Okay, let me just start by saying that I didn’t hate this new live-action version of The Jungle Book (can you call a movie that’s 90 percent computer animation live-action?). I didn’t hate it at all. But from the moment the cameras opened up on the luscious jungle scenes, I couldn’t stop asking: Why did they make this movie?
I loved the original Jungle Book: truly, madly, deeply. Do you know why I loved it? Because I was 7. At 7, I loved seeing a little gangly brown boy run through the forest. At 7, I loved to see lazy bears sing about bare necessities. At 7, I couldn’t understand how racist the King Louie character was. At 7, I had no way of knowing what an asshole Rudyard Kipling was. At 7, The Jungle Book was perfect. It was fun and funny and just scary enough…