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Directed by: Steve Trenbirth
Written by: Carter Crocker & Karl Geurs
Music by: score by Joel McNeely (Return
to NeverLand) and two new songs by Australian musician Paul Grabowsky
(with lyrics by Lorraine Feather)
Production Wrapped In: October 2002
Release Date: February 14, 2003
Running Time: 78 minutes
Budget: $15 million
U.S. Opening Weekend: $14.109 million over 2,808 screens
Box Office: $47.89 million in the U.S., $130.5 million worldwide
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Mowgli... Haley Joel Osment
Shanti... Mae Whitman
Baloo... John Goodman
Lucky the vulture.. Phil Collins
Shere Khan... Tony Jay (Monsieur D'Arque in Beauty
and the Beast)
Colonel Hathi... Jim Cummings
Bagheera... Bob Joles
Ranjan's father... John Rhys-Davies
Picking up where the original Jungle
Book left off, Jungle Book II finds Mowgli now living in
the man village. Even though he loves his new family and friends, especially
his feisty little step-brother Ranjan and his best pal Shanti, the girl
who initially wooed Mowgli from the jungle, Mowgli misses his buddy Baloo,
who likewise pines for his little man-cub. Baloo isn't the only one hoping
to see Mowgli again soon--Shere Khan impatiently awaits his revenge. When
Mowgli sneaks away to the jungle, the chase is on to see who will find
Mowgli first--his old pals, his new family, or the man-eating tiger.
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Variety
announced in March 2001 that a direct-to-video sequel would premiere in
February 2003 -but it was confirmed in February 2002 that The Jungle
Book II would actually get a theatrical release.
Produced at the
Walt Disney Animation Studios in Paris, the movie is directed by Steve
Trenbirth, the animation director on The Return of Jafar (1994),
Aladdin
and the King of Thieves (1996), The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
(1998) and Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (2000).
It was first rumoured
that the sequel, entitled Mowgli II: Return to the Jungle, would
follow the adventures of one of Mowgli's daughters, Mary, who wants to
live in the forest -but his dad forbids him, since he's afraid Shere Khan
might return... When she runs away in the jungle, she meets Baloo who tries
to understand why she escaped and offers to take her home -only making
her run away even further. Kaa, Shere Khan, King Louie, the vultures, Colonel
Hathi, and Bagheera are all expected to return in this sequel, which will
also introduce Mowgli's wife. 13-year old Haley Joel Osment is listed as
the voice of adult Mowgli, which of course didn't make much sense.
The sequel
will actually pick up immediately after the conclusion of the 1967
original. A leaflet included in the UK edition of Atlantis on
VHS in February 2002 reveals the plot for this theatrical sequel, tentatively
titled The Jungle Book II: Return To The Jungle: "We return to the
classic tale to find Mowgli longing for the good old days with his friend
Baloo. When Mowgli sneaks away from his village for some swinging jungle
fun, his worried girlfriend Shanti goes right after him, with the villianous
tiger Shere Khan back to seek revenge, his freinds must find the courage
in each other to triumph over their fearsome foe."
Actor John Goodman
commented in October 2001 that he "started Monsters,
Inc. about halfway through Emperor's
New Groove and then started doing Jungle Book 2 about three
quarters of the way through [Monsters]. We did a couple pretty good
songs [for Jungle -and] there's a small repetition of 'The Bare
Necessities'. It's just everybody remembers Phil Harris['s Baloo] from
it. I try not to imitate him but go along those lines, so it is kind of
a challenge."
Haley Joel Osment
explained in March 2002 that he found acting with just his voice much more
difficult than his usual roles: "you have to get the character across using
just your voice, you can't use your body or mannerisms that you would normally."
MTV reported in
August 2002 that a new CD called "Disneymania"
would be released on September 17, 2002, and include a remake of "I Wanna
Be Like You" from the newly retitled The Jungle Book 2 by Smash
Mouth.
The film gets
a musical boost from both a reprise of "The Bare Necessities" and Smash
Mouth's rousing rendition of "I Wan’na Be Like You" as well as new tunes
like the show-stopping "W-I-L-D" and the swinging beat of "Jungle Rhythm."
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The Buena Vista
International site InCinema.com.au
states that "Return to the Jungle [different title] starts off where
The
Jungle Book left off. We return to the classic tale to find Mowgli
longing for the good old days with his friend Baloo. When Mowgli sneaks
away from his village for some swinging jungle fun, his worried girlfriend
Shanti goes right after him. With the villianous tiger Shere Khan back
to seek revenge, his friends must find the courage in each other to triumph
over their fearsome foe." And mixed up the cast with that of a 1998 live
action project starring Brandon Baker, Rene Russo, Alan Cumming with voices
by Fred Savage, Kathy Najimy, Wallace Shawn...!
With an Australian
director, Steve Trenbirth, it started life in Los Angeles, with scripting,
early storyboarding and recording the characters' voices, before shifting
to Sydney.
The Jungle
Book II was originally due for the video market but Disney executives
were so impressed they decided to give it a cinema release next year. "It
shows the talent base here--a lot of it we've had to develop ourselves.
They're really world class," commented the general manager of Walt Disney
Animation Australia, Phil Oakes.
About 220 animators
and other staff from Walt Disney Animation Australia worked on this project
during 3 years.
The character
of King Louis the ape does not return because of a legal dispute: Louis
Prima’s widow, Gia, sued the Walt Disney Company back in 1999 for unpaid
royalties. Jim Hill explains
that "Disney settled with the Prima family back in May 2001 for an undisclosed
sum. But the ripple effect from this behind-closed-doors deal continued
to roll through the company. First the upcoming appearance of The
Jungle Book's King Louie on House of Mouse had to be reworked:
if Jim Cummings (the noted voice-over artist who has been voicing the animated
orang since Prima passed away back in 1978) ever again imitated Louis Prima’s
distinct voice, that act alone would potentially open Disney up to for
yet another onslaught by Gia’s attorneys. After a somewhat labored negotiation,
a compromise was reached, and a King Louie look-alike named King Larry
incorporated in the show. As for The Jungle Book II--Disney Television
Animation’s next theatrical release--all of the colorful characters from
the 1967 film will be back… except, of course, King Louie."
The sequel uses
the same style of hand-drawn animation as the original Jungle
Book (1967).
Jim
Hill reported in October 2002 that the movie was "a relatively well
animated but still somewhat tame follow-up to the 1967 feature length cartoon.
Those folks who have already seen the work-in-progress version of Jungle
Book II say that the sequel (which started out as a direct-to-video
project) could use some of the energy that the King Louie sequence brought
to the original film."
In November 2002,
'Monkey Boy' told AICN
that "if the finished whole lives up to the parts I saw, this will be a
beautiful movie. Glorious 2D animation, and they really got it right. All
the characters are carried over well in terms of their rendering, and the
jungle backgrounds that were in place are lovely. Kudos to an animation
staff that obviously did their homework. The new voices are very good.
The songs [which include a bouncy number called 'That Jungle Rhythm' and
a redux of 'Bear Necessities] are tremendously forgettable. My main complaint
is that all these technical achievements are hung on a script which is
about on par with a 3rd rate episode of Rescue Rangers. Mowgli has been
living in the man village for awhile, and is friends with the water jug
girl from the end of the 1st movie. He gets bored, escapes to the jungle,
is hunted by and escapes from Shere Khan, and goes back to the man village
at then end. It's all too neat, too bland, too familiar. Nothing happens
that didn't happen in a more entertaining way in [The Jungle Book]. In
fact, it feels very much as if their one and only motivation in making
this was to cannibalize an existing property in the safest way possible.
Having loved the 1st movie, it was overall a very depressing experience
watching this one. It seems very short sighted of Disney. Sure, this will
serve its purpose, and parents will buy the DVD because it's the Jungle
Book and nothing's particularly wrong with it. But will anyone give
a tinker's cuss about it 20 years from now?"
Musician Lorraine
Feather wrote on her website in December 2002 that "hot on the heels
of Jungle Book II’s release, will come the companion album, Jungle
Music I think it’ll be called. It will include Paul Grabowsky’s and
my two songs from the film, the end-title ballad I wrote with Joel McNeely
(composer of the score as well); two other songs Paul and I wrote that
were dropped from the movie but reinstated for the album; and some other
stuff! I went to LA to co-produce three tracks, with Joel and with my longtime
friend Carlos Del Rosario, aka Yutaka, and sing on one of them."
"He likes to have a good time," said John Goodman, 50, of Baloo the bear,
who adds that he had no trouble relating to his fun-loving cartoon alter
ego. John was 15 years old when the original film debuted in 1967. "That
explains why I've never seen The Jungle
Book. I'm not exactly certain what I was into back then, but I
know it wasn't Disney cartoons. "I saw [Baloo's voice Phil Harris] at a
race track once. That's more what I was into, I guess." After being
cast in the sequel, John Goodman deliberately avoided the original so as
not to be unduly influenced by the distinctive voice performance of the
hipster actor/musician Phil Harris. "We fooled around in our first recording
session until we got something they were comfortable with. Something that
wasn't too Southern or too ethnic or anything." Even though singing is
hardly a new thing for Goodman,the songs in The Jungle Book 2 were
a major challenge for him. "It was really hard work on this one. It's a
little out of my range, such as it is. My three-note range. But it worked
out all right. I'm not much of a singer anymore," he said, blaming cigarettes.
"My voice isn't what it used to be. I haven't taken very good care of it."
John Goodman said that he was eager for his 12-year-old daughter Molly
Evangeline to see the sequel, so he booked a private showing. "The night
of the movie screening, Molly had an audition for a school production of
The
Wizard of Oz. That was her priority and I agreed." One of the most
sought after voice actors in Hollywood (A Dinosaur's
Story, The Emperor's New
Groove, Monsters Inc.), he
is always eager to see the finished version of his animated films. "When
you're doing these things, you have no idea how it's going to turn out
because they get you to deliver the lines in 10 or 12 different ways. It's
fun to see which versions they use and how they tie it all together."
The video &
DVD version of The Jungle Book II is tentatively slated to go on
sale next July.
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