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Christopher Walken amazed by CGI in The Jungle Book

Christopher Walken is amazed by the quality of the computer-generated imagery (CGI) used in his new Disney movie The Jungle Book.
The veteran actor voices ape leader King Louie in director Jon Favreau’s new take on Rudyard Kipling’s classic story, and on Sunday (10Apr16), he treated a group of neighbourhood kids to an advance screening of the film.
It was the first time Walken had seen the finished cut and during an interview on U.S. talk show The View on Monday (11Apr16), he revealed he was stunned by how realistic all the animals looked.
“I saw this yesterday, I took some kids from my neighbourhood with me, and (in) 3D, it’s really wonderful, in so many ways,” Walken gushed.
Heaping praise on his filmmaker and co-stars, the 73-year-old continued, “Jon Favreau is a wonderful director and all the actors are terrific and the little boy (Neel Sethi, who plays Mowgli) is fabulous. And all the animals might as well be real! They’ve come so far with CGI and it really, the wolves and cats and snakes… it’s really more than animation. It’s really amazing, and Bill Murray’s the bear (Baloo), he’s fantastic…”
The Jungle Book cast also includes Ben Kingsley as panther Bagheera, Idris Elba as tiger Shere Khan, Lupita Nyong’o as Mother Wolf Raksha, and Scarlett Johansson as snake Kaa.
Walken isn’t the only one impressed by the digitally-created beasts. Favreau himself found the technology spellbinding.
“It’s amazing what they can do with (creating the appearance of) fur and live-flesh animals, and so every day I go into work it’s astounding what these visual effects artists accomplish,” he recently explained.
Favreau’s decision to use CGI instead of real animals has already won him plaudits from activists at People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who have honoured the director with an Innovation in Film Award.

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