BEFORE: This worked out pretty well, I'm watching films set in the African wilds and Indian jungles while it's below freezing and there's snow on the ground here in NYC.
The animation world is filled with unsung heroes, people who can do amazing things with their voices and play all different characters and don't always get the recognition they deserve. Tonight I salute one of these actors, and not just because doing so is the easiest way to link between movies. Really, how cynical of you to even think that! Jim Cummings provided the voice for the third hyena in "The Lion King" (the one not voiced by Whoopi Goldberg or Cheech Marin) and in "Lion King 2" he supplied the very necessary "Additional voices" - I mean, come on, what would that film be without additional voices? In tonight's film he voices two roles, Kaa the Snake and Col. Hathi the elephant.
Cummings is probably most famous for being the voice of Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger as well, dating back to 1988. Sterling Holloway voiced Pooh (and the original Kaa) before that, but at some point characters tend to outlive the voice actors. I saw "The Jungle Book" when I was a kid (must have been a re-release, since the movie's a year older than I am), and it's a little sad to think about the fact that most of the actors weren't around to reprise their roles when they made the sequel 36 years later: Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima and the great George Sanders.
When you're a kid you can just enjoy "The Jungle Book" as a cartoon - but as an adult I sometimes watch and old movie and find myself thinking about how no one on the screen is still alive...
THE PLOT: Mowgli, missing the jungle and his old friends, runs away from the man village unaware of the danger he's in by going back to the wild.
AFTER: Once again, a lot of concurrent themes and plot points with the previous film in the chain, "Lion King 2". Kiara is told not to venture across the river and out of the pridelands, and Mowgli is told not to venture across the river and into the jungle. But you just know Mowgli's going to cross the river, right? I mean, if he doesn't it's going to be a pretty boring movie...what with staying in the village and doing chores, catching up on laundry, etc.
So Mowgli hooks back up with his old buddy Baloo, and hijinks follow - but Mowgli's girlfriend Shanti and his little pal Ranjan follow, and then there's that tiger Shere Khan who wants revenge (KHAAN!) for what happened to him in the first film.
Unfortunately not a lot happens in this film, mostly people keep losing each other in the jungle, call out each other's names, and find each other again. (Repeat as necessary until the big showdown) There are a couple nifty songs, but only a couple - and one of those, "The Bare Necessities", carries over from the original "Jungle Book", so that's a bit of a cheat. Wait, make that two, since "I Wanna Be Like You" also plays during the closing credits. Apparently the budget for creating new songs for a direct-to-video sequel is not that high.
Starring the voices of John Goodman (last heard in "Bee Movie"), Haley Joel Osment (last seen in a cameo in "Mixed Nuts"), Mae Whitman, John Rhys-Davies, Tony Jay (last heard in "All Dogs Go to Heaven 2") and Phil Collins.
RATING: 4 out of 10 mangos
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