The Lion King: It's bigger and better

After having conquered hearts with The Jungle Book in 2016, Disney is all set to present its legendary franchise and the crown jewel - The Lion King - with ground-breaking technology that re-imagines the story. Directed by Iron Man and The Jungle Book fame director, Jon Favreau, The Lion King is one of the most anticipated films of recent times with game-changing photo-real technology to make the musical drama come alive on the big screen.

With a star-studded voice cast including Beyoncé for the English version and the casting coup in Hindi of Shah Rukh Khan and Aryan Khan as Mufasa and Simba, along with Ashish Vidyarthi, Shreyas Talpade, Sanjay Mishra and Asrani rounding up the coterie for the character of Scar, Timon, Pumbaa and Zazu respectively, Disney has left no stone unturned to bring to life one of the biggest family entertainers on screen.

Expectations are sky-high for the film which has advanced technological scale and special effects going beyond what is seen in previous Disney's biggest family blockbusters such as The Jungle Book (2016), Beauty And The Beast (2017) and Aladdin.

Also Read: Here's introducing Aryan Khan as Simba in The Lion King!

From early screenings and global reviews, critics have largely agreed that the film is filled with beautiful, stunning visuals and shot-for-shot recreations of iconic moments from the '90s movie, giving the feel of watching real animals in action.

Some of the reviews include statements such as, "The opening sequence is one of several iconic moments from the movie that's re-imagined so perfectly you may get chills. If I didn't know the lions were CGI, I would've believed they were real" and "Disney has produced one of its most impressive-looking films with The Lion King."

Also Read: Siddharth to voice Simba in Tamil version of The Lion King

Favreau helmed The Jungle Book, which wowed audiences and won an Oscar for its majestic technological scale. To go beyond The Jungle Book benchmark, Favreau and his team went to Africa for research, so they could ensure they were getting the details right. Then, the scenes were built through CGI, before eventually being turned into a virtual
reality experience.

Speaking of upping the ante for the visual effects in The Lion King, Favreau says, "We took all of those digital files, brought them into VR, and created this multi-player VR filmmaking game. All the crew put on headsets and they were able to walk around and look around the Pride Lands and watch the animated performances, and set cameras inside VR. So, it felt like we were making a live-action film inside virtual reality."

Get ready for a visual spectacle unlike any seen before as The Lion King roars into theatress in English and Hindi on July 19, 2019.

Also Read: The Lion King Movie Review - Extreme Makeover of the Original toon classic

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