Rudyard Kipling’s “man-cub” Mowgli returns to the wild in “The Jungle Book,” but this time he’s got the latest in digital animation to bring his animal friends and enemies to vivid life. If The Walt Disney Company insists upon cranking out live-action remakes of its animated classics – which is neither an inherently good nor terrible idea – this time around there’s an effort to accomplish visual feats that weren’t previously possible.
This “Book” might lack the post-vaudeville razzamatazz of its predecessor, but director Jon Favreau and a team of effects wizards plunge us into one of the big screen’s most engrossing artificial worlds since “Avatar.”