Fairly tame! | Daily News
The Jungle Bunch

Fairly tame!

At first glance the theme of the movie feels quite familiar. The coming of age of the protagonist who beats the odds to emerge as the underdog has been a popular theme in many animated movies of recent times. However what keeps David Alaux’s ‘The Jungle Bunch’ apart from the rest is its odd combination of characters.

This unusual mixture of roles is probably the only interesting aspect in the film. The story focuses on Maurice, a penguin who has been raised by a fierce tigress, Natasha. Trying hard to follow his surrogate mother’s footsteps Maurice put together a team who call themselves The Jungle Bunch with the goal of maintaining the law and order of the jungle. Enter Igor, an evil koala, who intends to destroy the jungle. With his army of clumsy baboons and a crab for a sidekick, Igor develops some mushroom boms which will set the place ablaze. He captures Natasha and her comrade a rhinoceros named Goliath and holds them prisoners. Now it is up to Murice and his gang to save the day and out a stop to Igor and his plans.

The film is an adaptation from the popular kids TV series.

Though many animation characters capture the hearts of viewers for their visual cuteness this is not the case in Alaux’s production. Even the animated works annoy rather then allure the beholders as the characters seem overconfident in their actions when they make lame attempts at trying to become saviours of the jungle.

No doubt this storyline reminds animation film enthusiasts of works like ‘Madagascar’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda’.

The viewer’s sense of imagination is rather limited too because everything is cut and dried and handed out on a platter.

There is hardly any suspense in the manner that the story flows.

Slightly confusing, silly and lame, ‘The Jungle Bunch’ is best suited for tiny tots. However for the older and mature audience this will surely be a bore.

‘The Jungle Bunch’ is screening at Majestic Cineplex, Colombo. 


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