It's been just five years since Disney's live-action
The Jungle Book made nearly $1 billion, but the origin story of Rudyard Kipling's beloved tale hails from much further back in time. The animated film on which Jon Favreau's remake is based is of course much older, having been released in October 1967. And, the book on which that film is loosely based was published in 1894, at a time when tales of children living peacefully with animals seemed a little less unreal.
It's a story, or collection of stories, about abandonment and found family, and it tickles the parts of our minds that are still connected in some ways to the wild world from whence we sprang in times not remembered. The story questions whether we're really so far removed from the wild and if it's possible — through intent or accident — to go back there.