The Jungle Book

The man-cub Mowgli (Neel Sethi) reluctantly agrees to leave his beloved wolf pack rather than expose them to the wrath of the tiger Shere Khan (voice by Idris Elba). The panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) agrees to escort Mowgli to the human village, and on the way they befriend the bear Baloo (Bill Murray). The second live-action remake of a Disney animated classic (well, sort of live-action—everything but young Sethi is computer generated) isn’t quite the triumph last year’s Cinderella was, but it’s another winner—exciting (if a trifle overlong) and gorgeous to look at. The tone of Justin Marks’ script is darker than the 1967 feature, but it’s still more Disney than Kipling, even finding room for two songs from the original score. Jon Favreau directs with style, and Sethi is a real discovery. J.L.