The live action version of The Lion King is out and while there have been mixed reviews, the movie grossed almost $192 million opening weekend. Here are some facts about the new version of the classic Disney film.
Instead of having the actors record their parts individually, they acted out their scenes together. Animators then used the performances as inspiration for the characters.
Each character took about nine months to fully develop.
Director Jon Favreau was first inspired to remake The Lion King while working on the live action version of Jungle Book. He then pitched a documentary-style remake to Disney.
When first developing the movie, Favreau made a list of the most important moments from the original film that he knew needed to be reproduced.
Inspiration for Nala was taken from both the original film and the Broadway musical. In the musical, the character plays a bigger part and this helped to expand her role in the new film.
All of the environments for the film were designed within a game engine.
Director Favreau was then able to use virtual reality technology to walk around the virtual set and design shots like a real location.
Filmmakers decided not to add human expressions to the animal’s faces because it looked odd. Instead, they attempted to convey emotion through the body language of the animals.
Florence Kasumba, the voice of lead hyena Shenzi, has also performed the role in the German version of the stage play.
Backlighting and sidelighting was used during key moments to make the scenes feel more realistic.
130 animators from 30 different countries created the character designs for the film.
Animators took inspiration from Beyoncé’s strong stage performances when designing how Nala moved.
A total of 86 different species are included in the movie.
Performer Pharrell Williams produced many of the songs on the soundtrack and acted as vocal coach to Seth Rogen (Pumbaa). Apparently Seth Rogen’s singing was so bad that it had Pharrell banging his head against the wall.
Many shots were restrained from looking ‘too perfec’t in order to make the film feel more realistic.
Hyenas Ed and Banzai were replaced with new characters Azizi and Kamari. It was decided that the broad comedy of the original characters didn’t fit in with the photorealism of the film.
James Earl Jones, the original voice of Mufasa, reprised his role for the new movie.
Hans Zimmer, Elton John and Tim Rice created the music for the original film and returned to work on the remake.
Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen) are two of the characters with the most new lines. The two improvised a lot while recording together, and many of these lines made it into the film.
Chiwetel Ejiofor, the voice of Scar, said he channeled the desire to be king from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
The film pays tribute to the Northern White Rhino, which became extinct during the production of the film.
Beyoncé said being in The Lion King was important to her because she grew up watching the original. It was the first Disney movie to make her cry.
The characters were designed based on a combination of real animals, conceptual art, and the original film.
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