[Lee Weber]



The Review at a Glance: (max score: 5 )

Film:

Extras:

Audio/Video total rating:

( Max score: 100 )
82





Studio and Year: Disney - 1967
MPAA Rating: G
Feature running time: 78 Minutes
Genre: Family, Animation

Disc Format: BD-50
Encoding: AVC (MPEG-4)
Video Aspect: 1.75:1
Resolution: 1080p/24


Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, French/Spanish/Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Starring: Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima
Directed by: Wolfgang Reitherman
Music by: George Brunsz
Written by: Rudyard Kipling
Region Code: A

Blu-ray Disc release Date: February 11, 2014
"The Jungle is JUMPIN'!"


Film Synopsis:


Bagheera the Panther and Baloo the Bear have a difficult time trying to convince a boy to leave the jungle for human civilization.



My Take:


Based on Rudyard Kipling's two book series of short stories, Disney's 1967 The Jungle Book, takes liberties with Kipling's original tales or morality by making it less dark and gives us a fun kids film full of iconic characters and great music. Not always considered on of Disney's top classics, I still find it as engaging, fun and full of memorable music as I did when i was a kid. It was real fun to introduce it to my children on Blu-ray and they have been asking to watch it again over and over.


For those unfamiliar, the story is of an orphaned boy named Mowgli who is found and raised in the wild by a pack of wolves. Years later the pack learns Shere Khan, a man-eating Bengal tiger is back and that Mowgli's life is in danger. They decide it is best for them to bring Mowgli back to where the "man village" and get him out of the jungle, much to Mowgli's disapproval. During the travels to the man village, they meet a bunch of charming, dangerous and fun character, including Baloo, a carefree and silly sloth bear, Bagheera, a black panther who is hell bent on getting Mowgli to saftey, King Louie, an orang-utan who desperately wants to be a human as well as Kaa, a python who also is also trying to get Mowgli but humorously keeps failing.

The Jungle Book features the voices of George Sanders, Louie Prima , Phil Harris and Sebastian Cabot, and music by the Sherman Brothers and one song left over from the original soundtrack that Walt considered too dark by Terry Gilkyson. The only song kept was Gilkyson's now iconic "The Bare Necessities". A sad bit of The Jungle Book trivia is that this was to be the last production Walt Disney himself was a part of as he died during its making. That alone makes it a classic worth the watch.


Parental Guide:

Family Friendly




AUDIO/VIDEO - By The Numbers:
REFERENCE = 92-100 / EXCELLENT = 83-91 / GOOD = 74-82 / AVERAGE = 65-73 / BELOW AVERAGE = under 65

**My audio/video ratings are based upon a comparative made against other high definition media/blu-ray disc.**


(Each rating is worth 4 points with a max of 5 per category)

Audio: 78

• 
  
• Dynamics:
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• Low frequency extension:
• 
  
• Surround Sound presentation:
• 
  
• Clarity/Detail:
• 
  
• Dialogue Reproduction:
  
  

Video: 86

• 
  
• Resolution/Clarity:
• 
  
• Black level/Shadow detail:
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• Color reproduction:
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• Fleshtones:
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• Compression:

The Jungle Book comes to Blu-ray disc from Disney featuring 1080p AVC encoded video that has an average bitrate of 24.2 mbps DTS-HD MA 7.1 lossless surround sound that has a average bitrate of 3.3 mbps.


The Jungle Book's video presentation looks super clean with spot on contrast, inky blacks and gorgeous colors. Where I found myself in a bit of a quandary was with the finer details. Things looked so polished and perfect it seemed like a some noise reduction might have taken it's toll on some possible definition. Not that there is an apparent look of lack of definition, I just felt though it might be a tad smoothed over. I looked for my DVD copy for comparison but having just moved I couldn't find it. It is definitely worth picking up, and looks great in HD. The Losless DTS-HD 7.1 track was also very nice, just not reference or something I would remember as stand-out. Thankfully the new 7.1 mix didn't over-kill the additional rear channels., low end was well rounded and robust, fidelity and dynamics were generally pleasing and the films iconic score and songs sounded great from the front channels with dialogue being delivered well front and center.


Bonus Features:

• 
  
• Audio Commentary
• 
  
• (HD) Choice Of Introductions: Introduction By Diane Disney Miller or Introduction By Richard M. Sherman
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• (HD) Alternate Ending
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• (HD) @DisneyAnimation: Sparking Creativity
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• (HD) MUSIC, MEMORIES & MOWGLI: A Conversation With Richard M. Sherman, Diane Disney Miller and Floyd Normanl
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• (HD) DISNEY INTERMISSION - Bear-E-Oke Hosted By Baloo:
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• (HD) I WANNA BE LIKE YOU - Hangin' Out At Disney's Animal Kingdom
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• (HD) Sing-Along With The Movie
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• (HD) The Bare Necessities: The Making Of The Jungle Book
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• (HD) Disney's Kipling
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• (HD) The Lure of 'The Jungle Book'
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• (HD) Mowgli's Return To The Wild
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• (HD) Frank & Ollie
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• (HD) "I Wanna Be Like You" Music Video Performed By Jonas Brothers
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• (HD) Disneypedia Junglemania!
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• (HD) Digital Copy
• 
  
• DVD Copy

Final Thoughts:

The Jungle Book was my favorite Disney animation movie when I was a kid, and it still holds up. It is still super fun with cool music, and it kept me as well as my kids entertained, singing along and smiling. Very good A/V and a plethora of supplemental material make this trip into the Disney archives well worth the splurge.

Lee Weber
AVS Forum Blu-ray Reviews



Reference Review System:



JVC DLA-RS4910 3D 1080p 3D High Definition Front Projector

Screen Innovations Gamma Maestro 4K 1.1 138" 2.35:1 Acoustically Transparent CinemaScope Screen

Da-Lite Pro Imager Projector Screen Masking System

Onkyo PR-SC5509 Pre/Pro

Sunfire Theater Grand 7201 Amplifier

Sony BDP-S790 Blu-ray Player (HDMI Audio/Video)

Triad Gold LCR's

Triad Silver Surrounds x4

Triad Bronze Subwoofers x4

Panamorph DC1 Anamorphic Lens

AudioQuest Wires


Panasonic TC-P65ZT60 3D 1080p Plasma

URC DMS-AV Receiver

Sony BDP-S790 Blu-ray Player (HDMI Audio/Video)

MKSound MP-7 LCR's

MKSound SUR-55T Surrounds

Triad Bronze Subwoofer

 

[Ralph Potts]

Greetings,


Thanks Lee..!

Regards,

 

[boguspomp]

I compared the new HD version with the old DVD. Film look is more or less gone. As mentioned on other websites as well, for the kids nowadays the animation has to look super clean or they wouldn't watch it. The picture for the HD version was cut off on top and bottom, but has some (maybe 5%) extra material on right and left. All in all not a bad job and definitely a keeper for many years to come.


Cheers


P.S.


Here are 2 screens from


first HD:




second SD:

 

[chirpie]



Quote:
Originally Posted by boguspomp  /t/1517618/the-jungle-book-blu-ray-official-avsforum-review/0_50#post_24352653


As mentioned on other websites as well, for the kids nowadays the animation has to look super clean or they wouldn't watch it.


Cheers

Which always seems an odd cop out from a producer considering most kids will watch the absolute worst quality clips on the smallest of devices without batting an eye. ^_^

 

[JWhip]

They really scrubbed out the film grain on this title. Too bad. The sound is quite nice though.

 

[ADU]



Quote:
Originally Posted by boguspomp  /t/1517618/the-jungle-book-blu-ray-official-avsforum-review#post_24352653


I compared the new HD version with the old DVD....

 

Thanks for posting those pics, bogus. Quite a difference!

 

This was also one of my favorites as a kid, and the most recent DVD was a little disappointing, so I'll be very curious to give this new HD version a look. Picked up my copy yesterday, and should have a few thoughts later today.

 

Very nice review, Lee.

 

[Lee Weber]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Potts  /t/1517618/the-jungle-book-blu-ray-official-avsforum-review/0_40#post_24352485


Greetings,


Thanks Lee..!

Regards,

You got Sir King Potts Esq.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ADU  /t/1517618/the-jungle-book-blu-ray-official-avsforum-review/0_40#post_24355700


Thanks for posting those pics, bogus. Quite a difference!


This was also one of my favorites as a kid, and the most recent DVD was a little disappointing, so I'll be very curious to give this new HD version a look. Picked up my copy yesterday, and should have a few thoughts later today.


Very nice review, Lee.

Thanks!

 

[ADU]


You're most welcome.

 

A few thoughts on this old animated classic...

 

THE GOOD...

Very nice color, contrast and sound for an older animated film. Most of the strange color anomalies in the previous 16:9 anamorphic DVD edition appear to have been fixed. And more background detail is visible.

THE NOT SO GOOD...

Moving film grain has been completely eradicated from the image. The detail is better than the previous 16:9 DVD, but still not where it should be imo (and probably not as dramatically different as bogus's DVD/BD screenshots above would seem to suggest). There's also some subtle haloing visible around the high contrast cel edges.

The lack of ultra-fine image detail will probably be especially noticeable on larger and 4K resolution screens, though it's also easily discernible on 50" or smaller 1080p displays at normal viewing distances. If you have a good sharpening routine on your display or player, you might want to crank that up a bit to try to bring out some more fine detail from the image.

Like the previous 16:9 DVD release, the original 4:3 "TV safe" aspect ratio of this film has been significantly cropped down in size to achieve the widescreen theatrical presentation ratio of 1.75, leaving only thin black bars on the sides of the image. I personally would've preferred it if the full 4:3 TV ratio had been left intact. The black bars on the sides would have been larger, but there would have been more image to enjoy on the top and bottom of the frame, and the detail probably would have looked better at the same viewing distance. OTAR purists could also have zoomed and cropped the image on their displays to the 1.75 theatrical ratio, if they wanted.

Some color details appear to drift slightly above reference white at times, so if your display or player is hard clipping the white levels at or near video white (Y'=235), you may notice some occasional clipping/crushing of the highlights (esp. in the skies), and might want to dial that back a bit.

Pause mode has effectively been disabled on this title, so you can't stop the image to get a really close look at it. (The Pause button takes you to a sing-along feature). Slow-motion still works though.

~~~

Everyone has their favorites, but imho this was one of Disney's better animated efforts (and one of the last where Walt was directly involved), with some great voice work, tunes and visuals. And this HD transfer is a noticeable, though not as significant as I would've hoped, upgrade from the previous 16:9 DVD release. As with other recent Disney Blu-ray releases, this will probably bring out a few "boo-birds", esp. to complain about the lack of detail and film grain. It's still a great little movie though that's worth checking out, esp. for fans of this old classic.

 

[boguspomp]

Pause mode has effectively been disabled on this title, so you can't stop the image to get a really close look at it. (The Pause button takes you to a sing-along feature). Slow-motion still works though.
I remuxed both movies with DVDfab so I was able to stop where ever I wanted for the stills. The DVD is the 2000 PAL 4:3 version. The picture quality difference is really that big.


cheers

 

[jdsmoooth]

I thought it was worth the DVD upgrade. This is the first movie I saw in a theatre with my dad. It was fun to spend some time watching it with my 3 year old last night. Great picture and excellent sound.

 

[JMCurtis]

Actually, if you go to the settings menu on the BD, you can disable the " Disney Intermission" feature and still/pause the movie normally.

 

[Bladerunner1959]

Bought it, loved it and love the bluray way more than the dvd. IMHO the bluray loses nothing to the dvd and it's only a win on all aspects.

 

[ADU]



Quote:
Originally Posted by boguspomp  /t/1517618/the-jungle-book-blu-ray-official-avsforum-review#post_24358922


The DVD is the 2000 PAL 4:3 version. The picture quality difference is really that big.


cheers

 

Fair enough. I think the PQ was a little better on the 2007 16:9 anamorphic DVD. The new 2014 Blu-ray edition is definitely a step up from it though.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bladerunner1959  /t/1517618/the-jungle-book-blu-ray-official-avsforum-review#post_24365535


IMHO the bluray loses nothing to the dvd and it's only a win on all aspects.

 

I'd agree with this, and didn't mean to give a different impression in my earlier comments. FWIW, the 16:9 DVD also appeared to be stripped of grain, just like the new Blu-ray. The Blu-ray has much better detail in the backgrounds though, and better color and picture quality generally than the 16:9 DVD.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by JMCurtis  /t/1517618/the-jungle-book-blu-ray-official-avsforum-review#post_24364041


Actually, if you go to the settings menu on the BD, you can disable the " Disney Intermission" feature and still/pause the movie normally.

 

Thanks for the tip. Tried it earlier today and it worked just as you said.

 

[sdowney717]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ADU  /t/1517618/the-jungle-book-blu-ray-official-avsforum-review#post_24357772


You're most welcome.

A few thoughts on this old animated classic...


THE GOOD...



Very nice color, contrast and sound for an older animated film. Most of the strange color anomalies in the previous 16:9 anamorphic DVD edition appear to have been fixed. And more background detail is visible.



THE NOT SO GOOD...



Moving film grain has been completely eradicated from the image. The detail is better than the previous 16:9 DVD, but still not where it should be imo (and probably not as dramatically different as bogus's DVD/BD screenshots above would seem to suggest). There's also some subtle haloing visible around the high contrast cel edges.



The lack of ultra-fine image detail will probably be especially noticeable on larger and 4K resolution screens, though it's also easily discernible on 50" or smaller 1080p displays at normal viewing distances. If you have a good sharpening routine on your display or player, you might want to crank that up a bit to try to bring out some more fine detail from the image.



Like the previous 16:9 DVD release, the original 4:3 "TV safe" aspect ratio of this film has been significantly cropped down in size to achieve the widescreen theatrical presentation ratio of 1.75, leaving only thin black bars on the sides of the image. I personally would've preferred it if the full 4:3 TV ratio had been left intact. The black bars on the sides would have been larger, but there would have been more image to enjoy on the top and bottom of the frame, and the detail probably would have looked better at the same viewing distance. OTAR purists could also have zoomed and cropped the image on their displays to the 1.75 theatrical ratio, if they wanted.



Some color details appear to drift slightly above reference white at times, so if your display or player is hard clipping the white levels at or near video white (Y'=235), you may notice some occasional clipping/crushing of the highlights (esp. in the skies), and might want to dial that back a bit.



Pause mode has effectively been disabled on this title, so you can't stop the image to get a really close look at it. (The Pause button takes you to a sing-along feature). Slow-motion still works though.
~~~



Everyone has their favorites, but imho this was one of Disney's better animated efforts (and one of the last where Walt was directly involved), with some great voice work, tunes and visuals. And this HD transfer is a noticeable, though not as significant as I would've hoped, upgrade from the previous 16:9 DVD release. As with other recent Disney Blu-ray releases, this will probably bring out a few "boo-birds", esp. to complain about the lack of detail and film grain. It's still a great little movie though that's worth checking out, esp. for fans of this old classic.

They keep making the view window narrower, more and more of a slit window, like looking through a horizontal slit. I hate it too.

The data is there top and bottom and they crop it away. They do this more and more, you get a widescreen HDTV and they crop it more and more narrow.

People should walk around with slit glasses if they like this effect so much.