Remake Month: The Jungle Book (with Les)

Moviefan12: We have reached the final review here of Remake Month with the remake that is often considered the best. My reaction:


It's okay.

I personally think that people have overhyped this movie. It's not bad but there are remakes that are better than this one. Per usual, we will look at What's The Same, What's Different, and Is This is A Good Remake?.  However, I will not be doing this one alone as joining is a longtime Manic member, Les.






LES: Hi Moviefan and Greetings, Manic fans. It’s a pleasure to be working with you again, my friend. I’m glad you picked this remake to talk about. More than any other film Disney adapted from classic animated to live-action, I think this film justified itself the most(Although, in fairness, I’ve not seen ”Pete’s Dragon” yet, so I could be wrong about that….).

Moviefan12: It is interesting to consider how much Disney has returned to The Jungle Book long before this movie came out as seen with all these examples.

 

Consider for a moment that before this remake had been released in 2016, there were two TV shows using the Jungle Book characters and three Jungle Book movies released in that span from Disney. Yes, one was direct-to-video and was more a straight adaption of the book than a remake of the animated movie and a cheapquel that somehow got a theatrical release. Credit where credit's due, John Goodman is a great choice for Baloo and maybe even a better Baloo than Bill Murray.

Before we start, do you have thoughts on any of the other movies/TV shows featuring these characters, Les?

LES: Well I loved ”Tailspin” as a great expansion on the characters re-imagined in an anthropomorphic reality where they existed out of the Jungle and in a human-inspired city right out of the Saturday afternoon serial films of the 1940s. That was a lot of fun to watch. I also give props to ”The Jungle Book 2” as one of the better direct to video sequels in the Disney arsenal.

Moviefan12: With this outta the way, let's take a look at What's The Same.

What's The Same?

Moviefan12: Quite honestly, the core idea of this movie is the same when compared to the animated original as unlike the 90s Jungle Book movie and that does work and the cast does well in selling their roles.  Now while a lot of elements remained the same, there are ways that they amp up more such as Shere Kahn's fear of fire or you want to talk about amping things up, look how much bigger they made Louie and Kaa.

 




Looking at these characters is a perfect example of how the movie walks the line between doing its own thing while respecting the original.

LES: Agreed. This film did many things to change little things to make it it’s own story while giving proper respect to including a lot of nice homages to the original animated classic. Shere Khan was far more menacing and intimidating in this film, wherein the original, he was more, for lack of a better world, cultured and regal in his superiority. I also like how they didn’t touch the fab 4 buzzards scene from the original.

Moviefan12: That scene wouldn't have worked in this remake as it was going for a more serious route as compared to the animated movie. Now, let's move onto What's Different.


What's Different

I mentioned that this film was going for a more serious tone than the original and that is felt throughout the story. Another great example of this is the bond of family and how the wolf pack looks at Mowgli as a fellow cub.  With easily the most beautiful line from the movie.

Never forget this: You're mine. Mine to me. No matter where you go, or what they may call you, you will always be my son.

This line reminds the motherly/family bond that was found in the Pete's Dragon remake and I think like that film hearing Rashka speak these words to Mowgli shows great strength of love.  This also calls back another great mother/son Disney relationship.

Interesting how jungle moms have proven to be some of Disney's best moms.  Both of these moms have beautiful moments shows how much they care about their sons whereas, in the original, Mowgli being raised by wolves is really nothing more than a blip on the radar.




LES: That’s true. I also like how the wolf pack stood together at the end with Mowgli and Baloo. It was a great moment of ”united we stand” against their common foe, the tiger.

Moviefan12: You hit on a good point Les about Mowgli and Baloo standing alongside the wolves at the end of the movie. This also ties into the biggest change in the movie and one that goes about to the theme of family that runs throughout.  Mowgli stays in the jungle instead of going to the human village at the end of the movie. 

By subverting the ending and letting Mowgli stay in the jungle instead of having to live with humans, it is seen how much the animals have come to care about Mowgli and look at him as one of his own. Even if Bagheera doesn't like his traps that he tries to use to make his life easier.

LES: Not only that, but they also had Baloo encouraging Mowgli to use his ”Mancub” intellect to solve problems, rather than try and turn him into a bear, like he did in the cartoon.

Moviefan12: Another great point, my friend and Bill Murray does a good job as Baloo encouraging Little Britches.



Is This A Good Remake?

Moviefan12:  This is a perfectly fine remake that respects the original film while making its own path.  I can see how others might look at this as the best live-action remake but as I said, I think there are better remakes such as Pete's Dragon and Cinderella. Having said that, taking this movie on its own, this is really good and would be towards the higher end of remakes I watched for this event probably right above Lady and the Tramp but below Aladdin.







LES: And, since I didn’t see ”Pete’s Dragon” or ”Cinderella,” I’ll take your word that they’re better.

Moviefan12: I do apologize that this event took longer than originally planned but as fo now, I am done as I have looked at most of the current live-action remakes. This was admittedly a bit of a chore to get through as while there are some that were good, there are others that were just boring or outright bad.  I don't know if I'll look at any of the future remakes as this is something that I just wanted to get out of the way.  Thanks for joining me on this ride. And thank you to Les for joining me for this final review.

Girl Meets Rileytown (Girl Meets World Episode Review/My Bullying Story)

Halloween night 2014 was one of the worst nights of my life. I had just come home from taking my niece trick-or-treating. Like I always did, I logged onto the old TGWTG/CA forums and was excited to post about how excited my niece was with all the candy she had gotten. 


Then things took a turn that I could have never expected, there was this jerkwad attacking me and my friends. He called himself Evil Baron Battersby and going after people that use(d) Manic Expression and I could see Rat talking him in circles breaking down his inane logic.

Me, I was scared and felt weak when looking at this idiot attacking me saying that no one reads my blogs and that I'm wasting my life writing them.  Saying that I could take up piano lessons and become the next great pianist.

The cuts became deeper as this monster decided to attack my character and accuse me of being a pedophile all because I used MLP or Sofia The First characters as my avatar.  The worst part of all this is that this bully somehow knew my real name.  That scared me and I did not sleep at all that night.


Even though I knew that it wasn't healthy for my psyche, I went back and saw a flood of insults coming from this person. He remained on the forum for a good three-four days before he was finally banned and by that time, he had set up somewhere close to 16 different accounts. 

He may have finally been gone by his words lingered in my mind to the point of me almost giving up blogging completely because I bought into his words and thought he was right. His words lingered so hard that one day when I was in a truly bad mood, I considered ending it all right then and there.  I would have let him win but I didn't he lost because I'm still here. 


I bring this all up because this episode focuses on bullying and it is one of the best pieces of media I've seen tackling bullying for the simple fact that bully remains faceless throughout the episode and I feel that lessens the impact of the bully while also showing the severity of the impact that a bully can have on their victim. 


The Plot


In many regards, the plot is secondary in this episode to what the characters are going through. Riley, the daughter of Cory and Topanga is being bullied and doesn't' want to go to school or have anyone know about it because she doesn't know how to fix it. 

I can relate as when he attacked me on the forums, my mind convinced me that this was somehow my fault and that I was being punished for something I did wrong and that I deserved what was happening to me.  I know that's not true now but try telling that to an emotional young man breaking down not five minutes into a backpacking trip, the day after he considered suicide to be his best option.

Not wanting to go to school reminds me of how I thought if I no longer visited those forums, he'd just go away. Well, that wasn't true because one day while modding and cleaning out comments on Manic Expression, where he was attacking another member. 


Suddenly all his words came back flooding back into my memory and it hurt. A site that means the world to me, a site that gave me a voice was being infested by this person's presence.  It hurt and that was when I finally told someone. 


We can look at Riley here and how she breaks down and repeats the words of her bully because they too lingered with her.

You exist and you're weird, and you get in the way of where I'm looking. So stop being weird and stop being happy. No one should be as happy as you. Stop being who you are. Or I'm gonna put my foot in your weird, stupid face.

This right here is why I hate the sticks and stones saying.  There is no truth in saying that words will never hurt anyone. Words can cause the sharpest pain and make people feel weak and small and as though the world hates them for who they are because they don't fit a certain mold.


An interesting aspect of this episode is how it ties in the dual of Hamilton and Burr and shows that is not the right way to handle a conflict. Granted, my mind went to the musical as I had just watched it recently but the point still stands.

However, this musical does have a word that I thought of a lot while rewatching this episode. Narrative.  Hamilton asks the question of who gets to tell the story of our founding fathers and who controls the narrative.


Taking control of the narrative when it comes to bullies means standing up to them. And this is something that Riley does in such a brilliant moment as the camera only focuses on her. This allows her to speak up and let the bully know that she won't win and the fourth wall is broken down to let the audience in on what was happening and she had the whole support of her school.  That may be unrealistic and idealistic but that's okay.

By standing up to her bully, Riley took control of the narrative and showed that the bully will no longer affect her.  The line from her best friend, Maya at the end perfectly speaks to this.

Look Riles, the farther away she goes, the smaller she gets

Watching Riley standing up to her bully and taking control of the narrative was a great and satisfying moment and it makes me wish that I had the courage and wherewithal to stand up against my bully.  I think that is why this lingered with me for so long.  As I'll admit that a part of me feels that it was cowardly to not stand up against him and what he put me through.  I hate that this happened but I never want to forget that it happened because it serves as a reminder to me of how far I've come.  When I'm down and feel worthless, I just remember my favorite Winnie The Pooh quote.

You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

This quote is important to me to show that I do not have to let put people such as that monster ever put me down.



Character


Riley played by Rowan Blanchard

Rowan Blanchard gave one heck of a performance and I felt every moment of her anguish and how she lashed out at her friends such as Maya over the most innocent comments and was scared to get help. This is not the first episode that dealt with bullying as one of Riley's friends also dealt with a bully and she was able to help him but just because you can help someone that is being bullied, that doesn't mean you know how to handle it yourself when you are being bullied. 


My Final Thoughts

That line from Cap sums it up.  I have an intense hatred of bullying and it only became more severe after what I went through. And this episode shows why bullies are so awful because they can make their victims feel small and weak and as though no one cares about them, even when they know the truth. The truth to them has been clouded and they can only see the reality of the bully.  I don't think it needs to be said how awful bullies are. As we hopefully know that by now but this episode does a good job of showing the pain and anguish that bullies can put their victims through. 

Remake Month: Dumbo

Why is this movie?  No seriously, why is this movie called Dumbo?  This movie has nothing to do with Dumbo.  The first half-hour of the film is a remake of the original but then it becomes a movie about the evils of capitalism and fighting against the big guy. This was released the same year that Disney acquired Fox, so awkward timing there.  

This is one of the worst remakes but unlike The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast, I don't outright hate it. Which is bizarre as Dumbo is one of my favorite Disney movies but I'm more baffled by its mere existence.  

When watching the film, I live-tweeted some random thoughts and I think it's better to share my thoughts that way than to do the breakdown that I've been using because after a while this film stops being Dumbo.  

Let's start with the big one here, Dumbo is not cute in this movie.

Dumbo is creepy looking in the remake of his movie.  He looks dead in the eyes and this is a problem as Dumbo is one of the cutest Disney characters of all time. Look at that lil cutie. 

D'aww, there's my little guy.   Understandably, the crows aren't in the movie and I love the song but there is no way you should put them in a remake of this movie.  It hurt not having Timothy but there was a reference to him.

Speaking of the Crows, while they aren't in the movie,  the ringmaster at the evil circus (that's a thing!)  recites the lyrics before saying this line.

Let's get ready for Dumbo

And they actually got the Let's Get Ready to Rumble guy, Michael Buffer to say that line. 

What is this movie?   It's a movie set after the first World War and a family dealing with a dad played by Colin Firth who lost his arm dealing with raising his children at a circus run by Danny DeVito. Oh, and his wife died while he was away.  Yeah, the remake of Dumbo, a movie that has of the saddest mother/child moments in all of Disney history introduced the dead mom trope into this story.

Oh and speaking of Baby Mine, it's in the movie in the first half-hour and the scene almost comes across as a throwaway moment. 

Seriously, it really felt like Burton crammed all the important moments of the original into the first act of the movie before turning this into a movie that had nothing to do with Dumbo.  He focuses on that family and I wish he wouldn't have as the girl playing the older sister is so wooden that the CGI Dumbo gave a better performance.  I'm sure that she's a nice kid but she did not give the other actors a lot to work with. 

And about 40 minutes in, Michael Keaton's character shows up as the villain, which some have described as an evil Walt Disney.  

This is hard to ignore as is his circus has a Coney Island feel to it.

 And it clicked for me that he may have been going for that when I saw that this character had an exhibit called the Big Bright Future, which looked like something out of Tomorrowland.

I wish. Apparently, he just wants to profit off of Dumbo's ability to fly, which feels like an afterthought in Dumbo's own movie because it focuses so much on the kid characters.  Sure, whatever but then why is this called Dumbo?

The circus folks do end up saving Dumbo from Keaton's bad guy and his park goes down in flames. Yeah, Dumbo needed a big climactic setpiece.  

Dumbo is a quaint and simple story about a child overcoming a disability that he was born with and learning to use it to make his life better and to show that he has worth.  Yeah, maybe that's me reading into it but that's part of why I latched onto Dumbo as much as I did.  Dumbo never needed a big action sequence.  An action sequence in Dumbo goes against the idea of what this story is.

And this story isn't Dumbo. It has an elephant, it has a circus, it plays Baby Mine and Mrs. Jumbo is in it, barely.  Stripping away Timothy, The Crows and Mr. Stork could have worked as you don't need those to focus on what is at the heart of Dumbo.  The love of parent and child.  Sure, the movie believes that it's focusing on that with Colin Firth's character and his kids by showing he's a dad that messes up but loves his kids but the simplicity of the original is how Mrs. Jumbo loved her son and wanted to protect him, which she does and that's also how we got the origin for why Dumbo is called Dumbo in this movie.  

The one thing that I will give this movie is I do like the touch of releasing the animals into the wild at the end and seeing Dumbo and Mrs. Jumbo live out their lives in Africa but that's too little, too late.  This movie should've focused on Dumbo and his mother but they became side characters in Dumbo's movie and that is so baffling. 

There's not a lot more that I could say about this movie.

Is This a Good Remake  Why is This a Remake?

I'm serious, there is no reason for this to be a remake as, after the first half-hour, it has nothing to do with Dumbo.  A remake that does something different can work, look at the wonderful Pete's Dragon remake but while that does something different, it keeps the heart of the original while keeping the focus on Pete and Elliot.  Here though, Dumbo appears but he's not the main character and that's frustrating.  Again,  I hate the Lion King and Beauty and the Beast remakes more but I'm baffled by this one.  Years ago, I reviewed the show Dumbo's Circus and said that was one of the worst things to star Dumbo. I was wrong.

As much as I may have disliked Dumbo's Circus, at least the focus remained on Dumbo.  Heck, I have to think the canceled Dumbo II would've been better than whatever this was.

At least Dumbo is still cute there.  Honestly, though, Dumbo not being cute is the smallest problem with this movie. The biggest issue is that this film shouldn't be called Dumbo as, after the first half-hour, it has nothing to do with Dumbo.  Again, I don't hate but rather I don't understand what was going with this on.  

Remake Month: Aladdin

After the last remake that I looked at, I said that I needed something that didn't anger me. And that is what I found with the remake of Aladdin. It doesn't anger like the Beauty and the Beast remake did. It's rather inoffensive.  And I think that is the biggest issue with this remake,  it's lifeless when compared to other versions of the story. Note, that I said other versions and not the original movie. That's because besides seeing the animated movies multiple times, I also saw the stage adaption last year.

Having seen both the Broadway show and the remake in the same year, I can tell you that the stage adaption does more new things than the remake. Part of that is how it incorporates elements that were originally cut back into the story or is willing to accommodate the story for a new medium.


This is perhaps not fair to compare as film and stage are two different mediums but these both tell the same story. Moving away from comparing it to the stage show, does the remake work as a movie?

It's not bad and there are good elements but for a movie starring a Genie, there is nary a spark of magic to be found.  Let's get into the details and look at what's the same and what's different.


Before I do go on, there was a story early in the year where the film's lead actor Mena Massoud mentioned that he hadn't been getting any auditions since the film came out last year.

“I’m kind of tired of staying quiet about it … I want people to know that it’s not always dandelions and roses when you’re doing something like Aladdin. ‘He must have made millions. He must be getting all these offers.’ It’s none of those things. I haven’t had a single audition since Aladdin came out.”

So, this remake does have that baggage attached to it.  Oh and the plans to give the non-important White character in this film, a Disney+ spinoff. 

Even if you argue that Prince Anders is a character that audiences might watch (on a streaming service), it’s still part of a grim pattern whereby the successes of female-led and/or minority-led movies result in star vehicles for the (usually white) guys

This is just a bad look especially when the lead actor hadn't been getting calls.  And also Prince Anders is the least important/least memorable character in the remake.  You could watch the whole movie and forget that he's even in it.  I believe that this sums it up.

Now, that we've unpacked the baggage, let's look at the movie itself.


What's the Same


The core idea remains the same with this remake as with the original. It's still about a poor street urchin trying to win over the heart of the princess of his land.  There's still a Genie and a Cave of Wonders.  And Frank Welker was brought back to voice both Abu and the Cave of Wonders.  The story still is technically told in a wraparound fashion. However, that is handled differently.

And the classic musical numbers are kept, even though while the singing is good, some of them don't have the spark. 





The things that kept are handled rather well and seem respectable to the original without trying to be the original like The Lion King remake.



What's Different


Several differences are interesting such as how there are some minor lyric changes that I believe were done more to align with the culture of the story such as seen with this change in Prince Ali.

Brush up your Friday salaam

This line was changed as Friday is the Islamic holy day. And I didn't realize this until looking it up but this song also omits the line about Ali having slaves.  Prince Ali is also handled in a different fashion as he now has to convince Jasmine where the kingdom is and that is done in a cute moment with a map that references the original Genie's design.

Jasmine is also handled differently as she is more into politics and wanting to become the sultan, which she does. This is done in a way of protecting her mother's kingdom, which Jafar hopes to invade.  We will get to Jafar but he is the biggest disappointment in this movie.  Jasmine is also given a new song titled Speechless that I've noticed has gotten mixed reactions.




This song was written by the songwriting team Pasek & Paul, which you might know from La La Land or if you read my Dear Evan Hansen blogs last year. Honestly, while I enjoy this song, what this reminds me of more is when movie adaptions of stage musicals put a song into the movie in the hopes of getting a Best Original Song Oscar nomination.


In that, the songs usually aren't bad but they usually end up being the least memorable song in the film.  Adding songs is not inherently a bad thing as I mentioned that the stage adaption and that added in songs and if they hadn't done that, my favorite Disney song would've been lost to all time.




I am bummed that Disney didn't include it in the remake but get it because of the stupid Proud Boys movement that stole this song and twisted it's meaning to cater to their fascist beliefs. 

The group believes men—especially white men—and Western culture are under siege; their views have elements of white genocide conspiracy theory.[22][23][24] While the group claims it does not support white supremacist views, its members often participate in racist rallies, events, and organizations.[25] The organization glorifies violence,[26][27][28][29] and members engage in violence at events it attends; the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has called it an "alt-right fight club"

We'll just ignore that the song that they stole this title from was written by a Gay man intended to be a character of color about he's not good enough to live up to the ideals of his parents. These people.

Moving beyond this, I mentioned that the story is still told in a wraparound fashion. That much is true, however this time it is Genie telling the story to his children.  Yes, Genie has kids in this remake and I'm okay with that.  And that came about because when Genie was freed, he became human. 


The Genie was able to have kids because he now has a love interest, Jasmine's handmaiden, Dalia.  And honestly, the relationship between Genie and Dalia is really cute.

Oh, I guess I should talk about Genie's design.

It's a little offputting at first as this isn't something that you'd want to see in live-action but thankfully after they escape from the Cave of Wonders, we don't have to deal with blue Will Smith throughout the rest of the movie.  As The Genie just ends up becoming Will Smith in Agrabah and that works a lot better.



I do enjoy the relationship between these two.  I already mentioned Prince Anders and he was the replacement for Prince Achmed.

Which like I said, this character is so forgettable.  There are more changes that I could go into but I want to focus on the villains.  The sass and comedy were all but stripped from Jafar and Iago. This film casts Alan Tudyk to voice Iago and just has Tudyk play him as a bird. That's wasting Tudyk, especially when he has played a comedic bird before.

Different types of characters I know but if you're going to cast Tudyk, give him something to do and don't just waste him, when any other voice actor could have played this lifeless version of Iago.   Also, Jafar buddy what happened?

This character is supposed to be the same as this character.

I don't see it.  There's no bite, there's no menace here.  Jafar was built on sass in the original, he had a dry wit that came across as him thinking that he was the smartest one in the room and would put people down in great moments.  Remake Jafar is played straight and had all the comedy sucked out of him.  He doesn't even revel when he reveals that Ali is Aladdin.


That's such a classic moment but here it almost comes across again as an actor going through the motions of doing this. Jafar is so boring in this remake. They try to go for the idea that he and Aladdin aren't that dissimilar because Jafar also steals to get what he wants but no, that feels forced. 


The handling of Jafar is perhaps my biggest disappointment with the movie itself considering that Jafar is my favorite Disney villain and this film squandered Jafar.  And we've seen better looking live-action Jafar's that still had menace.  A perfect example is Naveen Andrews' Jafar in Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, there wasn't much a hint of sass but there was some and Andrews' Jafar could still be frightening, unlike this Jafar.

Jafar can be handled well in live-action but this movie didn't do that and that's a shame considering Jafar in my eyes is easily in the top 3 of greatest Disney villains. 


Is This A Good Remake?


While this film does have baggage attached to it, I think that if you can look past that, I think you'll find a movie that at best is inoffensive with some enjoyable parts. It does fall flat in it's handling of its villain and that is disappointing but I think that you could much worse this particular remake. Join me next time as I look at a remake that I've been avoiding since it was released as I look at the remake of...