Jungle 2 Jungle's first half features mirrored fish-out-of-water tales. Allen's character visits the Amazon to officially divorce his ex and predictably fumbles through the natural world: getting attacked by piranas, burned by coals, scared by a tarantula, and missing important business deals due to lack of modern communication. When Allen brings his newly discovered son back to New York City, the boy also feels out of place. He walks on the ledges of skyscrapers, disturbs a party with his pet spider, kills a pet bird with his bow and arrow, and even climbs the Statue of Liberty. Unlike the jungle to Allen, however, the city to Mimi is nearly a playground, not a serious or dangerous place. He conquers New York's buildings, statues and parks and navigates its streets as if it were all completely natural.
Mimi's difficulty in New York City lies only in his inability to connect with his father. This forms the emotional core of the film. Unfortunately, Jungle 2 Jungle isn't willing to let this conflict stand on its own. When a filmmaker isn't confident that their story is engaging, they heighten the stakes, often to ridiculous extremes. Despite Jungle 2 Jungle's strong intercharacter conflict, which comes from a French film released a few years earlier, someone in production felt it necessary to interject an alternative point of tension to increase appeal. It's a strategy used by many 90's family films, from Car Pool to Man of the House. Here comes the mob.
Thankfully, the superfluous presence of Russian fishmarket mobsters in Jungle 2 Jungle is short-lived. Mimi tactfully squelches the threat using his jungle skills and the dynamic with his once-absent father comes back to the forefront. The parts of John Pasquin's film that stick to this formula are emotionally resonant. Jungle 2 Jungle is a moral tale of putting one's own desire for wealth, comfort, and status behind for more meaningful relationships. The noble and happy savage aspect of this theme is very dated, but it doesn't completely soil the emotional arc.
Jungle 2 Jungle is one of the last family films I can remember that tackles the negative qualities of greed and materialism. We see Allen as a character deluded by the excesses of capitalism who ignores much richer sources of familial love and native simplicity. This theme shows up in a lot of family Disney films from the era, including Blank Check, Richie Rich and Home Alone 2. Wealth was not portrayed as a neutral condition of life, and the accumulation of dollars had consequences for the protagonists and those they cared about. In modern family films, these themes seem rare as major filmmakers seem less inclined to criticize capital interests.
Jungle 2 Jungle is one of the last family films I can remember that tackles the negative qualities of greed and materialism. We see Allen as a character deluded by the excesses of capitalism who ignores much richer sources of familial love and native simplicity. This theme shows up in a lot of family Disney films from the era, including Blank Check, Richie Rich and Home Alone 2. Wealth was not portrayed as a neutral condition of life, and the accumulation of dollars had consequences for the protagonists and those they cared about. In modern family films, these themes seem rare as major filmmakers seem less inclined to criticize capital interests.
