The Jungle Book 2: Frollo is Shere Khan

The Jungle Book 2 is a sequel to the 1967 The Jungle Book. I have no idea what to say about this one. I didn’t really like the original Jungle book movie for a lot of reasons and here are three. Number one, I hated Mowgli, talk about a dull character. Number two, Orangutans in India, No wrong. And Three, Colonel Hathi saying that female Elephants don’t lead herds, F.U.

But at least The Jungle Book was mildly entertaining. Mowgli could get away with being dull because he was the straight guy reacting to things. The Jungle Book 2 has Mowgli at the forefront so the movie is just all-a-round dull and Mowgli is more unlikable in this movie.

In this movie Mowgli is living in the “Man-village” with his new pals, that pretty girl from the first movie, Shanti and Ranjan, an annoying little kid.

Mowgli misses the jungle and tries to lure the children into it with a crappy song. Going into the jungle is forbidden as you know there is a man-eating Tiger in there. So Shanti gets Mowgli in trouble and he gets grounded. Baloo, who misses his singing partner goes to the village to visit Mowgli with Shere Khan following. Shanti sees Baloo and yells, Baloo then runs off with Mowgli and the villagers run after Shere Khan. Shanti is followed by Ranjan take off after Mowgli.

Mowgli confesses that he hated the rules of the village. Other stuff happens and it ends with Shere Khan chasing Mowgli and Shanti and then getting trapped surround by lava under a statue listening to the bad jokes from a vulture.Clearly Shere Khan will die a painful long death.

And in the end Mowgli goes back to the “Man-Village.” Bagheera and Elephnats are also in this movie. But King Louie and the wolves that raise  Mowgli  are not. Seriously what the fuck Mowgli? You miss Baloo more than the wolves that took care you for like a decade. Hate you.

Much like the Peter Pan sequel, they played it way too safe. It is exactly what you would expect from a sequel to The Jungle Book. Baloo sings Bare Nessacity, Bahgeera complains, and the  Elephants act British, The vultures are the Beatles and there is a new annoying new one that should have died. Shere Khan wants to kill Mowgli. Kaa is hungry. Mowgli whines and has a killjoy girlfriend.

The only characters I liked is Shere Khan. Kaa was ok. Kaa just wants snacks and Shere Khan wants revenge. These are good motives. Plus Shere Khan is voice by Tony Jay who voiced Frollo. The little Elephant is ok too.

Mowgli on the other hand, he was dull in the first movie because he was a blank state character,  here he is just annoying. He wants to return to the jungle because rules are lame. He is like Scamp from Lady and the Tramp II. Then he misses the village. So kid doesn’t know what he wants. Shanti doesn’t really have much of personality, other than she doesn’t like the Jungle.

The songs in this movie aside from the painful repeating of Bare Necessities are ass. They are pretty messy and really disharmonious. They were not pleasant to listen to.

Another issue is how can Shanti understand the animals? She has no problems talking to Baloo. This ability is never explain and I think the creators just didn’t think or care about a mechanic for Shanti to speaks to the animals. It’s treated as so whatever that one should scarily care about this plot hole.

The Jungle Book 2 is really dull and very safe. You pretty much know what’s going to happen from the start. One good thing is Tony Jay’s voice but if you liked The Jungle Book and what more of it just watch TaleSpin and throw this one under a statue surrounded by molten lava, the world will thank you for it .