It’s the bare necessities…

Disney fans rejoice! Jon Favreau (Iron Man) brings his live action take on The Jungle Book to the big screen in just a mere few months, and a gorgeous new poster has arrived along with the latest trailer which debuted at the Super Bowl.

Up until this point it’s been kept under wraps as to just how the film would tackle the approach to Baloo the bear (Bill Murray) and the gang talking (and potentially singing). It’s a grittier, more action orientated version of the Jungle Book tale, with the animals given a largely realistic design, not entirely different to the approach taken to Caesar in the modern Planet of the Apes movies; with some spectacular looking CGI having brought the animal characters to life. But we’re not going to be getting the guttural grunt of Caesar’s speech in the Apes films. Instead it’s an odd blend between realist design, informed by animal movement and behaviour, and the fantastical. Like a more sophisticated Babe (1995). Here’s how Favreau explained it:

“We used behavior & mouth movements of real animals, not humans. Anim(ation) reference was drawn from performances and mocap of actors.”

So how does it look on the big screen? Not silly, which is the main thing. Whether it will look silly once the animals burst into song (that’s if they do so) remains to be seen. What is for certain is that the film sure is looking pretty!

The Jungle Book stars Bill Murray as Baloo, Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, Idris Elba as Shere Khan, Scarlett Johansson as Kaa, Christopher Walken as the one and only King Louie, and it will be swinging into a cinema near you on April 15th, 2016.