Movie Reviews – The Lion King 3-D Re-Release

*Spoilers*

‘The Lion King’ was Walt Disney’s 32nd animated feature released in 1994 and has since gone on to become one of the greatest, well-known and most successful animated films of all time. But does ‘The Lion King’ still hold up to modern audiences, regardless of its 3-D makeover, and is the circle of life still with it?

‘The Lion King’ has always been one of my favourite films since I first saw it when I was a kid, and when I heard that it was going to get another theatrical release I was very excited, as it would give me a chance to see it for the first time on the big screen. However, I hate the recent move of films into 3-D and find it a useless, pointless and extra money making excuse, so when I heard ‘The Lion King’ was being re-released in a 3-D format, I was a little annoyed. Nevertheless, I put aside my hate for 3-D just for this film as I really wanted to see it at the cinema.

Waiting for the film to start was a great experience as there were a mix of people who had watched it when they were younger (like myself) and had come for the nostalgia if nothing else, people who had never seen it before (what were they thinking!?) and a new generation of fans. Finally the lights went down and the film began with the audience in complete silence…and then…

If a sunrise ever looks like this, it's probably the Apocalypse.

That opening scene took everyone’s breath away as it is one of the most iconic film openings and hearing ‘Circle of Life’ blare out was a phenomenal experience I think the whole audience shared. It was at this point that I was eagle-eyeing the 3-D to draw comparison to the 2-D film I had been so used to for all these years. And quite honestly, the 3-D wasn’t actually that bad. Would I watch it every time in that format? No. But it was interesting to see it in this new format, even if after a while I didn’t really notice it any more, which I’m not sure is a good or bad thing.

As the film went on, the level of nostalgia was at sometimes overpowering, and I won’t be ashamed to admit that it was very emotional at times. Hearing all those old songs that I grew up on and to see all of my favourite characters again was an event that I don’t think had been captured since Toy Story 3. A lot of the audience were singing along to the songs and I think everyone was watching the film with a smile on their face as they recalled all the iconic scenes….well…up until the infamous death of Mufasa scene.

For those of you who have seen The Lion King, the scene that I was most looking forward to seeing on the big screen was the Wildebeast Stampede segment, which I always remembered to be a very powerful and intense scene, and it has stayed exactly that same way even today. This scene was made for the big screen, with its fast paced visuals, its swelling musical score (composed expertly as always by Hans Zimmer) and top notch voice acting and sound. And it didn’t disappoint. And when the time came for arguably one of Disney’s most memerable and heartbreaking scenes, the death of Mufasa, you could tell the whole audience was just embracing the emotion and poignancy of that scene. Watching this scene made me realise just how daring kids’ films used to be and how many risks they took. I for one wish that today’s children’s films would have the same tone and be as audacious as not only ‘The Lion King’ was, but animated films from this era were. ‘The Lion King’ deals with very relevant and mature issues such as death, deception, destiny and regicide (well, it is essentially an animated version of Hamlet). There are even connotations of Nazism, which when I was a kid I didn’t understand, but watching again were very clear and blatant. Such examples of this are with the villain, Scar, yelling to his army of Hyenas “Stick with me and you’ll never go hungry again!” and promising to stop the persecution of his people and lead them to a higher authority.

Note the goose stepping Hyenas

Such messages would be deamed unfit to contain within a children’s film anymore, and I think it’s a shame to see that Walt Disney pictures has gone from creating challenging and thought provoking films that were also entertaining for adults as well as children, to resorting to bland and forgettable films that offer no moral lessons and lack of interesting characters.

"Join me, Simba, and together we can rule the Pride Lands as father and son!"

On the subject of characters, The Lion King’s voice acting is perfect; boasting the talents of Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane, Rowan Atkinson, Woopi Goldberg and Darth Vader’s very own James Earl Jones. Nathan Lane still makes me laugh to this day playing the loud-mouthed meerkat Timon and James Earl Jones is unequalled as his stoic and powerful performance as Mufasa. Although the characters are obviously cartoons, the voice talent works so well that they almost feel like real characters, which is a sign of good film making if you care about and connect with its characters, even more so if they are just drawings on a page.

The animation is one of the finest examples from the Disney Renaissance, and the use of colour, impressive landscapes and character design help the characters and world seem to leap of the page and dazzle the viewer. The 3-D re-release has remastered the animation and the bright and vivid colours created a whole new layer to the film I had never really noticed before. That being said, the 3-D glasses did make the film appear quite dark, so I can’t wait to pick this film up on Blu-Ray and compare it to my original VHS copy.

Overall, ‘The Lion King’ is still to this day a shining example of animation and one of Walt Disney’s greatest masterpieces. Although revenue isn’t everything, the figures for the re-release show that audiences still hold ‘The Lion King’ dear to their hearts as it made $71.9 million within the end of the month of September, and became September’s highest grossing film (probably due to the increase in ticket prices of 3-D showings). So what does this mean for the future? Well, since the re-release in 3-D of ‘The Lion King’, Walt Disney has comissioned a new wave of Walt Disney Classics to be re-released in the format, including Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid to be released between 2012 – 2013, as well as converting PIXAR’s Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. Is this a sign of hope that an interest is being shown once again to these good, character driven classics, or does it show executives that all audiences want is more quick 3-D re-releases to make money. Only you can decide that for yourselves but one thing is for certain, 3-D isn’t going away any time soon. Would I recommend the 3-D for ‘The Lion King’, no, but ‘The Lion King’ is a must see for children and adults alike and is to me, and will always be, one of my all time favourite films ever made.