Disney Countdown

And now for the "live-action" version of The Jungle Book. The Movie: Following the success of Cinderella, Disney's next live-action remake was the 2016 version of The Jungle Book.  In reality, most of the movie was done in realistic CGI, with Neel Sethi's Mowgli being the primary live-action element.  The Jungle Book received positive reviews and was one of the highest grossing films of 2016.  Among its accolades was the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. This version draws primarily from the 1967 animated version, as director Jon Favreau wanted to retain much of the charm of that movie while grounding it in more realistic visuals.  Some elements of the Kipling's book are added to this film, such as the Law of the Jungle, the Peace Rock, and the Water Truce.  The wolves also get a larger role in this movie like they do in the book.  This film opens with Mowgli already a boy and not a toddler, though his story is told through narration and later a flash...

Today we get yet another animated and live-action double header, starting off with 1967's The Jungle Book. The Movie: The Jungle Book is the 19th movie in the Disney Animated Canon.  It was also the last film produced by Walt Disney himself, as he died in December 1966.  During production, both the original writer of the film and the original songwriter left because Disney himself stepped in and demanded changes, as he felt the original treatment, while more faithful to the source material, was too dark for a Disney film.  Disney went so far as to instruct the new writers to not read the source material.  The resulting movie was a financial success for the studio, being hugely popular both in North America and in Europe.  In Germany, The Jungle Book has the most tickets sold of any movie ever and is still the third highest grossing film of all time in that country, behind only Avatar and Titanic. The Jungle Book is very loosely based on the stories by R...