Anyone buying or bought the new "Jungle Book" dvd?

I might buy it. The animation in the film is wonderful. Sadly, the story is quite mechanical, like, IMO, a lot of Disney movies are...but oh well. I'm probably going to get it.

EDIT: For the record, I don't think that Sher Kahn and Scar have similar personalities or voices.

While the animation in the movie was good I absolutely hate Disney's take on Kipling's story. I think I'll pass.

I ordered it today because the kids have never seen it. I normally find the musical numbers in Disney flicks unbearable (heh), but "Bare Necessities" is a great tune and well-animated as I remember it.

One of the many great things about Pixar is that they totally did away with the idea that you had to have musical numbers in any animated movie whose prime audience was children.

Well, kinda...

They did get there, but it took a few movies to do it. There were a couple of songs in Toy Story, and at least one that I recall in TS2.

They did do away with the "let's break into song" bit from the start though.

It is nice that the all singing, all dancing animated film is now an option rather than a requirement.

One of the many great things about Pixar is that they totally did away with the idea that you had to have musical numbers in any animated movie whose prime audience was children.

Or an animated movie whose prime audience is anyone (all age groups) !

A lot of the animation in Disney's "The Jungle Book" is good , so yes, I'll definitely add the DVD to my collection.

Although I always cringe a little when I read that it's a "specially restored version" because more often than not these days that just means the engineers pumped-up the color saturation and added DVNR , which is NOT what the original 35mm print looked like in the theaters. Unfortunately there are not a lot of people still around who worked on the original movie (art directors or color stylists) who could be consulted to get their take on whether or not the DVD version is accurate to the original colors of the film. There are a few people around with a good enough artistic eye and who are familiar enough with the original artwork who I would trust for that sort of job , such as Hans Bacher, but most of the time these "restored" versions go overboard with the color saturation and contrast .

This is kind of fun - a pencil test of a short scene of King Louis , animated by John Lounsbery :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9viFQO1YUM

Although I always cringe a little when I read that it's a "specially restored version" because more often than not these days that just means the engineers pumped-up the color saturation and added DVNR , which is NOT what the original 35mm print looked like in the theaters. Unfortunately there are not a lot of people still around who worked on the original movie (art directors or color stylists) who could be consulted to get their take on whether or not the DVD version is accurate to the original colors of the film. There are a few people around with a good enough artistic eye and who are familiar enough with the original artwork who I would trust for that sort of job , such as Hans Bacher, but most of the time these "restored" versions go overboard with the color saturation and contrast .

Hm, I dunno...I have the "Fully Restored" Bambi special edition, and colour-wise, the film looks brilliant. Maybe it wasn't THE original, but I thought the DVD looked absolutely fabulous. So, I wouldn't be that worried about The Jungle Book. Although, I'm no purist by any stretch of the imagination. Heck, I even do the all-blasphemous-thing and watch anime with an English dub. :p

I don't think that Sher Kahn and Scar have similar personalities or voices.

I agree. Jeremy Irons is great and all, but George Sanders has one of the greatest voices in filmdom. Check out All About Eve for one of his best performances.

One of the many great things about Pixar is that they totally did away with the idea that you had to have musical numbers in any animated movie whose prime audience was children.

While I do like the fact that it's no longer required, the studios seem to have killed off musicals entirely. I'd love to get a good solid big song-and-dance musical back on the screen one of these days.

Well, kinda...

They did get there, but it took a few movies to do it. There were a couple of songs in Toy Story, and at least one that I recall in TS2.

They did do away with the "let's break into song" bit from the start though.

It is nice that the all singing, all dancing animated film is now an option rather than a requirement.

Well, yes. I meant the characters breaking into song, stopping the action, etc.

My trepidation about the "newly remastered" version seems unfounded.
I got the new DVD today and what I've seen so far on it looks great !
Rich color and great sound .

I want a Platinum Edition "One Hundred And One Dalmatians" next !
(the last DVD release of Dalmatians was kind of washed-out looking and blah , and that movie is anything but "blah" )

Well, I bought the movie today...I thought it would be good for reference. Now that the movie's fresh on my mind....I must say.....

Brilliant animation. I absolutely loved the animation. Beautiful.

The story, however, sucked. All of the character of the movie came soley through the animation, art, and voice acting. But...the story felt stale. I felt nothing from it. :(

There really is no story per se in Jungle Book. A series of vignettes is more like it. However, the series of vignettes works better here than it does in Alice In Wonderland, for example.

But I might be biased - I saw Jungle Book in it's initial release when I was a wee lad, so it's one of my faves.

But I might be biased - I saw Jungle Book in it's initial release when I was a wee lad, so it's one of my faves.

That seems to be how the camps line up on JB : those who saw it as kids adore it , warts and all (hey, wouldn't that line work better for "Sword in the Stone"? ... never mind...), but those who saw it later on in life are a bit more critical.

I've been reading similar comments all over the animation blogs . Everyone admires the high level of the character animation , but those who first saw the film as adults tend to think less of it overall as a film , while those who fell under the spell of those wonderful characters in their youth feel like the film (and the characters) are dear old friends.

That seems to be how the camps line up on JB : those who saw it as kids adore it , warts and all (hey, wouldn't that line work better for "Sword in the Stone"? ... never mind...), but those who saw it later on in life are a bit more critical.

Sure, but isn't that true of practically any film? I've met people that absolutely adore "The Aristocats", and that's a far worse film from a critical standpoint than Jungle Book ever was. I guess we just like what we like.

Yes, that line would work better for "Sword In The Stone"... ;)

That seems to be how the camps line up on JB : those who saw it as kids adore it , warts and all (hey, wouldn't that line work better for "Sword in the Stone"? ... never mind...), but those who saw it later on in life are a bit more critical.

I've been reading similar comments all over the animation blogs . Everyone admires the high level of the character animation , but those who first saw the film as adults tend to think less of it overall as a film , while those who fell under the spell of those wonderful characters in their youth feel like the film (and the characters) are dear old friends.

Actually, I saw The Jungle Book as a young kid on video...so there WAS a bit of nostalgia factor involved.

But, if there's any Disney movie that I'm personally biased towards, it's The Many Adventures of Winnie-The-Pooh.
In my opinion, it's the best Disney movie that was released before Beauty and the Beast. Of course, I watched that movie over, and over, and over, and over again as a young kid. Plus I like it for the fact that it's one of the few Disney stories that actually sticks close to the original source material. That's a huge bonus in my books.

seeing Thomas' Baloo again made me realise myself what everyone has been talking about all this time: that the character animation in Jungle Book is some of the best stuff ever done in animation.

Twas cool noticing Baloo had this 'scratching' thing going on, that Thomas' must have noticed bear's do/like, and intertwined that with when human's get nervous/confused and scratch. And to be persistence with that trait throughout the movie, goes to show (amongst other examples) that there was a true understanding of character animation by those guys (specially when i heard Thomas & Johnston did about 1/2 of the of the stuff in the film - now that's alotta work!)

Sterling Holloway is the best thing in the picture.