Based on Rudyard Kipling’s stories this is not the child friendly version of the Jungle Book that Disney has now brought to us in both animated and live action form. Rated 12 by Netflix this features animals with sharp teeth, scars and a generally weathered appearance and absolutely no singing or dancing. The story itself is significantly different from the Disney version to warrant its place and features some interesting moments where Mowgli interacts with the man-village.

Director Andy Serkis, most famous for his motion capture performances of Gollum and King Kong for Peter Jackson was creating this film at the same time as Jon Favreau was putting together the 2016 box office smash live action version for Disney. The success of that film and the darkness of this one resulted in him struggling to find a distributor and Mowgli now finding its home on Netflix.

Serkis did manage to attract an arguably more stellar voice cast than the Disney version with Christian Bale as Bagheera, Cate Blanchett as Kaa (doing her best Galadriel impression as a narrator) and Benedict Cumberbatch as Shere Khan, as well as featuring Peter Mullan, Naomie Harris, Jack Reynor, Eddie Marsan and Tom Hollander. Serkis himself portrays Baloo the Bear. All of them stamp their marks on the well known roles.

Effects wise there is some fantastic work for the animals up close but where they waiver is when Mowgli is running or interacting with groups of animals. It’s here that he looks quite separate from the animated animals.

It’s intriguing and enjoyable enough. But it’s a hard sale compared to the animated classic. Personally I struggled with the Disney live action film as well and this probably sits well alongside that as a contrasting companion.