THE JUNGLE BOOK TAKES TOP HONOURS AT VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY AWARDS

As predicted, The Jungle Book has aced it at the Visual Effects Society awards. Five wins were presented to Disney's live-action-ish remake, as the studio's fellow blockbuster Rogue One goes home empty-handed. Check out the VES' nominations at this link, and their winners in full below.

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

Joyce Cox, Andrew R. Jones, Robert Legato, J. D. Schwalm and Adam Valdez (The Jungle Book)

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature

Burt Dalton, John Galloway, Craig Hammack, Petra Holtorf-Stratton and Jason Snell (Deepwater Horizon)

Outstanding Animated Performance in a Photoreal Feature

Andrei Coval, Paul Story, Jack Tema and Dennis Yoo - 'King Louie' (The Jungle Book)

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Photoreal Project

John Brennan, Robert Legato, Bill Pope and Gary Roberts (The Jungle Book)

Outstanding Models in a Photoreal or Animated Project

Jean Bolte, Kelvin Lau, Kevin Sprout and Kim Vongbunyong - 'Deepwater Horizon rig' (Deepwater Horizon)

Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature

Tim Belsher, Jon Mitchell, Martijn van Herk and Adam Watkins - 'New York City' (Doctor Strange)

Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature

Fabian Nowak, Ludovic Ramisandraina, David Schneider and Oliver Winwood - 'Nature effects' (The Jungle Book)

Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature

Matthew Adams, Masaki Mitchell, Christoph Salzmann and Max Stummer (The Jungle Book)

Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature

Steve Emerson, Travis Knight, Brad Schiff and Arianne Sutner (Kubo and the Two Strings)

Outstanding Animated Performance in an Animated Feature

Steven Clay Hunter, Jonathan Hoffman, Mark Piretti and Audrey Wong - 'Hank' (Finding Dory)

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature

Rob Dressel, Andy Harkness, Brien Hindman and Larry Wu - 'Motonui Island' (Moana)

Outstanding Effects Simulations in an Animated Feature

Marc Henry Bryant, David Hutchins, John M. Kosnik and Dale Mayeda (Moana)

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project

Johannes Franz, Alexander Richter, Nicole Rothermel and Thomas Sali (Breaking Point)

REVIEW - THE JUNGLE BOOK (JON FAVREAU)

Slavish subservience meets technical innovation. Faultless workmanship carries The Jungle Book far indeed, though a lack of creativity stifles it. As the umpteenth cinematic retelling of Rudyard Kipling's tale, Jon Favreau's film seems to have accepted its fate; the filmmakers derive firm fundaments from such resignation, exploring a wondrous breadth of technical fields, yielding some wondrous technical accomplishments. CGI doesn't embellish the story here, it becomes the story, though by necessity, not by choice. The visual effects in The Jungle Book are remarkable, not least in that they discourage one from even remarking upon them, so photoreal do they appear. Animation may no longer be the sole stage on which to successfully mount a project such as this, though one particular animation remains this film's master. As much an adaptation of Wolfgang Reitherman's 1967 film as Kipling's text, The Jungle Book sieves through that animated classic's material in search of gold to keep, and dirt to discard; predictably, it finds a lot of the former, and thereby winds up not only referencing it too often but actually falling back upon its achievements. There's a quaint thrill to hearing those iconic musical numbers in a new setting, though they're indicative of this film's core narrative conservativeness. Thankfully, in the writing and casting both, the film jettisons the '67 film's racist touches, which were its only, odious offence. Nearly 50 years later, this new product doesn't feel quite so new, and such is its offence. Enjoyable, endearing, and marvellously made, it's a beautiful box of tricks, bristling with mythic magnificence at its best, slumping into insignificance at its worst.