April 25, 2016

The Jungle Book and Disney: Live-Action Remakes

Hello all!
I have been doing a bit of research for this post, so hence the lack of recent updates. This article will detail how Disney is making so much money off of their "re-imaginings" of their old animated films. The incentive behind this post is largely the financial success of the Jungle Book, and critical success.

The Jungle Book has been the fourth live-action fairy tale that Disney has pumped out, and easily has been the best. The other three have been Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, and Cinderella. In my opinion, the Jungle Book and Cinderella have been outstanding, while the other two are less than average.

I was thinking very hard about what the glaring similarity in all of these films is, besides the fact that they have all have been adapted from an old Disney classic. And I ended up finding three

The first is the visual effects and costume design departments. Alice in Wonderland, while it may not be the best of the bunch here, is simply gorgeous to look at. The Tim Burton directed film has one of the best environmental use of CGI I have seen. Although it is not groundbreaking in visual effects such as something like Jurassic Park, Avatar, or The Jungle Book, it is still incredible to experience it's immersive environment of whimsical characters, of all species. Maleficent is very similar in that sense. While it may not be setting a new standard for visual effects, the creature CGI and environmental CGI is quite marvelous, especially for the dragon. 

Cinderella, while also actually being a good film, has some of the most stunning costume design, bringing home an Oscar for it's creator. If you are noticing a pattern, that's good, that means you are breaking down the "formula". All of these films have the same creative vision prior to the actual film making process: to stir nostalgic emotions from viewers, while being a visually dazzling, and be slightly more mature versions of the original animation, although being appropriate for most children. 

The Jungle Book does also have that same creative goal in mind, and you can see it. Favreau, while playing around with the intense CGI that he has been gifted with, never loses sight of the fact that he is making a family film, or that he has to be paying respect to the original work. I have spoken often about how awesome the visuals are in The Jungle Book in my review of it, so I will not babble about that any more. Although The Jungle Book still has those same creative goals, it is easily the most different adaptation that has been made yet. The Jungle Book will be heralded as a large step forward in digital storytelling, along with Avatar and the Life of Pi. Favreau and his director of photography, Bill Pope, recreate the a living and breathing version of the Indian jungles from green screen in Los Angeles.

To sum the first point up, incredible visuals combined with similar creative goals to be more mature versions of original tales, attract audience members.


The second major point is the talented directors, actors, and other cast members at work. The four directors that have worked so far are Tim Burton, Robert Stromberg, Jon Favreau, and Kenneth Branagh. All four of these men are proven to be very talented, with Stromberg being more talented in the visual effects department. All four also brought their own unique take on the Disney tale, while staying relatively faithful to the material. But unless we have a name like Nolan, Spielberg, Tarantino, Scorcese, or Cameron, the director is not why people watch movies.

The actors/voice actors that have been involved in these productions are all incredible talents, and they are really hustling in these films, not seeing them just as cash grabs (maybe with the exception of Johnny Depp). To list a few: Helena Bonham Carter, Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Hayley Atwell, Angeline Jolie, Elle Fanning, Johnny Depp, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, and more. These are A-List actors that Disney is hiring for these roles, and almost none of them have disappointed. In Maleficent, Jolie's performance carried the entire film to just being okay. The voice cast of The Jungle Book brought the film to a whole new level of amazing. To summarize, the casting choices are almost always terrific and elevate the film, while also attracting fans of that actor/actress to the cinema. 

My third key point is the nostalgic factor. From similar dresses, large themes incorporated, and Christopher Walken singing "I Wanna Be Like You", it's hard not to say that these films directly from the source material for a nostalgic factor. Despite all of that, these films are not paint-by-the-numbers versions of their originals. Alice in Wonderland has an actual narrative, contrasting the original, which is just random stuff happening in Wonderland and Alice happens to be there. Maleficent does the "Wicked" twist on Sleeping Beauty, showing sympathy to the original's villainous character, and telling a familiar story from a different set of eyes. Cinderella, the most similar to the original, still had a much more character to it than the classic. 

To conclude, The Jungle Book has officially raised the bar at a near unreachable height for more live-action Disney remakes. But there are noticeable "formulaic" things to these films, that recreate a sense of wonder for a new generation. 

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