I loved this film - like you, I thought that Neel Sethi's acting was outstanding, and I also appreciated the greater range of animals and the greater visibility of the wolves. And I thought that it caught the ambivalence of humanity (something that comes out in the original stories) very well - creative and clever, but destructive also.

The thing I did not like was the Gigantopithecus king ape. I do appreciate that orang utans do not live in India, so the King Louie I loved in the original cartoon is a non-starter - but to imagine a solitary example of an extinct species still surviving just felt wrong. And when he started chasing Mowgli round the temple it all got a bit too King Kong! Why not make the bandar log the leaderless rabble they are in the original stories, where they contrast with the ordered, community-oriented wolf pack? And it was interesting also that Kaa was the hypnotic villain(ess) of the cartoon also, rather than the more ambivalent ally of the stories. I would love to have seen a positive portrayal of a snake!

But that aside, yes, a great film.