The Jungle Book 1967/2016 hmk

The Jungle Book:
The 1967 Jungle book is an animated American musical comedy adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was based on Rudyard Kipling's book of the same name and is the 19th Disney animated feature film directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and was the last film to be produced by Walt Disney (who dies during its production).The early versions of both the screenplay and the soundtrack was more closely related to Kipling's idea of the story, a more sinister tone (which Walt Disney did not want for his family film). This then led to the writer Bill Peet and composer Terry Gilkyson being replaced. The Jungle Book was released on the 18th October 1967 and initially became Disney's second highest-grossing animated film in the United States and Canada. It was also successful during its re-releases. The film was successful throughout the world. The Jungle Book 2 was then released in 2003. And another adaptation directed by Jon Favreau was released in 2016. The total budget for the film was $4,000,000. The film grossed $141,843,612. 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 very popular as it was for all the family to watch and Disney was already a very popular household name like it still is today.

Disney then decided to make a live action remake of the film in 2016. This was to make a more modern and updated version of the successful family favourite which targeted all audiences whether they were alive when the original film was made or not. It was directed by Jon Favreau who is known for producing the Iron Man film series. It included a child actor (Neel Sethi) to play Mowgli and included voice actors and a lot of green screen to create realistic animals and jungle settings.

The budget for the remake, however, was much more than the original at an amazing $175,000,000. On the opening weekend it made $103,261,464 (USA) and overall grossed $364,001,123 (USA) and $947,589,026 (worldwide) which is significantly more than the original. It has a 7.5 IMDb rating which is just under the original. 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 film also had it's own snapchat filter and website for fans to get involved in called 'lawofthejungle.com'. The film features much more advanced technology such as CGI and special effects to make it look so real even though most of the film is just green screens, puppets and computers. Live action remakes are very popular among Disney at the moment due to the advances in media technology and popularity of nostalgia among their audience. Other films that have been remade into a live action version includes; Tarzan, Cinderella, Beauty and The Beast etc.