The Jungle Book Review

SO, i've watched The Jungle Book this afternoon and i took great pleasure watching it. I think Jon Favreau, the cast and everyone working on the film did a great job, really. Neel Sethi who plays Mowgli, the “man cub”, is much better than i expected and did a very good job considering he was playing most of the time in front of green screen and had to imagine at 10 years old only that he was talking with animals who were not on the set.

But the award goes to the wizards of digital effects who have recreated literally everything. I've never seen CGI animals looking so real, and i don't think it will be possible to do any better in the future. And i'm not talking about the CGI jungle which is amazing too.

The film is at 70% a faithful adaptation of the Disney classic and even two songs from the beloved animated film - Bare Necessities and I wanna be like you ( and even Trust in me during the cute end credits that you must not miss ) - were kept in the movie. I liked too ( during the sequence with Kaa ) the explanation about why Mowgli ended as a baby left alone before being "saved" by Bagheera and the wolves family.

Lot of epic sequences - the one in the old temple with King Louis is superb, and of course all actors performances for the characters voices are perfect. So, yes, Disney should have a big hit with this one, and i strongly recommend you to go at a theater near you and watch it as soon as you can!

Picture: copyright Disney

Shanghaî Disneyland, Just Like if You Were There !

I thought that the last SDL week-end update with screen shots from the awesome drone video will be difficult to beat, and i was wrong. Someone else posted this week something that even in your wildest dreams you didn't thought you'll ever see, and it's a 360° drone view of the park! It means that instead to just watch a video and simply following the moves of the drone without the possibility to choose by yourself the angle of view, with this 360° view you can do it, you can turn left, right, up or down and even can zoom on any area of the park to have a closer look at the land that interest you. There is a small downside, though, as the drone was located near SDL Castle, meaning you won't be able to zoom to areas too far from the standing point. Nevertheless, this is so far the best view you'll ever have of Shanghaî Disneyland, and this was shoot at a moment the park will be soon completed, so it's just perfect.

No need to say that i did screen captures of the best views, but this time the screen captures were not that easy. Why? Because when you do a screen capture on a Mac you need to press on three keys of the keyboard at the same time and the 360° image was entering in zoom view automatically when i did it, meaning it was not possible to get screen captures of the awesome wide lens views of the park. So how did i do to finally get them? Well, here is the trick and it's a good one so keep it mind if someday you have the same problem: i did a Quicktime video capture of my Mac screen, moving with my mouse the 360° image to where i wanted to have the shots and then, once the recording was over, i did screen captures from the Quicktime video itself.

So, time to look and wonder now! Here we go, and the first shot shows the not totally completed Gardens of Imagination and Mickey Avenue with Wishing Star lake and SDL Hotel in the background, and Disneytown on the right!



A zoom on the Fantasisa Carousel area.

A zoom on the right side of Mickey Avenue and Disneytown.



A zoom on the Dumbo, The Flying Elephant area.



Let's turn the camera in direction of Adventure Isle and Treasure Cove.





A zoom on the Tea House of Wandering Moon area and Treasure Cove.


Great view of SDL Enchanted Storybook castle and Fantasyland.



A zoom on the Alice in Wonderland Maze and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.




A closer look at the front of the castle and the viewing area.

Our final look will be to Tomorrowland and the TRON Light Cycles Power Run dome in the background.

And now, i suppose that you're dying to play with this awesome 360° view of the park by yourself, so jump right now HERE and enjoy! In addition to be the best website with regular SDL updates, at least twice a week, i remind you that others pics of Shanghaî disneyland are posted each day on the D&M Facebook page HERE, so don't miss them!

THREE New Shanghaî Disneyland Videos !

I've got something great for you for tomorrow's D&M Shanghaî Disneyland week-end update but in the meantime, in appetizer, here are three new SDL videos, two of them being drone videos. The first one below has the drone flying of course above the park but colors for whatever reasons are a bit washed out and the music he puts on it is a real bad version of a Disney tune so you might cut off the sound while watching it...

Editing: Unfortunately the three videos have been deleted by the one who uploaded them on Youtube, which is kind of strange as it didn't looked to be from same Youtuber. Anyway, no big drama, and enjoy the picture above of SDL Castle!

THR Announces that Disney is Developing a Live-Action Peter Pan Movie

The Hollywood Reporter reveal that Disney is developing a Live-Action Peter Pan Movie, and it's 'Pete's Dragon' helmer David Lowery who will direct the adaptation of Disney's classic animated movie. Jon Favreau's live-action The Jungle Book is hitting theaters this weekend, and ahead of its release Disney has announced it is developing another classic animation turned live-action project: Peter Pan. ( by the way, THR also revealed that a live action Jungle Book 2 is also in the works ).
 
From THR: "The boy who never grows up will be getting the feature treatment from director David Lowery, who just tackled Pete's Dragon for the studio. Lowery, who is best known for edgy drama Ain't Them Bodies Saints, will reteam with his Pete's Dragon co-writer Toby Halbrooks for Peter Pan.
 
Disney has multiple live-action properties planned and/or in production. Beauty and the Beast is set for a 2017 release, with Harry Potter alum Emma Watson starring as Belle. Emma Stone is set to play the 101 Dalmatians villain in Cruella De Ville. It was also recently reported by The Hollywood Reporter that Snow White's sister will be getting the feature treatment in Red Rose.
 
Tim Burton's Alice Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to 2010's Alice in Wonderland, is set to hit theaters May 27.
 
This won't be the first live-action Peter Pan to fly onto screens. Steven Spielberg's beloved psuedo-sequel Hook, which starred the late Robin Williams as a Pan that did grow up, came out in 1991. And recently, Warner Bros. released Pan, a Peter Pan origin story that starred Hugh Jackman and Garrett Hedlund, which grossed a paltry $35 million at the domestic box office."
 
Well, then, i suppose we're all going back to Neverland again anytime soon!
 

Pictures: copyright DIsney

Dinosaur Planet Stars of Dinos Attraction

Here is the second article about the new Dinosaur Planet theme park which opened in Bangkok on March 25. And this time we'll have a look at the "E-Ticket" attraction which include dozens of Audio-Animatronics dinos. "Stars of Dinos" was an attraction in which originally expedition trucks were supposed to transport guests. For various reasons the concept was cancelled and although the trucks are  visible at the entrance, now guests can walk around and took all their time to wonder at these magnificent Dinos AA. 

The most important thing to note is that all dinos have been recreated life-size, meaning that you stand next to huge animals and have, as you can stay near the Dinos as long as you want, for the first time of your life the feeling of how it would feel if you were back in time 100 millions years ago or more, standing face to face with these gigantic animals. That IS the main reason why anyone in Bangkok should go to Dinosaur Planet as it is a unique and impressive physical experience, specially when you stand near a full-size threatening T-Rex.

The Audio-Animatronics were made in China but all the skin paintings were done by Thai artists who did a much better job than Chinese usually do. As a matter of fact the skins are incredible, probably the best you can see for Audio-Animatronics Dinosaurs.

D&M has two videos for you, one filmed during daylight and the other at night. Some of you may think that the dinosaurs moves are limited - specially in comparison to the awesome AAs we saw two days ago in the Jurasic World exhibit, but keep in mind that guests were supposed to be in a moving truck and see them just a few seconds while the trucks were passing by. As i've said the ride inside expedition trucks has been cancelled and guests can now admire the AAs as long as they want, but the movements of each Audio-Animatronics didn't changed as the ride cancelling was a last minute decision. That said, they did a real good job on all AAs, specially considering the price as i remember you that the WHOLE PARK has an estimated cost of $15M only, which is amazing. 

There we go and below the first video at daylight.

 

And now, let's have a look at the pictures!



































































They also have some "walking dinosaurs", a cast-member is of course inside the dinosaur costume, just like at Universal Studios, who take fun at frightening guests.




Each dinosaur makes a great photo location for a "family portrait"!


As usual, it's at night that the scenes look their best with a special lighting. So, here are the same dinos when night fell on Bangkok, and i have also for you a second video.






The unused attraction trucks makes the joy of young children!


As the ride concept was cancelled with guests now walking where intially the trucks above were supposed to move, some plaques were added at the bottom of each Dino indicating their name, species, and a few infos about them.


























































Dinosaur Planet include more attractions, some really unique as you will see in the part three of this report!

Pictures and videos: copyright Disney and more