INTERVIEWER: Hi guys, welcome back to Disney Daily. Today (as you have seen by the trailer),we are joined by some very special guests. We have the producer and the marketing manager of the new Jungle Book movie.
INTERVIEWER: The original Jungle Book movie was released in 1967 and it is still loved to this day. With a total gross box office of $141,843,000, it was a huge hit! Now this may seem very hard to follow but I think we can all agree that this remake was definitely worth the wait!
INTERVIEWER: Welcome!
PRODUCER: Thank you for having us today.
INTERVIEWER: Well it's our pleasure. I know many people have been waiting for this movie including me and by the trailer, I mean, wow, what a film.
PRODUCER: Oh thank you (haha). The dedication from everyone was key for the success of the end product.
INTERVIEWER: Now, we can obviously see by the trailer how new and exciting this movie is but how did this movie differ from the original 1967 Jungle Book?
PRODUCER: We used the CGI process to improve the graphics and animation to truly bring the characters and the jungle to life. We wanted the animals to seem as real as possible so that people could really believe the story. The 1967 version obviously didn't have the technological advancements which was a large part of this new remake. The old version was also more aimed at a younger primary audience and we felt that we needed to stick more to the accuracy of the book. By doing this, we targeted a slightly older audience by making the animals and jungle seem more menacing, fierce and realistic as you saw in the trailer (hand gesture).
INTERVIEWER: Tell us about how you created the movie in a way that appealed to the audience.
PRODUCER: Our aim was to target 12-21 year olds. I switched between ideas from the book and the film. We decided to keep in 'Bare necessities' as it was clearly a fan favourite with the younger children. I mean, most children know the song (both laugh and agree with each other). Also, we did decide to keep in King Louie despite him not actually existing in the book.
INTERVIEWER: In one of the scenes, you can see Lupita's character Raksha with Neel Sethi as Mowgli. How did you shoot that, h-how did you make the scene seem as though he was physically interacting with her (pic on screen)?
PRODUCER: There were a few ways as to how we did it. We had a puppet on a stick which had a sculpted foam head and also a blue padded head. Even when we were filming the scene of Mowgli in the water with Baloo, I was in the water with Neel, splashing him unexpectedly with water to get a real reaction from him whilst he was in mid-song. For this version to be able to use props and outstanding editing was, was amazing to be able to have. It really was just a fantastic movie to shoot.
INTERVIEWER: Now Mike, as the marketing manager for this movie, what were the main formats in your opinion that aided in promoting and marketing the movie?
MARKETING MANAGER: Well, Jon will agree that we had the wonderful pleasure of working with a celebrity driven cast. This allowed us to gather obviously a large following from that. Additionally, we had a spectacular opportunity to collaborate with Kenzo which is a luxury clothing brand originating in Paris (which is also where Disneyland is). So, this collaboration provided a larger fan base by promoting high-end clothing associated with animal prints and the characters from the movie. This allowed a larger revenue and association with this CGI remake.
INTERVIEWER: I remember when I went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens and one of the extended 3D trailers beforehand was for The Jungle Book (points at poster).
MARKETING MANAGER: Ah yes, we wanted to be able to reach out to a larger male audience as the word 'Disney' tends to attract more women and girls. We repeatedly pitched to male audiences in order for everyone to feel intrigued by the movie trailer. Following on from this, we also showed the trailer during the Super Bowl which was a quick way of advertising to a large range and variety of ages and genders.
INTERVIEWER: I understand that Jon and three of the cast members actually went to a 7,800 seat arena at a Disney fan convention in Anaheim.
MARKETING MANAGER: (nodding) Yes, Jon showed sneak-peek footage from the film to the arena and then thousands of movie posters were handed out which was actually the first marketing stunt for The Jungle Book. It was tweeted about by many people (images shown) after it occurred.
INTERVIEWER: Those movie posters were fantastic, especially the ones with the voice actors paired with their onscreen characters.
MARKETING MANAGER: Thank you (smiling). This elevated the minds of the grown ups as it made them pay attention to the stars who were featured on the posters.
INTERVIEWER: Not only have you reached different age and gender audiences, but you also managed to reach people from other countries. How did you manage to do this?
MARKETING MANAGER: Through the years. we've learned that Hispanic people tend to go the movies in fairly large groups and so we decided to team with Univision for a 5-week stunt that brought clips of The Jungle Book to telenovelas, talk shows and even sports coverage. Park theatres in Florida and California offered sneak peek footage of the movie with Jon providing introductions.
INTERVIEWER: Well, I guess its time to wrap it up there! Thank you so much for coming and talking with me.
MARKETING MANAGER: Thank you again for having us.
INTERVIEWER: (look at camera) Make sure you check out The Jungle Book as it is well worth the watch. Please like, comment and subscribe. And we'll see you all next time.
