Superb character animation

Rating: 7/10 (19 July 1999)

The tiger, the panther, the snake and the orang-utan may be the best animated animals the screen has seen - and the bear isn't bad, either. In a way it's the last great fling of Disney's old veteran animators. (Most of them were still some distance from retirement, but never again did they fire so magnificently, all at once.) Anyone who appreciates fine character animation HAS to see this. Despite the rough outlines favoured by Wolfgang Reitherman (he presided over some extreme cheese-paring after Walt Disney's death), there's also a sumptuous feel to this film, at least while they stay in the jungle.
The lack of a story is a problem. "Flabby" is the word that comes to mind. It's really just the story of Baloo and Mowgli bumming around in the jungle. Now and then something happens. At one point Mowgli is pinched by some monkeys, and taken to some old ruins, just so that the orang-utan can stage a musical number. It's a pretty good musical number - did I mention that the orang-utan is skillfully animated? - but that doesn't disguise the fact that it's unmotivated. After enough running time has passed the incidents stop and the film ends.
It's enjoyable enough, and worth seeing for visual reasons, but be warned.