Jungle Beat: The Movie

Plot

In a jungle isolated on the African plains, animals including Munki the monkey, Trunk the elephant, Rocky the rhino, Tallbert the giraffe, Humph the hedgehog, Ribbert the frog, a mother ostrich with three unhatched chicks, and Ray the firefly live together. One morning, Munki and Trunk discover they can speak, learning that a jello-like, four-legged alien named Fneep from the planet Scaldron is the source. Fneep plans to conquer Earth and has brought technology including a speech pod translator.

The animals surrender peacefully, making his conquest a success. Fneep explains that his ship crashed near the mountains and that a homing beacon can summon the Scaldronians to Earth. Munki, Trunk, Rocky, and Humph accompany him to find the ship. Crossing the plains, they encounter a group of singing blue wildebeest whose leader initially misbelieves Fneep may become the new leader for conquering Earth, but Fneep reassures him, and they are allowed to pass.

One ostrich egg hatches during a stampede, and the chick believes she can fly. Fneep learns that hugs make someone feel better and special, contrasting with Scaldronians who feel special only by conquering planets. Meanwhile, Humph finds Fneep's ship and accidentally jumpstarts it, learning from a hologram of Fneep's father, Captain Grogon, that the next step is to capture all Earth creatures for the Scaldronian museum. Fneep later returns to the ship and activates the homing beacon to summon Grogon's ship.

Voice cast

David Menkin voices Munki, a shy and good-hearted vervet monkey, and also provides the voice of Rocky, a playful Southern white rhinoceros. Ina Marie Smith voices Trunk, a female African bush elephant. Ed Kear voices Fneep, the Scaldronian alien.

Gavin Peter voices Tallbert, a reticulated giraffe. Adam Neill provides the vocal effects of Ribbert, a tree frog. John Guerrasio voices Humph, a hedgehog.

David Rintoul voices Grogon, the Scaldronian captain and main antagonist. Emma Lungiswa De Vet provides the vocal effects of Ray, a firefly. Other cast members include Mattew Gair, Jason Pennycooke, Lynton Levengood, Claire Johnston as wildebeests, Florrie Wilkinson as Baby Ostrich, Lucy Montgomery as Mama Ostrich, Brent Dawes as a hugging Scaldronian, and Ryno Ritter as a Scaldronian crowd member.

Production

The studio partnered with Sunrise Studios for its first feature film. Production ran from April 2018 to March 2020, creating the first Mauritian-South African animated film. Dawes stated that he wrote the movie for a broad audience, aiming to appeal to viewers aged 5 to 15. The film was animated using Autodesk Maya and rendered on Houdini's render farm GPU Mantra to achieve realistic hair on animals and the aliens' slimy skin.

Animators used Dell computers with 96GB RAM connected by Houdini grooming tools. Each scene took around four hours to render and compose. Most modelling, texture, animation, and lighting was done in Mauritius, while voices were recorded in London, England, at Soho Square Studios. Sound design, foley, and final mix were completed in South Africa at Sunrise Productions in-house studios, with additional animation by Infinite Studios.