Giving a wolf Peter Mullen’s face and all the other creatures of the jungle distinctive deformities doesn’t make your JUNGLE BOOK adaptation interesting. The mo-capped actors in MOWGLI don’t exactly have to stretch themselves; Bale can always fall back on Batman’s intense growl, Cumberbatch can become Smaug again to boom out threats and Blanchett can revive Galadriel to give the story a mythic quality. At least Serkis had the excuse for not coming up with s new voice of having to direct at the same time. It has the odd memorable image, like Mowgli underwater watching Shere Khan obliviously lap from the pool above him, or Kaa’s visions appearing in the scales of her body. I know Serkis and his crew didn’t have Disney money and they couldn’t help the House of Mouse’s version coming out first and far more prominently, but this looks retrograde, uncanny and indistinct in comparison, which is a huge shame. SSP