Disney's 3D re-release of 1994 hit The Lion King comes to UK cinemas this Friday, the first of many. Here's why I welcome it...
Take your choice of soap boxes to clamber onto with this one. First up, you could join the 3D sceptics shaking their fists at The Lion King’s 3D re-release, and deride it as the film equivalent of Disney hoisting cinemagoers upside down by the leg and shaking them until cash comes out.
Alternatively, you could side with the 3D enthusiasts, the people who prefer 3D to 2D movies and who are desperate to see The Lion King in all its sticky-out glory (though, oddly, I’ve yet to meet one of those).
Finally, you could find a place with the easier-going crowd who pacifically shrug their shoulders and say “Hey, Disney. Re-release the film all you like. But why bother with all the uncomfortable glasses and sticky-out stuff?”
Before seeing the 3D conversion I was somewhere between the positions one and three. I felt the usual niggles about the exercise being in pursuit of filthy
lucre, but was genuinely enthusiastic about seeing The Lion King again on the big screen. It’s a great animated film, give or take a couple of its syrupier songs, and I looked forward to it.
Now I’ve seen it, I feel precisely the same. Watching a cash cow being milked still irks (more so if it’s your cash being creamed), but The Lion King remains a great, very enjoyable film. It’s funny, it’s startlingly beautiful at times, and with Jeremy Irons as Scar, it features the most deliciously camp, comically villainous villain ever created by Disney.
Let’s be clear about one thing though, the 3D is not the attraction here. You go to see The Lion King to see The Lion King, and you put up with the 3D. Not that the conversion ruins the film. It’s a nice example of its kind and technical aficionados could probably tell us why, but I had exactly the same experience I’ve had with every 3D film I’ve ever seen: after the first ten minutes or so, I just stopped noticing it.
Yes, every so often Zazu the bird swoops nearer your nose than he would have done the first time around, and the stampede section is as impressive as ever. But that was it for me. The film was as impressive as ever, not more so. Not more immersive, not more exciting, but the same.
It turns out the combination of those artists and our optic nerves made a pretty good fist of creating the impression of depth and distance the first time around. For a better explanation on why this is the case, there’s a chapter in Mark Kermode’s The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex which is spot-on.
But here’s why I’m not stood on the railing-against, fist-shaking soap box: 3D or no, it was genuinely lovely to see the film again in a cinema.
I saw The Jungle Book for the first time as a kid during its 1988 cinema re-release and unlike the many Disney videos watched at childhood sleepovers or in rainy primary school lunchtimes, seeing The Jungle Book at the cinema was the film-going experience I can remember the most clearly and with the most joy.
I know memory is easily persuaded, but if I close my eyes I’m convinced I can still see the screen from our seats (in the middle, towards the back) in the packed cinema. I’m sure I remember the early evening walk home, swinging my older sister’s arm walking across a car park and laughing with my brother while trying to piece together the words to “The Bare Necessities”. As a kid, I’d never had more fun, and I had the cinema to thank for it.
Which is why I can’t possibly get uppity about The Lion King 3D, and I’ll happily go along to Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid when their turn comes. The 3D won’t ruin them, they’ll be as impressive as ever (though no more), and they’ll give a new generation of kids access to that The Jungle Book experience. If only a child’s ticket still cost £1.70, as mine did in 1988, I expect even Kermode might manage a smile.
The Lion King 3D comes out in the UK this Friday the 7th of October
Alternatively, you could side with the 3D enthusiasts, the people who prefer 3D to 2D movies and who are desperate to see The Lion King in all its sticky-out glory (though, oddly, I’ve yet to meet one of those).
Finally, you could find a place with the easier-going crowd who pacifically shrug their shoulders and say “Hey, Disney. Re-release the film all you like. But why bother with all the uncomfortable glasses and sticky-out stuff?”
lucre, but was genuinely enthusiastic about seeing The Lion King again on the big screen. It’s a great animated film, give or take a couple of its syrupier songs, and I looked forward to it.
Now I’ve seen it, I feel precisely the same. Watching a cash cow being milked still irks (more so if it’s your cash being creamed), but The Lion King remains a great, very enjoyable film. It’s funny, it’s startlingly beautiful at times, and with Jeremy Irons as Scar, it features the most deliciously camp, comically villainous villain ever created by Disney.
Yes, every so often Zazu the bird swoops nearer your nose than he would have done the first time around, and the stampede section is as impressive as ever. But that was it for me. The film was as impressive as ever, not more so. Not more immersive, not more exciting, but the same.
But here’s why I’m not stood on the railing-against, fist-shaking soap box: 3D or no, it was genuinely lovely to see the film again in a cinema.
I know memory is easily persuaded, but if I close my eyes I’m convinced I can still see the screen from our seats (in the middle, towards the back) in the packed cinema. I’m sure I remember the early evening walk home, swinging my older sister’s arm walking across a car park and laughing with my brother while trying to piece together the words to “The Bare Necessities”. As a kid, I’d never had more fun, and I had the cinema to thank for it.
The Lion King 3D comes out in the UK this Friday the 7th of October
