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Spoilers (7)
Amid the treasures in King Louie's temple, one of them happens to be Genie's lamp from Aladdin (1992).
In The Jungle Book (1967), King Louie was an orangutan. In this film, he's a gigantopithecus, an ancestor of the orangutan whose range is believed to have included parts of India. This change in species was made to make the film more fantastic and since orangutans are not native to India. The characterization of King Louie was given a slight alteration from the 1967 film and was partly inspired by Marlon Brando's character Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979), as well as incorporating Christopher Walken's own physical mannerisms. In regards to Louie's changes, director Jon Favreau stated, "We created this looming figure that was trying to extract the secret of fire from Mowgli. And also this gave Mowgli the idea that if he had fire, he could have power over Shere Khan, whether it was good or bad. So there was a Lord of the Rings aspect to that; the fire was almost like the ring in that was going to give someone ultimate power, but corrupt them as well as create destruction."
The CG character Baloo is so large and furry, he took almost five hours of rendering time per frame.
All the locations in the film are computer-generated VFX. The story may have been set primarily in India, but the film was completely shot at the LA Center Studio in Los Angeles, California.
This is the first time that Kaa the Snake is portrayed as a female, rather than a male. Jon Favreau said the change was a deliberate one, as he felt there were too many male characters in The Jungle Book (1967).
Bill Murray voices Baloo in this film; his older brother Brian Doyle-Murray had voiced Baloo in The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (1998).
The talking animals in this film were created using animal behavior, then having the actors copy those movements in motion-capture VFX.
Mowgli has a scar on the right side of his chest which appears to be the letter "r" and also has a scar on his left shoulder which is a "k". This is a nod to the original author Rudyard Kipling, where the "R" and "K" are the author's initials.
Ben Kingsley described Bagheera as a military character: "He's probably a colonel, he is instantly recognizable by the way he talks, how he acts and what his ethical code is."
Actor Neel Sethi said that since he never actually worked with real animals onset during filming, director Jon Favreau would on occasion stand in for where the animals would be present, one most notably as Shere Khan lunging out from the tall grass.
The film released in India on April 8, a week ahead of its U.S. debut, to pay tribute to the Indian environment of the film/novel.
Lyricist Richard M. Sherman, who wrote songs for The Jungle Book (1967), was said to be writing new songs for this film, but they were not used.
Remote jungle locations in India were photographed and used as reference for the jungle environment in the film.
The animal characters were both motion-captured and performed live on set by puppeteers from the Jim Henson Company. For the on-set performances, Jim Henson's Creature Shop built elaborate life-sized puppets to act alongside Mowgli and serve as eye-lines.
At the end of The Jungle Book (2016), the physical Jungle Book book closes, which is a bookend (literally) to the original film. "At the end of the movie we found the book from the original Jungle Book in the archives, and so that book that opens at the beginning of [the 1967] Jungle Book, I noticed never closes at the end of The Jungle Book (1967)," Favreau explained. "Here we take the same book, the same blue velvet background and we close the book as though to, I think, pay homage to and maybe feel like we're completing that chapter."
This is Garry Shandling's final film, released less than a month after he died of a sudden heart attack. He provided the voice of Ikki the Porcupine, a character from Rudyard Kipling's original novel, who was not present in the 1967 film. Similarly, The Jungle Book (1967) also had a posthumous performance: Verna Felton, the voice of Winifred, Colonel Haithi's wife, in that incarnation, who starred in many other previous prominent Disney animated film productions, such as Dumbo (1941), Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Lady and the Tramp (1955), and Sleeping Beauty (1959), up until her death on December 14, 1966, the day prior to the death of the producer of The Jungle Book (1967): Walt Disney.
This is the fourth collaboration between director Jon Favreau and composer John Debney; they had previously worked together on Elf (2003), Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) and Iron Man 2 (2010). This is also his thirteenth musical score for a Disney movie.
While the film is a live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book (1967), the filmmakers decided to include elements from the Rudyard Kipling novel to make the film more adventurous and dangerous. The story of the film is not independently taken from Kipling's works but also borrows cinematic inspirations from other films, including the child-mentor relationship in Shane (1953), the establishment of rules in a dangerous world from Goodfellas (1990) and the use of a shadowy jungle figure in Apocalypse Now (1979).
Right before he meets King Louie, Mowgli finds a cowbell in the monkey palace and proceeds to pick it up and shake it, causing Louie to appear. King Louie is played by Christopher Walken, who once famously stated on a sketch on Saturday Night Live (1975), "I have a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!"
Man's 'Red Flower' has a bigger role in this film. In The Jungle Book (1967), it is mentioned briefly by King Louie but in this version several animals mention it and it is implied all animals apart from Louie fear it. This possibly explains why Louie wanted to know how to make fire so he can use it to his own advantage so that all animals including Shere Khan fear him.
Giancarlo Esposito who voices the wolf Akela, was featured in a commercial for the video game Destiny (2014) where he narrated a part of the poem "The Law of the Jungle". This poem appears in Rudyard Kipling's "The Second Jungle Book".
Actor Neel Sethi has said his favorite song is "Uptown Funk". When he would get tired on set, they had the track backed up and would blast it across the studio. Director Jon Favreau said that Sethi would dance around to pump himself up and get right back into the scene.
The original release date was set to be in October 2015, but was switched with another film to be released 6 months later in 2016.
Despite not being a musical, two songs from the 1967 animated film, including "The Bare Necessities" and "I Wanna Be Like You" were included in this film.
The 3D of the film and the original 1990s Walt Disney Pictures opening logo were a tribute to the multi-plane camera system. Director Jon Favreau said that one his is "rules" for making The Jungle Book (2016) was "let's treat the 3D like multi-plane. Let's be as gimmicky as Walt Disney would have been-but not more." The multi-plane camera is a special camera used to create a sense of dimensional space-of a camera moving through a set, instead of one just taking photos of a series of still images. Disney had a special version of the system developed, which was used first in the Silly Symphony animated short film The Old Mill (1937) and later in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Favreau went on: "There are tremendous shots in Pinocchio (1940) and Bambi (1942) where the multi-plane was a new technology and they were using it to show off, and that was the 3D of its day. And so we were studying that very closely and became very fascinated with the multi-plane and what went into it and the artistry and ingenuity." This aesthetic philosophy extended to the movie's treatment of the main castle logo. "I got the idea, 'Let's do the opening logo, and instead of doing a super high-tech one, let's have a hand-painted, cel-animated multi-plane logo,'" Favreau said. "And not only that but 'Let's make the kingdom behind the castle have elements from what the live action version would have been,' so it was almost like a little taste of what's back there."
The Jungle Book (2016) is the very first Walt Disney Pictures release since Treasure Planet (2002) to feature the original 1990s cel-animated Walt Disney Pictures logo in its true fashion.
This is Idris Elba's second of three starring roles in Disney films of 2016, following Zootopia (2016) and Finding Dory (2016). All of the three films feature Elba in prominent animated voice-over performances.
For the Indian dub of the film, noted Indian actors were cast to voice the animals:
-Om Puri voices Bagheera.
-Nana Patekar voices Shere Khan.
-Priyanka Chopra voices Kaa.
-Irrfan Khan voices Baloo.
-Shefali Shetty voices Raksha.
-Rajesh Khattar voices Akela.
-Bugs Bhargava voices King Louie.
-Om Puri voices Bagheera.
-Nana Patekar voices Shere Khan.
-Priyanka Chopra voices Kaa.
-Irrfan Khan voices Baloo.
-Shefali Shetty voices Raksha.
-Rajesh Khattar voices Akela.
-Bugs Bhargava voices King Louie.
A scene where Baloo scratches his back on a tree, mimicking a famous scene in the The Jungle Book (1967), was filmed and appears in some trailers. However this scene is not in the final cut of the released film.
All three of director Jon Favreau's children have voice roles in the movie. His son Max voices a wolf cub, while his two daughters, Brighton Rose and Madeline voice Gray, another wolf cub.
Over 2,000 children auditioned for the part of Mowgli, in first audition and his first acting role newcomer Neel Sethi won the part.
Kaa is the second character from The Jungle Book to be a female after Bagheera who was a female in The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (1998).
Actors Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber's sons Sasha and Kai make their film debut in the movie as little wolves. Director Jon Favreau's children also appear in the movie.
Bits of the overture from The Jungle Book (1967) were recycled in John Debney's musical score for this film.
The Jungle Book (2016)'s inspiration from the Disney animated classics didn't begin and end with the 1967 original. As director Jon Favreau explained: "We went back to films like Bambi (1942) to see how they best used elements, because I wanted to use different elements in in this." He went on: "I wanted air, fire, water, and earth, and Bambi uses seasons and weather, and using different types of day-opportunities that this filmmaking style allows you. So we looked at films like Bambi, we looked at films like The Lion King (1994)." It's true-throughout The Jungle Book, you can sense the legacy of these earlier films and, thanks to the nature of the story (roughly broken up into vignettes), the changing seasons effect is vital and dazzlingly realized.
The animal characters were created entirely in key frame computer animation, with the assistance of footage of real animal movement, the actors recording their lines, and performance capture for reference. The production team underwent a thorough process to realistically convey the animals' speaking, while still making them perceptually believable to the audience. Favreau researched earlier films featuring anthropomorphic animals - including Walt Disney's animated features, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Bambi (1942), as well as modern films such as Babe (1995) - and adopted certain techniques from those films into The Jungle Book (2016). Nearly 70 separate species of native animals are featured in the film, with several species being portrayed as "150% larger" than their actual counterparts. Jim Henson's Creature Shop was brought in to provide animal puppet figures for Sethi to act against, although none appear in the finished film. Director Jon Favreau expressed a desire to avoid overusing motion capture in order to prevent an uncanny valley effect. Moving Picture Company (MPC) and Weta Digital created the film's visual effects. MPC developed a new software for animating muscular structure in the animals. Around 1,000 remote jungle locations in India were photographed and used as reference in post-production.
The Jungle Book (2016) marks the reunion of Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray following Lost in Translation (2003).
The first time King Louie appears on the screen, he is sitting in a chair, his face obscured by shadows and talking in a sinister, slightly muffled voice about offering Mowgli protection before finally revealing his face. This is an obvious homage to the classic film Apocalypse Now (1979) in which Marlon Brando's character, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, first appears on screen similarly composed.
Rocky the Rhino was dropped from The Jungle Book (1967), where he was to appear during the scene with the Vultures voiced by Frank Fontaine, but he did make it successfully into this film voiced by Russell Peters.
Songs from The Jungle Book (1967) appear as bits of dialogue in this film. Kaa speaks "Trust in Me", and Baloo sings a bit of "The Bare Necessities". "Trust in Me" as sung by Scarlett Johansson is heard during the closing credits.
This is Christopher Walken's first Disney movie since The Country Bears (2002).
Director Jon Favreau received the Innovation in Film award from P.E.T.A for using all CGI animals, and not harming any real animals during the production of The Jungle Book (2016).
The sounds you hear when Mowgli goes underwater when on Baloo's tummy are generated through high powered underwater speakers made by Oceanears.
The scene where Louie first shows his hand to Mowgli is a homage to the Peter Jackson version of King Kong (2005) where Kong does the same thing upon meeting Ann Darrow.
Director Jon Favreau is an enthusiastic fan of Disney animation and is well versed in the history of the Walt Disney Company. When it comes to the original The Jungle Book (1967), he knew exactly what he was trying to retain for his big screen reboot. "That was the high water mark in many ways for character animation. You had the Nine Old Men, and they were hitting the high water mark for emotional character animation that is drawn upon and you can see it even in The Lion King (1994), you see reference to that animation style. You can see it in Zootopia (2016) too," Favreau said. "So it was a very important film from an animation standpoint, but it wasn't as lush as a texture, of a cinematic texture, as was the big five." When watching this new version of The Jungle Book (2016), with its amazing character animation, you can see that they were really energized by that original classic.
The film was released in 2016, to coincide with the 49th anniversary of the original Disney animated classic masterpiece The Jungle Book (1967).
Ritesh Rajan's second film after The Last Airbender (2010).
This is Bill Murray and Christopher Walken's first voice over job since Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) seven years prior and Kangaroo Jack (2003) 13 years prior, respectively.
Scarlett Johansson and Emjay Anthony's second film with director Jon Favreau after Chef (2014), and Scarlett's third with Favreau after Iron Man 2 (2010).
In The Jungle Book (1967) and it's sequel The Jungle Book 2 (2003), Bagheera and Shere Khan never meet in battle. But in this film however they do meet and battle.
This is Bill Murray's first Disney movie role as the previous movies he starred in - What About Bob? (1991), Ed Wood (1994), Rushmore (1998), Cradle Will Rock (1999), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) - were all released by Disney's Touchstone Pictures label and Larger Than Life (1996) was United Artists Pictures label. He's also the second actor from Ghostbusters (1984) to play a bear character when Dan Aykroyd starred as the title character in Yogi Bear (2010).
The actor who plays Mowgli, Neel Sethi was born in 2003, the same year that the 1967 film's direct-to-video sequel The Jungle Book 2 (2003) was released.
Spoilers
When all of the animals gather for the climactic confrontation with Shere Khan, there is a shot of a Wild Boar and an Indian Mongoose next to each other, possibly a nod to Warthog Pumbaa and Meerkat Timon from Disney's Original Animated Film The Lion King (1994).
Although this is a remake of the original film, the ending is significantly changed from The Jungle Book (1967). In the original, Shere Khan does not die, he is just frightened away, but returns in it's sequel, The Jungle Book 2 (2003), and Mowgli leaves the jungle to go live in the man-village.
Despite her being one of the secondary villains like in The Jungle Book (1967), Kaa only appears for a few minutes in the film.
The only songs from The Jungle Book (1967) not reprised during the credits of this incarnation were "Colonel Hathi's March" sang by Hathi, "That's What Friends are For" sang by the Vultures, and "My Own"Home sang by Shanti (the latter 2 characters don't even appear in this film).
The scene where Shere khan is standing on a dead tree telling Mowgli that he will devour him or the red flower will is also a deleted scene in the original jungle book.
King Louie in this Incarnation is portrayed officially as a Villain, with him being more sinister and antagonising, and though he can be more suave and charming, he can also be quite impatient and extremely aggressive, unlike in the 1967 film. Though fans have believed him to be a villain in The Jungle Book (1967), he's actually more of an Anti-Hero, not really against the heroes, and notably in his other appearances, he has been proven to be on the same side as Baloo, Bagheera and Mowgli.
The composer John Debney gives a lot of references to George Bruns's original score for "The Jungle Book"(1967). It's first heard at the beginning of the film, then heard with some of the other main characters. You can even hear the melodies of some of their songs. Example: when we meet Kaa, we hear a few notes of the character's original song "Trust in Me."