The Jungle Bunch (film)
The Jungle Bunch is a 2017 French 3D computer-animated superhero comedy film directed by David Alaux. Based on the animated series "The Jungle Bunch", the film was released in Italy on 27 September 2017 and was poorly received in the UK but was a box office success overall, with over a million admissions. Plot. An iceberg with an egg appears on the banks of the Jungle. Meanwhile, The Champs, consisting of the big guerror bengal tigress Natacha, an hippie three-toed sloth named Tony, a neurotic javan rhinoceros named Goliath and the crested porcupine Ricky , are engaged in saving all the inhabitants the Jungle, mainly due to the evil deeds of an koala named Igor. During the next chase, Igor almost managed to escape from the island in a small boat, but he collides with the iceberg, preventing the koala from leaving the shore. Igor tries to break the egg (delivered by the iceberg), but is defeated by The Champs. As Natacha sends to Igor to the Island of the Lost, a small desert island where evil animals are exiled, he tells her that he left in the Jungle exploding mushrooms, which are already starting  to explode at that moment. Natacha immediately hurries back to shore to save the rest of the inhabitants. During the ensuing fire in the Jungle, Ricky, for the sake of saving the rest, sacrifices himself, while throwing the egg to safety. Natacha believes that the activities of The Champs led to the death of Ricky, and together with Goliath and Tony abolishes the team. Goliath, who considered himself unnecessary after the collapse of the team, leaves. Soon, an baby penguin hatches from the egg Ricky threw, whom Natacha calls Maurice and raises as her son. When Maurice grows up, he  feels the desire to follow in the footsteps of his mother, against her will, and save all inhabitants of those who are in danger from other Evil animals. Maurice says goodbye to his mother, and sets out on his journey. In parallel scenes of Maurice growing, Igor has the seed of a tree with him, and nurtures its growth, and at the same time acquiring a lieutenant – Surimi the coconut crab. Years later, the Jungle Bunch is busy rescuing elephants who were forced to serve the olive baboons under their threat to destroy the sacred totem. The team successfully coped  with this mission. In the meantime, Igor finally waited for the tree to grow, and he, along with Surimi, went to the Island of the Lost. Soon, the Jungle Bunch notices a burning tree and they arrive there, where they meet Igor, who lured them into a trap and learns from them that Maurice is Natacha's son. Igor talks about his plans to destroy them, and then The Champs, and then he leaves, leaving the Jungle Bunch to wait for them to die from the explosion of his mushrooms. The team managed to escape from the explosion due to  Miguel's powerful sneeze, after which they head to Natacha. Igor takes the mandrills under his army, who because of the Jungle Bunch can not engage in banditry. Igor developed the idea of undermining the cave, so that the Jungle will collapse and be flooded. When the Jungle Bunch arrived at Natacha's home, she is pleased to meet her son Maurice and his grandson Junior, but soon learns from Maurice about the return of Igor and tells his son the story about the koala. Igor had wanted to join The Champs as their leader, but the others thought that  he was no. Natacha decided to find Goliath with Tony and revive The Champs, while not wanting to involve Maurice and his Jungle Bunch in their affairs. The next day, The Champs decided to interfere with Igor's plans, while cutting off the road to the Jungle Bunch, destroying the bridge. When The Champs find Igor, he, in turn, led them into his trap, but the team almost managed to defeat Igor. Maurice decided to help The Champs by catapulting himself and his son, but his intervention led to Igor escaping, and he took Junior with him as a hostage . Natacha shows Maurice that, through his fault, Igor escaped and kidnapped his son, and asks the "Jungle Bunch" not to intervene. Maurice himself was disappointed and removed from his own team. As a storm began to rage, Maurice's stripes were gradually washed off. The Champs reached Igor's lair, but they were ambushed and were captured by Igor. Maurice soon finds himself near the pond and sees the memories where he leaves his home and finds an egg, from which a small fish hatched and he sheltered him, making him his son. At that time, Junior escapes from captivity  and arrives at the pond where Maurice is still. Maurice is glad of the return of his son and finds out that The Champs are in captivity and many animals were enslaved, forced to grow mushroom-bombs for Igor. Maurice restores yellow stripes on his body and makes a new aquarium for Junior, since his son's main aquarium was still in Igor's lair. Maurice and Junior return to the Jungle Bunch, which they wanted to save The Champs without Maurice's help, and with them, they penetrate inside the lair of Igor under the disguise of three mandrills . The heroes release The Champs and together they fight the baboons. Shortly after the defeat of the baboons, Igor activates the bombs and disappears. Maurice instructs The Champs to evacuate the inhabitants of the jungle, and he and the Jungle Bunch go to prevent the mushrooms from exploding. After riding a minecart down to the main mushroom bomb, Gilbert suggests that they should knock down some bombs, in order to stop the giant mushroom bomb. Maurice succeeds, but he nearly relights the bombs when his belt lights on fire. Fortunately, Junior hops out of his aquarium and extinguishes the fire . Having managed to save the jungle, The Champs and the Jungle Bunch again face Igor, who declares that he will never stop, but Maurice catapults Junior, who in turn overloads the ammunition, causing the koala's jetpack to malfunction. Soon, The Champs decided to retire, while the Jungle Bunch would continue their heroism. Later in the post-credits scene it has revealed that Igor is still alive so he was thrown back on the Island Of The Lost in which he and Surimi was imprisoned for years on the beginning of the film. After the final credits, Igor found another  seed on the island, but this time a seagull seizes it, meaning that he is stuck on the island forever and for good. Release. The film was released in France on 26 July 2017. In the UK and US, it was released on 15 September 2017. It was released in Australia on 25 January 2018. Sequel. A sequel to "The Jungle Bunch" is scheduled for release in 2023, with Benoît Somville to direct and David Alaux, Éric Tosti, and Jean-François Tosti returning to write the film. Critical response. In the US, the film was a failure among critics. On  Rotten Tomatoes the film a rating of , based on reviews with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "At once restless and plodding, "The Jungle Bunch" is a woefully indistinct piece of animated kiddie fare." On Metacritic, the film received an score of 38 out of 100 based on 4 reviews.