By Levi Hill
The first trailer for Disney’s newest, live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book hit the web today. The most remarkable thing I noticed about this film is that the CGI-rendered animals and environments all appear vividly life-like. The only thing that wasn’t created by a computer is Mowgli, played by new actor Neel Sethi.
Sethi is joined by a supremely talented cast, including Scarlett Johansson (who narrates the trailer as the villainous snake Kaa), Idris Elba (Shere Khan), Ben Kingsley (Bagheera), Bill Murray (Baloo), Lupita Nyong’o (Raksha) and Christopher Walken (King Louie).
In the narration, Kaa persuades Mowgli to trust her, which is probably not a wise decision on his part. If you had any doubt in Johansson’s capabilities as a voice actor, then you probably haven’t seen 2013’s Her in which the actress make an emotionally arresting turn as the voice of a computer operating system.
I'll admit that I was hesitant at first to hear anyone voicing Kaa that wasn’t Jim Cummings, but Johansson pulls it off incredibly well—hiss and all.
From this trailer, it seems like Disney is taking a step closer to the original, darker source material of Rudyard Kipling's 1894 book and away from the light-hearted animated version they released in 1967.
However, at the end of the trailer, there is a brief shot of Mowgli and Baloo floating down a river where a few notes from the song “Bare Necessities” are heard. This leads me to believe that the film won’t be as dark as the rest of the trailer appears. It is Disney after all.
The Jungle Book, directed by Jon Faverau, hits theaters on April 15, 2016.
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