Yes, Disney's 2016 live-action 'The Jungle Book' is anthropomorphic
Posted by Fred Patten on Wed 16 Sep 2015 - 01:29 — Edited by GreenReaper as of Sat 19 Sep 2015 - 17:40
YouTube has the first teaser trailer of the Disney studio’s April 15, 2016 “live-action” (heavily VFX) adaptation of The Jungle Book, directed by Jon Favreau, and it’s definitely full of anthropomorphic animals. The voice actors include Bill Murray as Baloo, Scarlett Johansson as Kaa, Idris Elba as Shere Khan, Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, Lupita N'yongo as Raksha, and Christopher Walken as King Louie.
As you can see, it will be a mixture of Rudyard Kipling’s 1894-‘95 literary classic and Disney’s own 1967 animated classic. A lot of this was revealed at Disney’s D23 Expo in August, but now you can see it for yourself.
About the author
Fred Patten — read stories — contact (login required)a retired former librarian from North Hollywood, California, interested in general anthropomorphics
Comments
Boy, that's a voice cast! I was going to say every single one of the actors named in the trailer have at least been Oscar nominees, but then I realized Scarlett Johansson somehow still hasn't been nominated. Also, wow, that is some out of the box casting for Kaa! I like it! Also, I may not be remembering right, but wasn't Kaa actually a good guy in the stories?
Also, I have read that Bill Murray will sing a rendition of "The Bare Necessities," so that could be fun.
Does anybody else remember the 90s live action, non-anthropomorphic version? I think it was directed by the guy who did the first two Mummy movies. I mean the more recent ones. Hollywood and remakes, huh?
At first I saw the still of Bagheera and thought, "Okay, it's going to suck." Then I watched the trailer and thought, "Nope, that looks awesome!" Of course it was all action so who knows how the characters look close up and in calmer scenes. It seems a bit darker than the movie from my childhood.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
I may be dating myself, but to me THE movie version of “The Jungle Book” is the 1942 Alexander Korda feature with Sabu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKNbl6rO5FY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_Book_(1942_film)
Fred Patten
It’s really a stretch to relate this to “The Jungle Book”, but this is probably the best place in furry fandom that it’s likely to get.
The title of the August 19, 1984 Tezuka Productions TV movie “Daishizen no Majū Bagi” is almost universally translated as “Bagi [or “Baggy”], the Monster of Mighty Nature”. But to me it will always be “Baghi, the Monster of Mighty Nature”. The reason: Osamu Tezuka, the producer, told me in a letter that he made “Baghi" especially for me. Ha, ha. Dr. Tezuka knew of my liking for anthropomorphic animals, and he was quite a kidder. Still, I like to think that he did have me in mind a few times while he made this TV movie. Tezuka was more involved in it than usual. The Japanese government had just approved in 1984 of recombinant DNA research, which Dr. Tezuka was deeply opposed to. He spoke out against it in several ways. "Baghi" was his sugar-coated warning to the general public. He was never entirely serious, but for him, “Baghi” was more serious than usual.
I do believe one detail that he told me. In the original story development, when Ryosuke as a little boy gets the kitten who will grow into a cat-woman, he says, “I’m going to name her Baghi, like Bagheera in Kipling’s Jungle Book!” That line was cut out in the production. So to anyone who did not talk with Tezuka himself (or his staff, I suppose), the translation of the Japanese katakana characters BA and GI as “Bagi” is perfectly reasonable. (The translation as “Baggy” is not reasonable.) However, her name will always be spelled “Baghi” to me, since I think that is how Dr. Tezuka meant it, and otherwise the name “Bagi” is meaningless. You can see where the line about Kipling’s “Jungle Book” would have gone; between “Why Bagi?” and “This guy copied me. It’s really smart!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxAT-8XdONU
http://myanimelist.net/anime/2312/Bagi_the_Monster_of_Mighty_Nature
http://s752.photobucket.com/user/robbyrs/media/600full-bagi-the-monster-of-might...
Fred Patten
Wow, Disney seriously went out of their classicl view. Bought Lukasfilm and created all these new charachers including hilarious Kailo Ren and Rey and Finn (just like my friends dogs name :lol: ). Now 'The Jungle Book'live animated. Rudyard Kipling made it for years. Will this new Maugli story beat everthing preiouse? as I see Disney trying to take their auditory that grew up with them. How it is gonna look new Disneyland? Will Banksy be invited to make it?
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