The cast and director of Disney’s live-action Jungle Book appeared at Disney’s D23 Expo on Saturday.
Actors Ben Kingsley, Lupita Nyong’o, Neel Sethi, director Jon Favreau, and President of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production Sean Bailey — all pictured above — presented new footage from their film in front of 7,800 fans at Disney’s live-action presentation.
Favreau spoke about “finding the balance between the iconic mythic power of Kipling [the author of the original Jungle Book] and all of the images [in the] animated feature.” He also touched on “taking the edge of technology and applying it to the old stories.” Then, The Jungle Book cast members Ben Kingsley (Bagheera), Lupita Nyong’o (Raksha), and Neel Sethi (Mowgli) took the stage.
They were all there to share the first poster:
The first trailer for The Jungle Book also premiered at the event. In it, Bill Murray hums “The Bear Necessities” as Baloo. Reports from D23 indicate that the CGI looks extremely realistic:
Favreau showed the JUNGLE BOOK trailer. It'll be a huge hit. How can you beat Bill Murray as Baloo, humming "Bare Necessities"? #D23Expo
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) August 15, 2015
WOW – STANDING OVATION for @Jon_Favreau's The Jungle Book. They didn't even do that for Civil War. It really looks amazing.
— Germain Lussier (@GermainLussier) August 15, 2015
First footage from "The Jungle Book" at #D23. Ultra realistic CGI animals seemed to wow the crowd, which is on its feet cheering
— Ben Fritz (@benfritz) August 15, 2015
The CG in Jungle Book is next level.so amazing.
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) August 15, 2015
Incredible photo realism, nice blend of tone from serious to playful, and the way they have mimicked some the iconic shots & songs is great
— Germain Lussier (@GermainLussier) August 15, 2015
Christopher Walken also impressed as King Louie:
Also, Christopher Walken as orangutan King Louie was pretty sublime. #JungleBook #D23Expo
— Piya Sinha-Roy (@PiyaSRoy) August 15, 2015
Unfortunately, we don’t expect the trailer to hit the internet this weekend.
The Jungle Book opens in theaters April 15, 2016.