Jungle Book -
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi To The Rescue

This just released DVD is a new telling of the Jungle Book story, from the point of view of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, the Mongoose.  The story is told using slick CGI animation and modern attitudes of tolerance towards others who may be different, teamwork and friendship.

The film includes all your favourite characters from the book – Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo and of course Shere-Khan the tiger.  In this new feature length film, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi has style, attitude and humour.  Not only does he happen to the best snake fighter in the world, he can also translate from man into animal language for Mowgli. Rikki-Tikki joins Mowgli and his friends to fight the ferocious Shere-Kahn and foil his plot to drive the people of Mowgli’s village away.

We showed the film to a panel of children aged between 4 and 9 who had all seen the Disney version of the film.  Indeed some of them said that it was much better than the earlier film. They would all recommend it to their friends, and felt that it was good for their age group. All thought it was quite funny, funnier than the Disney film. There are far fewer songs, too, and although one child said “oh no not this song again” when one song was reprised, all of them said they liked the music.

To the adult eye it lacks some of the subtle charm and humour of Disney’s 1967 classic, but the response from the young viewers was a unanimous “can we watch it again?!”

Jungle Book - Rikki-Tikki-Tavi To The Rescue is available at Amazon.co.uk, Play.com, Woolworths and Amazon.com

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