(no subject)
Disney recently re-released the Lion King in 3D in theaters before they release it as a "'Diamond Edition" Blu-Ray in a few days.
Now, the Lion King was one of my absolute favourite movies as a child but I never had the chance to see it in theaters so I was lucky the local cinema had it showing in 3D.
Now, I'm a huge cocksucker for 3D. I know all these new surveys and stats coming up that show 3D is being rejected and abandoned as a gimmick by the public but I still like it (still, paying 5$ extra for the privilege is not cool hollywood :( ).
I had seen a 3D trailer for the Lion King when I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean:On Stranger Tides. I didn't like the look of the 3D (It looked like a bunch of animation layers were just separated and put in 3D) and was sceptical but I HAD to see the movie for the nostalgia value alone.
I was afraid that the movie hadn't aged well. I like all sorts of shit as a kid that I would never watch again and even if the Lion King was pretty good back then, I was worried perhaps the animation would have aged and shown it's limitations.
BUT HOLY FUCK was I proved wrong. It looks even better than I remembered it! The 3D was done well and smoothly. Even if you don't like 3D movies, the worst I can say about it is that it doesn't get in the way of the movie at all, it never overbears the great hand drawn animation.
The movie released back in 1994 and at the time I had only been living in Canada for a year, combined with me being only about 7 years old, I really didn't understand a lot of what was going on but now I get the dialogue a lot more in addition to realising who the hell these actors are: Hey that's Darth Va...eerr James Earl Jones as Mufasa! Rowan Atkinson is Zazu! Mathews Broderick is Simba!Whoopi Goldberg is Shenzi! Alan Rickman is Scar...no wait that Jeremy Irons..oh well can't get them all.
But what really got me is just how easily the movie keeps referring to death, murder, fratricide and regicide. Scar can't stop talking about it! In fact, I remember most of the songs in the movie EXCEPT "Be Prepared" which he sings with the Hyenas. At first, I thought it was a bonus scene added for the re-release because it HAS GOOSE STEPPING NAZI HYENAS! This song references the Nazi movie "Triumph of the Will" DIRECTLY.
Damn they had balls back then.
Still, I can see some flaws now that I'm a bit more cynical. The movie is 87 minutes long and has 6 songs. It ends too quickly and you feel the whole thing is a bit rushed. I'm not a fan of musicals and I have to admit I had a WTF face on when "Can you feel the love tonight" started. "HAKUNA MATATA JUST FINISHED LIKE 5 MINUTES AGO!" was what I wanted to scream at the screen. If the songs weren't great, I'd probably flip out more. The only other thing is that I felt Scar needed a more powerful motive to be so unspeakingly evil. He's one of my favourite villains and I want him to be awesomer. Perhaps flashbacks to him getting snubbed by his parents as a child in favor of Mufasa or perhaps a Severus Snape style flashback where Mufasa is shown to be a huge dick to his younger brother. Anything really because at the end of the movie he had a lot of chances to simply walk away unscathed by Simba but refused of all them...in addition he REALLY hated even hearing Mufasa's name. DAYUUUM Chill bro, people aren't born with this kind of hate.
ANYWAY, Final verdict: Movie is still awesome, still worth a ticket to see it today.
And if you want to see the quality of the animation in high definition: Here's an HD clip of my new favourite scene, the goose stepping hyenas.
Now, the Lion King was one of my absolute favourite movies as a child but I never had the chance to see it in theaters so I was lucky the local cinema had it showing in 3D.
Now, I'm a huge cocksucker for 3D. I know all these new surveys and stats coming up that show 3D is being rejected and abandoned as a gimmick by the public but I still like it (still, paying 5$ extra for the privilege is not cool hollywood :( ).
I had seen a 3D trailer for the Lion King when I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean:On Stranger Tides. I didn't like the look of the 3D (It looked like a bunch of animation layers were just separated and put in 3D) and was sceptical but I HAD to see the movie for the nostalgia value alone.
I was afraid that the movie hadn't aged well. I like all sorts of shit as a kid that I would never watch again and even if the Lion King was pretty good back then, I was worried perhaps the animation would have aged and shown it's limitations.
BUT HOLY FUCK was I proved wrong. It looks even better than I remembered it! The 3D was done well and smoothly. Even if you don't like 3D movies, the worst I can say about it is that it doesn't get in the way of the movie at all, it never overbears the great hand drawn animation.
The movie released back in 1994 and at the time I had only been living in Canada for a year, combined with me being only about 7 years old, I really didn't understand a lot of what was going on but now I get the dialogue a lot more in addition to realising who the hell these actors are: Hey that's Darth Va...eerr James Earl Jones as Mufasa! Rowan Atkinson is Zazu! Mathews Broderick is Simba!Whoopi Goldberg is Shenzi! Alan Rickman is Scar...no wait that Jeremy Irons..oh well can't get them all.
But what really got me is just how easily the movie keeps referring to death, murder, fratricide and regicide. Scar can't stop talking about it! In fact, I remember most of the songs in the movie EXCEPT "Be Prepared" which he sings with the Hyenas. At first, I thought it was a bonus scene added for the re-release because it HAS GOOSE STEPPING NAZI HYENAS! This song references the Nazi movie "Triumph of the Will" DIRECTLY.
Damn they had balls back then.
Still, I can see some flaws now that I'm a bit more cynical. The movie is 87 minutes long and has 6 songs. It ends too quickly and you feel the whole thing is a bit rushed. I'm not a fan of musicals and I have to admit I had a WTF face on when "Can you feel the love tonight" started. "HAKUNA MATATA JUST FINISHED LIKE 5 MINUTES AGO!" was what I wanted to scream at the screen. If the songs weren't great, I'd probably flip out more. The only other thing is that I felt Scar needed a more powerful motive to be so unspeakingly evil. He's one of my favourite villains and I want him to be awesomer. Perhaps flashbacks to him getting snubbed by his parents as a child in favor of Mufasa or perhaps a Severus Snape style flashback where Mufasa is shown to be a huge dick to his younger brother. Anything really because at the end of the movie he had a lot of chances to simply walk away unscathed by Simba but refused of all them...in addition he REALLY hated even hearing Mufasa's name. DAYUUUM Chill bro, people aren't born with this kind of hate.
ANYWAY, Final verdict: Movie is still awesome, still worth a ticket to see it today.
And if you want to see the quality of the animation in high definition: Here's an HD clip of my new favourite scene, the goose stepping hyenas.
Click to view