In the Circle of Life. It’s the wheel of remakes.
Surprise! Another animated Disney classic is getting a remake.
The Walt Disney Company revealed earlier this week that Jon Favreau will direct a new “reimagining” of The Lion King.
“We can officially confirm that The Walt Disney Studios and director Jon Favreau are putting a new reimagining of The Lion King on the fast track to production,” says Disney in the official press release. “No release date has been announced.”
Favreau has directed Elf, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and most recently, the live-action remake of The Jungle Book, released earlier this year.
This “reimagining” will join the ever-growing list of live-action remakes Disney has been cranking out since 2010 with Alice in Wonderland. Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson as Belle, is the next film to receive this treatment, and will release March 2017.
I’ve been careful so far to use the word “reimagining” to describe this remake, because A: that’s straight from the Mouse’s mouth, and B: this probably won’t be live-action.
The Jungle Book remake Favreau helmed was almost entirely CGI. With the exception of the kid who played Mowgli, it’s literally an animated film.
Keeping that in mind, and Jungle Book’s incredible success (it’s made well over $900 million at the box office), it seems as though this adaptation of The Lion King also won’t really be live-action, rather it will utilize the same technology used to bring the animals of The Jungle Book to life.
We really liked The Jungle Book, and we love Favreau…
But.
Is this necessary?
Do we really need a CGI remake of a 20-year-old 2D animated masterpiece? Especially when nearly the entire voice cast from the original is still around?
No we don’t. We didn’t need Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, Pete’s Dragon, and don’t need all of the other Disney remakes we’re going to get for the rest of our lives.
But will we still see it? Will we still cry when CGI Mufasa dies?
Yes.
