Actor Ben Kingsley, who voices Bagheera in the new adaptation, says the film is a ‘wonderful allegory for life’.
The Jungle Book is a live-action remake featuring Idris Elba, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.
Sir Ben Kingsley said: “The parents and the predators are at odds against one another to protect the child, which is a wonderful allegory for life really.
“You really have a child in a jungle looked after and preyed upon by real animals and it’s really beautiful.”
The director Jon Favreau ‘has taken on the mantel of the proper story teller’, he added.
Kingsley said: “His tale for children does involve gently introducing children to the darker side of life – but from a very safe place.
“Good children’s movies are very much centred round getting that child into the real world.”
Kingsley added that he founded recording the voice for Bagheera to be ‘very free’.
He said: “You’re allowed to transcend certain limits you have otherwise.”
Neel Sethi, who is just 12 years old, landed the role of Mowgli in his first ever audition for a film.
He said: “[It is the] first film I’ve ever done, first audition ever – I never thought of acting.
“My dance teacher said I’d be very good for it so I tried it out and they really liked me, and we started filming two weeks later.
Sethi added that his favourite character is Shere Khan, voiced by Idris Elba, because ‘no one wants to mess with him’.
He wasn’t scared by the darker version of the story, but the advanced technology was a surprise: “I feel like if you can watch the trailer and you don’t get that scared, then you can watch this movie.
“What I was seeing wasn’t finished at all and so when I first saw it, I was like ‘oh my god’.
“There’s this one second where Bagheera just looks up and it just looks so real.”
