Category: Disney News

The gig: Scott Trowbridge, 50, is creative portfolio executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, which makes him the innovation guru assigned to expand the $4-billion “Star Wars” franchise throughout the Disney theme parks. That assignment includes devising new “Star Wars”-inspired merchandise, food and drink ideas and overseeing the 14-acre “Star Wars” expansion that will soon be under construction at Disneyland and at Disney’s Hollywood Studios near Orlando, Fla.

Feeling the pressure: Walt Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger challenged Trowbridge and his team to build something ambitious. And Trowbridge knows that every “Star Wars” buff has huge expectations for Disney’s efforts to build a reasonable facsimile of their favorite space opera. “People have been living and dreaming about ‘Star Wars’ for 40 years, and for the first time we are going to give them the opportunity to take what they have only seen on the screen and we are going to let them walk into it,” he said. “Absolutely, it keeps me up at night.”

No rehash: The Disney executive wouldn’t spill details about the “Star Wars” project but said visitors can expect more than just a re-creation of scenes from past movies. “You will be participating in a story that literally involves you and not reliving somebody else’s story,” he said. No date for the opening of “Star Wars” land has been announced and Trowbridge said his only frustration is that he can’t open it tomorrow. “Unfortunately, ambitious plans take some time,” he said.

A Midwest boy: Trowbridge grew up in St. Louis and got his first taste of Disney when he visited Disneyland with his family, at the age of 7. His second trip to California came when he moved to Los Angeles to study film at USC. He later realized that creating theme park attractions combined his love of film and theater. “I was the worst 7-year-old to visit the park because I was constantly thinking, ‘How did they do that?'”

Hello Kitty: After college, Trowbridge responded to a help-wanted ad from Landmark Entertainment, a Pasadena company that was helping design a Japanese theme park for Sanrio Co., owners of the Hello Kitty franchise. “They shipped me out and gave me a job that was beyond my experience,” Trowbridge said. After a few years of seasoning, Trowbridge jumped in 1992 to Universal Parks & Resorts’ R&D division. There he helped develop the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, the first ride to combine moving vehicles with synchronized film projectors and 3-D technology. That ride won a Golden Ticket award for 12 consecutive years from Amusement Today magazine. He also oversaw early development of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which opened at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure in 2010.

Making a dragon fly: The biggest challenge is to create something never seen before, he said. Trowbridge, hired by Walt Disney Imagineering in 2007, recalls being asked to create a flying, fire-breathing dragon for a 2012 publicity event at the opening of Walt Disney World’s Fantasy Land. “When someone says ‘It’s impossible,’ that’s what gets me going.” Trowbridge wouldn’t say how he accomplished the task but news reports explained that the dragon was carried aloft by a manned ultralight vehicle, which wasn’t visible at night from the ground. “None of this is easy,” he said. “The hard part is making it look easy.”

Be the dumb guy: Creating spectacles like the flying dragon means bringing together top engineers, electricians and pyrotechnic experts, among others. Trowbridge said his job is to challenge the experts to combine their skills to finish the project even when he doesn’t understand all of the technology himself. “My job is to constantly be the dumbest person in the room and surround myself with people who are experts,” Trowbridge said.

Harry Potter versus “Star Wars”: Universal Studios Hollywood is set to open the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on April 7 — an attraction nearly identical to the Orlando project that Trowbridge worked on briefly. Industry experts say the Harry Potter land is sure to be the biggest theme park draw in Southern California, at least until Trowbridge’s “Star Wars” expansion opens at Disneyland. But he brushes off suggestions that the two parks are gearing up for an arms race. “I don’t think of it as a competition,” Trowbridge said, adding that the technology used in both projects “raises the bar for the entire industry.”

The final test: Trowbridge has a simple test to determine a ride’s success. “The most rewarding thing is when I stand at the exit of a ride and I watch the faces and see how many people run out of the exit and run into the entrance again.”

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Box office hits may slow in 2016 at Comcast’s (CMCSA) NBCUniversal after a big run last year, but operating synergies between its film business and burgeoning theme park build-outs could be the gift that keeps on giving.

Think Walt Disney (DIS), which a plucky Comcast tried to buy in 2004. Comcast instead pivoted and purchased all of NBC Universal from General Electric (GE) in 2011, getting cable TV networks, broadcaster NBC, a movie studio and two theme parks. Now a theme park rivalry is growing between Disney and NBCU as Comcast steps up investments in Florida and California and expands overseas as well.

Comcast-NBCU in September acquired a 51% stake in Universal Studios Japan’s theme park in Osaka for $1.5 billion. It’s also building a $3.3 billion theme park in Beijing with local investors, slated to open in 2019.

Comcast’s U.S. theme park attendance has climbed, owing to Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter and other projects.  In 2015, Comcast’s theme park revenue jumped 27% to $3.34 billion, pro forma for the Japan deal, in Q4 rising 38.6% and topping $1 billion in a quarter for the first time. Operating income rose 42% to $1.17 billion. Excluding Japan, Q4 theme park revenue still rose 15.6%.

“Theme parks must now be viewed as a foundational element of the Comcast story,” Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson, said in a research report.

Harry Potter, Volcano Bay Coming

This April, NBCU plans to open a Harry Potter attraction in Hollywood. In 2017, it’s slated to open up a water park, Volcano Bay, in Orlando, Fla. On Comcast’s Q4 earnings conference call this month, executives confirmed the acquisition of 475 acres of land, for $130 million, in Orlando, near an existing theme park.

“We have a lot of land to work with,” noted  NBCU CEO Stephen Burke on the call.  Aside from expanding its theme parks, Comcast will likely build more hotels, a growing revenue source.

While a U.S. recession could slow park attendance in any given year, Comcast’s theme park business is less tied to big events than is broadcaster NBC, which gets periodic lifts from the Olympics, Super Bowl and election-year advertising.

New blockbuster movies, as well as older movies,  provide grist for new attractions, since NBCU holds the intellectual property. Under Comcast, NBCU has added park attractions tied to its “Transformers” and “Fast & Furious” movies. More park attractions are on the way, analysts say, such as Reign of Kong and the Incredible Hulk Coaster.

NBCU’s filmed entertainment revenue jumped 46% to $7.3 billion in 2105 thanks to the box office success of “Minions,” “Jurassic World,” “Furious 7” and “Fifty Shades of Grey.” The film unit’s operating income rose 75% to $1.21 billion.

In 2016, NBCU has a weaker slate of films, analysts say, though new movies will come from its Focus Features unit, formerly USA Pictures.

JPMorgan estimates film revenue will slide 33% in 2016, with operating cash flow also down.

Reinvestments could spark a stronger 2017, when new releases will include the newest Mummy flick, “Mena,” as well as “Fast & Furious 8” and “Despicable Me 3,” according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.

On Comcast’s earnings call, CEO Brian Roberts noted that the cable TV company has doubled the operating cash flow at NBCU since it took a controlling stake in 2009.

Comcast’s free cash flow growth is lower than operating cash flow because it includes Comcast’s sizable investments in broadcaster NBC’s content, such as winning rights to broadcast the Olympics, plus theme parks. In 2015,  NBCU capital spending rose 13.5% to $1.4 billion.

Higher Ad Rates, Fewer Viewers For NBCU

Comcast bought its controlling stake in NBCU close to the bottom of the advertising cycle. NBCU has been garnering higher ad rates. However, broadcasters and cable networks in general face falling audience ratings and a dropoff in pay-TV subscribers.

NBCU’s cable networks — including USA, Syfy, Bravo, E! and CNBC  – generated 70% of NBCU’s operating cash flow as of mid-2013. In 2015, the cable networks provided only 54.6% of OCF.

“It’s hard to build a bullish story for Comcast’s mostly middle-of-the-road general entertainment networks,” said Moffett, though USA produced a hit in “Mr. Robot” in 2015.

Theme parks churned out nearly 24% of OCF in 2015, up from 21% in 2014.

Including Japan, theme park OCF could hit $2.2 billion in  2016.  By 2020, theme park contribution to NBCU’s total OCF could rise to 35%, analysts say.

Disney on Tuesday posted results for the December quarter, its fiscal Q1, and analysts say its theme park and resorts business performed well.  U.S. park attendance rose 10%, with revenue growing 9.5% to $4.28 billion. Disney has been refreshing older attractions, such as Star Wars.

In June, Disney is expected to open a park in Shanghai, its first in mainland China. In 2017, it’s slated to open an Avatar-themed park in Orlando.

Like Comcast-NBCU, Disney seeks synergies between films and theme parks.

“(With) Shanghai, Disney will have the opportunity to use the park to help exploit its considerable intellectual property portfolio, (and) the park may help open up the Chinese film market to more Disney releases in the future,” Omar Sheikh, a Credit Suisse analyst, said in a research report.

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Activists allege majority owner Walt Disney undervalued European resort’s assets at their expense

Minority shareholders in the struggling Euro Disney resort say they have been taken for a ride.

In a cluster of legal disputes playing out in French courts, a group of activist shareholders alleges Walt Disney Co., the majority owner of Paris-listed Euro Disney, has siphoned off excessive royalties while Euro Disney’s assets have been undervalued, in an attempt to drive out minority shareholders.

During a restructuring that concluded in November and that Euro Disney said was designed to, and did, improve its finances, Walt Disney was able to almost double its stake in the firm.

The group of hedge funds, led by Paris-based Charity Investment Asset Management’s CIMA fund, claims small shareholders weren’t told of the true value of the firm’s assets and the health of its business.
Euro Disney says the claims are baseless and that the restructuring was a positive for Euro Disney. An executive said contracts with Walt Disney had been disclosed since it became public, while royalties were within market comparisons. A spokeswoman for Walt Disney said, “We believe that the case is utterly without merit.”

Euro Disney raised money from outside shareholders when it went public in 1989 and has remained a separate company from Walt Disney, part-owned by and paying royalties to the U.S. firm.

Lampooned on cartoon series The Simpsons for a lack of visitors and financial problems, Euro Disney has been a disaster for shareholders since flotation in 1989, falling around 99%.

Other claims of the shareholders include alleged misuse of Euro Disney’s assets and false accounting. The group is also demanding the repayment of €930 million ($1.05 billion) to Euro Disney, in repayment of “exorbitant” and “abusive” royalties and other fees paid to the U.S. firm.

There has been “a siphoning off of money and undervaluation of key assets to enable them to buy off the minorities,” said Guy Wyser-Pratte, a French-born New Yorker and veteran investor who heads U.S. firm Wyser-Pratte Management Co. His firm owns shares in Euro Disney and is helping fund the litigation.

CIMA filed a complaint with the French criminal authorities last year against Walt Disney and subsidiaries, alleging misuse of corporate assets, filing false accounts and providing false information. A spokesman for the financial prosecutor said a judicial inquiry had been opened and would be conducted by one or several investigating judges.

A civil case against Walt Disney subsidiaries, demanding the repayment of €930 million to Euro Disney, was filed to the Commercial Court of Meaux in October.

The Autorite des Marches Financiers, the French financial regulator, last year approved Walt Disney’s offer to purchase Euro Disney shares. CIMA’s appeal was rejected by the Paris Court of Appeal in September. CIMA is now appealing to the French Supreme Court.

Issues for the hedge funds, which say they control roughly 3.5% of Euro Disney, came to a head with the highly complex recapitalization, which concluded in November.

The plan involved a cash injection of around €420 million, made or guaranteed by Walt Disney, and the conversion of €600 million of debt held by Walt Disney into Euro Disney shares.

Walt Disney then offered to buy out other shareholders, before letting them buy shares. As a result, Walt Disney’s stake in Euro Disney almost doubled, from 40% to 76.7%, announced in November.

Rather than being a rescue plan, this was an attempt by Walt Disney to buy up more shares, says CIMA.

‘There has been ‘a siphoning off of money and undervaluation of key assets to enable them to buy off the minorities.’’
—Guy Wyser-Pratte
“The intent of the plan was to recapitalize the Euro Disney Group—not to increase” Walt Disney’s stake, said the Euro Disney executive, adding that Walt Disney let other shareholders keep their stakes.

CIMA claims that, during the recapitalization, Euro Disney’s business outlook was too pessimistic. In January last year the firm said in a statement it expected annual attendance to fall by around 2.6 million guests and earnings to tumble 45% by 2023.

But results were better, say the funds. In November, it reported a 25% increase in earnings on the previous year and visitor numbers up by 600,000.

The Euro Disney executive said the business outlook had been drawn up a year and a half ago. The results don’t “change the fact” the recapitalization was “critical” to Euro Disney, he said.

Another key battle is the value of approximately 5,510 acres of land near Disneyland on the outskirts of Paris, around half of which is yet to be developed.

Ledouble, an expert firm appointed by Euro Disney’s supervisory board during the recapitalization, said it concluded Euro Disney’s total assets were worth less than the €1.25 per share offer price.

A report commissioned by CIMA estimates the capital gain from the land rights at €1.9 billion. This, plus other gains, means Euro Disney had an asset value above €3.7 per share, it says. The shares trade at €1.26.

Euro Disney disputes this. “Real estate is a small part of our business,” said the executive, adding that real-estate activities have on average generated a margin of €10 million a year.

Another of CIMA’s complaints centers on incentives given to Euro Disney management, which it says present a potential conflict of interest.

While employees are granted stock options in Euro Disney, its management committee was in 2014 granted almost €3 million in stock options and restricted stock units in Walt Disney—whose shares are up around 240% over the past decade—according to Euro Disney documentation.

The Euro Disney executive said that “Euro Disney executives are employees of a Disney subsidiary and like all executives of Disney subsidiaries they receive Disney stock options.”

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Disney is closing the Cambridge office of its research arm this week, saying it no longer needs the branch, the company confirmed.

“We regularly evaluate our organization to meet the evolving needs of our business,” said Jennifer Liu, a spokeswoman for Disney Research, in a statement.

The secretive facility is one of four Disney Research labs — others are in Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Zurich. Disney has repeatedly denied Herald requests to discuss the lab for a year and a half, but a Disney Research website indicated work on artificial intelligence and 3-D printing was being done there.

The Cambridge office — known as Disney Research Boston — is the smallest of the four, and every employee was offered relocation to another lab, Liu said.

It is unclear exactly how many employees work at the local lab, but an online list of Disney Research employees showed only two in Boston. An archived version of that page from September lists nine Cambridge-based employees.

The lab opened in 2011, and will close tomorrow.

Projects included ways to reproduce massive objects in Disney theme parks by 3-D printing their small components and “algorithms that learn to predict the future based on past experiences,” according to the lab’s website.

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The long-serving CEO isn’t buying Wall Street’s jitters about the company’s performance

Ever since Bob Iger took over as CEO of Disney in 2005, the stock has risen 300%—five times better than the Dow. Now Iger wants Wall Street to know that Disney is still growing strong under his leadership, tumbling markets be damned.

He got his chance to make the point on the evening of Feb. 9. Disney delivered earnings that blew past analyst estimates thanks to the success of Star Wars, and yet jittery investors hammered the stock down as much as 7% on the news. In a market shellshocked from an abrupt selloff that has sucked $6 trillion in value from global stocks in five weeks, even good news starts to sound like bad news.

On a call to discuss earnings, Iger explained Disney’s growth in detail, only to be peppered by questions that are normally reserved for a company in crisis. Would Disney consider splitting itself up? Why buy back so much stock instead of pursuing M&A deals? Above all, is Disney’s TV business, including ESPN, at risk from massive cord cutting?

Iger was having none of it. As the call wore on, he grew defensive, tetchy, even exasperated. He boasted that, on a compounded basis, Disney has grown by 14% a year. “Pretty damn strong, too,” he added, prompting an analyst to ask, “How should we think through the natural growth rate from here?”

“You should think nothing but happy thoughts about this company,” Iger said bluntly. “All right,” the analyst replied. “I didn’t mean to ask an unfair question.”

The question was entirely fair, yet one can understand Iger’s impatience with a market that has gone from hailing him as one of the most successful CEOs of the past decade to the captain of a ship that is looking outdated in the age of Netflix.

Here is a CEO who did a remarkable job of not just turning Disney around but building a strategy for years of solid profit growth. Who shed less profitable businesses in favor of powerhouses like Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm. Who, in the wake of a long and bitter board battle, remade Disney as a smooth-operating media giant in the 21st Century.

Talk of the 65-year-old Iger retiring has left investors uneasy in recent years, and so he has extended his tenure as CEO twice to keep his plan on track. But Disney’s stock has lost nearly a quarter of its value over the past six months, following reports last summer that Nielsen counted 3.2 million fewer ESPN subscribers during the previous year. Iger later confirmed that ESPN saw “some modest sub losses,” but not as many as Nielsen claimed.

That fed a narrative that Disney’s television unit, which makes up about 45% of its total revenue, was suffering a slow death by millions of cable-cord cuts. Yesterday, though, Iger said Nielsen’s numbers on cord cutting were wrong. “Nielsen corrected those numbers, reducing the loss of subs by some 2 million households.” Instead, Iger realized that the loss in ESPN subscribers “was largely due to the fact that ESPN was not part of skinny bundles that had launched.”

The distinction may seem slight, but it matters. The “skinny bundles” are trimmed-down cable packages that have recently emerged, such as the 16 channels offered for $20 a month by Sling TV. These are pay-TV models offered over the Internet for people with no hunger for the basic-cable buffet. In short, ESPN’s decision to eschew these packages was eroding its subscriber base.

Now, Disney still sees most ESPN subscribers keeping their cable subscriptions, but it’s opening up to new digital models. That’s a reversal from Disney aversion to non-cable avenues like Sling, and it seems to be working. “In the last couple of months, we have actually seen an uptick in ESPN subs, which is encouraging.”

On the call, Disney executives returned again and again to the topic of ESPN to praise it as a robust asset. Four out of five adults in the U.S. connect with ESPN on some platform every month. Ad revenue from the channel rose 25% last quarter. But analysts kept looking for cracks in this shiny facade. Would, for example, a shift to newer platforms hurt Disney’s ability to negotiate contracts with the cable giants?

Iger was blunt again. “I actually believe that this notion that either the expanded basic bundle is experiencing its demise or that ESPN is cratering in any way from a sub perspective is just ridiculous,” he said. “Sports is too popular. And it’s not just at ESPN.”

As he spoke, Disney’s stock rebounded, but was still trading around 2% below its official close Tuesday. That may be due to lingering uncertainties, which a lack of guidance did little to dispel. Asked why ESPN subs had ticked up, Iger said he didn’t know. Asked whether the downward trend in subscriptions was abating, he replied, “We really don’t know. We just feel great about the product and we believe that the predictions that many have made are more dire than they should be.”

If that’s the case, it would be welcome news to Disney’s investors. For now, many of them remain jittery, and Disney’s lack of guidance isn’t helping. Still, it’s rare to see a CEO not passively blame weakness on a slowing global economy but instead loudly defend his company’s strengths.

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Thanks to a galaxy far, far away, Disney’s profits have never been higher.

On Tuesday, Walt Disney DIS -4.55% posted record-breaking profits in its fiscal first quarter, powered by the blockbuster release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and helping offset challenges with ESPN.

“Driven by the phenomenal success of Star Wars, we delivered the highest quarterly earnings in the history of our company,” said CEO Robert Iger in prepared remarks.

Net income in the quarter rose 32% to $2.88 billion, or $1.73 per share. Excluding items, earnings came in at $1.63 per share, far ahead of analyst estimates of $1.45 per share.

Revenue soared 14% to $15.24 billion, also well above analyst estimates of $14.75 billion.

Star Wars has been a roaring success for Disney, just as the Frozen effect thaws. At the box office alone, the movie has raked in $2 billion, making it only the third movie in history to cross that number.

Ticket sales helped Disney’s studio entertainment division post an 86% rise in profit during the quarter. More people also streamed old Star Wars movies at home, the company said, which helped pushhome entertainment revenues higher.

Disney’s consumer products and interactive media division saw a 23% rise in profit, helped by higher licensing revenues for Star Wars merchandise and games.

In addition to the benefit from Star Wars, investors were also watching closely for how ESPN fared during the quarter. Disney said that weakness at ESPN contributed to a 5% drop in the cable network’s profit, citing higher ESPN programming costs.

Disney has faced falling ESPN subscriber numbers as more people cut the cord and watch sports online. On an earnings call with investors, CEO Iger acknowledged ESPN has received “a lot of attention recently.” He offered some positive news, saying ”in the last couple of months, we’ve actually seen an uptick in ESPN subs, which has been encouraging.” No numbers were provided.

Disney’s parks and resorts business saw a 22% rise in profits, helped by more expensive theme park tickets, cruises and hotel rooms and increased consumer spending. Strength in the U.S. helped offset weakness abroad. In addition to higher costs at its international parks and resorts, attendance fell during the quarter at Disneyland Paris, which was closed for four days in November following the terror attacks.

Shares of Disney fell 5% to $87.23 in after-hours trading. They are down 11% over the last 12 months, lagging the broader market.

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Tony Award-winning actress and singer Idina Menzel poses on July 28, 2015 with Elsa, Anna and Olaf from Disney’s ‘Frozen’ during ‘Frozen Summer Fun’ at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Menzel took a break from her world tour to visit Walt Disney World Resort. (Photo by Matt Stroshane/Disney Parks via Getty Images)

It started as a popular animated film and went on to become one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time. Now the Frozen brand has theater in its future, as an adaptation of the Disney kids movie is reportedly being written, and it will eventually end up on Broadway.

The musical has been expected for some time, but now there is a timeline, and fans around the world are likely already wondering where they can purchase tickets. Frozen will begin showing outside of New York next summer, and then it will come to Broadway at some point in 2018. That may seem like a long time from now, but there is a lot of work that goes into creating a top-notch musical, and it sounds like the crew that’s been hired is just getting started.

Plenty of the people who developed the story for the cinema have signed on to do the same for the theater. Married songwriting duoKristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez are back on board to recreate the songs that the world fell in love with (some people are still singing “Let It Go”), and the film’s writer and co-director, Jennifer Lee, will direct. While she may have gotten her start on Broadway, there is no word if original “Go” singer Idina Menzel will have a spot in the show, but for those hoping: don’t hold your breath.

Sending Frozen to Broadway is a smart decision on Disney’s part, and there is no reason to believe it won’t be successful. The film was created with a $150 million budget, and it went on to gross just under $1.3 billion, making it the highest-grossing animated film of all time. Add on the millions upon millions in merchandise that the familiar characters have shifted throughout the past few years, and it’s clear that the public is ready to spend their hard-earned cash on all things Frozen. There is an entire generation of young people who are currently growing up with the title, and it is sure to become a staple for families visiting New York City who want to see an age-appropriate and crowd-pleasing musical while they are in town.

The Frozen soundtrack was expected to be a success when it was first released, but few could have anticipated just how well the album would eventually go on to be. While it debuted at number eighteen on the Billboard 200, it eventually made its way to the top of the charts, where it would lead for thirteen nonconsecutive weeks. It ended up being one of the best-selling soundtracks ever. The album also launched the hit single “Let It Go”, which peaked at number five and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, as well as the Grammy for Best Song Written For Visual Media.

If you’re anything like us, you’re unashamedly obsessed with Disney songs. Whether your favorite tune is “Hakuna Matata” from the Lion King or Elsa’s famously addicting “Let it Go” in Frozen, chances are you (or your children) know all of the words.

This a cappella group must have felt the same way because they created an astounding medley of Disney love songs that simply took our breath away. They combined the tunes from Tangled,Tarzan, and Hercules to craft a sound so beautiful, you’ll want to play it on repeat all day.

Pentatonix’s Kirstie Maldonado and her boyfriend Jeremy Michael Lewis may be the main focus in this gorgeous medley, but Voctave, the backup singers, are what make this recording truly special. Without using any instruments, the group manages to achieve a sound so impeccable that we have to do a double take to make sure there’s not a drum set or guitar hidden anywhere.

Sure enough, it’s 100 percent real—and 100 percent going on our playlist.

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Disney have unveiled our best look yet at their upcoming live action remake of The Jungle Book, and depending on how much you cherish the original, it’s a kind of surreal experience.

Along with all the big budget advertising campaigns and halftime performances, yesterday’s Superbowl primetime free-for-all has also produced a swathe of new trailers for some of the most hyped movie properties, from Independence Day to new Marvel titles like Captain America.And, of course, the latest instalment in Disney’s quest to recreate some of its biggest and most iconic animated flicks for a new generation.

It’s the studio’s second stab at a live action Jungle Book, following 1994’s Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book starring Jason Scott Lee and a young Queen Cersei/Lena Headey.

With star Neel Sthi front and centre as Mowgli, this new trailer introduces us to the bulk of his computer generated animal co-stars, including antagonist Shere Khan (Idris Elba), mentoring panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), big ol’ python Kaa (Scarlett Johanssen) and loveable bear Baloo (Bill Murray). Unlike the original, the Jon Favreau (Iron Man) directed The Jungle Bookwon’t strictly be a musical, but based on the trailer will feature enough musical cues to tug at your childhood nostalgia including a dramatic reading of Bear Necessities.

Due to land in April, the film also features the likes of Christopher Walken, Lupita Nyong’o andGiancarlo Esposito. One thing is for sure, Hollywood’s capacity to create CGI monkeys and assorted jungle critters has come a long, long way from Jumanji.

via GIPHY

Watch the trailer here:

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