Jungle Book Trailer: The Disney classic gets an eerie but amazing makeover

Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson and Christopher Walken. This is the star cast of Disney 2016 adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s classic Jungle Book. Be right back, we’re dying of excitement. [caption id=“attachment_2435798” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A still from the trailer.[/caption] Disney revealed the trailer of their upcoming live-action film recently, and unlike the 1967 animated version that most people would describe as an adventurous but a happy film, the 2016 version, directed by Jon Favreau (of Iron Man fame) will give you the chills. The tone itself is a couple of shades darker right from the first frame of the trailer. It starts with Scarlett Johansson’s voiceover (she plays Kaa, the menacing snake) as she lures Mowgli towards her, while he jumps from tree to tree trying to escape the jungle wilderness. Since the film is live action, 10 year old actor Neel Sethi who plays Mowgli is the only human being in the film. But we see glimpses of all our favorite characters: Bageera, Sher Khan and even an evil looking Orangutan. We also get to hear seconds-long snippets of the revered soundtrack “B__are Necessities” and “Tr__ust in Me” In this 2 minute trailer, essentially most ingredients from the 1967 film is present but it’s been packaged completely different. Scarlett Johansson adds a sultry, smoking edge to Kaa’s appearance and tone, and since the film is live action, the jungle scenes are more dramatic and Sher Khan is scarier. The Verge reports that the animals and environment are “photo-realistic computer-generate imagery, merged together with performance capture and footage shot of the cast, particularly Neel Sethi, who plays Mowgli” We’re most curious to hear Idris Elba as Khan, and are looking forward to seeing who voices Col. Hathi’s character (one of our favorites). Meanwhile, watch the trailer here: