After a delightful opening, in which jungle boy Mowgli (voiced by Haley Joel Osment) recaps much of the original Jungle Book in a sprightly shadow puppet show, The Jungle Book 2 swiftly turns into a carbon copy of the splendidly swinging previous movie. After his old pal Baloo the bear (voiced by John Goodman) draws Mowgli away from the man-village, with all its work and rules, and back into the glorious indolence of the jungle, the movie repeats--in a less energetic form--an encounter with Kaa the snake, the cockney vultures, a musical number at the monkey's palace, the menace of Shere Khan the tiger, and even the song "The Bare Necessities." The only difference is that there's a girl named Shanti along for the ride; sadly, her character is so bland that it doesn't do much to justify the movie's existence. --Bret Fetzer