February 14, 2003| Consumer alert: The B-Teamers have struck again. The Jungle Book 2 is being sold as a sequel to Walt Disney Productions’ 1967 classic, the last animated feature personally supervised by Uncle Walt himself. But don’t be fooled by the brand-name pedigree emphasized in the ads. This is a product of Walt Disney Television Animation, the Triple-A farm club of the Mouse Factory.

In keeping with the not-so-grand tradition of Disney-spawned recyclings, Jungle Book 2 is a bland, by-the-numbers product aimed primarily at undiscriminating pre-schoolers who want to spend more time with familiar cartoon characters.

Mowgli (voiced by Haley Joel Osment), the plucky man-cub raised by wolves, now resides among humans in a small village. Trouble is, as Mowgli’s new stepfather notes, “You can take the boy out of the jungle, but you can’t take the jungle out of the boy.” Sure enough, Mowgli jumps at the first opportunity to be reunited with Baloo (John Goodman), his big bear buddy. Unfortunately, while he and Baloo frolic in the wilderness, Mowgli also confronts a not-so-welcome figure form his wild youth: Shere Khan (Tony Jay), a snooty tiger with a taste for man-cubs.

Jungle Book 2 is, to put it charitably, unremarkable. The animation is uninspired, the new tunes are tepid. There are no fewer than three reprises of “The Bare Necessities,” the popular Oscar-nominated song from the 1967 original. Perhaps the filmmakers figured they needed to find some way, any way, to stretch this wispy production to something approximating feature length.

More often than not, sequels such Jungle Book 2 are released direct to video, and snapped up by parents eager to placate tykes with short attention spans. Last year, however, Disney took the theatrical route with Return to Never Land, a generic follow-up to Peter Pan (1953), and scored respectable box-office returns. Now the studio is hoping lighting will strike twice – or, at the very least, that a theatrical run will boost eventual VHS and DVD sales.

In other words, the movie that opens today at your friendly neighborhood megaplex is a marketing ploy, not an animated entertainment. Consider yourself warned.