‘The Jungle Book’ Reveals First Official Poster

Yesterday at D23's live-action panel, the studio gave a presentation on The Jungle Book, director Jon Favreau’s re-telling of the classic tale, which blends live-action with CGI. Disney revealed the first official poster for the upcoming film, as well as a few new details and the first footage.

The footage won’t be appearing online, but Slashfilm offered a writeup of what was screened during the presentation — that footage featured a voiceover from Scarlett Johansson, who plays the python Kaa, and included peeks at various other CG characters, including Bagheera the panther (Ben Kingsley), Shere Khan the tiger (Idris Elba), and the introduction of Louie the orangutan (Christopher Walken).

But the clip that really got the audience excited was one of Baloo the bear, voiced by Bill Murray. During the footage, Baloo hums the tune to the classic Jungle Book song “Bare Necessities” while floating down a river with Mowgli. The young boy is the only live-action character in the film, played by newcomer Neel Sethi.

In addition, Disney revealed the first official poster, which is quite charming and evocative of their 1967 animated film:

Disney

The film is not entirely CG — there are live-action settings and sequences, but the animals are entirely animated. Here is the official synopsis:

Directed by Jon Favreau (“Chef,” “Iron Man,” “Elf”), based on Rudyard Kipling’s timeless stories and inspired by Disney’s classic animated film, “The Jungle Book” is an all-new live-action epic adventure about Mowgli (newcomer Neel Sethi), a man-cub who’s been raised by a family of wolves. But Mowgli finds he is no longer welcome in the jungle when fearsome tiger Shere Khan (voice of Idris Elba), who bears the scars of Man, promises to eliminate what he sees as a threat. Urged to abandon the only home he’s ever known, Mowgli embarks on a captivating journey of self-discovery, guided by panther-turned-stern mentor Bagheera (voice of Ben Kingsley), and the free-spirited bear Baloo (voice of Bill Murray). Along the way, Mowgli encounters jungle creatures who don’t exactly have his best interests at heart, including Kaa (voice of Scarlett Johannsson), a python whose seductive voice and gaze hypnotizes the man-cub, and the smooth-talking King Louie (voice of Christopher Walken), who tries to coerce Mowgli into giving up the secret to the elusive and deadly red flower: fire.

The Jungle Book also features the voices of Lupita Nyong’o and Giancarlo Esposito, and hits theaters on April 15, 2016.