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The latest in what has become a long, excruciating line of Disney sequels that should never have been pitched let alone made, The Jungle Book 2 follows last year's Return To Neverland as ill-conceived theatrical releases that were probably intended to be direct-to-video projects. Who, exactly, was clamoring for sequels to The Lion King and Aladdin? In any format? Whoever you are, you certainly have a lot of explaining to do.
Book, the sequel to 1967's animated original, isn't even the first sequel to the Rudyard Kipling story. 1997 gave us the live-action The Second Jungle Book Movie: Mowgli & Baloo, while the following year saw the un-eagerly anticipated release of The Jungle Book 2: Mowgli's Story (also live action). Our version opens with protagonist Mowgli (voiced by Haley Joel Osment) rehashing his tale from the original, via shadow puppet, to a group of villagers that include, in addition to his adoptive parents, the soon-to-be perky Shanti (Mae Whitman) and her kid brother Ranjan (Connor Funk).
After pulling a prank on Shanti, we learn Mowgli pines for the jungle, especially his old pal Baloo. It certainly must be frustrating that said jungle is just across an extremely narrow river, complete with conveniently placed rocks that would make crossing incredibly easy. Cut to Baloo (John Goodman), who is still singing "The Bare Necessities," even though his partner is long gone. Some chaos goes down, resulting in Mowgli heading back to the jungle and reuniting with Baloo, while Shanti and Ranjan follow in a helpless kind of We're Not Used To The Scary Jungle way.
The same characters and conflicts from the first film are all back this time, with tiger Shere Khan (Tony Jay) looking to get revenge against "man cub" Mowgli, while unlucky snake Kaa (Jim Cummings) catches about as many breaks as Tim Brown did receptions in the recent Super Bowl. And when the dust settles, Mowgli has to decide whether to stay in the jungle or go back to civilization. It's Man's eternal conflict, really: A bachelor's life full of fun, zero accountability and loutish pals; or one with a job and responsibilities out the wazoo, but the chance to nail a real honey (once your testicles descend, anyway).
There are about a half-dozen song-and-dance numbers in Book (I wasn't sure how many times to count the one they did three times), though none of the new numbers are catchy enough to be memorable. Then again, maybe I was too busy imagining on how freaky-looking Osment must be by now - you know how kids get at that age. We haven't seen him in a while, but we've heard him plenty of times, like in Disney direct-to-video sequels to The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beauty and the Beast. He also provided voice work in The Country Bears, making this his second straight Disney affair involving big old bruins. This one is slightly better than that one.
1:15 - G
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