The Jungle Book: Platinum Edition Press Release, Discussion

[DisneyVillains]

Here is an interesting blurb that was in the Life section of the USA Today paper:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/2007-03-22 ... htm?csp=34

DVD
'The Jungle Book' will come to you!

This fall, The Jungle Book will no longer be on a DVD with simply the bare necessities. A new two-disc The Jungle Book Platinum Edition ($30, due Oct. 2) will have a restored version of the 1967 film, along with The Bare Necessities: The Making of The Jungle Book, which shows producer Walt Disney at work. (It was the last film Disney worked on.) Extras also include seven additional songs, plus an alternate version of Oscar-nominated Bare Necessities, and a new character, Rocky the Rhino, who did not make the final production but was voiced and appeared in early storyboards. —Mike Snider



Interesting to get the title of the documentary, the number of deleted songs and the info about a deleted character (never heard about Rocky before). I also like how they are putting emphasis that this was Walt's last film. Hopefully they will honor that on the DVD.

[blackcauldron85]

DisneyVillains- thanks for posting that; that's neat! I wonder how long that documentary will be, and the previously-mentioned one with Bruce Reitherman (Wolfgang Reitherman's son, who voiced Mowgli).

If some of you can't wait until October to learn about Rocky the Rhino, Floyd Norman, who worked on TJB, wrote about him at this link:
http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/floyd_nor ... /5777.aspx

[Escapay]

A new two-disc The Jungle Book Platinum Edition ($30, due Oct. 2) will have a restored version of the 1967 film, along with The Bare Necessities: The Making of The Jungle Book, which shows producer Walt Disney at work. (It was the last film Disney worked on.) Extras also include seven additional songs, plus an alternate version of Oscar-nominated Bare Necessities, and a new character, Rocky the Rhino, who did not make the final production but was voiced and appeared in early storyboards.

Well that's good. At least now we know they won't simply recycle the 1997 laserdisc featurette (which was The Jungle Book: The Making of a Musical Masterpiece).

*Seven* additional songs? Must be all the Terry Gilkyson songs before the Sherman Brothers came aboard:
"Brothers All"
"The Song of the Seeonee"
"Bare Necessities" (original uptempo jazzy version with different lyrics)
"Monkey See, Monkey Do"
"Hate Song"
"In A Day's Work"
"I Knew I Belonged to Her"

Given the fact that we're seeing material about Rocky the Rhino, I'm guessing/assuming that there's also gonna be a "The Jungle Book that Almost Was" featurette with the original Bill Peet version of the story (before he left the project), which had characters like Buldeo and Ishtar, and a more serious and older Baloo.

This is shaping up to be a nice and impressive new set, if it's still following the formula of previous Platinums (one main doc, one or two minor featurettes, deleted scenes material galore, etc.)

Main Doc: "The Bare Necessities": The Making of the Jungle Book
Minor Featurette: Bruce Reitherman interview
Minor Featurette: Frank Thomas/Ollie Johnston laserdisc featurette (if it's carried over, and I hope it will be)
Deleted Materials: 7 songs
Deleted Materials: Rocky the Rhino
Deleted Materials Featurette: The Jungle Book that Almost Was (assuming, since every Walt-Era Platinum since Cinderella has had this)

All we need is the art galleries (a given), a commentary (a longshot) and the trailers (an even bigger longshot) and it'll be a DVD set worth calling Platinum again.

Escapay

[Disneykid]

This is turning out to be a very solid release, the type of release Peter Pan should've gotten...Sigh...Sorry I'm sounding pessimistic, but it's just that The Jungle Book is one of the middle-of-the-road Disney movies to me (the good-but-not-great ones) whereas Peter Pan is one of my favorites. It kind of hurts me to see that a film I love so much gets rushed treatment to coincide with a postponed DTV film while all the others get superior treatment. Okay, pessimism over. Optimism on, now.

I'm very pleased with what's been announced so far. The deleted songs in particular interest me since I consider The Jungle Book's final soundtrack to be one of the film's strengths. I'm not expecting a commentary on this, though there better be some trailers. This release sounds like it's going to be on-par with Lady and the Tramp, at least.

As for the cover art, I really like the color scheme and composition, but the character's faces are a bit off-model. This doesn't really bother me, though, because for some reason, the off-modelness (yes, I made that word up) kind of gives it a retro look (especially with Shere Khan). We'll probably see this revised before October, anyhow. The only Platinum that hasn't seen a cover revision was The Little Mermaid, and considering how late in the game they showed us that cover, they probably just didn't bother to show the rough version to the public. I just hope they add Bagheera to the final draft.

[blackcauldron85]

I didn't know that UD put up cover art (I didn't see that announcement on the front page). I love the cover art! I, too, wish that Bagheera was on it.

[Escapay]

This is turning out to be a very solid release, the type of release Peter Pan should've gotten...Sigh...Sorry I'm sounding pessimistic, but it's just that The Jungle Book is one of the middle-of-the-road Disney movies to me (the good-but-not-great ones) whereas Peter Pan is one of my favorites. It kind of hurts me to see that a film I love so much gets rushed treatment to coincide with a postponed DTV film while all the others get superior treatment. Okay, pessimism over. Optimism on, now.

Ditto, except my pessimism will likely continue until a proper six-disc edition of Peter Pan comes to fruition.

Escapay

[SpringHeelJack]

Hmm. I like that cover art much more than I thought I would. I'm looking forward to this, as I never liked "The Jungle Book" much as a kid, and I'm thinking I will appreciate it more seeing it now.

[Big Disney Fan]

What kind of stuff is on the TJB laserdisc? Maybe everything there will be on the DVD as well.

[PixarFan2006]

Personally, I find the cover art to be average at best. It's just too crowded tohether. I hope it gets revised a bit.

[numba1lostboy]

I find the cover art a Most of the characters look horribly off model (especially pale Mowgli). The title also looks too small. But the color scheme is pleasing.

Escapay, I am *with* you on that six-disc Peter Pan!

[Simba3]

This is awesome news. It sounds like The Jungle Book's PR release will not be as skimpy in terms of bonus features as Peter Pan's PE release was. I am glad this film is getting a great update, and I am really going to be happy to add this one to my collection. I think the cover art looks really great. Like Disneykid said, I think the color scheme looks really good, though again I agree that Baghera should be on the cover. Maybe some updates will be made, but overall I think it is pretty satisfying.

[Anthony]

hmmm i don't know about that cover art. I hope they do change it a bit. Keep Louie & Kaa, get rid of Shere Khan and the other monkeys in the background. Find some room for Bagheera (how can he not be on the cover?!?), Winifred, Junior and the four vultures Buzzie, Ziggy, Dizzy and Flaps.

[Pyoko]

I'm glad that they're keeping the original soundtracks on the latest PEs after what happened to the Little Mermaid. Has there been any word on whether this was restored by DTS/LDI or by someone else?

[UmbrellaFish]

Pretty good DVD release, but terrible cover art. Mowgli looks strange, Shere Khan looks happy to see him, too many monkey, no Baghera, and personally, Mowgli and Baloo are too big.

[Harbinger]

Cover art is meh. But I can't wait for the release.

[Disneykid]

I'm glad that they're keeping the original soundtracks on the latest PEs after what happened to the Little Mermaid. Has there been any word on whether this was restored by DTS/LDI or by someone else?

From what I've heard, Lowry did work on this as well as 101 Dalmatians. Apparently both restorations have been done since last year. What I'm trying to figure out is what was the deal with Little Mermaid. Did Lowry split with Disney after finishing Jungle Book and Dalmatians, or was Little Mermaid worked on by Technicolor Images in the midst of the other Lowry restorations? If it's the latter, did Lowry offer to do it but Disney turned them down to be cheap? Did Disney request that Lowry do it but they declined considering they had two other restorations (three if you include Peter Pan) being worked on already? Although I'm generally pleased with Little Mermaid's restoration, Lowry could've taken it above and beyond what we currently have (the image gets a little soft at times, colors are sometimes kind of dull, there's some mild grain, and a few ghosting effects).

[TonyWDA]

1.75:1 Widescreen

5.1 Surround Sound with Disney's Enhanced Home Theater Mix

It's all on the front page.

Didn't I say it would get matted?

[2099net]

Surely it won't matter. They're more than likely to offer both versions across both discs given previous US release patterns.

[TonyWDA]

Surely it won't matter. They're more than likely to offer both versions across both discs given previous US release patterns.

Then if that's the case, how come they didn't do it to Robin Hood?

[2099net]

Because it was 1 disc?