Most of us remember The Jungle Book from Walt Disney Animation Studio. It was first released in 1967, then re-released in 1991 on VHS as a part of the Walt Disney Classics Collection. We learned about “The Bare Necessities”, what monkeys actually want out of life, and why the jungle isn’t the safest place to live, if you don’t know what you’re doing. And it was lit.

 

Under Jon Favreau’s direction, Disney is back at it with a 3D live animation of the original stories written by Rudyard Kipling. This is an exciting time for all the 90’s babies that grew up with The Jungle Book to experience a familiar story in a brand new way; and a chance for the younger generation to be introduced to characters that we all know and love.

From the images and trailers we’ve been shown so far one thing is very clear, this is not 1991, and we’ve come along way from VHS. This a more visceral, colorful, and quite frankly, beautiful presentation of the jungle that Mowgli, his friends, and his enemies call home. 12 year old, Indian-American actor Neel Sethi stars as the young orphan in his first feature film, exposed to a world that feels as palpable as you can get from CGI animation.

Disney released a new trailer for the film, giving us a more in-depth look at the world and it’s characters, but leaving enough for us to look forward to when it hits theaters this year on April 15th. With casting choices like Bill Murray as Baloo, Idris Elba as Sheer Khan, Luptia Nyong’o as Raksha, and Christopher Walken as King Louie, it’s a pretty safe bet that this is a movie that the whole family will want to cop tickets to see.