Big, lovable bear Bill Murray to play big, lovable bear in Disney’s The Jungle Book

By Sam Barsanti | August 2, 2014 | 6:04pm

Aux Features Film

The problem with Disney’s The Jungle Book is that it makes being an orphan living in the jungle seem like too much fun. Who would want to go back to the world of man—with all of its freedom-killing laws and pants—when you can hang out with a bunch of singing animals that all speak English? Of course, some people out there might be too attached to their iPads and their Star Wars movies to give it all up and live in the woods, but what if your best friend could be a giant cuddly bear voiced by Bill Murray?

That’s the question now being posed by Disney’s new Jungle Book movie, which—according to The Hollywood Reporter—will feature Bill Murray as the voice of Baloo the bear. Murray is joining the recently announced Christopher Walken and Giancarlo Esposito, as well as Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson, Lupita Nyong’o, Idris Elba, and some kid who isn’t as famous as all of those people. A group of wild animals might not seem like they’d be able to raise a kid as well as his real parents would, but when the group of animals is as star-studded as that, we think the kid is probably better off.