The Lion King 3D

Hard as it may be to imagine, Disney have just improved on one of their best films. The emotional impact this particular animation carries cannot be underestimated and the care and attention with which the 3D conversion has been handled with is testament to the movie's legacy. 

The hype...
Seminal Disney classic, 'The Lion King' is brought back to the screens with a 3D conversion to boot. The box-office results in the US have been spectacular especially when considering this is essentially a re-release of a 17-year-old animation. Other films that have been through the 3D post-production process have been visually poor, so how will this one fare?

The story...
Simba is a young lion cub who is destined to be king one day. He is being slowly trained in the ways of the world by his father, Mufasa (voiced by James Earl Jones), and his aide Zazu (Rowan Atkinson). All this leaves Scar (Jeremy Irons), Mufasa's younger brother, second in line to the throne, and growing increasingly resentful on the sidelines.

With the help of some evil hyenas, Scar executes a plan that sees Simba run away from the lion pride carrying the guilt over the dramatic death of his father. In exile, grown-up Simba (voiced by Matthew Broderick) lives a carefree existence and is content with Pumbaa and Timon as his only freinds until he learns the truth about what happened.

Simba prepares to return to the pride and reclaim his right to the throne, but he will have to confront his uncle and his gaggle of hyena henchmen first.

The breakdown...
Who better than the men behind the project to tell us about the new version of the movie, and tell us about the conversion process itself.

We were fortunate enough to speak to Don Hahn, who produced the film, and Robert Neuman, 3D stereoscopic supervisor on this latest version. Their experiences on the project go some way to explaining why 'The Lion King' is such an enduring success.

“We've had a mixture of people who have seen the 3D version of the film. A lot of them will have seen it 20 times or more on VHS, on the small screen, but it's a different experience with an audience in the cinema. I think it's rare for a film that is 17-years-old to have that kind of lasting appeal” says Hahn, who worked on the original release as well.

Speaking of the of the lasting appeal of the story and the ability it has to make people laugh, and cry, Hahn has some clear ideas about what makes 'The Lion King' work:

“It's about our connection to our parents even the connections to our ancestors. It's a very human story that just happens to be told with animals,

“We didn't know if the 3D process would work on the film, it was terrifying to be honest! We wanted to do some testing on it, and Robert [Neuman], who is quite brilliant, did some tests for us and indicated that it would be pretty good. The original movie is full of long-shots, we looked at the films of David Lean and big visual epics like that. The original 'Lion King' is set up like that, so you get to feel that Africa is another character on the screen. I think that lends itself to 3D”

“It's been a privilege to bring the movie to the big screen again,” adds Neuman, who began working on the 3D version only a few months ago.

“I'm the stereoscopic supervisor at Disney animation, and when I got the job, one of the first things I did was a presentation on the roadmap I had in mind for 3D. I started thinking about taking some of the classic hand-drawn animated films and adding volume and depth to them. I knew it would be kinda cool as it would look like a new sort of thing.”

Neuman continues “It was like creating a moving painting that you can step into, so that was the idea I put forward and it's great to see it get some traction and come to fruition. As an artist we put everything we have into making it look as awesome as we can make,”

“Sometime things become a classic, sometimes they don't. But with a film like this, which is already of the utmost stature, it's an incredible experience to work on it”.

The verdict...
As enchanting as ever, 'The Lion King' is one of the finest animated films of all time. The lack of tinkering with the animation itself is to be commended (are you paying attention George Lucas?), and the enhancement using 3D is of the highest order. An all-time classic just got better.

Rating: 5/5

'The Lion King' is due to be released in the UK on 7 October. Certificate: U.