I don't understand why Disney's "Fantasy Forest" of the same theme is selling well, and Netflix wants to take this plate and target the audience as adults.
Although "Fantasy Forest" was generally shot, it still sold a lot under Disney's big sign. The director Andy Serkis of "Mowgli, Son of the Forest" (Grumbling in the Lord of the Rings, Caesar in the Rise of the Planet of the Apes) through darker color tones, deeper themes (contradictions between humans and animals) and characters Personality, trying to build an "adult fairy tale" under the same IP, but the effect is not very good from the effect of the film.
The film is in an awkward position between the child and the adult. First of all, the inherent flaws of the text make the plot unable to go deep enough to make the adult feel like a joke. After all, it is a story of a child saving the forest. Especially in this film, the acting of Mowgli is not very good, and many places appear stiff, which is far from the natural aura of the protagonist of "Fantasy Forest". In the process of defeating the tiger and saving the forest, Mowgli was helped by bear friends, black panther friends, snake friends, elephant friends, and wolf friends. By the way, he discovered the conspiracy of hunters and humans, which is difficult for adults to praise. Story setting. Of course, it can be seen that Andy Serkins is working hard in this direction, such as authentically reproducing the original appearance of animals, anthropomorphic animal characters (trying to give them complex characters), and the addition of many small human characters. I didn’t use the word "ugly" because "Fantasy Forest", in my opinion, aims to restore IP and over-beautify animal characters. In contrast, this film is just trying to make people look "real". In the real jungle, natural selection is the number one thing, and every day there are various struggles inside and outside the group. Can you still teach Mowgli to be a happy wolf boy all day long? Unlikely.
So we see the dilemmas that Mowgli encountered before he became the "savior". Sandwiched between the identities of humans and wolves, it cannot be identified by wolves (the same age has only one little white wolf friend, who was also made into a specimen by a hunter), and it is also an alien in a human village (pushing over to eat raw meat, The hunter handed him a knife with disgust and taught him how to do humans). Of course, even if you want to discuss the plight of humans and animals sharing the same plains and conflicts of existence, Mowgli always favors the animals. In order to show this, the film gives the audience a lot of hints. For example, animals appear to be more "kind" even when they are prey. "The hunter made the "trophies" into animal specimens. Mowgli tried to assassinate the hunter while he was asleep, but ended up accidentally finding a broken ivory from an elephant friend.
It is of course not as bad as critics say, but it is also difficult to appreciate as a "good film", at best it can be considered a pass. It is worth mentioning that the dubbing lineup of this film is very luxurious. The voice of the big villain Tiger (Shere Khan) is Benedict Cumberbatch. Unlike Smaug in "The Lord of the Rings", the tiger’s mood is fuller and the tone of voice fluctuates more. Because the tiger’s weakness is obvious, cold-blooded and cruel, but Not that no one is invincible, there is only a little jackal follower. The Black Panther (Bagheera) voice actor is Christian Bale, who can be said to be very vivid. The Black Panther has a restrained and stable personality. It is also very similar to the character of Bell’s daily role. When speaking, it sometimes makes people feel like a job. People are lying there... In addition, Cate Blanchett is a very suitable candidate for the voice of Kaa, whose voice is sexy and dangerous. Baloo is the director Andy Serkis himself. This charming and fierce bear is probably the director's favorite role.
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