Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)
Directed by Andy Serkis
A human child raised by wolves, must face off against a menacing tiger named Shere Khan, as well as his own origins.
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3 films that influenced Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
What critics say influenced Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
Serkis made his name by playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, and there are more than a few nods to those blockbusters, particularly in the form of the giant python, Kaa, who is voiced by Cate Blanchett and whose opening, scene-setting narration is so reminiscent of Blanchett as Galadriel, narrating the opening to The Fellowship of the Ring that it has to be intentional.
On Friday, Netflix unveiled its latest acquisition from a major Hollywood studio with Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle , which was originally a product of Warner Bros. and was directed by Andy Serkis, the motion-capture master behind Gollum in the Lord of the Rings franchise and Caesar in the new Planet of the Apes franchise.
After Warner Bros. started developing a new, technologically advanced update of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book stories in 2012 – with directors as varied as Steve Kloves, Alejandro G. Inarritu and Alfonso Cuaron attached – producers finally settled on hiring motion-capture pioneer Serkis (Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, Caesar in the rebooted Planet of the Apes) for what would be his directorial debut.
Serkis—who has also played motion-capture luminaries such as Star Wars ’ Snoke, Planet of the Apes ’ Caesar, and Tintin ’s Captain Haddock—seems to have directed all his attention to Mowgli ’s animal creations.
Directed by Andy Serkis, himself a mo-cap specialist who has played everyone from Gollum in Lord of the Rings to Caesar in the Planet of the Apes series, Mowgli at times feels — and I mean this as a compliment — like the psychic runoff hiding beneath Disney’s colorful, kid-friendly Jungle Book pictures.
Andy Serkis – renowned for his motion-capture effects work in the Planet of the Apes series and Lord of the Rings – brings his experience and talent to this project with one goal in mind: make these creatures live and breathe.
That project passed through the hands of a number of directors, including Steve Kloves, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Ron Howard, before Andy Serkis — the performance capture genius known for his portrayals of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and Caesar in the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy — landed the job.
It's similar to the tone and approach taken in the cinematic treatment of Marvel Comics by Disney in contrast to DC by Warner Bros. Mowgli 's gritty overtones and its complete lack of levity remind you of DC EU ventures like Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) — films which neither appeal to kids nor the more mature, sophisticated adult audiences.