The Jungle Book-2016

Production-

• Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, directed and co-produced by Jon Favreau, written by Justin Marks.
• Partly based on Disney's original version but also drew more of  Kipling's original books- darker tone.
• Live action
• Largest part of what is seen on screen is CGI.
• Favreau wanted the film to be part homage to the classic Disney films
• All animals and landscapes were created on computers, mostly by the British digital effects house MPC.
• The animals were in a realistic look, but not in a cute, cuddly cartoon style.
• To target older movie goers, as they were the target audience for the original.
• Humour would have been too broad for live action.
• Disney were quite open to Favreau's new approach.
• In terms of structure and narrative they are completely different films.
• Went back to the structure of it and saw what Kipling did.
• Focuses on the images that you remember from the original.
• The snake was made into a female in the new film as there were only male characters in the original.
• Reinvented the snake character- Scarlet Johanson.
• Disney intro made on cells like the old film- deer from Bambi are in the opening scene.
• Cast based on modern day attitudes and audience, no racism- Christopher Walken plays the monkey, no black culture stereotypes.
• The animals didn't have any human characteristics such as brow movements to make it realistic.
• The animals started as skeletons and were then built around.
• The voice influenced the animation.
• The landscapes were based off of images from India.
• Lots more people worked on the film than the 1967 one.
• An actor who actually had a similar ethnicity was used for Mowgli compared to the original which used a white boy for the voice.
• Included some music from the original, and Richard Sherman-the original songwriter- also worked on the new film.
• Warner were also trying to make a version of the Jungle Book so it was like a competition. 

Ownership, marketing and distribution-

• Disney is the world leader of popular culture and animation.
• They take older films and re-present for new audiences.
• Planned by Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn, as part of a series of remakes of the classic films.
• Parents who love the original are likely to make their children like the new one.
• Because DVD sales are in decline, companies cannot just repackage and resell the films anymore.
• Silo-System: They release a small quantity of good quality films where as other companies are focused on quantity.
• Although Disney makes a lot of their own products, a lot of other companies helped with the production of the Jungle Book.
• Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
• Warner Brothers delayed the release of their version as they didn't want the Disney version to over-shadow it at the box office.
• Social media- released teasers and behind the scenes, kept up promotion.
• Digitally convergent- Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
• Snapchat filter, the Kaa the snake.
• Competitions- promotional opportunities.
• Produced in 3D and 2D.
• Released as a digital Download.
• Soundtrack album- Walt Disney Records.

Regulation-

The film is a little darker than the original, so in the UK is rated PG rather than U, for ‘mild threat’.

Sex & Nudity:

• Throughout the movie, the only thing the main character (young boy, Mowgli) wears is a loincloth.

Violence & Gore:

• There are scenes of fighting depicted between various animals in the film, where they are seen attacking and biting one another. Although these scenes are intense, they are depicted without any details of injury or bloodletting.
• Shere Khan viciously attacks, bites and throws a wolf off a cliff.
• A man tries to defend himself by shoving a flaming torch in Shere Khan's face, but Shere Khan pins him down and kills him (the killing is shown as a shadow).
• On several occasions Shere Khan tries to kill Mowgli. Many times, Mowgli's friends try to save him but Shere Khan attacks them, hits them and bites them. In one of his attempts to kill Mowgli, his claw tears across Mowgli's chest causing a wound and some bleeding.

Profanity:

• None.

Alcohol, Drugs and Smoking:

• Mowgli looks at a human village from a distance. Against a background of blazing flames, people seem to be celebrating something. There are drinks in their hands but nothing is clearly visible.

Frightening & Intense Scenes:

• The film contains several scenes where characters face threatening situations and/or engage in fighting. For instance, there are scenes where the protagonist is being pursued or cornered by animals such as a tiger or a giant gigantopithecus.
• Shere Khan is a menacing and frightening character, intent on killing Mowgli. His face is covered with burn scars, which are shown several times in close-up.
• There is a scene where Mowgli accidentally starts an inferno which engulfs a large part of the forest, threatening the lives of all the animals. This scene can be emotionally upsetting, though later the fire is extinguished by elephants.
• A wolf is killed by Shere Khan. When Mowgli learns of his death his grief is emotionally upsetting.
• Kaa, a giant snake, tries to swallow Mowgli by coiling around him and opening her mouth wide. This could be unsettling for people with fears of snakes, but he is saved.
• There are some jump scares when Shere Khan leaps into the frame. There is another jump scare. This time, it's from King Louie when he tries to find Mowgli.

Why do you think that Jon Favreau did not push for the U certificate? Why was it not deemed an issue?

Because the film was aimed at an older audience anyway so there was no need for the film to be pushed for a U.

Technology-

It took some time for Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn to convince Favreau to take the helm of an almost completely CG film.
Favreau- "It took over a year to get permission from Disney to use that. Usually, if you want to go to the archives, there are people with white gloves who will thumb through things for you. But to actually film it on our set was important. I wanted to start off with that because that’s how the ’67 film opened, but never closed. The opening starts off with the Disney logo, which was practically done with painted cells -- then we used the multi-plane technique. Again, we looked to Bambi for inspiration, transitioning to the waterfall and live-action CG looking environment."

JB16 is the result of cutting edge CGI – the animals were created digitally post-production and the one actor in the film (playing Mowgli) acted against a blue screen.

On the set, scenes for The Jungle Book were first filmed using motion capture. ‘We motion-captured the entire movie before we filmed anything and we cut the whole film together,’ says Favreau. Using that footage, the effects team then built the film’s sets virtually, a process known as pre-visualisation (previz).‘Everything was mapped against the virtual sets. We designed the sets like you would for a video game.’ 

The film's stunning visuals were inspired by the groundbreaking methods used on Gravity and Avatar. "They used very different techniques, and we used both," says Favreau. "[Avatar director] James Cameron came to visit, and he knew half the people on our set." They also took inspiration from Disney's own history: the film was storyboarded in pencil then refined by a story department, as on an animated film.

The film's production designers then recreated small sections of the set as required for each of Sethi's live-action shots using blue screens and props, while puppeteers or actors stood in for the animals. Even the lighting was meticulously planned, with LED panels programmed to create the particular shadows for passing elephants or buffalo.

Both the 1967 and 2016 versions worked in Technicolor.