The Lion King is one of the most favorite animated films of all time. This need not be debated anymore. Since Disney has been aggressively remaking all of their animated properties (maybe Wreck-It Ralph 2 will follow soon), then of course The Lion King won’t be an exception. Now, with the high reputation of the original film, our expectations for live-action adaptation must also soar. What will this film be like? What is clear, we do not need to worry about whether the story will be tampered with. Because as far as I can see from the teaser, this film seems to be copying the original material completely.
Let us not question the “live-action” status of this film. As we can see, Disney seems to only move the film from a two-dimensional animation medium to CGI. CGI aka computer-generated imagery is still included in one type of animation. Or … maybe all of this is authentic? I mean, who knows Disney really does train dozens of animals to act in front of the camera? This is the studio that is able to make Spider-Man enter the Avengers, which we are talking about.
The new version of Lion King was made by Jon Favreau, who succeeded two years ago – re-The Jungle Book became a CGI film, I mean, successful live action earned nearly a billion dollars at the box office. Considering the audience’s love of the classic film The Lion King, this time the film is sure to get past that achievement easily.
The teaser of the trailer is almost completely like the plek ketiplek with one of the iconic scenes from the animated film. Opened with a spectacular view of the African savanna, we then see dozens of animals gathering in the Pride Rock to witness the arrival of the new prince, Simba. We don’t see a single animal talking like in its animation, but we hear a monologue from Mufasa that was delivered directly by the voice of the original film, namely James Earl Jones.