Synopsis
Twenty-seven years after turning one of Rudyard Kipling's best known works into a successful animated musical, Disney returned to the same source material for this live-action adventure, which hews slightly closer to the original source material. Mowgli (Sean Naeleli) is the five-year-old son of a wilderness guide who accompanies his father on a hunting expedition in the jungles of their native India. Mowgli becomes close friends with a British girl named Kitty (Joanna Wolff), whose parents commissioned the hunt, but when a tiger attacks their camp and kills Mowgli's father, the boy is lost in the confusion, and he's left to fend for himself. Mowgli is befriended by the animals of the jungle -- Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther, and Grey Brother the wolf -- and they develop an unspoken sense of communication as the growing boy learns to live in the wilds. Years later, after growing to adulthood, Mowgli (now played by
Jason Scott Lee) once again encounters Kitty (now played by
Lena Headey), who is visiting India with her father, Col. Brydon (
Sam Neill), a British officer stationed nearby, and her stuffy fiancée Capt. William Boone (
Cary Elwes). Kitty and Mowgli recognize each other, and while his powers of speech are rusty, with the help of Dr. Plumford (
John Cleese), Kitty and her father are able to return Mowgli to civilization. However, after spending most of his life in the jungle, Mowgli does not feel at home among other people, and while he deeply loves Kitty, he concedes to his rival for her affections. However, Boone and several of his men kidnap Mowgli when they learn that he has discovered a vast treasure in the jungle, and they try to force him to reveal its secrets while fending off the dangers of the jungle which Mowgli understands, but Boone and his men do not. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide