| The Jungle Book 2 | |
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Official film poster |
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| Directed by | Steve Trenbirth |
| Produced by | Christopher Chase Mary Thorne |
| Written by | Karl Geurs |
| Starring | John Goodman Haley Joel Osment Mae Whitman Connor Funk Bob Joles Tony Jay John Rhys-Davies Jim Cummings Phil Collins |
| Music by | New Songs: Lorraine Feather Paul Grabowsky Joel McNeely Original Songs: Terry Gilkyson Richard M. Sherman Robert B. Sherman Score: Patrick Griffin |
| Editing by | Christopher K. Gee Peter Lonsdale |
| Studio | DisneyToon Studios |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
| Release date(s) | February 9, 2003 (premiere) February 14, 2003 (wide) |
| Running time | 72 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million[1] |
| Box office | $135,703,599[1] |
The Jungle Book 2 is a 2003 American animated film produced by the DisneyToons studio in Sydney, Australia 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 Disney sequel to have a theatrical release rather than going direct-to-video after The Rescuers Down Under in 1990 and Return to Neverland in 2002. The film is not based on The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, first published in 1895. However, they do have several characters in common. When released, it was criticised mainly for the quality of its animation and the similarity of its plotline to the original film's. Disney released VHS and DVD versions on June 10, 2003.
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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 to exact 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 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 retrieve Mowgli, believing that Baloo is a hostile animal and kidnapped the boy.
Bagheera hears of Mowgli's departure 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 bemoans the boring 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 mock Shanti and other aspects of Mowgli's life in the Man Village, the boy leaves, offended. 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 and leave Mowgli.
Baloo recognizes that Mowgli misses his old life, but when Mowgli tries to make amends with his human friends, they are attacked by Shere Khan. The tiger chases Mowgli and Shanti to a temple built above a lake of lava, and Baloo leaves Ranjan with Bagheera while he goes to protect Mowgli. After confusing Shere Khan by banging several different gongs, Shanti's prescence is revealed to Shere Khan. Baloo fights 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 into the lava below. With his nemesis defeated, Mowgli returns to the Man Village with Shanti and Ranjan, but they still visit Baloo and Bagheera in the jungle regularly.
The band Smash Mouth recorded a cover of the Sherman Brothers song, "I Wanna Be Like You" (originally from the 1967 musical film), which is featured on this film's soundtrack.
Many people thought that The Jungle Book 2 was a rehash of the original 1967 classic and should have gone direct-to-video as it was originally intended. On Rotten Tomatoes, the general consensus is "This inferior rehash of The Jungle Book should have gone straight to video." Based on 86 reviews, the film a "rotten" approval rating of 19%, with an average score of 4.4/10.[3] Among Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics" division, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television, and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 17% based on 35 reviews with an average score of 4.1/10.[4] 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.[5]
The film grossed $47,901,582 in the United States and $87,802,017 in foreign countries adding to $135,703,599 worldwide.[1]
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