During the big D23 live-action movie panel, Disney previewed quite a few upcoming live-action films. Surprisingly enough though, the Disney film that made the biggest impression was the live-action The Jungle Book adaptation that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention up until now. During the panel, director Jon Favreau, Ben Kinglsey (Bagheera), Lupita Nyong’o (Raksha), and Neel Sethi (Mowgli) took the stage to present some exclusive footage of the film. After the panel, Disney also released a first teaser poster for the film, that debuted during the panel, online which can be found below.
Even though the film is categorized by Disney as a live-action film, most of the film will be computer animated. In fact, the entire film, which is set in India, was shot on a soundstage in Los Angeles. Some practical sets were built for the movie, but most of the film, including most of the characters, are computer animated with an exception of Mowgli. Some of the actors have done motion-capture to bring their animals alter egos to life and even Sethi, who plays Mowgli, has done some motion-capture work to bring the film’s visuals to a completely different level than we’ve ever seen before.
During the panel, a sizzle reel for the film was shown featuring some never-before-seen footage. It has not yet been released online to the general public, but it was already very well received by the attending audience of Disney fans. The sizzle reel got a standing ovation, and a lot of positive words about it can be found online. The sizzle reel featured some iconic scenes from the 1967 animated classic including Bill Murray’s Baloo who hums The Bare Necessities and a first look at Shere Khan (Idris Elba) and King Louie (Christopher Walken).
Disney’s The Jungle Book opens in theaters on April 15, 2016.
Edited by: Kelly Conley
