New Jungle Book Movie Adds Ben Kingsley To Awesome Cast!

Ben Kingsley?Trevor Slattery 

I absolutely love Disney (which, interestingly enough, was my first word spoken as a human being!), but I'm especially fond of their work on the animated side of things. Out of all 53 animated features Walt Disney Animation Studios has made though, my all-time favorite may be The Jungle Book, a superbly crafted masterpiece that just has no shortage of energy, fun and engrossing characters. That classic film is the next Disney animated film in line to be given the live-action/CGI treatment that was bestowed upon Alice In Wonderland and Maleficent. A remake of this movie should make my blood boil, but with the talent already lined up for it (and plenty more to come!) the project so far sounds delightful.

It helps that Jon Favreau, coming off the charming drama Chef, is handling this one, meaning it's in good hands in directorial terms. But even more exciting at this stage is the cast they've lined up to play all the legendary characters in this film. Idris Elba is playing Shere Khan, Lupita Nyong'O has the role of Raksha, Mowglis wolf mom, and we get to trust in Scarlett Johansson to ring Kaa to life like never before. The newest addition to the cast is Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, a perfect choice that I wholeheartedly support. I never thought I'd say it about a live-action/CGI remake of one of my favorite movies, but this really is shaping up nicely so far. Hopefully the movie itself lives up to the terrific cast.

The Jungle Book comes out October 9, 2015.