Cast: Mae Whitman as Shanti, Connor Funk as Ranjan, John Goodman as Baloo, Jim Cummings as Kaa and Curnel Hatthy, Tony J as Shere Khan, Phill Collins as Lucky the Valture, Bob Joels as Bagheera and Haley Joel Osment as Mowgli.
My Review:
I LOVED this movie and there are several reasons why. The main reason is Shanti! I LOVE her so much! She is my favorite character! I LOVE the way Shanti is so motherly to Ranjan when she needs to be and I LOVE the way she and Mowgli compete as far as what’s better: The village life or life in the jungle. I also love the way Shanti conquers her fears and risks everything she knows to save Mowgli. Shanti is so brave and strong willed, even when she’s afraid of doing something she knows has to be done, no matter what. But before I go into the other reasons wh y I LOVE this movie so much, let me give you a brief summary of the film.
The Plot:
This movie takes place about a month or two after the original one ended. Mowgli has been adopted by a nice family and has a new little brother, Ranjan, who idolizes Mowgli for his life spent in the jungle. The movie opens up with Mowgli telling his new family and new best friend, Shanti, about his former life in the jungle through a puppet show. As he gets to the part where he fought Shere Khan, the ferocious tiger, Ranjan decides to put his own twist on the story and in doing so, manages to destroy the set and embarrass Shanti in the process. Ranjan’s comment that, “Shanti blinked her big, beautiful, brown eyes at you. And you follow her into our village,” prompts Shanti to turn red and deny she did anything of the sort. This prompts a little argument between Mowgli and Shanti, forcing Mowgli’s father to break it up by revealing that his wife used the same trick on him. Shanti then makes fun of Mowgli before leaving and Mowgli tells Shanti to “watch out for Shere Khan on your way home.” Shanti dismisses his warning by retorting that, “You and your stories. Everyone knows tigers don’t come into the village.” With that, she leaves. But Mowgli soon finds that his theory is right when Shere Khan comes back, seeking revenge against Mowgli for what Mowgli did to him.
Meanwhile, Mowgli still misses his jungle friends and they miss him. Baloo, especially. Baloo wants to bring Mowgli back to the jungle, but Bagheera won’t hear it. He tells Baloo that Mowgli belongs with his own kind. Baloo disagrees and sneaks off to visit Mowgli.
Meanwhile back in the village, Mowgli and Ranjan spend their day teasing Shanti and playing on her fear of the jungle and especially of tigers. Mowgli tells Shanti that Shere Khan is back and is successful in sending her tumbling into the river with the aid of Ranjan. Shanti growls in frustration as she gets out of the river calling Mowgli and Ranjan, “Horrible, stinky boys!” She then grabs Ranjan’s hand and leads him away saying sternly, “Come on, Ranjan. He’s a bad influence!” Meaning, Mowgli. Shanti then takes Ranjan with her to do h er other chores and tries to get him to settle down and not want to be like Mowgli so much. Mowgli soon joins them. He tries to make up for what he did by trying to convince Shanti, through song, to get with the jungle rhythm. In doing so, he unintentionally leads a group of kids across the river, right into the jungle. But Shanti stops them, alerting her parents, which in turn gets Mowgli grounded and sent to his room. Shanti tries to apologize, but Mowgli wont’ hear it.
Later that night, Shanti sneaks over to Mowgli’s house, hoping he’ll talk to her. She brings him a bowl of fruit, since he missed dinner. Concentrating on making up with her best friend, Shanti doesn’t realize that she is being stalked by Shere Khan, who wants nothing more than for Mowgli to show himself so that he, Shere Khan, can have his revenge.
When Shanti arrives at Mowgli’s bedroom window, she isn’t aware that Baloo managed to get into the village too and has reunited with his “little britches”. When Shanti hears Mowgli yelling for Baloo to stop tickling him, Shanti fears Mowgli is in danger and rushes into save him. When she sees Baloo, Shanti screams in terror, alerting the villagers. But the villagers see Shere Khan and assume he’s the wild animal Shanti had warned them about.
Forced to go after Mowgli alone, Shanti’s fear is tested when Baloo is successful in whisking Mowgli back to the jungle and Shanti must save him. She is accompanied by Ranjan who wants to find Mowgli too. They encounter Kaa, who is searching for a snack and almost has one, but Ranjan stops him right when he is about to eat Shanti by hitting the snake over the head with a stick.
Now all three children are in the jungle and their parents are frantically searching for them. But they aren’t the only ones looking for the kids. Shere Khan is back in the jungle and looking for a tasty snack. His search is interrupted by the vultures, who want nothing more than to tease him. The main vulture who lives to tease Shere Khan about his defeat by Mowgli is Lucky, who is voiced by Phill Collins. But it appears his luck soon runs out when Shere Khan has enough and tries to eat him, but he lets him go eventually and it seems Lucky has learned his lesson.
Mowgli and Shanti are soon reunited again and must face Shere Khan together. The movie ends on a good note and not only does Shanti face her fear, but Mowgli is able to have the best of both worlds. He is able to visit his jungle friends and remain in the village with his family and Shanti, who he discovers he cares for-a lot.
The humor in this movie was easy to see too. The humorous parts for me were when Kaa, the snake, kept getting beat up. But my favorite Kaa scene was where Ranjan hits him over the head when he is trying to eat Shanti. And then after Shanti snaps out of her trance and tells Ranjan to stop, he gives Kaa another whack before doing as Shanti says! I find that totally hilarious! The other thing I really liked about the movie was the one liners between Shanti and Mowgli. I especially love the scene where Mowgli makes Shanti fall into the river and drop her water jug. The look on her face and the way she gr owled at him was priceless!
In conclusion I really think anyone who has seen Jungle Book, should really pick up this movie. It’s a really good one and I even think it’s better than the original. So get with the Jungle Rhythm and join Mowgli, Shanti, Ranjan, Baloo, Bagheera, Kaa, Shere Khan and all their friends for another adventure full of humor, friendship and learning where you belong.
The Music:
This movie had some good songs and even though the Bear Necessities was reprised three times, it was still a good song for the movie. There are also two new songs that add to the movie’s greatness as well. “The Jungle Rhythm”, which is sung by Mowgli and his new friends in the village. This song is one of my favorites because it’s really catchy and really jazzy. Mowgli sings this song to show Shanti, Ranjan and his other new friends just how happening the jungle life is. His plan almost succeeds until Shanti sees what he’s trying to do and gets him grounded by accident. The other new song is “W-Y-L-D”, which is sung by Baloo and several animals in the jungle. This song is not one of my favorites, only because I liked “I Wanna Be Like You” a lot more. Other than that, the instrumental score was really an attention grabber. And I also enjoyed the second and last version of “The Bear Necessities”.
DVD Extras:
The DVD has some really good extras in it. One of them is a game called Mowgli’s Jungle Maze. This is a fun game to play for all ages. I enjoyed it myself. The object of the game is to get Mowgli through the jungle and back to the village safely. Upon arriving at each fork in the road, you are given a jungle riddle and must solve it. The game is challenging too, but fun at the same time.
The other extras are song selection, sing with the movie, which is a feature that allows words to come up as the song is playing in the movie. There are also a few music videos. They are “I Wanna Be Like You” performed by Smash Mouth and “W Y L D”. I didn’t like these at all. Probably because I like King Louie’s version of “I Wanna Be Like You” a lot better and I’m not into music videos.
The other two extras are Legacy of the Jungle Book, which is a recap of the first movie through selected clips. This I thought was really cool because it gave you a short but meaningful look at what started the road to this wonderful sequel. It’s brief, but detailed in such a way that you get just what you need without it being too long. The other extra is the Making of the Jungle Book 2, which is one of my other favorite extras. This twenty-minute documentary takes you into the making of this WONDERFUL Disney sequel and gives you a feel for how the movie was made. There are small interviews with the cast and crew. I think those were special because you got to see their feelings on the movie and how much fun it was to make it from t heir point of view.
Other Musical Extras:
The DVD also has some deleted song scenes that you can enjoy too. The first song is called “I’ve Got You Beat”. This song was originally done by Mowgli and Shanti as a sort of competition to see what was better. The jungle life or life in the village. Although I didn’t’ like the version the DVD showed, I LOVE the version on the soundtrack. The other song which is one of my absolute favorites is called “Braver”. It was supposed to be in the movie, but it never made it in because the producers and writers of the movie thought the song would give too much away of Shanti. In my opinion, I think they made a huge mistake in not putting this song into the movie. It’s on the soundtrack, but I like the deleted version on the DVD a whole lot better. I guess it’s because I LOVE Shanti and she is my favorite character next to Mowgli, and Bagheera. I love the way they developed her character and I really think Mae Whitman brings Shanti to life and she portrays her very well. The reason I think “Braver” should have been in the movie is because it’s a really pretty song and Shanti has a very pretty singing voice. The other reason is that it showed how much Shanti was willing to risk for Mowgli. She was willing to risk her fear to find him, which I think is a perfect example of what friendship really is.
Favorite Scene:
Mowgli (to Shanti): Well, keep your ears open and always watch your back, or the last sound you’ll ever hear is… (Ranjan jumps out of the bushes and roars. Shanti screams and falls into the river, dropping her water jug.) When does the tiger roar?
Shanti: You’re horrible! Horrible, stinky boys! Come on, Ranjan. He’s a bad influence. (They walk into the village.) Now, don’t move. That wasn’t very nice you know.
(Ranjan growls like a tiger.)
Shanti: Stop that! You’re not a jungle boy.
Ranjan: Why are you so ascared of the jungle?
Shanti: Because it’s dangerous.
Ranjan: Dangerwis? But Mowgli says…
Shanti: You shouldn’t listen to everything Mowgli says.
Ranjan: But I thought you like Mowgli.
Shanti: I do. I-I like Mowgli. I…I… (She turns around to see Mowgli standing there.)
Mowgli: You left this at the river. (Hands Shanti her water jug back.)
Shanti: Thank you.
Ranjan: She’s in a bad mood.
Mowgli: Hey, Ranjan, want to see a little trick I learned in the jungle?
(Ranjan nods and Mowgli lassos some fruit down off a tree.)
Ranjan: That’s a pretty neat trick.
Shanti: Well, here’s a little trick I learned, right here at home.
(She does the same thing, but manages to get the whole lot of fruit down.)