- Director : Jon Favreau
- Writer: Jeff Nathanson
- Stars : Keegan-Michael Key, Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, James Earl Jones
- Rating: PG
- Running Time: 1h 58m
- Genres: Animation, Adventure, Drama, Family, Musical
https://youtu.be/aQN75AKDwks
https://youtu.be/Nu2Tltxjqak - Bollywood
There’s something very peculiar about filmmaking that can be seen in the recently made live-action film, Lion King (computer animated musical film). It looks completely realistic and while you feel convinced that it is set in Africa, it is not! It is just a blend together of live-action techniques with virtual reality, photo-real digital imagery and CG imagery in an all-new medium.
In this version though (2019), the production team had spent two weeks in Africa where they captured photos, videos and locations of the animals, which inspired many scenes in the film. The Masai Maara, Kenya in the Serangati National Park inspired the Pride Lands and the Sesriem Canyon in Namibia had served as another inspiration for the wildebeest stamped in the gorge – the place where Simba gets trapped. Other locations such as Mona Lake and Yellowstone National Park California serve as Place as location for Elephant Graveyard.
This movie is almost replicated scene-for scene with CGI replacing animation. In Disney’s 1994 film, the team including directors Roger Allens and Rob Minkoff had travelled to Kenya’s Hell Gate National Park just to observe animals in their habitat. Jim Foller, the wildlife expert had brought animals into the Disney studio to demonstrate and observe the behaviour of the animals, according to press statements of that time. In fact, it even took over two years for animators to develop the two-minute stampede scene leading to Mufasa’s death, one statement had said.
Every single song in the film sets the tone – both instrumental and lyrical. Whether its ‘Hakuna Matata’ or ‘I Just Cant Wait to be King’ the songs bring back the 90’s nostalgia and are upbeat and its hard to resist The Circle of Life’.
Additional elements can be seen throughout this film with Hans Zimmer returning to compose the music along with Pharrell Williams as a collaborator.
A new song was written for this film called Spirit and performed by Beyonce and an additional one Never Too Late performed by Elton John for the film’s end credits.
Jon Favreau directed this film. He is best known for directing and even starring in some of the best films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) such as Happy Hogan in the films Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2010); he has also served as an executive producer and starred in The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron: 2015, Spiderman: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame and Spiderman: Far from Home (both 2019).
This film has even notched up the sixth highest first day figure for a Hollywood film in India after Avengers: Endgame (Rs. 53.30 crore), Avengers: Infinity War (Rs. 31.23 crore), Captain Marvel (Rs. 12.86 crore), Fast and Furious 7 (Rs. 12.03 crore) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (Rs. 10.96 crore), according to trade website Box Office India.
Favreau has also directed and stared as Carl Casper in the Chef. The movie was written by Jeff Nathanson and produced by Walt Disney Pictures and has a completely new photorealistic looks and voices behind them. The voices for this film include Donald Glover (adult Simba), JD McCrary as young Simba, Seth Rogen (Pumba), Chiwetal Ejifor (Scar), Alfre Woodard (Sarabi), Billy Eichner (Timon), John Kani (Rafiki), John Oliver (Zazu), Beyonce Knowles Carter (adult Nala); Shahadi Wright Joseph as young Nala and even James Earl Jones as Mufasa.
“The Lion King has started on a good note. Will be the first choice of moviegoers this week," trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted about the film that notched up a screen count of 2,140 in India across English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages. In fact, the Box Office India had said that The Lion King is the eighth Hollywood film to earn a double digit number on its first day in India. Its opening figures have been higher than Disney’s previous fantasy animation fantasy comedy The Jungle Book which raked in INR 10.12 Crore in 2016.
To cater to the Indian audience, the Lion King was released was also theatrically released on the same day as it was in the United States. Depending where you live and the theatre that you opt for, you have the option to choose from IMAX 3D, RealD3D, 3D or plain 2D. It is available in different language: English, Tamil, Telegu and Hindi. Even the Hindi version has English subtitles!
For the Bollywood group, the Lion King remake includes Shah Rukh Khan as Mufasa, Aryan Khan as Simba, Ashish Vidyarthi as Scar, Shreyas Talpade as Timon, Sanjay Mishra as Pumba, Asrani as Zazu, Shernaz Patel as Sarabi, Achint Kaur as Shenzi and Neha Gargava as Nala. Armaan Malik and Sunidhi Chauhan have lent their voices for the Hindi soundtrack as Nala and Simba and Nala.
In the Tamil version, another crew is used- Siddharth as Simba, P. Ravi Shankar as Mufasa, Arvind Swamy as Scar, Manobala as Zazu, Aishwarya Rajesh as Nala, Singampuli as Timon and Robo Shankar as Pumba.
Telegu has another mixture of actors and actresses with Nani as Simba, P. Ravi Shankar as Mufasa, Jagapathi Babu as Scar, Brahmanandamas Pumba, Ali as Timon and Lipsika as Nala.
Having just released 10 days ago, it can be said that nostalgia is easier to sell than something new! The movie has already has grossed more at the global box office than the 1994 original!
It can very well be described as a narrative nature documentary of David Attenborough. One thing that can be said to be very appealing about this film is the hyena. In the original film they were seen as rather comical figures but here they can be seen as sinister. The commitment to realism that Jon Favreau has maintained has rendered the hyenas to be far more terrifying than what they actually are.
In this new film, as Simba prowled around and worked on his little roar, the designers and animators worked meticulously to make him look so lifelike. Right from every single fur on the cub’s body, detailed colour patterns of his fur, his movements, the furry scruff on top of young Simba’s head and much more! There is so much to look forward to in this movie, I guess you will just have to watch it to find out for yourself!
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