Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 19 July 2019

25 years later, ‘The Lion King’ roars again with Beyoncé

By LINDSEY BAHR recording the music for the
Associated Press stampede (yes, THAT stam-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — It was pede).
just a few months ago that “Working on it doesn’t
director Jon Favreau was make it any less emotion-
sitting in a scoring session al,” Favreau said in an in-
with composer Hans Zim- terview earlier this year.
mer for “The Lion King,” his And don’t even get him
ambitious and technology- started on what it was like
driven reimagining of the to listen to James Earl Jones
1994 animated classic, and record his lines as Mufasa.
he and everyone else in “The Lion King” is three
the room were getting a years in the making with
little emotional. some of the biggest names
It’s no wonder: They were in entertainment, including

This image released by Disney shows Nala, voiced by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, left, and Simba,
voiced by Donald Glover in a scene from “The Lion King.”
Associated Press
Beyoncé, and the expec- team he knew how to The resulting special effect
tations couldn’t be higher. collaborate with. He was is that “It should feel like a
None of the other major ready to take it to the next live-action movie,” he said,
studios have even dared to level. So, he raised his hand even if it’s technically ani-
go up against it in theaters for the big job. mated.
this weekend. Early track- “I kind of lobbied for it,” Fa- For the cast, which includes
ing suggest that it could vreau said. Donald Glover as Simba,
make as much as $150 mil- The studio waited until “The Beyoncé as Nala, Chiwetel
lion in its first weekend in Jungle Book” was out to Ejiofor as Scar, Seth Rogen
North America, and it’s al- give him the official word, as Pumbaa and Billy Eich-
ready grossed over $55 mil- but the 2016 movie which ner as Timon, the process
lion in China. scored with both critics and was pretty similar to what
It helps, of course, that audiences, turned out to they would have done for
the material is familiar to be a pretty good audition. a traditionally animated
most of the world already. And he set to work prep- movie, but Favreau also
The animated film, which ping this “live-action” ‘’Lion filmed the actors during
opened in June 1994 at the King,” which, it should be their voice recording ses-
peak of the Disney anima- said isn’t live-action at all. sions to help the animators.
tion renaissance, went on It’s a combination of vir- He knew it would look to
to become a critical hit, tual reality and “keyframe weird to try to translate hu-
the highest grossing film of animation,” which means man expressions onto the
the year at the worldwide that the animals are all ani- cats’ faces so instead emo-
box office (it was second mated by hand, “just like tion is conveyed through
domestically to “Forrest all the old animated mov- body language (and a little
Gump”), a two-time Oscar ies,” Favreau explained. In mouth moving for the dia-
winner for Zimmer’s score other words, if you visited logue).
and the song “Can You the set, you would not find Anyone who’s seen the
Feel the Love Tonight,” and some gargantuan sound- marketing thus far has no
a Broadway show — now stage and a bunch of ac- doubt recognized some fa-
the third-longest running tors running around acting miliar touchstones from the
and one of the most suc- like lions while covered in 1994 film. So familiar, in fact,
cessful in history. So it was motion capture bodysuits that many have wondered
only a matter of time be- and dots. if it was going to be a shot-
fore the Walt Disney Co., in Rather, it was more of a for-shot remake. Favreau
this new era of live-action “black box with people said that isn’t the case.
remakes of its animated wearing headsets and VR “It diverges quite a bit,” he
library which this year in- goggles.” said. “It’s much longer than
cluded both “Dumbo” and The VR was used to “drive the original film. And part
“Aladdin,” turned to one of the camera” and “instead of what we’re doing here is
its most beloved. of just one layout artist on to (give it more dimension)
Favreau wasn’t even fin- a computer, we had a not just visually but both sto-
ished with his version of full crew operating virtual ry wise and emotionally.”
“The Jungle Book” when cameras in a virtual reality The main story points are
he started inquiring about environment,” he said. the same, but like the stage
plans for “The Lion King.” That includes esteemed musical, there will be differ-
He’d learned so much cinematographer Caleb ences too. Plus, he wanted
about motion capture Deschanel, a six-time Os- to capitalize on the unique-
technology and had a car nominee. ness of his actors.q