Jungle Book gets totally pointless 'living poster', shows the back of a bunch of animals' heads

Disney's live-action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's classic tale is desperate for your attention.

"Living" posters are here to stay, apparently. And Disney's new take on The Jungle Book was just landed with one. 

The 15-second clip zooms in on Mowgli surrounded by the creatures of the jungle before the title explodes out of his fiery torch. Considering it's still just a poster, albeit one that dries up 15 seconds of your time, there's absolutely nothing about the film's content being revealed here. And no imaginable advantage to its existence beyond just normal, non-living posters. 

"Living" posters have this odd feeling of creating unnecessary hype around their release; of self-defining themselves as an event equal to a new trailer dropping, then delivering comparatively little in their content. More and more blockbusters, however, appear to be heading in the direction of obsessively manufacturing events around their own marketing and, frankly, it's becoming exhausting.

We're getting to the point where the very art of the movie trailer is being dismantled, piece by piece; we're existing in a constant state of oversaturation. The Jungle Book is months ahead of its cinematic release, yet marketing strategies like the 'living' poster suggest studios believe future success is tied into a need to constantly be on a potential audience's radar.  



This new adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's classic tale will feature a CGI-rendered cast of realistic creatures. Think more Life of Pi than Disney's original 1967 animation. Raised by a family of wolves, Mowgli is forced to abandon his home or face elimination by Shere Khan, a tiger who once suffered at the hands of Man. Led both by panther Bagheera and bear Baloo, he comes across a host of creatures whose motivations are not always pure; including the hypnotising python Kaa and orangutan King Louie who, as the song says, desires man's red fire to make his dreams come true. 

Iron Man 3 and Elf's Jon Favreau is behind this one; plus, it does features a fairly impressive cast with Bill Murray (Baloo), Ben Kingsley (Bagheera), Idris Elba (Shere Khan), Lupita Nyong'o (wolf Raksha), Scarlett Johansson (Kaa), and Christopher Walken (King Louie) providing voices. Newcomer Neel Sethi is in the role of Mowgli.

The Jungle Book hits UK theatres 15 April.