The Jungle Book 2 Special Edition
Disney Home Video DVD Will Be Released June 17th
Check out the specs for Disney Home Video's The Jungle Book 2 Special Edition. The DVD hits shelves June 17th.
Disney Home Video has released the juicy details on their release of The Jungle Book 2 Special Edition DVD. DVD Active scored a look at the DVD's details, plus a scan of the box cover art.
The Jungle Book 2 DVD will sell for $29.99 MSRP, and will be presented in 1.66:1, along with Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 surround sound.
The sequel wasn't based on anything Rudyard Kipling (who wrote the original novel and several sequels) produced. Instead, the story followed Mowgli (voiced by The Sixth Sense's Haley Joe Osmont) as he rejoined Baloo (John Goodman) in the jungle, and faced off against the villainous Shere Khan (Tony Jay).
Extras for the special edition DVD include some deleted scenes (including the original songs “I Got You Beat” and “Braver”), a "Story of The Jungle Book" featurette. There are also some music videos, including Smash Mouth's cover of “I Wanna Be Like You,” “Jungle Rhythm” and “W-I-L-D.” There is also a "Legacy of The Jungle Book" featurette, a "Mowgli’s Jungle Ruins Maze" game, and a sing-along-with-the-movie function.
DisneyToon Studios in Australia Produced Jungle Book 2
The Jungle Book 2, originally released both in theatres and on DVD in 2003, is considered one of the less horrendous offerings from the notorious DisneyToon Studios.
From 1990 to 2007, DisneyToon Studios produced low-cost direct-to-video sequels of the Mouse House's most popular animated films. These sequels included such titles as Bambi II, Brother Bear 2, The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, Lady and the Tramp 2, Pooh's Grand Adventure and The Lion King 1-1/2.
Despite the fact that DisneyToon's movies made money hand-over-fist, many people hated them because they were cheaply produced and they tarnished the stellar name of Disney Animation. It's also interesting to note that when DisneyToon's output increased in 1997, box office for Disney's animated theatrical releases promptly dropped.
In order to keep production costs down, DisneyToon outsourced the animation work, first to Australia then (when those uppity Aussies started demanding more money) to India.
Tinker Bell War Killed DisneyToon
When Robert Iger became CEO of the Walt Disney Company in September of 2005, the writing was on the wall for DisneyToon. One of Iger's first acts was to buy Pixar Animation, in the process making co-founder Steve Jobs Disney's largest single shareholder, and installed animation guru John Lasseter as creative chief at Disney Animation. Iger also charged Lasseter with restoring Disney Animation to its former status.
Both Jobs and Lasseter despised DisneyToon's "dreck-to-video" animation, so Lasseter immediately slashed several upcoming productons, incurring the emnity of DisneyToon president Sharon Morrill. After Morrill and Lasseter clashed over the making of a proposed Tinker Bell movie, Morrill was turfed from DisneyToon and the entire subsidiary shut down.
Disney Home Video will release The Jungle Book 2 Special Edition DVD on June 17th
Fun Fact: Walt Disney died during production of the first Jungle Book movie, leaving his senior animators (known collectively as "The Nine Old Men") to finish the flick. The final sequence, where Mowgli is seduced into entering the Man Village, was animated by Ollie Johnston.
"I originally thought (the whole scene) was a terrible idea," recalled Ollie Johnston in the 1995 documentary Frank and Ollie.
"I know," replied Frank Thomas in the same scene. "That's why we gave it to you to animate."
