First Trailer for Andy Serkis’ ‘Mowgli’ Is the Darker Side of the ‘Jungle Book’ We Know
When one thinks of The Jungle Book, the vibrant colors and giddy songs of the 1967 animated Disney classic come to mind. But Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 collection of short stories that inspired the Disney retellings are much darker. Now we’re getting the Andy Serkis gritty reboot.
Serkis is back behind the camera for Mowgli, bringing the classic story of the boy raised by a jungle full of wolves to life with a mix of motion-capture and live-action. And who better to take on such a technological feat than the master of mo-cap himself? Even while juggling directing duties, Serkis is also putting on the mo-cap suit to play Baloo.
The first trailer gives a taste of how much more mature the film aims to be than Disney’s animated version and Jon Favreau’s live-action take. It teases a pretty terrifying Shere Khan, voiced and performed by Benedict Cumberbatch, and a deliciously menacing Cate Blanchett as Kaa. You sure won’t be humming along to “Bare Necessities” in this version. Here’s the full synopsis:
Blending live action and performance capture, the story follows the upbringing of the human child Mowgli (Rohan Chand) raised by a wolf pack in the jungles of India. As he learns the often-harsh rules of the jungle, under the tutelage of a bear named Baloo (Andy Serkis) and a panther named Bagheera (Christian Bale), Mowgli becomes accepted by the animals of the jungle as one of their own. All but one: the fearsome tiger Shere Khan. (Benedict Cumberbatch). But there may be greater dangers lurking in the jungle, as Mowgli comes face to face with his human origins. The other story’s central animal characters are: Kaa, the snake (Cate Blanchett); the leader of the wolf pack, Akela (Peter Mullan); the scavenging hyena, Tabaqui (Tom Hollander); Nisha, the female wolf (Naomie Harris), who adopts the baby Mowgli as one of her cubs; Nisha’s mate, Vihaan (Eddie Marsan); and Mowgli’s Brother Wolf (Jack Reynor).
That is quite the stacked cast! You can take a look at the behind-the-scenes work involving the cast in a new featurette video as well.
Mowgli hits theaters on October 19.