The Jungle Book is Now in Theaters + FUN Facts #JungleBook

THE JUNGLE BOOK is now playing in theatres everywhere! It’s a perfect film for the whole family and I truly can’t recommend it enough! Check out 5 Reasons to go see The Jungle Book!

In celebration of THE JUNGLE BOOK opening, I wanted to share an amazing video highlighting the voices in the film including Bill Murray (“Baloo”), Sir Ben Kingsley (“Bagheera”), Lupita Nyong’o (“Raksha”), Scarlett Johansson (“Kaa”), Idris Elba (“Shere Khan”), Christopher Walken (“King Louie”), Giancarlo Esposito (“Akela”) and Neel Sethi who plays Mowgli, the only live action character in the film!

Coloring Pages + Family Activities

Movie Clips + Featurette

Trailer + Character Images

Jungle Book Prize Pack Giveaway

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THE JUNGLE BOOK is now playing in theatres everywhere in 3D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D!

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE JUNGLE BOOK

GOOD CHARACTER

— At full stretch, Baloo can reach nearly 15 feel high. The free-spirited bear is so heavy and sports so much fur, he took nearly five hours per frame to render.

— Mother wolf Raksha is aptly named. In Hindi, Raksha means protector.

— Artists at WETA took some creative license when it came to King Louie, borrowing a legendary character — Gigantopithecus — an exaggerating his size. King Louie stands 12 feet tall.

— Mowgli sports a red loincloth in the film, but costume designed Laura Jean Shannon had her work cut out for her. “Mowgli’s immersed in water and mud, he gets rained on, he runs,” says Shannon. “We even rigged a hidden safety harness into the costume because Mowgli hangs on tree limbs and cliffs. Each of the loincloths – we ended up with 16 or 17 – had a very specific purpose.”

MOVIE MAGIC

— The team at Moving Picture Company (MPC) were responsible for animating more than 70 species, crafting 100 million leaves and stimulating earth, fire and water. A team of more than 800 computer graphics artists spent more than a year on the project.

— Artists digitally built most of the jungle environment that appears in the film, creating moss, bark, rocks, water, grass, trees, leaves that were all inspired by their real-life counterparts in India. The virtual environment makes up 80% of the film frame 100% of the time.

— Filmmakers utilized motion capture technology to help them visualize the entire film prior to live-action production kicking off. The process involves special body suits adorned with dots that translate into the computer. Even director Jon Favreau suited up for select scenes.

— One of the challenges filmmakers faced by pairing a live-action Mowgli with computer-generated animal counterparts was that the CG creatures were unable to cast shadows on real-life Mowgli. Visual effects supervisor Rob Legato developed a system that allowed filmmakers to project light and shadows onto Mowgli that represent the creatures that are moving near him.

— Mowgli deals with a lot of honey in “The Jungle Book.” The sweet stuff proved challenging for filmmakers, who wanted it to look authentic — yet still appealing. Color and viscosity had to be considered, as well as how to make the honeycomb it comes in.

BACK IN TIME

— Disney’s 1967 animated film, “The Jungle Book,” was the last film that Walt Disney oversaw. He passed away in 1966, the year before the film’s release. Director Jon Favreau was inspired by more than the 1967 movie. “When I think about Disney’s legacy, I relate to Walt’s original dream,” he says. “Walt Disney’s work has influenced my work. He was considered high tech for the time. He was the first person who locked soundtrack with picture, so the characters were perfectly choreographed to the musical score — something that absolutely blew people’s minds. Disney was on the cutting edge of technology.”

— The iconic song “The Bare Necessities,” written by Terry Gilkyson, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1968.

— Composed John Debney, who wrote the score for the new, live-action film “The Jungle Book,” is the son of Louis Debney, who worked for Walt Disney. “When I was a youngster, they were making this incredible magical film called “The Jungle Book,” and I was sort of a studio brat,” says Debney. “I got to know the young man Bruce Reitherman who played Mowgli. We would go on adventures around the world with his family.

— According to actor Ben Kingsley, author Rudyard Kipling’s characters are part of being young in the U.K. “Before a boy in the U.K. joins the Boy Scouts, he joins the Cubs,” says Kingsley. “And our Cub Chief was always called Akela. In fact, all the Scouts’ names comes from Kipling’s writings.”