Every Modern Disney Live Action Remake (So Far) Ranked
1. The Jungle Book (2016)
With how perfectly Favreau captured the magic of CG animals in The Jungle Book, it's a wonder how Lion King's animal characters didn't have the emotional capacity and presence that this film's did.
The Jungle Book is a remarkable mix of great elements in a Disney adaptation, with a plot close to the original cartoon while adding details that make the story feel much more serious and the stakes feel much higher.
It's action-packed, emotionally charged, visually stunning, and the plot feels more like an adult fantasy prestige series than a Disney children's cartoon. There's very real menace and intriguing motivation from Idris Elba's Shere Khan, and the film takes itself seriously in a way that really works, without losing the whimsy of a child raised by talking animals, or the songs that, while they didn't completely mesh like other musical films, didn't feel entirely out of place, either.
The voice acting is memorable, and the CGI animals emote fantastically well without feeling too cartoonish. The film goes to dark places while retaining its solid emotional core, and it's one of Disney's most solid blockbusters not of their lucrative Marvel universe to date - surprisingly improving upon its original.