The Lion King... in 3D!

For those of you who don't know, Disney has re-released The Lion King in theaters, remastered and in 3D. So of course, I went to see it.

The showing I attended was at 9:20pm. There were no children present. The entire audience seemed to consist of 20-somethings, who were all clearly reliving their childhoods. The excitement in the air was palpable!

Before the film, there were a few indications that the people who designed the previews were, perhaps, not targeting the audience that was, at that moment, occupying the theater. We got commercials for Barbie and Legos. Then there were trailers for Arthur Christmas, Hugo, Puss in Boots, and Happy Feet Two. Ok, maybe they were targeting me, because I am very excited about Happy Feet Two. But that's beside the point. What I'm getting at is that there was a certain air of childishness within the theater that night. And I loved it!

At long last, after all those previews, the screen went black and then the famous Disney logo appeared, complete with castle and that "D" that nobody realized was a "D" for years and that, to this day, makes me think of some kind of distorted backward "G." Aww, nostalgia.

Of course, they've updated it for the younger generation.
These kids and their  CGI film studio logos. Back in my day...

In the moments before the movie started, in the quiet of the theater, the excitement could be contained no longer. Almost everyone began spontaneously to giggle, as if the level of joy they felt at being there was too great to maintain their silence and the only sound appropriate to express such joy was the most innocent and childlike of all sounds: the giggle. Then, as if in a dream, the sun began to rise and that first note sounded loud and bright and thus commenced 89 minutes of me having goosebumps.

It was wonderful. The movie looked great, all remastered and whatnot. And the 3D wasn't bad, neither! It makes you so amazed to remember that it was all hand-drawn. Having not seen the movie in years, I picked up on way more jokes this time. My favorites were the almost-constant animal puns. This scene is a prime example. Hilarious. (Just like this delightful raccoon.)

During every song, you could tell that the whole theater was itching to sing along but resisting out of movie theater courtesy. There was one moment, however, when things almost got ugly. During this scene, some heartless jerks, who clearly did not have any respect for their fellow man, poked their heads in the theater and started yelling nonsense. I'm fairly certain that if they hadn't stopped within another minute, everyone in the theater was prepared to go down there and destroy them. Luckily, it did not come to this.

Other than that momentary hiccup, The Lion King in 3D was a rousing success! It was even worth the 70-minutes roundtrip it took for me to walk there and back. I definitely recommend going. You may not be a big Disney fan, but this is a seriously enjoyable movie, and seeing in the theater, surrounded by people who are totally loving it, might just melt your hard, cold heart and remind you what it was like to be a child again.

I will leave you with this link to the Moviefone blog, where they have created a list of 17 interesting things you may not have known about The Lion King. For example, "originally, the movie was going to be called 'King of the Jungle,' until the filmmakers realized that lions live on the savanna, not in the jungle." Ha! Good catch, filmmakers.

Happy Thursday!