The Jungle Book is an epic adventure about Mowgli, a man-cub who's been raised by a
family of wolves. In dry season, the animals come together by the Peace Rock to form a
truce and drink water from there. During the "water truce", Shere Khan the tiger warns
the wolf pack that as soon as the truce is over he will return to kill Mowgli and punish
them. Mowgli then decides to spare everyone by leaving the jungle and go to the man
village where he belongs. Along the way, Mowgli learns valuable life lessons as his
journey of self-discovery leads to fun and adventure.
The movie was refreshing and I felt like a child again. It reminds me a lot of Tarzan, an
American animated adventure film about a man raised by gorillas. Movies produced by
Walt Disney usually portray a lot of moral values mostly for the children as their target
audience so I expected to learn some life lessons from it. From the start of the movie, I
saw how the pack of wolves treats Mowgli as their own. I remembered Raksha tells
Mowgli lovingly, "Never forget this: You are mine. … No matter where you go or what
they call you, you will always be my son." They cared, guided, and protected Mowgli,
never thinking that he came from different species. In the same way, despite our flaws,
desires and aspirations, our parents always support us whatever our choices in life will
be. Another lesson from the movie is learning to let go of something or someone. In the
case of Mowgli, Raksha chooses to let him move on in life where he will be safe.
Sometimes, parents are being over-protective with their children not realizing that it is
already suffocating them. We cannot blame some parents to guide their child of what
they think is the right path but giving them freedom to do the things they want might
actually be the best for them. Lastly, go out of your comfort zone. Mowgli didn’t want to
go to the man village because he hasn’t seen it or knew what it was like. Sometimes we
are scared try new things. This leads us to not fully understanding of ourselves and not
growing up. Through trial and error of experiencing new things, we discover our
strengths, weaknesses and what we can improve. Trying something new takes
confidence and the more we try new things, the more our confidence grows. We also
get to meet new people and make new friends.
All in all, it was a great movie and it reminded me to appreciate friends and family, have
confidence, facing your fears and to try new things.