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The animation appears a bit outdated, but the age does not detract from the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.
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