Jungle Book gets totally pointless 'living poster', shows the back of a bunch of animals' heads
Disney's live-action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's classic tale is desperate for your attention.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference."Living" posters are here to stay, apparently. And Disney's new take on The Jungle Book was just landed with one.
The 15-second clip zooms in on Mowgli surrounded by the creatures of the jungle before the title explodes out of his fiery torch. Considering it's still just a poster, albeit one that dries up 15 seconds of your time, there's absolutely nothing about the film's content being revealed here. And no imaginable advantage to its existence beyond just normal, non-living posters.
"Living" posters have this odd feeling of creating unnecessary hype around their release; of self-defining themselves as an event equal to a new trailer dropping, then delivering comparatively little in their content. More and more blockbusters, however, appear to be heading in the direction of obsessively manufacturing events around their own marketing and, frankly, it's becoming exhausting.
We're getting to the point where the very art of the movie trailer is being dismantled, piece by piece; we're existing in a constant state of oversaturation. The Jungle Book is months ahead of its cinematic release, yet marketing strategies like the 'living' poster suggest studios believe future success is tied into a need to constantly be on a potential audience's radar.
This new adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's classic tale will feature a CGI-rendered cast of realistic creatures. Think more Life of Pi than Disney's original 1967 animation. Raised by a family of wolves, Mowgli is forced to abandon his home or face elimination by Shere Khan, a tiger who once suffered at the hands of Man. Led both by panther Bagheera and bear Baloo, he comes across a host of creatures whose motivations are not always pure; including the hypnotising python Kaa and orangutan King Louie who, as the song says, desires man's red fire to make his dreams come true.
Iron Man 3 and Elf's Jon Favreau is behind this one; plus, it does features a fairly impressive cast with Bill Murray (Baloo), Ben Kingsley (Bagheera), Idris Elba (Shere Khan), Lupita Nyong'o (wolf Raksha), Scarlett Johansson (Kaa), and Christopher Walken (King Louie) providing voices. Newcomer Neel Sethi is in the role of Mowgli.
The Jungle Book hits UK theatres 15 April.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments