
#Who plays zazu in the new lion king tv
Because of course it’s animated! Every single one of its characters was built in a computer somewhere, and just because the whole thing has the aesthetic of a 4K TV test demo doesn’t mean it’s live-action.

#Who plays zazu in the new lion king movie
Favreau has gone so far as to compare his new film to a restoration of an architectural marvel, bringing it back to its original glory, which only makes sense if you believe that photorealism is de facto better than something more fantastical.īut Disney’s billing of the new Lion King as “live action” only obscures why the movie is such a creative failure. In interviews, the creative team behind the new Lion King - in repeated attempts to justify its existence - has talked about the 1994 film reverentially, while also seeming to completely misunderstand what made it good or why it would ever require updating. Indeed, they look so real that they kept triggering my sense of the uncanny valley (when something fake looks so real that we only become more aware of how fake it is), especially when they were talking and their mouths mostly stayed rigid, so they could flap just a bit and create the illusion of “speaking.” And as these things go, the animals do look realistic. Everything about its visual effects is meant to appear as photorealistic as possible, to the degree that Disney did not even use motion-capture techniques to match the facial expressions of its computer-animated animals to those of the performers who voiced them (as it did with 2016’s The Jungle Book, the earlier Disney remake directed by Jon Favreau). To watch the film is to be aware of how it’s trying to look like live-action. The Lion King (2019): The cinematic equivalent of sitting in traffic.- Emily VanDerWerff July 11, 2019īut the question remains: Should we call this new Lion King “animated” or “live action”? The people who care most deeply about how the new Lion King’s filmmaking is classified are animation fans who also participate in Film Twitter, many of whom are frustrated that the remake has abandoned the bright and lively style of the original film in favor of an endless stretch of bland and boring beige. Okay, the extent to which this is a “debate” is a little overstated. And if you’ve followed any of the ongoing debate about whether the new Lion King qualifies as true “live action,” it encapsulates the proxy argument you’re really listening to: Should “realistic” presentation be a movie’s primary goal? A lot of animation fans are upset with Disney for billing its Lion King remake as “live action” It’s also the inevitable result of today’s film culture. It is utterly and completely dispiriting. The vertical and horizontal movements that defined the earlier version are gone it ends not with a rising column of color and spectacle, but with a bunch of photorealistic jungle animals standing in the waterhole, arranged in a vaguely triangular tableau. In the new version of The Lion King, director Jon Favreau stages “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” not as a kaleidoscope of movement and color, but instead as a sequence in which Simba and Nala prance around a waterhole. Everybody look left! Everybody look right! Everywhere you look, I’m standing in the spotlight! Disney The sequence is the movie in a nutshell - colorful, a little silly, and sneakily smart about the characters’ maturity levels. Its grand finale presents a massive tower of animals, an image straight out of the films of famous musical director Busby Berkeley, and the scene ends with Simba and Nala emerging at the top, perched on the back of an ostrich. DisneyĪnd animals will join in the dance, even if they’d traditionally be your prey: ZEBRAS! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE? Disney

In the world of The Lion King, the color of plants will shift when you transition from a dialogue scene to a musical number: Simba just can’t wait to be king. But it also uses the sequence to underline some of its visual grammar. The Lion King, directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, uses its “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” sequence to push its storytelling forward.

Won’t that be great for all the residents of the Pridelands? Yeah, he’s as blinkered and naive as any little kid, but boy, he really can’t wait to be king.

The song is imaginative and catchy, and it transforms Simba’s preening self-regard into such a hummable earworm that it’s easy enough to buy into everything he proclaims. He’s going to be the king someday, and that means he’ll never, ever have to listen to anybody he doesn’t want to.Īnd Simba just can’t wait to be king. One of the best sequences in the original version of The Lion King - the 1994 Disney animated classic - involves young Simba the lion cub puffing up his own ego for the benefit of his pal Nala.
