In the midst of having just released Aladdin, Disney’s already pumping up the marketing on their next remake: The Lion King. The highly-anticipated film is centered around the iconic 1994 animated feature, but this time, director Jon Favreau – who previously commanded The Jungle Book, as well as the first two Iron Man movies – is using cutting-edge technology and CGI to populate the jungle world with photorealistic characters. The hope is that we’ll forget we’re watching an animated movie
So far, it’s working. And given the response of the stunning first couple of trailers we’ve already seen, Disney knows what we’re excited about, releasing a line of posters (and a new TV spot, up above) introducing us to each of the creatures we’ll be seeing come July.
You can check out the whole animal crew for yourself below:
The rather simplistic design features the faces of each individual character, along with the actor providing their voices. In addition to Seth Rogen, James Earl Jones, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, we get an intimate look at both the younger and older versions of Simba (JD McCrary, Donald Glover) and Nala (Shahadi Wright Joseph, Beyonce Knoweles-Carter).
When it comes to what these furred creatures will be doing, the screenplay by Jeff Nathanson, who also penned Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, is expected to hit the major beats of its predecessor. But given the fact that both Seth Rogen and Disney Film Chief Alan Horn have recommended we bring tissues to the feature, it looks like Nathanson and Favreau have something else up their sleeves as well.
Of course, we’ll have to wait until The Lion King roars into theaters on July 19th to see what they’ve got planned. Thankfully, though, everything so far is indicating another mega-success from the House of Mouse.