Watching Disney movies used to be my absolute favorite past time. They were my best friend when all of my others were busy; they kept me company while my parents slept in. Disney movies grew to be such an obsession that I would have not only the movie lines memorized, but the books as well.  

Naturally, when I heard that Disney was making a live-action film of one of my old favorites, The Jungle Book, I was overjoyed. What a wonderful way to bring a piece of my childhood back to life. I quickly rounded up a group of my friends to all venture down to the theater to watch a new version of something I’d already seen a thousand times before.

When I walked out of the theater, however, I felt a bit conflicted. The movie was very, very well done. The way the animals moved looked so real, and all of the visual effects were superb. There were, however, some variations in the plot from the original story.

In the original The Jungle Book, the bear named Baloo was my favorite character. He was sweet, loving, and nurturing. In the 2016 film, however, he takes on a different role. While he still cared for the main character, Mowgli, he is more manipulative, and plays less of a role out of a children’s book. While I should have seen some differences coming, this was one that almost tainted the original version for me. My memories from the original movie had changed after seeing this new and updated version. Going into the theater and seeing the live-action altered my memories from childhood.

Another change, along with character dynamics, was the change in plot **Spoilers ahead**. In the original, the antagonist tiger named Shere Khan is eventually run out of the jungle, no longer able to bully its inhabitants. It is Mowgli who cleverly runs him out. In the new version, however, Shere Khan falls to his death after being tricked by Mowgli to walk out onto a frail branch of a tree. As he falls, he is enveloped by a raging fire beneath… a much more gory ending than him simply running away.

Overall, the film seemed to be an adult version of a children’s story. The antagonist has several scary pop-outs, the funny orangutan is suddenly aggressive, and the ending takes a gory twist to the original.

While the movie was extremely well done, it was in a sense a completely different story than the original. It follows the basic plot, character, and setting, but much of it is vastly different.

Apart from comparing it to the 1967 version, however, it was truly a phenomenal movie. It kept me on the edge of my seat, made me laugh, and made a friend of mine cry.

After all overall positive responses from their newly released The Jungle Book, Disney has decided to even more live-action movies based off old stories. In order to maintain my old childhood memories and feelings about the films they may release, I have learned that I need to walk into the theater with the mindset that I am seeing something totally new. My suggestion is to treat the two, the original and the live-action, as completely different stories. One will hold the memories of childhood while the other will entertain the new and more grown me.