Jonathan Romney Guardian Mar 2, 2024

It's less a return to Kipling than to the 1942 Alexander Korda epic, and some of the lush matte shots will touch a chord with Technicolor nostalgists.

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Stephen Amidon Financial Times Mar 1, 2024

There is not a cartoon or song around. Rather, such fine actors as Sam Neill, John Cleese and Cary Elwes ham it up with great energy and wit on sumptuous locations.

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Geoff Brown The Times (UK) Mar 1, 2024

A wearisome, if well-polished, film, desperately uncertain how best to please its audience.

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Philip French Observer (UK) Mar 1, 2024

It is crude, old-fashioned stuff but the Indian settings are spectacular.

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Mike Massie Gone With The Twins Sep 14, 2020 8/10

Despite all the obvious derivations from other productions, the harder edge and the continual excitement contribute to a consistently high entertainment value.

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Malcolm L. Johnson Hartford Courant Jun 17, 2020

It isn't Kipling, but it is good old-fashioned Saturday-matinee fun.

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Melinda Miller Buffalo News Jun 17, 2020 3.5/4

Lee manages to convey both childlike trust and manliness, handsomely demonstrating that goodness and strength can share the same form.

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David Kronke Los Angeles Times Apr 15, 2016

Jungle Book entertains in a way both contemporary and traditional.

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Jay Boyar Orlando Sentinel Apr 15, 2016

The new attempt - a live-action adaptation - is unlikely to supplant the cartoon version in anyone's affections.

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Ian Nathan Empire Magazine Apr 15, 2016 3/5

The acting troupe are great fun: Lee looks fit, Headey is sweet enough in a narrow role, Cleese fine-tunes his predictable Fawlty bit and Elwes stiff-upper lips to excess.

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John Hartl Seattle Times Apr 15, 2016 2.5/4

That's the biggest problem with this Jungle Book. Sommers is so busy spinning his camera, crowding the soundtrack with animal noises and piling on the cheesy visual effects that he can't stop for a reflective moment or a character-revealing touch.

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Steven Rea Philadelphia Inquirer Apr 15, 2016 3/4

This Jungle Book, however, is more remindful of Disney's classic wildlife adventure pics than it is of a cartoon, and it is most remindful of that other jungle classic, Tarzan.

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Chauncey Mabe South Florida Sun-Sentinel Apr 15, 2016

Anyone familiar with Rudyard Kipling's stories will be forgiven for spending the first half of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book squirming with outrage and confusion.

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Dennis King Tulsa World Apr 15, 2016 2/4

In the end, Rudyard's Kipling's The Jungle Book gains very little from this newest incarnation. As live-action fare, it has nothing on the 1942 version of the story that starred the Indian actor Sabu as Kipling's wild child.

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Tom Hutchinson Radio Times Apr 15, 2016 3/5

This live-action rumble-in-the-jungle version of the story of Mowgli, the boy brought up to adulthood by wolves, may lack the songs and magic of the classic Disney feature-length cartoon, but it is closer to Kipling's original tale.

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Stephen Hunter Baltimore Sun Apr 15, 2016 2.5/4

Beautifully mounted and shot, "Rudyard Kipling's 'Jungle Book' " still feels somewhat callow. Its title aside, it never really deals with the issues that the great Kipling raised continually in his distinguished body of work.

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Gene Siskel Chicago Tribune Apr 14, 2016 1/4

Rent the animated film instead.

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Brian Lowry Variety Oct 18, 2008

A full-throttled, technically superb adventure - with more bite than most Disney live-action fare - that offers some winning moments but, ultimately, isn't as involving as it needs to be.

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David Ansen Newsweek Mar 31, 2008

Kipling purists may not cotton to Disney's new live-action version of The Jungle Book, but it's hard to think of anyone else who won't be enchanted.

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Wally Hammond Time Out Feb 9, 2006

Scott Lee is an unexpectedly appealing hero, partly because he's never indulged, and his dialogue is kept to a minimum.

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