'Revenant' for kids: Honest Trailers praises 'Jungle Book' remake
Honest Trailers takes a critical look at the movie's lush CGI moments, deep plot points and celebrity voiceovers.
It's hard not to be impressed by Disney's CGI makeover of Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book."
Leave it to Honest Trailers, a YouTube series from Screen Junkies that features a classic movie-trailer voiceover but with a narrator who makes fun of films, to lay down blunt opinions about the 2016 film.
In a video posted Tuesday, Honest Trailers points out that Disney seems obsessed in its latest mission to reboot all its animated classics into live-action movies. However, the usual mocking tone from Honest Trailers gives way to actual compliments about the film's stunning visuals.
"This movie is way better than it deserved to be," the Honest Trailers narrator says in the video. "They're giving a new twist to an old classic. This one has a plot. Follow along on a young man's search for acceptance in this winning combination of 'The Lion King,' a Ben Kingsley nature documentary and a kid-friendly version of 'The Revenant.'"
Don't worry, it wasn't all hugs and high-fives in the video's commentary. Honest Trailers also condemns the hiring of well-known actors such as Christopher Walken, Scarlett Johannson, Idris Elba and Bill Murray to voice animals in director Jon Favreau's latest film.
"Enter a whole new world of Hollywood A-listers pretending to be animals who act just like those same Hollywood A-listers," the Honest Trailers narrator says.
Ouch.