The Lion King

To create The Lion King, the animators poured their whole hearts and souls into each animal they put onto the screen. They even brought real lions into the studio as references for their work, just like what Walt Disney did with his animators for films like Bambi and The Lady and the Tramp. Other digital effects made the beautiful African landscapes feel bigger than life, such as by implementing mist, sunbeams, and changes in camera focus to give a sense of perspective. Together, all these ambitious techniques make possible the unforgettable moment when Simba sees the vision of Mufasa in the sky.
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However, the film’s greatest accomplishment is the stampede—an endeavor in computer animation that accomplished a vision impossible to be met by traditional hand-drawn animation. First, a digital wildebeest model was made off of a hand-drawn piece of animation, and then to get hundreds of these models running together, a new software was developed so the wildebeest wouldn’t collide with one another. Yet the hard work of these animators would’ve been futile without the legendary musical score, with talent including Tim Rice, Elton John, Hans Zimmer, and Lebo M- a South African composer. The result is a definitive motion picture event designed at the same grand scale as Hollywood epics such as Ben-Hur or Lawrence of Arabia. So today, it’s remembered as one of the most influential animated films ever made.

G
Fantasy/Musical
1 hr. 27 min.

Watch it for FUN.
​Watch it to feel HAPPY, SAD, and AFRAID.