Showing posts with label Rudyard Kipling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rudyard Kipling. Show all posts

Sunday, October 20, 2019

The Jungle Book (2016)


The man-cub Mowgli flees the jungle after a threat from the tiger Shere Khan and, guided by Bagheera the panther and the bear Baloo, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery, though he also meets creatures who don't have his best interests at heart.

Highly entertaining updated version of Kipling's classic, mixing excellent CGI animation with a real  (good) actor playing Mowgli, resulting in more realistic and in parts dark and upsetting sequences for a child audience.

On renewed viewing: menawhile a guilty pleasure of mine.

Sunday, December 30, 2018

Mowgli (2018)


A human child raised by wolves must face off against a menacing tiger named Shere Khan, as well as his own origins.

Quite similar to Disney's 2016 version in making and style, combining excellent CGI animation with performing actors, this adaptation is much darker and tougher in tone with a more complex, if not confusing plot.

Sunday, November 25, 2018

The Jungle Book (1967)


Bagheera the Panther and Baloo the Bear have a difficult time trying to convince a boy to leave the jungle for human civilization.
Beloved animated Disney feature may have its flaws, but the jolly flow of the story, the lovingly  portraited animals and the songs make it extremely enjoyable.

On renewed viewing: always a joy - even in the German dubbed version.

Halliwell*: "Cartoon version relying less on action than on songs and voices; patchily successful but no classic."

Maltin***: "Genial Disney animated feature...Hand-picked cast of actors help create some vivid characterizations in this easy-going film."

Monday, August 21, 2017

First Lines: Rudyard Kipling - With the Night Mail


At nine o'clock of a gusty winter night I stood on the lower stages of one of the G. P. O. outward mail towers.

Friday, May 13, 2016

Jungle Book (1942)


A boy raised by wolves tries to adapt to human village life.

A wonderfully colorful jungle adventure  with a great Sabu as Mowgli and some fantastic animal scenes; however, the movie hardly has anything to do with Rudyard Kipling's beloved stories.

Halliwell*: "High-budgeted but rather boring live action version with stiff-jointed model animals."

Maltin***: "Colorful Kipling fantasy...Exciting family fare, fine Miklos Rozsa score."

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Saturday, January 12, 2013

First Lines: Rudyard Kipling - Jungle Book


(ph: Giorgio Iorio)

It was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up from his day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleeping feeling in their tips.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

First Lines: Rudyard Kipling - Kim


He sat, in defiance of municipal orders, astride the gun Zam Zammah on her brick platform opposite the old Ajaib-Gher - the Wonder House, as the natives call the Lahore Museum.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Rudyard Kipling: If


If


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream and not make dreams your master;
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Kim (1950)



Adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling classic.

Colorful and lively, but very loose and not thoroughly entertaining rendering of the novel as adventure. Dean Stockwell as Kim is great, though.