by Lisa Hemsley

Created on: July 15, 2010   Last Updated: July 16, 2010

The Jungle Book is another Disney film which I had never seen, so hubby bought me the DVD as he thought I was missing out. Again, I did manage to watch this without the children so I watched it in peace.

The film is about a young boy called Mowgli, who has been raised since a baby by a family of wolves. He is a happy boy and enjoys playing with the jungle animals. One day though words comes to the jungle that Sheer khan is returning to the jungle and he does not like man cubs. Bagheera tells the wolves that he will take Mowgli back to the man village out of harms way.

Mowgli does not want to leave the jungle but he does set of with Bagheera but soon he tells him that he will survive on his own in the jungle and leaves. Mowgli is soon meeting new animals and he befriends a big bear called Baloo who says will protect him. Mowgli also meets a hypnotic snake called Kaa who is trying his hardest to eat him.

Mowgli ends up being taken by the monkeys to King Louie where he escapes with the help of Baloo and Bagheera.

Will Mowgli be able to stay away from Sheer khan and will he ever be happy about going back to the man village?

I will happily admit that despite this being a children's film I really did enjoy it. The story was very good and the characters were great. I did spend ages trying to work out the voice of Baloo the bear and only now have I worked out that it is also the voice of Top Cat!

The animation is wonderful and is truly packed full of still a few good lessons for children to learn from it.

The songs which were in the film are all very catchy and fun, I did find my self singing along to them all despite not watching the film previously. Hubby was very grumpy and would not let me have the sing a long version on! My boys loved the songs when they watched the film and they were dancing around trying to sing along. They were especially taken with the monkeys dancing and did some very funny and strange impressions of them. I did ask them what they though of the film and both my 6 year old and my 4 year old both said that it was good and fun and that they enjoyed it a lot.

The DVD which I have is the Platinum Edition which is a 2 Disc version. The second disc is packed full of bonus features which include:-

All new 'I Wanna Be like You' Music Video
Baloo's Virtual Swinging Jungle Cruise
Take a Ride on the Wild Side
With 4 All New Games
DisneyPedia Junglemania!
Learn about the Real Life Animals From the Film
The Jungle Book Fun with languages Games
Meet the Long Lost Character - Rocky the Rhino
Deleted Scenes
Disney's Kipling: Walt's Magical Touch On a Liberty Classic
The Making of the Jungle Book
And Much Much More

I personally have not watched any of the behind the scenes extras as I do not want to lose any of the magic of the film by seeing how it was made and my boys are just slightly too young to play the games, but when they are old enough I will let them play them and come back and update this review for you.

The film was Disney's 19th Animated Classic and was based on the book by Rudyard Kipling. The film has a running time of 76 minutes, which is a good length for children as they do not get bored from sitting still for such a long time. The film has a Universal certificate which makes it suitable for all, there is some moderate violence in the film, but nothing half as bad as what can be seen on the television at any time of the day.

Hubby managed to get this Platinum Edition DVD for £7, brand new and sealed with the official hologram from EBay, so do shop around and pick yourself up a bargain. I do recommend this film to both adults and children as it has a good story and is packed full of the Disney magic.

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