Nothing too bad but hardly a Disney classic or must-see in my book.

Rating: 7/10 (14 October 2011)

Out of all the Disney animated movies, this is one of the few I did not grew up watching with. Don't tell anyone else but I think it was because me brother was scared of Baloo. A singing and dancing huge bear was more than he could handle and the sight of it was more than enough reason to never purchase this movie. But I must say I did not missed much with it. "The Jungle Book" is an average Disney entry, with average animations, average songs, average characters and a very average main plot line.
The lack of story and character development really disturbed me. Basically the movie is an adventure movie, in which the main character has to travel from point A to B and on his way he meets all sort of different characters. And this was something that just didn't worked out too well for me. First of all the movie because of this way of storytelling never really flowed well enough and I can actually imaging some kids getting easily bored with this movie, especially now days. But second of all, it made the movie look too much like it was hanging together from its coincidences. All of the events and characters pop up at random and also often disappear out of the story pretty fast again. Because of this the movie never finds the right pace and also never has the time to develop anything or any of its characters properly enough.
So this wasn't really a movie I could ever feel involved with but it of course isn't a bad one. You can still get plenty enjoyment out of watching this movie, since it definitely has its moments. It can be a funny and charming movie at times and even though they don't get developed properly enough; the movie still has some memorable characters in it.
But a character that the movie is lacking is a good main villain. I know that the movie was more about its traveling and adventurous elements but it would had made the movie so much more interesting and powerful in my opinion, if the movie had a clear main villain and treat in it. The movie now instead has like 3 small villains, who pop up every now and then.
Animation-wise this also isn't Disney's greatest moment. It's not like it's bad looking or anything but it's all very average, for normal Disney standards. This goes for the backgrounds, as well as all of the characters animations and looks. Seemed to me like they spend more this time on studying the movement and behavior of the animals, rather than spending time on creating a good and distinctive look.
The only thing the movie does stand out with is with its voice cast. Everyone seemed perfectly picked for the part and the movie actually used some big known Hollywood names as well, such as George Sanders.
I don't mean to sound harsh, since I still actually for most part still enjoyed watching it. It just isn't really a Disney classic in my book.
7/10
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