Accidentally landed a free screening today, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Like people earlier in the thread, I didn't realize everything was CGI. Heck, other than the mouth movements, I couldn't tell some of the time if the animals were real or not (as a side note, I think this movie proves that a live-action ElfQuest movie is totally possible). I also went into this completely cold.
I believe that the story is closer to the book? I certainly enjoyed it more than the cartoon.
I was curious as to if they'd include the songs or not. When Baloo first started humming, I thought it was a great homage. And I didn't mind when he started singing, since it fit his characterization. I could've done without the duet, but it still worked. Louie's song, on the other hand, I hated. It felt out of character for him (he was being built up as a mafia type, then suddenly we get southern swing out of nowhere?), and the sequence didn't work for me at all. I think they should have done what they did with Kaa's song, and relegated it only to the ending credits (btw, did anything else come after that in the credits? We hadn't been planning on going to a movie, so we didn't have time to stay for the whole credits).
I did enjoy Johansson's portrayal of Kaa. I don't know if it was because she voiced her so similarly to Romanov or not, but the seductiveness definitely came across, and I loved it. I also liked that it didn't end the way the cartoon did, with him going to the village. Partially because it allows for sequels more, but also because, after his experiences and what happened, he's now welcomed more into the jungle community, and a bit wary of the man village, it just seems more natural that he'd stay (at least for now).
If I had to pick one thing that bothered me (other than Louie's song), it was that the wolves didn't have music. Maybe it's just because I'm an ElfQuest fan, but wolfsong is beautiful, and for them to completely ignore that made me mad.
