Behind the songs of Disney’s animated and live-action versions of “The Jungle Book”

You saw new trailer for Disney’s “The Jungle Book” during the Super Bowl, right?

Well, if you didn’t, please do so before we move forward. Make sure you pay attention to the music in the last minute of the trailer. Familiar?

It is the one and only “The Bare Necessities”, the classic Disney Songbook song. The music in the trailer is a new version of that song as interpreted and arranged by composer John Debney, who serves as music director on the live-action film.

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The trailer and its music comes at a perfect time because our friends at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released a new video as part of their ongoing Academy Originals videos. The new video (in the player above) features Richard Sherman sharing the story of how another “Jungle Book” classic, “I Wanna Be Like You”, was written and performed.

Sherman served as a music consultant on the new film directed by Jon Favreau, who wanted to keep the music of the animated film a part of the live-action version.

Disney’s live-action Jungle Book will release on April 15, 2016. We’ll have more behind-the-scene stories about the music and more about the film in the coming weeks, so be sure to “swing” back often!

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