VFXShow 243: The Lion King

 

The Lion King is the Disney computer-animated musical film directed and produced by Jon Favreau, and written by Jeff Nathanson.  The film is a photorealistic computer animated remake of Disney’s traditionally animated 1994 film of the same name. The film stars the voices of Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner, John Kani, John Oliver, and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, as well as James Earl Jones reprising his role from the original film.

The plot follows Simba, a young lion who must embrace his role as the rightful king of his native land following the murder of his father, Mufasa, at the hands of his uncle, Scar. Plans for a remake of The Lion King were confirmed in September 2016 following the success of Disney’s The Jungle Book, also directed by Favreau. Principal production began in mid-2017 on a sound stage in Los Angeles. With an estimated budget of around $260 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made.

The DOP was Caleb Deschanel, and the VFX supervisor was Rob Legato. The virtual production was spearheaded by Magnopus, lead by Ben Grossman with the breathtaking animation produced by MPC. Together the team built on the lessons learnt on the Jungle Book to advanced the craft of photorealistic virtual production.

The Lion King featured the voices of James Earl Jones as Mufasa, and JD McCrary as Young Simba. Disney’s The Lion King was directed by Jon Favreau.

 

The fxguide herd assembled for this episode:

Pride Rock (IMAX aspect ratio)

Leave a Reply