 |
PICKS & PANS |
This week's reviews: 'Jungle Book 2,' 'Chappelle's Show'
(PEOPLE) -- This week PEOPLE.com looks at the film "The Jungle Book 2" and "Chappelle's Show" on Comedy Central.
Go to: Movies | TV
Movie review: 'The Jungle Book 2'
 |
Baloo bear-hugs Mowgli (right) and his siblings.
PEOPLE
|
•
PEOPLE.com:
Want more? Sign up for free e-mails 
|
|
Like its pint-size hero, "Jungle Book 2" is a small but lively package. It's no "Lion King," but there's not much else in theaters for the under-10 set right now, and this will keep them reasonably content on a Saturday afternoon.
The 72-minute sequel picks up near the end of the 1967 original, which was loosely based on Rudyard Kipling's stories about a boy raised by animals in a jungle in India. Mowgli (Haley Joel Osment), our youthful hero, is living with a warmhearted human family in a nearby village. But when he returns to the jungle to visit Baloo (John Goodman), his ursine mentor, his human family follows. There Mowgli must protect them, and himself, from a predatory tiger and other threats.
"Book 2" feels padded -- its predecessor's Oscar-nominated tune, "Bare Necessities," is reprised at least three times -- but the animation, combining hand-drawn and computerized, is sumptuous, and there's plenty of humor. Warning: Young tykes (and the timorous) may find the rapacious tiger way too scary.
Bottom line: Jungle fun
TV review: 'Chappelle's Show'
Comedy Central (Wednesdays, 10:30 p.m. ET)
In last month's debut of this sketch-comedy series, Dave Chappelle introduced a satire of white supremacists by calling it "probably the wildest thing I've ever done in my career." On the third show he set up a vulgar bit by saying it "made me actually want to spit up." We get it, Dave: This is edgy stuff.
Chappelle's humor ranges from scathing (a fictional reality show called "Zapped" that takes irresponsibility to new heights) to sub-sophomoric (a parody of "It's a Wonderful Life" in which a woman sees how the world would be different if she didn't have big breasts).
At its best, the show is outrageous and hilarious at once, as in the profile of a blind bigot who doesn't realize he's black. We're willing to tolerate some inconsistency if Chappelle can resist the temptation to congratulate himself on his controversial material.
Bottom line: Provocative but uneven
-- Terry Kelleher
