YNMS x 2: Mowgli and Christopher Robin
Friday, June 1, 2018 at 10:00PM by Nathaniel R
grrrr. oink. hsss. squeak. 'oh bother'. oohoohahah. and other animal noises.
The multiplex has a serious animal infestations coming up with Christopher Robin and yet another adaptation of The Jungle Book called Mowgli coming up in the next handful of months. Have you caught their trailers?
Let's break them down with our Yes No Maybe So™ practice after the jump...
MOWGLI due in theaters October 18th
YES
- The visual FX could be stunning once completed.
- Rohan Chand is giving more legit feral child raised by wolves in this brief glimpse than Neel Sethi did in the entirety of the Disney version two years back.
- Shere Khan's entrance with that wounded paw is creepy. Might still be a good villain.
NO
- They seem to be stressing that this version is "dark" ....as if that's a draw. Listen. The world is dark enough. Rudyard Kipling didn't write The Jungle Book for jaded adults. This reminds me of that joke in Deadpool 2. One of its only good jokes in which Deadpool makes fun of someone about being really dark and implies that that she be in the DC Universe instead.
- The biggest problem with remakes as a rule is finding their raison d'etre. Few have an actual reason to exist. Nothing in this trailer screams "Jungle Book NEEDED to have this version made."
MAYBE SO
- Could be fun for comparison sake. Like Cate Blanchett versus Scarlett Johansson as Kaa. Benedict Cumberbatch versus Idris Elba as Shere Kahn and so on.
- You know I live for musicals but they felt awkwardly grafted on to the Disney remake in 2016 as if it was only a musical out of duty to it corporate agenda / legacy but with no passion about being one. At least this one sidesteps that problem. As a result it might feel like a whole vision instead of a Frankenstein retread between the new and the old?
CHRISTOPHER ROBIN due in theaters August 3rd
YES
- Disney may well have run out of ideas given their constant self-cannibilization of their back catalogue but I'm surprised to report that this trailer is very very charming. Maybe you've already fallen in love with it?
- The design of the characters, looking like old much-used (i.e. loved) stuffed animals is really something --not creepy but comforting and amusing!
- Great mimicry voice work from actors taking on those iconic characters.
- Ewan McGregor, the male movie star most adept at filling our hearts with instant pure feeling, is absolutely ace casting for this.
- Hayley Atwell is perpetually underused -- and probably will be here, too -- but we're always happy to see her.
NO
- But what if it is actually bad and "ruins our childhoods" as people complain about virtually every nostalgia based movie property when it arrives.
- Not exactly breaking new ground here. Oh a middle aged man who works too much and needs to reconnect with his family who miss him? We've only seen that 2,000 times... not 2001 times.
- What if it's actually as bad as Hook (1991), with which it could claim kinship?
MAYBE SO
- Marc Forster is directing and he's hit or miss. Hopefully it's not as dull as Finding Neverland!
- Could well devolve into weightless disposable "redemption" arc to reunite its sad family but on the other hand it might legitimately take that ole hoary but always relevant arc (parents do still become estranged from their children due to overworking after all) and make magic with it like a modern Mary Poppins.
I'm stretching for the Nos and Maybe Sos with this one because I'm there on August 3rd since my heart was swelling during this trailer... especially when Piglet clapped. My heart!. May this movie live up to its potential.
HOW ABOUT YOU? Where do you fall on these two movies judging by their trailers?
Reader Comments (7)
I'm going for a .... "I don't know" on Mowgli and I'm very skeptical of Christopher Robin as Marc Forster hasn't really made a worthwhile film since Stranger Than Fiction.
I assume you'll do one of these for The Children Act? Wouldn't it be nice to have Emma Thompson on the awards circuit again? :D
I was about to say whoever does the voice of Winnie the Pooh is spot on, but then I looked it up: that's Jim Cummings!!! He's been the voice of Pooh since the late 1980's (starting with the TV show, the New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh), so of course he's spot on. He's also the voice of Tigger here (which he took over once Paul Winchell, the original voice of Tigger, couldn't do it anymore). So, yeah, that immediately gives this some legitimacy (we'll see about the rest of the cast, although I really like Brad Garrett as Eeyore).
One of my concerns with Christopher Robin is the whole slapstick adventure with the stuffed animals and I wonder if it's going to work if every single human character can see them. I always understood that Christopher Robin was the only human to ever interact with Pooh and all the creatures in the Hundred Acre Wood. I can buy his daughter interacting with them, but if more humans interact with them, that may be stretching it. Otherwise, the trailer charmed me as a huge fan of Winnie the Pooh and a very charming design for these characters (after the grotesque enchanted objects in that ghastly live-action Beauty and the Beast, it's good to see CGI used to good effect).
As for Mowgli, this is the one I've been looking forward to. In this case, I actually welcome the darker tone to contrast with the more light-hearted Disney version from 2016 (a film I didn't really like, mostly for how undecided it seemed to be between remaking the animated version and presenting something new, leaving a mishmash of tones and ideas rendered through gorgeous CGI), and because this version doesn't have the Disney brand, it's free to explore some newer themes (and yes, Rohan Chand looks quite feral as Mowgli).
I'm sure I'm going to have issues with both of these, but I look forward to them.
One reason why I adore the new Disney version is the joyful, cheeky and well-tuned performance of Neel Sethi as Mowgli - just love it when an actor makes your heart jump with joy ! This trailer makes me wonder - so fare it looks more like a FX battle for gold...
Please elaborate on this blog’s hatred of Hook and its “childhood killing” nature. I admit I was in the right age group for it when it debuted, but it’s not THAT bad, is it?
@JamesfromAmes
It's not. Hook has great performances from a game movie star cast and John Williams' masterpiece of a score elevates it completely.
I feel like its critics are being too cynical. It's a perfectly lovely children's adventure film that really speaks to the ache of time and growing up.
Did not care for the JUNGLE BOOK from two years ago, so hopefully this one is better (although did Serkis' BREATH give anybody faith in his directorial abilities? Maybe that was just a strange thing he needed to get out of his system).
WINNIE THE POOH reminds me a lot of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. Hopefully it's as good. Wasn't this a similar story to Ewan in BIG FISH, though? I don't remember that at all...