Jon Favreau's beautiful CGI update of Disney's animated classic keeps the songs and the fun, and adds real emotional weight

No offence to its only human cast member – red underpants are a timeless look – but the real star of Disney’s new adaptation of The Jungle Book is a computer-generated talking tiger.

Shere Khan, who’s voiced by Idris Elba, is a wholly computer-animated creation. But he’s realised in such extraordinarily hair-perfect detail, and moves with such persuasive physicality and weight, he might as well be the real, red-in-tooth-and-claw deal.

The spell even holds when he starts to speak, to the extent that you might find yourself wondering if a few years ago, the director, Jon Favreau, sat a real tiger down with a dialogue coach and a Luther box set, and it just worked out surprisingly well.