The Jungle Book (franchise) as Baloo, Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, Idris Elba as Shere Khan, Scarlett Johansson as Kaa, Lupita Nyong'o as Raksha, Giancarlo Esposito as Akela, and Christopher Walken as King Louie. The film was released on April 15, 2016 to critical acclaim. After a fierce tiger threatens his life, Mowgli, an orphan boy raised by wolves, leaves his jungle home and, guided by a stern panther and a free-spirited bear, sets out on a journey of self-discovery. Following the film's early financial and critical successes, the studio has begun work on a sequel film. Favreau is reported to return as director, while
The Jungle Book as both noble savage and embryo good citizen, to see that the "Jungle Books" .. give their readers a vicarious experience of adventure both as freedom and as service to a just State". Sayan Mukherjee, writing for the Book Review Circle, calls "The Jungle Book" "One of the most enjoyable books of my childhood and even in adulthood, highly informative as to the outlook of the British on their 'native population'." The academic Jopi Nyman argued in 2001 that the book formed part of the construction of "colonial English national identity" within Kipling's "imperial project". In Nyman's view, nation, race