THE JUNGLE BOOK - review

THE JUNGLE BOOK
Director: Jon Favreau
Cast: Neel Sethi, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong'o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Walken, Gary Shandling

Synopsis: A young boy abandoned in the forest is taken to a wolf pack by a sympathetic panther, who adopt him and raise him as his own. The appearance of a villainous tiger named Shere Khan forces Mowgli's guardian, the panther Bagheera to shepherd the child to safety in the "man village". Along the way, the boy meets an affable, lazy bear named Baloo, as well as a snake with hypnotic powers and an orangutan who wants to harness the power of fire. Mowgli learns some valuable life lessons along the way with his guardian Bagheera, his friend Baloo and his animal family. 

Hark, it is I, the Blonde Bombshell, queen of all things Disney, including my tattoos, and I'm here to tell you to forget about your worries and your strife, Jon Favreau has created a magical live action world that does justice to this much loved animated Disney classic. I'm not going to wait until the end to tell you this, THE JUNGLE BOOK deserves to be seen at the cinema on the big screen and you should bloody well fork out that 20-something dollars and see it. I've heard it's pretty good in 3D if you're into that sort of thing. I'm not, it gives me a rotten headache and makes me nauseated, but if you're into it, then hand over the extra 5-er for 3D.

This magical world created almost entirely with computers is so lush and realistic that it sucks you in and makes you believe you're really in the jungle. Fascinating work by Favreau, truly fascinating. I had some major concerns as I do with any re-telling of a classic Disney feature, and this is the third one that's come to our screens following MALEFICENT and CINDERELLA, and Disney aren't stopping there with BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, DUMBO and MULAN coming just to name a few. But most of my concerns were allayed pretty quickly. Favreau does a great job with the story and even throws in a bit of LION KING-esque drama for good measure.

Raksha and Mowgli saying good bye

Image via Disney 

If you've seen the animated version, or read Kipling's book, you know the tale of the young man-cub Mowgli abandoned in the jungle, rescued by Bagheera the panther (Sir Ben Kingsley), adopted by wolves (Lupita Nyong'o and Giancarlo Esposito), chased by vengeful tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba), flees to the man village before realising with the help of Baloo the bear (Bill Murray) the jungle is his home and he must protect both it and his family. The jungle is fraught with dangers of course like a hypnotising snake Kaa (Scarlett Johansson) and an orangutan named King Louie (Christopher Walken) who wants the power of fire. So on and so forth until they all lived happily ever after.

The CGI in this film is pretty bloody breathtaking. It was a big ask to create a whole series of animals that we are all pretty familiar with and make them look realistic and make us believe that we really are in the jungle with the animals. I think Favreau and his team have done a pretty marvellous job with it. I've seen some great clips on how the green screening and CGI-ing and everything else was done, and it's a pretty cool process. The only thing I took issue with was Baloo, who wasn't as well crafted as some of the other animals, and King Louie, who was an unrealistic size for an orangutan. I work in a zoo with animals, and I've seen orangutan close up, and it was kinda out scale. In fact, even a week after seeing the film it still really annoys me, but no matter, he still looked bloody cool and Chrispher Walken as his voice was fantastic!

This is the closest we have come to getting a live action Disney musical, and I think that's partly because there would have been riots in the streets had "The Bear Necessities" not been included. Unfortuantely, they didn't quite make it work, That scene was really organic and the music came quite naturally, but "I Wana Be Like You" by King Louie was really awkward. There just wasn't the sense that the characters would just burst into song at any moment and that particular set of scenes was quite dark and the music made it really weird. Walken and Murray both did spectacular jobs with their songs, and I'm glad they happened, but I think Favreau could have done a better job at making them fit in the film, and in fact making the whole film a bit more musical.

Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo and Raksha prepare to battle it out with Shere Khan

Image via Disney

Overall, I think the biggest let down of this film for the general movie-goer is that they've seen it all before. Favreau's THE JUNGLE BOOK, does have a few extra plot points that the original animated film, however it's very much same-same and I think that could be problematic for some viewers. Not for me becuase I'm a purist, and I love Disney and I don't care that I've seen it 78 million times before, I still love it. I truly believe that you should see this on the big screen because they have really done something incredible with CGI here and I think it sets a benchmark for this kind of CGI work. Also, I really liked it and I don't think it will look quite so incredible on your TV screen or iPad or whatever technological device you use to view things at home. The film is shot beautifully and I think it takes you away into the world of Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo and Shere Khan and I don't think it matters that you know what's coming next, because you're so absorbed you don't even realise.

3.7  out of 5
Xoxo
The Blonde Bombshell

TOMRROWLAND - review

TOMORROWLAND
Director: Brad Bird
Cast: George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy

Disney's latest, TOMORROWLAND, is set to lose $140 million according to The Hollywood Reporter, and I'm not surprised. If there's a studio that can take a hit like that on an original tentpole, it's Disney. However, if a director like Brad Bird comes to you with an original idea, and George Clooney is attached, you'd probably say yes too.

The film is based on the area of Disneyland - Tomorrowland - based on new technologies, and a better future. Because the film is based on an area of a themepark, rather than a story, the possibilites were endless for what could have been done with this film. Unfortuantely it didn't quite fit the endless possibilities mark, and it was a little bit predictable.

The film begins in 1964, where we meet a young Frank Walker, a boy who still believes anything is possible. Frank meets Athena (Raffey Cassidy), who sees something magical in him and gives him a pin that is a key to a new future. Sadly we don't get to see too much of this magical future, we jump to the present where Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), a teenager with a penchant for astronomy, a disregard for authority and a belief that anything is possible, gets the same pin that Frank Walker got in the 60's. This time, the pin only gives her glimpses to the new future before it loses its power.

the magical world Casy sees when she touches the pin

Determined to find out more about the magical place she sees when she touches the pin, she googles it (the only way any of us knows how to work things out anymore) and goes on the hunt to find out more about the pin. She meets robots with lasers, and is rescued by a seemingly ageless Athena, who also turns out to be a robot, and then they both get chased by robots with lasers all the way to now grown up and grumpy Frank's house.

Casey demands Frank take her to this new fancy future, and he refuses, convinced that the whole world is going to end. He sees something in her that he thinks could change the future and so off they go to, well, go and change the future.

Frank has a pretty scary set up to watch the world end

There's ancient rockets blasting out of classic monuments, some great chase scenes and fighting robots, but the script is predictable and the endeing is a bit weak. The plot jumps around quite a lot, and I don't know many kids that would be able to follow along, I certainly found my own concentration wanning, and I spent a decent amount of time clock watching. That's generally a sign for me that a movie isn't good, particularly when it's 2 hours long. If a movie goes for 2 hours and I don't notice, then it's a win for me, but I felt every one of those 120 minutes. 

TOMORROWLAND isn't as big of a flop as LONE RANGER was for Disney or JUPITER ASCENDING was for Warner, but it really didn't deliver what it could have - I mean the endless possibilities of the theme, Brad Bird at the helm, George Clooney and Hugh Laurie in the mix - and it didn't deliver what I was expecting. Save your pennies and go and see one of the other terrific films out at the moment. That's what everyone else is doing and that's why TOMORROWLAND is most likely going to run at a loss for Disney. 

2 out of 5

xoxo

The Blonde Bombshell

CINDERELLA - review

CINDERELLA
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Cast: Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter

For those of you who know me, you know that I am one of the maddest Disney fanatics out there. I own everything on DVD (not including sequels, because ew) including some of the more obscure titles like MELODY TIMES and THE MAGIC TOASTER. So, I was ever so excited when I found out about the new live action CINDERELLA and I was hoping against all hope that it would be amazing and I was not disappointed.

It opened on Thursday, and I got up early on Friday (my only sleep in day for the week), popped over to the Sun Theatre in Yarraville to go and see the first session of the day because I could not wait until lunch time. My usual movie going partner was working on Friday, but that's ok because I love a solo movie date, and the quiet enjoyment of an almost empty cinema the first session of the day brings, with no popcorn crunchers, confectionary packet rustlers or annoying commentators. Anyway, enough about me...let me tell you about CINDERELLA.

Kenneth Branagh has done an incredible job with the telling of this classic fairy tale and while there were a few little twists in there that don't appear in the original Disney cartoon version, but they add a little something to the magic of the story. What I really liked about this version of Cinderella is that in today's world of cynics and non-believers, there is no weird ironic twist where the happily ever after doesn't happen. I still love a good happily ever after and I still believe that one day I'll get my own happily ever after, but there are a lot of people who don't think that their ever after will end happily, so I was mightily pleased that Ella's ever after does end happily.

Ella and Kit in their wedding attire

This re-imagining of the classic tale tells the story of Ella (Lily James), her courage and kindness as she suffers the loss of her parents and the trials and tribulations of living with her "evil" stepmother and stepsisters. What Branagh's version also does is look at the reasons why Ella's father remarried, why her stepmother (Cate Blanchett) was so "evil" (and I put this in inverted commas because I don't think she truly was evil, she was hardened by circumstance), and why the King wanted his son to marry so badly.

We watch three people die in this film (Ella's parents and the King) and we feel their loss acutely as it is shown and explored on screen. I'm not going to lie, I had more than a few tears, as all three deaths got me right in the feels. I don't recall the King ever dying in a depiction of Cinderella before, but it truly added to the story, by really explaining his motivations for pushing a marriage on Kit (aka Prince Charming played by Richard Madden - hello hottie).

This film is so incredibly beautiful to watch, that even if the script happened to be a little how's your father (which it wasn't) I wouldn't have minded. The set, countryside and costuming were absolutely incredible and I was captivated by the beauty and magic that was depicted through these things alone.

look at that - I mean really, it's beautiful - Ella and Kit meeting for the first time

There were a few wonderful throw backs to the animated Disney classic which made me giddy with excitement, like the sneaky little bobbity, bobbity boo from the Fairy Godmother (Helena Bonham Carter) in the transformation sequence, and the mice helping Ella prepare her gown for the ball.

The Fairy Godmother appears as a poor beggar woman looking for a bit to eat and a glass of milk and she puts it so beautifully when she says "what is a cup of milk? Nothing. But kindness makes it everything" and she is right. The simplest things that are nothing to most people can become everything when given or done out of kindness, something which Ella does not lack. The characterisation of Bonham Carter's Fairy Godmother provides for some lovely comedic relief in this film, but part of the script that I thought was a little so-so because it didn't quite seem to fit with the rest of the film. It was lovely and funny and well done, but it seemed to me a little out of place.

Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother

The Fairy Godmother narrates this tale, and ties it all together so nicely. There isn't a whole lot of narration through the film, but where it does appear it is well placed and adds to the telling of the tale. 

After the Ella and Kit meet for the first time the chemistry between them is palpable and they truly are captivated by one another. It didn't seem forced or fake, and that made me want all the more for them to get their happily ever after (even though of course I knew it was coming). Kit agrees to find a bride at the request of the King because he knows his father is dying and he loves his father terribly (it was nice to see him copping it right in the feels like a real man), but as a compromise he ensures that all the maidens of the land are invited in the hopes that he might find Ella again.   

The Stepmother aspires to marry one of her two pretty, but stupid daughters to the prince at the ball, and as in the classic tale prevents Ella from going to the ball by ruining her dress and riding off in the carriage without her. 

Stepmother and daughters at the ball

Ella's fairy godmother has other plans and transforms the pumpkin into the coach, the mice into horses, lizards into footmen and a goose into the coachman. Ella makes off for the ball, but not without the reminder that the magic will wear off at the last stroke of midnight. What I loved about the transformations is that each of the newly transformed animals carries a little something of their former animal self - the lizards have green hands, the goose has a very beak-like nose and the mice have mouse like ears as horses. 

Ella makes a magical entrance into the ball and everything just stops, as they all turn to see who it is that has captured the prince's attention. 

what a dress...what a carriage...gorgeous

The two spend a magical evening together (cue secret garden and giant swing bathed in moonlight),

look at them, they're so in love

and at the stroke of midnight Ella runs off leaving behind her glass slipper - the only clue the Kit has to try and find her. Another lovely throw back was the use of the original song A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes as they dance together at the ball. It took me a little minute to pick it, but I was all like "awww".  

don't worry they're more comfortable than they look!

The Stepmother finds out that Ella is the mystery girl, and strikes up an evil plan with the Grand Duke that she will hide Ella from the prince as long as she is given a title and advantageous marriages for her daughters, and she does her very best to keep her end of the bargain. The Grand Duke travels all the land trying the slipper on the foot of every maiden, all the while knowing exactly where Ella is. That of course all comes to a crashing end when they discover Ella and the glass slipper fits her foot and Kit whisks her away to be married. 

There is nothing unknown or really original about this film (it even includes Lucifer the cat), and that's ok with me. I am a traditional Disney girl and I like my Disney films just as they are, but the couple of little twists and little additions to the storyline only increased the magic for me. 

Overall, as a true Disney fan I really loved the live action CINDERELLA, and I would highly recommend paying the 20-something dollars to go see it. Provided of course that you, like me, enjoy a Disney film and you love a good happily ever after. Even if you don't love a good happily ever after, go and see it anyway, maybe it will restore your faith in happily ever afters, or maybe you will get a kick out of being a cynical, non-believer (I secretly am hoping it will give you a little bit more faith, nobody likes a hater). I loved it, and I'm going to go and see it a second time with two little princesses who I know will love it just as much as me!

4 out of 5 

xoxo

The Blonde Bombshell