Jungle Book Essay 1967 vs modern

 

The first Jungle book was made in 1967 it was the 19th Disney movie to be made and sadly it was the last film that Walt Disney himself oversaw as he unfortunately passed on during its production. It is also the first Disney animated Film where the opening credits say who voiced each role. The animation appears a bit outdated, but the age does not detract from the great story Disney had created, or the voice actors who added life to this movie.

The film was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman who also directed other Disney greats such as Peter Pan, The Aristocats and the One Hundred and One Dalmatians. He began working for Disney in 1933 and is considered one of Disney's "Nine Old Men". The total budget for the film was $4,000,000. The film grossed $141,843,612 (USA). The film was shown in countries such as the USA, UK, Germany, and Sweden. The film was most popular in the USA where the film was made. The film has a 7.6 IMDb rating. It is also estimated to be the 29th highest grossing film of all time in the United States.

Wolfgang Reitherman also allowed the actors to create their own representations for their characters allowing the characters to feel more alive and real as well as giving them more personality this was a partial reason to the success of the original Jungle Book and the generation that watched it as Children.

The film is only 78 minutes long which may be surprising to a modern audience as we are now used to films being closer to 2 hours onwards. This may be partly to production costs and cinema running availability as the film would have only been shown in the cinemas at first as any people did not have televisions yet so producing VCRs and DVDs was pointless. The Jungle Book was released in the United States on VHS in 1991 as part of the Walt Disney Classics line and in the United Kingdom in 1993. Home video sales outside North America totalled 14.8 million units by 1994. The film was later released on DVD and Blu-ray for further audience consumption. It is now a widely accessible film on platforms such as Netflix and Sky, it is also one of the many available films that can be accessed by illegal internet streaming. In terms of marketing, the Jungle Book (1967) did not include much marketing other than movie posters and cinema signs due to the lack of internet and social media which we have nowadays. Yet as there was not much competition, especially in the animation industry, the film was extremely popular as it was for all the family to watch and Disney was already an extremely popular household name like it still is today.

Disney’s live action remake of the film in 2016 which had the goal of making a more modern and updated version of the successful family favourite which targeted a different audience, the newer film seems to have a darker theme and as such I believe that it was targeted at the generation who grew up watching the Animated Jungle book and for the newer young adults and teenagers. It was directed by Jon Favreau who is known for producing the Iron Man film series that is popular with this age groups creating further incentive for young adults and teens to watch the film.

It is hard to judge which film was more successful due to the difference in media in time, as it was hard to access the original in 1967 but it is much easier to access and market now. Marketing for this film was much easier as there is now social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, twitter etc to promote the film and with help from the internet spreading the word is much easier in comparison to 1967. The production company held a fan event where sneak peeks were spread and some of the actors were introduced too, they also had many teaser trailers and trailers to get fans excited ready for the release of the film. The Disney parks also got involved in marketing the film as they had sand models of characters from the film in 'Animal Kingdom' (one of the Disney Theme Parks). This then got people to share pictures of this on social media sites which resulted in word-of-mouth marketing.

The newer film also pays homage to the older one. This is shown with how both films start at with the shot of Mogli holding his forehead against a wolf this is one of many intertextual links between the two films. There is also poster for both films that have similar layouts with both emitting a yellow-gold light form the middle of the image and with the characters placed on the sides, however there is a clear difference in how the characters are presented as in the 1967 poster Shere Khan being more friendly and ‘cartoony’ this contrast to the newer poster where he is placed in a more protective ready to pounce position making him seem more fierce.

 

 

Forbrydelsen EP1 Day1 Scene 1 analysis

 The show opens with a young woman we later learn is called Nanna running, this is stereotypical of the thriller genre, the clip also shows the victim as a teenage younger girl who is presented as isolated and venerable, their is also a Synthesized Drum beat that is quite quick paced almost matching the victims running tempo. The Scene starts with a low level following shot of her feet as she runs from her pursuer. The location is in a dark forest that creates a typical horror theme with a light being shown behind the girl. The ASL is fast and crosscuts between the victim and the murderer who is presented as an ambiguous figure with more measured menacing movements, we can only identify the murderer as wearing a hooded jacket that is black. The then stumbles through the forest into a waterway that she stumbles to get out of, this creates the feeling of panic, that showcases the diegetic sounds that match her movements creating a more realistic feeling scene. She then reaches a tree leaning on it for support where we get an extreme close up shot of her illuminated by the plane that shows her face as hurt and panicked, the plane shows the more urban outskirts setting and allows for a better transfer to the city and creates a brief moment of relief as she realizes where she is however it also has exposed her to the pursuer, then she begins to move again and is illuminated by the pursuers torch again allowing the reveal of her white under cloth allowing for the victim to seem innocent and young, this dress is visibly ripped showing her danger almost as if her the purity is threatened by the black clothed man, this is furthered by the fact that black can connote bad (Barthes Theory), and the in modern media black usually is associated with the bad guys. The scene ends with the girl begging to turn away from the pursuer. The creators then use a sound bridge to zoom out and show the forest and urban edges of the area to then link to the next scene.

How Forbrydelsen represents Danish culture and Social concerns, How far dose Forbrydelsen adhere to expected conventions:

The showing of Sarah Lund at the start of the next scene wakes up early worried showing the flaws of her personal life this is a convention of the Police Thriller Genre showing it adhering to the genre, the show then presents the importance of family to the Danish, this is shown with the way that Sarah walks in on her clearly teenage sleeping son with the TV left on, adhering to the typical teenage image of more care less as he seems to not have packed much adhering to that convention, Sarah is shown to smile, showing her love, this is continued by the showcasing of her boyfriend as a loving man who offers to put them some coffee on, their is also a remark about Sarah the Dane being exited to become a Swede, to which she responds with never showing the slight cultural rivalry between both nations. The bridge between the next scene however shows Sarah turning up at work where she is pranked by her colleges, this shows the parody of a crime as it is more funny, the blow up doll can foreshadow the themes of the story as possibly sexual. who give her a typical Swedish headpiece which she wears this is a friendly tease at the Swedish culture from the Danes. Their is then a transition that shows the Working man and then Lars is introduced and Sarah shows him around, he is quite Nobel with how he wants to protect the possible prostitute of the scene only to be put down by Sarah almost implying that the possible prostitute isn't worth as much effort to ensure she is fine as well as defying the stereotype that a woman would care more for the proustite than than the man showing the male dominated police forces almost jarring as if she is jarred against it. Theis who seems to be the boss of a moving company, his employee knocks over a glass ornament which he refuses to apologies for, Theis is then shown to negotiate for the employee and then the employee calls the man a Paki and refuses to pay Theis then says he will knock it of the bill and says tells his employee-Van to clean it up, this shows a cultural dislike for the Muslim culture. Theis' wife then calls with panic creating a convention that is false as it is the Dishwasher that has broken. This sequence shows the wife as panicked but also intelligent as she says to Theis to get the Plummer which he refutes and try's to fix it only to break it again, The bigger Theis is set up as a possible murderer as it shows him fooling around with him pushing his wife to the floor and the camera showing an image of Nanna the murder victim at the end this makes the watcher believe that Theis is a possible murderer.

Very good quality, however there is too much information and it almost summarizes the entire scenes, Nevertheless you have written about a lot of conventions. In future try and link it back to some theorists

How dose Forbrydelsen adhere to expected conventions?

Theis and his wife Pernille are shown as equal business partners at first but as the day develops the writers show a more traditional husband wife relationship this is shown in the line that Theis says to Pernille "I'll find her and bring her home" this shows the fact that Theis is more dominant and Pernille is staying at home even though she is willing to go look for Nanna. This is Judith Butler theory that gender should be a fluid variable that can change based on the situation and circumstance. Cultural Social context showing that this is an expected behavior of the family, this shows Lisa as more fluid and becoming a more modern fluid representation. In support of Butlers Theory Nanna was a very typical example of the groups, whereas Lund is shifting between the roles with family and work. This shifting of perceived gender defies the genre conventions as most Crime Dramas have a dominant Male protagonist or presence.

Sarah is shown as emotionless and not hugely empathetic to case or the victims only showing a brief sense of empathy for Theis, this is shown in a series of close-up shots of Sarah walking up to a distressed Theis and confirming his fear with a smaller nod, the camera then focuses on Sarah's emotionless expression then her eyes slowly dilate showing a brief moment of remorse. This opposes the genera as women are expected to be more emotional and worried like how Pernille is shown to need Theis for support in her worry and more emotional when hearing the news as well as the lack of emotion making her seem more invested which is also a convention of the detective caring more about the case and solving it more than helping the family recover. This is useful to the writer as it shows the detective dedication to the case and how they are professional. 

Another way that Forbrydelsen adheres to genre conventions is through the representation of Theis as disliking Oliver Nanna’s ex-boyfriend, he is described as a Bastard by Theis and he is dismissive of Oliver when he goes to Oliver’s’ parents house and Oliver insist that Nanna is not there, making Theis apologies and begin to worry more than in the past. This is adhering to the conventions of Fathers not liking their daughter’s boyfriend and also saying that adults can be dismissive of the younger generations even when they are shown to be correct or have no reason to doubt them creating a situation where Theis is worried and also shown to be more worried.

Intertextuality and Stranger Things

The Intertextual scenes used in Stranger Things represents the common stereotypes of 1980s small-town America this is shown with the Spielbergian ideologies. The series of Stranger Things has a large showcase on the weaponised intertextuality in the show.

In E.T. and Stranger Tings their are many scenes, for example both the families of E.T. and Stranger Things have similar structures with a single mother trying to keep her family fed and two sons one who is older than the other. Their are also many themes that Stranger Things and E.T. have in common, with both Eleven and E.T. being hidden away form society and how the main cast are children and share in scenes where they escape Government Agencies who are in vans with the main cast on bicycles and their is also a link between E.T. and Stranger Things with both Eleven and E.T. showcasing a unknown power. 

Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Stranger things also showcase intertextuality with both having scenes where the communication with the alienated member of the main cast being done with flashing/ blinking lights.

                                Stranger Things

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Stranger Things is also clearly influenced by the scene in The Shining of Joyce two handing an axe is clearly an inspiration for the scene in Stranger Things, this is furthered by the presentation of Stranger Things in a more Steven King inspired setting.