The Jungle Book movie is set to be released next year on 15 April. We all wonder what the movie is going to be like. Well, "˜The Jungle Book' Trailer released on 15 September gave us a glimpse inside Mowgli's captivating journey into the jungle.
"˜The Jungle Book' Trailer is indeed exciting and if the movie is as good as the trailer, you might want to save yourself a seat for this movie's premiere.
Directed by Jon Favreau, and starring names that will surely ring a bell, The Jungle Book upcoming movie promises a lot.
The story and the casting
Here are some details about movie's storyline and cast.
The story is the same: young Mowgli, a man-cub raised by wolves, tries to make his way through the jungle while facing the threats of Shere Khan, a fearsome lion. Having been hurt by Man in the past, Shere Khan decided that Mowgli is not welcomed in the jungle.
Being forced to leave his home, Mowgli's life in the jungle becomes a challenging adventure, a story about friendship and overcoming obstacles. Although he is not wanted in the jungle, Mowgli finds friends that will stand by him all along. Bagheera, the panther that is guiding Mowgli and Baloo, the bear that brings joy will support his adventurous journey of self-discovery.
The casting is quite rich in talented actors that will give voice to the animals: Scarlett Johansson(voice of Kaa the python), Bill Murray (voice of Baloo the bear), Ben Kingsley (voice of Bagheera the panther), Christopher Walken (voice of King Louie) and in the role of Mowgli we see Neel Sethi. Neel Sethi is just ten years old and as we can see from the trailer, he is indeed talented.
On the next page, we find more about the trailer and details from the director of the movie.
Disney released the trailer on 15 September 2015
The trailer opens up with snippets picturing the jungle and Mowgli being distracted by the voice of Kaa the python (Scarlett Johansson): "Are you lonely here? What are you doing so deep in the jungle?"
We are immediately distracted ourselves by the blend of live action and photorealistic CGI. The trailer continues with the exciting voice of Kaa who is trying to lead Mowgli in the wrong direction, while creating for us a state of wonder and mystery.
In an interview for Yahoo Movies, Jon Favreau explains why he chose a female voice (which is very expressive and strong): "The original film was a little male-heavy so we changed the character of Kaa."
And he chose Scarlett Johansson to be the voice of Kaa because he thinks her voice is emotive. He would know that as he worked with her before.
The creator of Iron Man has revealed some more details about The Jungle Book Movie in this interview, and we will depict them on the following page.
The challenge of blending technology with a classic story
The trailer is very expansive and full of action. We can see in flashing images how Shere Khan comes back into the jungle, the little baby being discovered by Bagheera, an army of elephants and monkey minions. In the background, the deceiving voice of Kaa brings a little more tension to the action.
Jon Favreau declared that it was very challenging to put the story of Rudyard Kipling in a brand new adaptation:
"People expect action from this adventure. The original film felt so young. And the musical memories we have from that film [don't] fit tonally with a film that's photo-real, where there's real danger and emotional stakes. The storylines and the mythology behind Kipling's stories are very different from the animated film. Navigating those waters is one of my toughest jobs as the director." (via Yahoo Movies)
Go on the next page to find out more.
"We used techniques that haven't been used since Avatar, and we built upon those"¦"
The Avatar digital experience was interesting and applauded with three Oscars. It seems that The Jungle Book Movie has a lot of the technology used for Avatar, as the director revealed in the Yahoo Movies interview.
Avatar and The Jungle Book Movie have different storylines, but the technology is the same, if not, more advanced. Anyway, the soul of the original story as created by Kipling, is alive and Jon Favreau used his best skills to keep it so.
It's not easy to create the image of a boy on the belly of a bear, floating on a river as we have seen it in previous animated versions of The Jungle Book. Of course, it can seem easy, but not when the boy is actually an actor, not a digital creation.
For Favreau this is one of the iconic images in The Jungle Book Movie he likes most.
This was one of the many challenges faced by Favreau, to keep the most important parts of the original piece in harmony with his adaptation. In order for the scene to be filmed, the crew went to the point of studying polar bears.
Favreau wanted to keep the iconic images intact but he did not want to create a carbon - copy of the story. And he didn't, as there are some changes he revealed.
What else about bringing new elements to an old story? Go on the next page.
What is new and what else was revealed
With such technology, the animals in the movie do really look like the Indian fauna. And every little detail was taken seriously.
For example, the orangutan became a Gigantopithecus, an extinct great ape species. Why? As Favreau stated in the interview for Yahoo Movies: "because orangutans don't live in that part of the world." (Referring to Indian Fauna).
The creation of this movie was inspired by names such as James Cameron, George Lucas, and Peter Jackson. Nevertheless, Favreau mentioned the biggest influence, and that is of Walt Disney.
Wearing an Apple watch with Mickey Mouse face on it, the director of The Jungle Book Movie revealed for Yahoo Movies: "The more you can hold a mirror up to nature, the more the myths seem to sing out. What Walt's formula seemed to have been was to take the old stories, the old myths, and then use state-of-the-art technology to retell them."
The movie will be in cinemas in 3D and 2D as well, but Favreau hopes that people will go to see the 3D version as the whole movie was filmed in native 3D. We cannot miss such an experience!
