Taglines: He was an outcast… a survivor… a legend.
In the jungle, Kaa, an Indian python seer, watches as Shere Khan, a crippled Bengal tiger, breaks jungle law by hunting down a family of humans, with only the child escaping. Bagheera, drawn to the scene, rescues the man-cub, Mowgli, and takes him to a family of wolves being raised by Nisha and Vihaan, only for Tabaqui, Shere Khan’s hyena follower, to find the boy before he is chased off.
They take the infant Mowgli before the wolf council and Akela, the pack leader, to decide his fate, with Bagheera buying his life with a kill and Baloo strong-armed into agreeing. Shere Khan arrives to kill Mowgli, but Akela stops him, saying the boy is now a member of the pack and forces Shere Khan to leave, but not before the tiger vows to return.
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (also known and stylized on screen simply as Mowgli) is a 2018 adventure drama film directed by Andy Serkis with a screenplay by Callie Kloves, based on stories collected in All the Mowgli Stories by Rudyard Kipling. The film stars Rohan Chand, Matthew Rhys, and Freida Pinto, along with voice and motion capture performances from Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Naomie Harris, and Serkis.
Originally scheduled to be released in October 2016 by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film was delayed numerous times to work on the visual effects and to create space between itself and the April 2016 release of Walt Disney Pictures’ own Jungle Book adaptation. In July 2018, Warner Bros. Pictures sold the rights for the film to Netflix.
The film was released in select theaters on November 29, 2018, followed by its subsequent digital Netflix release on December 7, 2018. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the cast, visual effects, and Serkis’ direction, but many compared it unfavorably to the Disney film and criticized the uneven tone, calling it a “messy—if ambitious—misfire”.
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)
Directed by: Andy Serkis
Starring: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Naomie Harris, Andy Serkis, Peter Mullan, Jack Reynor, Eddie Marsan, Tom Hollander, Matthew Rhys, Freida Pinto
Screenplay by: Callie Kloves
Production Design by: Gary Freeman
Cinematography by: Michael Seresin
Film Editing by: Alex Marquez, Jeremiah O’Driscoll, Mark Sanger
Costume Design by: Alexandra Byrne
Set Decoration by: Anneke Botha, Raffaella Giovannetti
Art Direction by: Sophie Bridgman, Matthew Gray, Jason Knox-Johnston, Steven Lawrence, Tom Still, Su Whitaker
Music by: Nitin Sawhney
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence including bloody images, and some thematic elements.
Distributed by: Netflix
Release Date: November 29, 2018
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