this reimagining their classic animated films idea they came up with and it has been hit or miss. For the most part it has been a successful tactic, but some have been critically terrible (Maleficent) and others have been financially weak (Pete’s Dragon). The Jungle Book was both critically praised and a box office success and there is a good reason why – it is a terrific film. I already mentioned the photorealistic environments, which are the selling point of the movie. Every second of the movie, from the beginning Disney logo until the end of the credits, is breathtaking to watch. Match the look of the film with the performance by Neel Sethi as Mowgli and fantastic voice acting by Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, and Scarlett Johannson, just to name a few, and you have a hit. The movie was darker and differentiated itself from the animated version, but it was still family-friendly for the most part. If you haven’t seen it, especially in 3D, then you are TRULY missing out.
Bonus features
While the Star Wars: The Force Awakens 3D Collector’s Edition Blu-ray packed itself with a bunch of new extra features as a selling point, The Jungle Book missed the mark a bit. Only five new features were added and all are 4 minutes or less, which is slightly disappointing. Here are two of the standouts though:
- The Return of the Legend – For Disney fans out there, this is one of the best features on any Disney release ever. This feature shows Richard Sherman and Jon Favreau getting together to rewrite portions of “I Wan’na Be Like You” for the movie and it is perfect. The average fan wouldn’t care, but the average fan probably already bought the 2D Blu-ray edition.
- The Jungle Book Around the World – Something about foreign language extras always fascinate me and this one does the trick. It is nothing more than a compilation of scenes and a song from the film in different languages, but it is entertaining and opens your eyes to how other cultures view our movies. Definitely worth a watch.
It would be hard to argue that the 3D Blu-ray of The Jungle Book is worth purchasing if you don’t own a 3D TV or already own the 2D copy, but if you are a completist then it is definitely worth picking up for the movie alone.
The Jungle Book 3D Blu-ray Collector’s Edition is now available to purchase.
