Jungle Boy (1998) Online

In the tradition of "Babe" meets "The Jungle Book", this movie is about a boy raised by the wild animals of India. As the boy becomes a young man, he is discovered by the visiting daughter of an anthropologist. It's a tale of their friendship with some action. The humor is a bit corny, but all in all it's pretty good.

I saw Jungle Boy by chance, and also that I am a sucker for adventure-fantasy movies. But I found it an awful movie with few if any redeeming qualities. The scenery lacks lushness, while the effects are slapdash and lack finesse. At best the soundtrack is forgettable, at worst it's generic and not very original-sounding. The script is very cheesy, all the humorous parts fall flat due to over-the-top delivery or that the writing is just plain bad. The story is predictable, unexciting and also quite rushed as well. It is also unoriginal, having a mix of The Jungle Book, George of the Jungle and Tarzan, except never once on the level of those entertaining stories, having no real energy or fun. You don't care an ounce for the characters, you've seen them all before and in more likable fashion. The acting is terrible, the lead is uncharismatic and the animals are annoying rather than colourful or interesting.

Overall, an awful movie and not recommended. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Archaeologist John Geller narrates this tale, telling us there have been many tales of its type told, except this one is true! (Suuure it is.) During a celebration of the jungle spirit Dava, in what is supposedly India even though the area is still ruled by a king, a boy named Suresh disappears into the forest. His mother wants to search for him but is told it is too dangerous. Suresh is rescued from Sabre the leopard by the elephant Bono and the monkey Mantoo, and like Dr. Dolittle, he is given the ability to communicate with the animals. He is named "Manling" and raised by the forest creatures.

As an adult, Manling (now called Krishna) must battle Sabre, but when he defeats Sabre in a manner that violates the rules, he is told to go out on his own. Geller and his pretty niece Anna find him and take him in, teaching him English and how to be human. He learns fast because he knew human ways at one time.

Geller is looking for a treasure found in the forbidden forest, but so is Rajah Singh, who claims the treasure belongs to his family and hires John Hook to find it. Hook will use any means necessary, even killing, to make sure he gets not only the treasure, but also his share of the money from finding it.

Anna and Krishna seem to like each other, so there is the potential for romance here. But there is also plenty of action and getting killed is certainly a possibility.

No one will ever accuse this movie of being an Oscar contender, except possibly for the visual effects. But it's a pleasant enough family film with talking animals and silly humans.

I would question the G rating, however, given some of the violence. With the font that was used for the V-chip rating when I saw it, movies given a plain-vanilla TV-PG rating often have content that would have demanded more on network TV. And when a V or other content indicator is used with this font, I can tell you it's bad. So whoever uses this font is being conservative, and you can only know that the film is family-friendly but not necessarily for younger kids.

It's nothing spectacular like the similar "Jungle Book" movies, but it's worth seeing.