Disney’s first take on The Jungle Book found a spot in the pantheon of movie greats (and a spot on Empire’s new 50 greatest kids’ movie list, fact fans). The studio, with Jon Favreau behind the camera, is retooling Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 yarns with a very modern mix of live action and bleeding edge VFX, hoping for similarly big things. Newcomer Neel Sethi plays the mancub, Mowgli, this time out. In the new issue, Empire heads into the undergrowth to get the full story, unwrapping these two new stills from the movie in the process.
First up is the digital King Louie, voiced by jazz man Louis Prima in the animation but here boasting the substantial vocal talents of Christopher Walken, presumably in a banana kinda mood. Instead of an orangutan, this Louie is based on the ape’s yeti-like predecessor, Gigantopithecus.
Next up is Mowgli’s panther patron, Bagheera (below), voiced by Sir Ben Kingsley, prowling the jungle with his charge. “I’ve not played an animal before,” says Kingsley. “In Sexy Beast, I based Don Logan on a Rottweiler. Does that count?” Yes, yes it does.
So what of the music, those indelible ditties that made the 1967 The Jungle Book so magical? “You don’t want it to be a musical, so people feel characters can’t get hurt or killed,” Favreau tells Empire. “But these songs are classics. There’s not as much music as in the original, but the key moments that you’re looking for, you’ll find we honoured.”
For the full inside track Favreau’s creature feature, pick up the new issue on Empire from February 25. The Jungle Book arrives in UK cinemas on April 15, with Scarlett Johansson (Kaa), Idris Elba (Shere Khan) and Bill Murray (Baloo) in support. Check out its new TV spot below.