The Jungle Bunch (film)
The Jungle Bunch is a 2017 French computer-animated comedy-adventure film directed by David Alaux. Based on the animated series The Jungle Bunch, the film was released in Italy on September 27, 2017 and was poorly received in the UK.
| The Jungle Bunch | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | David Alaux |
| Produced by | Jean-François Tosti Bernard Birebent François Cadene |
| Written by |
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| Starring |
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| Music by | Olivier Cussac |
| Edited by | Jean-Christian Tassy |
Production company |
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| Distributed by | SND Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French English |
| Budget | €7 million[1] |
Plot
An iceberg with an egg appears on the banks of the Jungle. Meanwhile, The Champs, consisting of the big guerror bengal tigress Natacha, an hippie three-toed sloth named Tony, an neurotic javan rhinoceros named Goliath and the crested porcupine Ricky, are engaged in saving all the inhabitants the Jungle, mainly due to the evil deeds of an koala named Igor. During the next chase, Igor almost managed to escape from the island in a small boat, but he collides with the iceberg, preventing the koala from leaving the shore. Igor tries to break the egg (delivered by the iceberg), but is defeated by The Champs.
As Natacha sends to Igor to the Island of the Lost, an small desert island where evil animals are exiled, he tells her that he left in the Jungle exploding mushrooms, which are already starting to explode at that moment. Natacha immediately hurries back to shore to save the rest of the inhabitants. During the ensuing fire in the Jungle, Ricky, for the sake of saving the rest, sacrifices himself, while throwing the egg to safety.
Natacha believes that the activities of The Champs led to the death of Ricky, and together with Goliath and Tony abolishes the team. Goliath, who considered himself unnecessary after the collapse of the team, leaves. Soon, an baby penguin hatches from the egg Ricky threw, whom Natacha calls Maurice and raises as her son. When Maurice grows up, he feels the desire to follow in the footsteps of his mother, against her will, and save all inhabitants of those who are in danger from other Evil animals. Maurice says goodbye to his mother, and sets out on his journey. In parallel scenes of Maurice growing, Igor has the seed of a tree with him, and nurtures its growth, and at the same time acquiring a lieutenant – Surimi the coconut crab.
Years later, the Jungle Bunch is busy rescuing elephants who were forced to serve the olive baboons under their threat to destroy the sacred totem. The team successfully coped with this mission. In the meantime, Igor finally waited for the tree to grow, and he, along with Surimi, went to the Island of the Lost.
Soon, the Jungle Bunch notices a burning tree and they arrive there, where they meet Igor, who lured them into a trap and learns from them that Maurice is Natacha's son. Igor talks about his plans to destroy them, and then The Champs, and then he leaves, leaving the Jungle Bunch to wait for them to die from the explosion of his mushrooms. The team managed to escape from the explosion due to Miguel's powerful sneeze, after which they head to Natacha.
Igor takes the mandrills under his army, who because of the Jungle Bunch can not engage in banditry. Igor developed the idea of undermining the cave, so that the Jungle will collapse and be flooded.
When the Jungle Bunch arrived at Natacha's home, she is pleased to meet her son Maurice and his grandson Junior, but soon learns from Maurice about the return of Igor and tells his son the story about the koala. Igor had wanted to join The Champs as their leader, but the others thought that he was no. Natacha decided to find Goliath with Tony and revive The Champs, while not wanting to involve Maurice and his Jungle Bunch in their affairs.
The next day, The Champs decided to interfere with Igor's plans, while cutting off the road to the Jungle Bunch, destroying the bridge. When The Champs find Igor, he, in turn, led them into his trap, but the team almost managed to defeat Igor. Maurice decided to help The Champs by catapulting himself and his son, but his intervention led to Igor escaping, and he took Junior with him as a hostage. Natacha shows Maurice that, through his fault, Igor escaped and kidnapped his son, and asks the "Jungle Bunch" not to intervene. Maurice himself was disappointed and removed from his own team. As a storm began to rage, Maurice's stripes were gradually washed off. The Champs reached Igor's lair, but they were ambushed and were captured by Igor.
Maurice soon finds himself near the pond and sees the memories where he leaves his home and finds an egg, from which a small fish hatched and he sheltered him, making him his son. At that time, Junior escapes from captivity and arrives at the pond where Maurice is still. Maurice is glad of the return of his son and finds out that The Champs are in captivity and many animals were enslaved, forced to grow mushroom-bombs for Igor. Maurice restores yellow stripes on his body and makes a new aquarium for Junior, since his son's main aquarium was still in Igor's lair.
Maurice and Junior return to the Jungle Bunch, which they wanted to save The Champs without Maurice's help, and with them, they penetrate inside the lair of Igor under the disguise of three mandrills. The heroes release The Champs and together they fight the baboons. Shortly after the defeat of the baboons, Igor activates the bombs and disappears. Maurice instructs The Champs to evacuate the inhabitants of the jungle, and he and the Jungle Bunch go to prevent the mushrooms from exploding.
After riding a minecart down to the main mushroom bomb, Gilbert suggests that they should knock down some bombs, in order to stop the giant mushroom bomb. Maurice succeeds, but he nearly relights the bombs when his belt lights on fire. Fortunately, Junior hops out of his aquarium and extinguishes the fire.
Having managed to save the jungle, The Champs and the Jungle Bunch again face Igor, who declares that he will never stop, but Maurice catapults Junior, who in turn overloads the ammunition, causing the koala's jetpack to malfunction. Soon, The Champs decided to retire, while the Jungle Bunch would continue their heroism.
Later in the post-credits scene it has revealed that Igor is still alive so he was thrown back on the Island Of The Lost in which he and Surimi was imprisoned for years on the beginning of the film. After the final credits, Igor found another seed on the island, but this time the an seagull seizes it, meaning that he is stuck on the island forever, & the movie with he screaming for food.
Cast
- Philippe Bozo as Maurice
- Laurent Morteau as Gilbert
- Pascal Casanova as Miguel
- Céline Monsarrat as Batricia
- Emmanuel Curtil as Al
- Paul Borne as Bob
- Maïk Darah as Natasha
- Frantz Confiac as Tony
- Alain Dorval as Goliath
- Richard Darbois as Igor
Release
The film was released in France on July 26, 2017. In the UK and US, it was released on September 15, 2017. It was released in Australia on January 25, 2018.
Sequel
A sequel to The Jungle Bunch is scheduled for release in 2023, with David Alaux, Éric Tosti, and Jean-François Tosti returning to write the film.[2]
Critical response
In the US, the film was a failure among critics. The rating of the picture on the authoritative site Rotten Tomatoes is 35%, based on 20 reviews with an average rating of 4.8 out of 10.[3] The estimation of viewers on the IMDB site is 5.0 out of 10, but sometimes the rating changes to 4.9 or 5.1.[4] On the Metacritic website, the film received an estimate of 38 out of 100 based on 4 reviews.[5]
References
- Lola Canales (23 February 2017). "J-F.Tosti (sic) : " Avec le film Les As de la Jungle qui va sortir, nous avons franchi un cap "". La Dépêche du Midi (in French). Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- "Les As de la Jungle 2 - le film". TAT productions. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
- The Jungle Bunch: Rotten Tomatoes
- The Jungle Bunch: IMDB
- The Jungle Bunch: Metacritic