The Jungle Book 2

This article is about the 2003 animated film. For the Kipling book, see The Second Jungle Book. For the 1997 live-action film, see The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli and Baloo.

The Jungle Book 2

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Steve Trenbirth
Produced by Christopher Chase
Mary Thorne
Written by Karl Geurs
Evan Spiliotopoulos
Starring Haley Joel Osment
John Goodman
Mae Whitman
Bob Joles
Tony Jay
Phil Collins
John Rhys-Davies
Jim Cummings
Music by Patrick Griffin
New songs:
Lorraine Feather
Paul Grabowsky
Joel McNeely
Original songs:
Terry Gilkyson
Richard M. Sherman
Robert B. Sherman
Edited by Christopher K. Gee
Peter Lonsdale
Production
company
Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures
Release dates
  • February 14, 2003 (2003-02-14)
Running time
 72 minutes
Country United States
Australia
Language English
Budget $20 million[1]
Box office $135,703,599[1]

The Jungle Book 2 is a 2003 American-Australian animated produced by DisneyToon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. The theatrical version of the film was released in France on February 5, 2003, and released in the United States on February 14, 2003. The film is a sequel to Walt Disney's 1967 film The Jungle Book, and stars Haley Joel Osment as the voice of Mowgli and John Goodman as the voice of Baloo.

The film was originally produced as a direct-to-video film, but was released theatrically first, similar to the Peter Pan sequel, Return to Never Land. It is the third animated Disney sequel to have a theatrical release rather than going direct-to-video after The Rescuers Down Under in 1990 and Return to Never Land in 2002. The film is a continuation of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling and is not based on The Second Jungle Book. However, they do have several characters in common. When released, it was criticized mainly for the quality of its animation and the similarity of its plotline to that of the original film.

Plot

Mowgli is living in the Man Village with the girl who lured him in, Shanti, his adopted brother Ranjan, and their parents. However, Mowgli longs to return to the fun of the jungle, and after nearly leading the other children of the village into the jungle, is punished by his adopted father for trying to lead them into danger. Meanwhile, in the jungle, Shere Khan has returned to Baloo and Bagheera's part of the jungle seeking revenge on Mowgli. Baloo sneaks into the Man Village and gets Mowgli to come with him to live in the jungle; however, unbeknownst to them, Shere Khan has also infiltrated the village, only to be chased off by the village people. In the ensuing chaos of the tiger's attack, Shanti and Ranjan go into the jungle to rescue Mowgli, believing that Baloo is a vicious animal who has kidnapped the boy.

Bagheera learns of Mowgli's escape from the village when the humans search the jungle for him, and immediately suspects Baloo. Mowgli instructs Baloo to scare off Shanti should she appear, and rants about the mundane life he had in the Man Village. Baloo and Mowgli journey to King Louie's old temple (King Louie is mentioned to have abandoned it), however when the animals of the jungle criticize Shanti and other aspects of Mowgli's life in the Man Village, the boy leaves, irritated. He runs into Shanti and Ranjan, but Baloo scares Shanti as Mowgli wanted him to. When the truth comes out that Mowgli ordered Baloo to scare her, Shanti and Ranjan run away, abandoning Mowgli.

Baloo realizes that Mowgli misses his old life, but when Mowgli tries to make amends with his human friends, they are confronted by Shere Khan. The tiger chases Mowgli and Shanti to a temple built above a lake of lava, Baloo leaves Ranjan with Bagheera while he goes to save Mowgli and Shanti. After confusing Shere Khan by banging several different gongs, Shanti's presence is revealed to Shere Khan. Baloo attacks Shere Khan just as Mowgli is about to give himself up to save Shanti, but the tiger chases the two children to a statue across a pit of lava. Shere Khan is trapped within the statue's mouth, and it plummets onto a large stone that resides in the lava below. With his nemesis defeated, Mowgli returns to the Man Village with Shanti and Ranjan, but they return to visit Baloo and Bagheera in the jungle on a regular basis.

Voice cast

Additional voices provided by Jeff Bennett, Baron Davis, Jess Harnell, Bobby Edner, Devika Parikh, Veena Bidasha, Brian Cummings, and an uncredited J. Grant Albrecht.

Hidden appearances

Songs

Songs from the first film were composed by Terry Gilkyson and Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman with new songs by Lorraine Feather, Paul Grabowsky, and Joel McNeely.

  1. "I Wan'na Be like You" – Smash Mouth
  2. "Jungle Rhythm" – Mowgli, Shanti, Ranjan
  3. "The Bare Necessities" – Baloo
  4. "Colonel Hathi's March"
  5. "The Bare Necessities" – Baloo, Mowgli
  6. "W-I-L-D" – Baloo
  7. "Jungle Rhythm (Reprise)" – Mowgli
  8. "The Bear Necessities (Reprise)" – Baloo, Mowgli, Shanti
  9. "Right Where I Belong" – Windy Wagner

Production

In the 1990s, screenwriting duo Bob Hilgenberg and Rob Muir submitted a Jungle Book 2 screenplay in which Baloo ventured to save his romantic interest from a poacher. Disney ultimately went in a different direction for the sequel.[2]

John Goodman recorded his voice work in New Orleans while Haley Joel Osment recorded his in California. Due to a legal dispute, the character of King Louie from the original Jungle Book could not be included in this film. However, he makes a non-physical appearance as a shadow puppet in the beginning of the film and is briefly mentioned in the middle of the film. The decision was made to keep Shere Khan in shadow during the beginning of the film to "reflect his 'wounded pride'".

Release

Critical reception

The Jungle Book 2 received generally negative reviews from critics. Based on 88 reviews, the film a "rotten" approval rating of 19% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 4.4/10 and the general consensus "This inferior rehash of The Jungle Book should have gone straight to video."[3] Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 38%, based on 24 reviews.[4]

Box office

The film was released on February 14, 2003 and opened at #4 in its 4-day opening weekend with $14,109,797.[5] At the end of its run, the film grossed $47,901,582 in the United States and $87,802,017 in foreign countries totaling $135,703,599 worldwide. It could be considered a box office success, based on its $20 million budget.[1]

Home media

The Jungle Book 2 was released on both VHS and DVD on June 10, 2003. The bonus features included the behind-the-scenes, some music videos, "W-I-L-D", "I Wan'na Be like You" and "Jungle Rhythm", and deleted scenes. It was re-released again on June 17, 2008 on "Special Edition" DVD.[6][7] The film was released on Blu-ray on March 18, 2014, following its prequel's first HD Blu-ray release.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Jungle Book 2 (2003)". Box Office Mojo.
  2. ↑ Armstrong, Josh (2012-03-05). "Bob Hilgenberg and Rob Muir on the Rise and Fall of Disney's Circle 7 Animation". Animated Views. Retrieved 2013-04-24.
  3. ↑ "The Jungle Book 2 Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment.
  4. ↑ "The Jungle Book 2 (2003): Reviews". Metacritic.
  5. ↑ "Weekend Box Office Results for February 14-17, 2003". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database (which is owned by Amazon.com). February 18, 2003. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  6. ↑ "The Jungle Book 2: Special Edition". Amazon.com. June 17, 2008. Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  7. ↑ Cedeno, Kelvin. "The Jungle Book 2: Special Edition DVD Review". UltimateDisney.com. Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  8. ↑ "The Jungle Book 2 [Blu-ray]". Amazon.com. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
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