FORGET Disney's 1967 film. That movie "disnae" apply here, because Birmingham Stage Company's production revels in a new adaptation by Stuart Paterson with ebullient new compositions by BB Cooper.

The company's stock-in-trade is a well told children's tale, and The Jungle Book wraps itself around you like Kaa the snake.

Kipling's book is 110 years old, but its story of man cub Mowgli struggling for acceptance in a different world and being rejected everywhere he goes will strike a chord with any child who has moved home, country, school or playgroup.

Graeme Messer's beguiling show doesn't cushion the blows. Mowgli the baby is first seen in a dark Indian jungle of howling wolf calls, with the glowering, prowling tiger Shere Khan (Mark Carlisle) licking his lips at his man cub-sized supper.

It was too much for a little lad in the row in front, who asked his mum to take him home, but Birmingham Stage Company judges the blend of fear, wonderment, danger and discovery with seasoned skill, and children's laughter is assured by a series of blown raspberries and burps, bouts of slapstick and regular invitations for crowd participation in pantomime tradition.

As chance would have it, Mowgli has a Yorkshire accent (professional theatre debutant John Cockerill is from Leeds), and so he is taken even more to the heart of the young audience. With his mop of curls and monkey gait, Cockerill delights all with his sense of fun and adventure, his curiosity and his big, open heart. His reunion scene with his mother (Deni Francis) is particularly moving.

Around him the jungle world is played out with superb animal movement, schooled by Peter Elliott, who worked on the film Gorillas In The Mist. Tony Jayawardena's big, dim, lovable bear Baloo and Alex de Marcus's muscular Bagheera walk the walk and talk the talk; the monkeys provide amusing scene changes and Mary Betts's alluring eyes and snake movements match those of Kaa with the assistance of fellow stick puppeteer Guy Mott.

De Marcus's bragging Buldeo and Mowgli's fight with Shere Khan make for an exceedingly good second half in Kipling country.

The Jungle Book, Birmingham Stage Company, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday. Box office: 0870 606 3590

Updated: 10:20 Wednesday, July 20, 2005