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The Jungle Book

Discussion in 'Zoo Cafe' started by ThylacineAlive, 16 Sep 2015.

  1. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Iron Man director Jon Favreau is now bringing us an almost entirely CGI rendition of the classic story The Jungle Book:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcgJRQWxKnw

    I think it looks pretty good though there are some obvious animal inaccuracies that no doubt will be pointed out by many of us. Funny, I was looking forward to seeing if they went with Asiatic Black Bear or Indian Sloth Bear for Baloo but instead they went Brown Bear:p

    I look forward to reading about your thoughts. I'll be posting mine within the next few days because I'm a tad busy lately with school and work. Cheers!

    Fun Fact: Disney's calling this movie the most technologically advanced movie ever made!

    ~Thylo:cool:
     
  2. Elephas Maximus

    Elephas Maximus Well-Known Member

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    Judging by size, King Louie is a Gigantopithecus here...
    And they made bad guys out of gibbons & lion-tailed macaques :(

    Also I wonder whether Kaa would blink? Hopefully not!
    Making him a female is kinda justified. In the book, his length is said to be 30 ft, unreachable for a male Burmese python.
     
  3. zoomaniac

    zoomaniac Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Judging to the trailer... a lot of rubbish

    Can't never ever mess with the "original" animated movie from 1967. This was (and still is) heart-touching, made with love, with wonderful UNIQUE (singing) voices, just world class. There are some movies that should never have a remake and Disneys animated film from 1967 is one of them.
     
  4. savethelephant

    savethelephant Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Not bad. Not bad at all!
    Who noticed at the end Trust in Me:D
     
  5. Elephas Maximus

    Elephas Maximus Well-Known Member

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    Btw has anyone noticed an afwul cliche - CHIMP sounds?
    Sound designers, you deserve this:
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: 16 Sep 2015
  6. Jurek7

    Jurek7 Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Not to the level of 'Life of Pi' which I seen all without realizing the tiger was CGI (although I was on the plane).

    Animals and landscapes look quite fake - especially the blue-eyed python and orangutan the size of a dinosaur.

    Overall, I hope they keep the strength of the book in the well-developed personalities. But looks they opted for typical Hollywood oversized world: sky-high cliffs, hordes of hundreds over hundreds of monkeys, child running on tree branches like a soccer player on grass etc.
     
  7. TheMightyOrca

    TheMightyOrca Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Life of Pi had great effects. It's a shame the special effects company that did it went bankrupt soon after the release. Not a lot of special effects companies can do animals well.

    The oranguatan is supposed to be gigantopithecus. The reasoning being that orangutans don't live in India, so instead he's a gigantopithecus that leads the other monkeys or something. The trailer stuff is pretty cool, I'll go see it in theaters if the reviews are decent.
     
  8. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    the lion-tailed macaque appeared to be with the good guys.
     
  9. Elephas Maximus

    Elephas Maximus Well-Known Member

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    Some of tiger shots were live-action, using several animals (and CGI tiger's appearance is a mix of them all).
     
  10. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    did you notice that in the scene with all the primates swarming up the cliffs, that they were all gibbons? Dozens and dozens of gibbons.

    In the scene at the temple where the primates were attacking Balou and Bagheera they were a mix of hanuman langurs and (presumably bonnet) macaques.
     
  11. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    https://www.yahoo.com/movies/jon-favreau-breaks-down-disneys-live-action-129130133927.html

    As said in a post above, King Louie in this movie is supposed to represent a Gigantopithecus, "We changed it to a Gigantopithecus, because orangutans don’t live in that part of the world.”

    However, "These animals aren’t cartoonish anthropomorphs. Each is painstakingly crafted to look like native Indian fauna. Baloo now resembles the sloth bear of Kipling’s original stories, not the brown-bearish comic relief of the '67 version" - I think we would all beg to differ!!
     
  12. Elephas Maximus

    Elephas Maximus Well-Known Member

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    Not all gibbons, I clearly see LTM's with them as well :)
    Without 'nasty bits' of course. Doesn't matter that kids may see them at zoos and in documentaries.
     
  13. TheMightyOrca

    TheMightyOrca Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    All of the boat scenes used a CGI tiger, so, it was fake for most of the film. I could tell it was CGI, but it was still very impressive.
     
  14. Brum

    Brum Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I remember the first live action version Disney tried to pull off, not great if I remember correctly! Baloo was a brown bear in that as well, maybe Disney have.a blind spot when it comes to real life sloth bears, then again it may be because there aren't any trained sloth bears available! ;)
     
  15. Gulo gulo

    Gulo gulo Well-Known Member

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    I'm more impressed with the actors doing the voices. Walken as Louie? Yes, please! Bill Murray as Baloo? F yeah! Kaa is an interesting choice for the voice. All I can picture is the movie Her. I don't see how Kaa is a Burmese Python. Nor even an Indian Rock Python. Looks more like a Reticulated Python, but where this is supposed to take place, doesn't make sense. Much like the Lion King and the Giant Anteaters. It's Disney and will still crush and succeed. Be interested to know if any Zoo will try to piggyback on this movie and name animals from it or create an exhibit with the animals from the movie. SNZ's Asia Trail is kind of there, but not. Bagheera looks awfully large, as well. Excited for Idris Elba as Shere Kahn. :D
     
  16. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I think Disney needs to get a good look of an actual Sloth Bear:D

    And I think it's cool that they've corrected the orangutan problem, but do gibbons live in India?:p

    ~Thylo:cool:
     
  17. Pleistohorse

    Pleistohorse Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I concur across the breadth of your post.
     
  18. MikeG

    MikeG Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Yes, Hoolock Gibbons live in India - but only in the north-eastern states.
     
  19. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    yes, re-watching it there clearly are quite a number of lion-tailed macaques in there as well. The other scene with a close-up of a lion-tailed macaque and with Mowgli on the back of a gibbon I interepreted incorrectly as well (I didn't realise he was being kidnapped) and is from that same cliff-scene.

    Also in the temple scene I said the macaques were presumably bonnets, but they are far more likely to be rhesus (there are a couple in behind one of the scenes with King Louie as well).
     
  20. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    interestingly, this new Disney Jungle Book is coming out next year, and then in 2017 there will be Warner Bros' Jungle Book: Origins which will be motion-capture with (of course, sigh) Andy Serkis among others. Do we really need two reboots of the same story from two different studios?