When Disney released its new remake of ‘The Jungle Book’ in 2016, audiences were stunned by its visual beauty. The jungles where Mowgli grew up seemed so real that many wondered whether the film had actually been shot in the forests of India.
Since the early 2010s, Disney has been actively turning its classic animated films into spectacular remakes. After the success of Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, and Cinderella, it was time for the famous story of a boy raised by wolves. Director Jon Favreau kept the spirit of the original, adding elements inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s works. At the heart of the story is Mowgli, who is protected by his loyal friends Baloo and Bagheera from the threat of the cunning tiger Shere Khan.
On screen, viewers saw dense tropical forests, majestic animals, and dynamic chase scenes. In reality, however, the entire film, except for the actor playing Mowgli, was created using computer graphics. No animals were present on set, and the scenery was the result of the work of artists and visual effects specialists. The film became a true masterpiece of technology: it used a motion capture system, where actors’ movements are transferred to a digital environment and turned into animation.
To achieve maximum realism, the project collaborated with Jim Henson’s studio, famous for The Muppet Show. There, life-size animal models were created, and puppeteers assisted the actors on set. This is what allowed for such incredible realism, earning the film an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Only one real actor appears on screen — the young Neel Sethi, who played Mowgli. All other characters are the result of computer graphics, though they were brought to life by well-known voices: Idris Elba as Shere Khan, Scarlett Johansson as Kaa, and Bill Murray as Baloo. Moreover, the digital animal characters partially inherited the facial expressions of the actors, which made them even more lifelike. The team paid immense attention to detail, studying the movements and expressions of real wild animals in their natural habitat.
Working alone against green screens was not easy for the young actor. To help him feel more comfortable, Jon Favreau himself sometimes stepped in to play Baloo or Shere Khan during filming.
