I wasn't too sure if I wanted to see it or not but afer I heard some people saying that it's really great and as it was the only presumably good film in the cinema that night I went to see it.
I am normally not a huge fan of remakes because most of the time the original is so much better. But this might not be the case for Disney's recent phase of turning all their animated movies into live-action films. I am really looking forward to The Beauty and the Beast with Emma Watson next year (watch the teaser trailer here) and The Jungle Book was the trial for me to see whether I like these new versions or not - and I did.
I was utterly mesmerized by how realistic everthing looked, even though the animals are still animated and that poor little child has to imagine so many things and try not to laugh when seeing all these people in blue body suits. And when I say child I mean Neel Sethi, the 12-year-old who plays Mowgli. He is amazing as is the rest of the cast in the English original: Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupitao Nyong'o, Scarlett Johannsson and Christopher Walken - what a line-up.
The story of the film is of course nearly the same as in the original, so I guess I don't have to tell you about that.
It was certainly one of those films where I didn't only follow the story and the characters but was also fascinated by the production value and couldn't stop thinking about how they have made it. And if you're a bit geeky about thinks like that as well, watch this Making Of, it gives you an idea of how much work was put into the film.
It might be a bit too late now to say "Go to the cinema and see it", but it's well worth a watch and when it will be released on DVD, BluRay and on Streaming platforms, you should really give it a go.