By Joshua Sanchez
Staff Writer
When I heard that The Lion King was being re-released in 3-D,
I was horrified and angry. No, angry doesn’t cut it; I was filled with the
burning rage of a thousand suns.
It’s no secret that I hate nearly all of Disney’s old
animated musicals, but I hold a special place in my heart for “The Lion King.” This
is the earliest memory I have at the movies, watching with my mother and father
and the smell of fresh hot popcorn (the good stuff, before they had the fake
butter and the cheesy toppings that cost a dollar). Every time I see the movie
now, I get a fresh wave of nostalgia, and pleasant memories come flooding back.
How dare Disney muck with my precious memories. What gives
them the right to pull a George Lucas and try to re-master a timeless classic
with this blasphemous technology that, in my honest opinion, should have died in
the 80s?
As it turned out, I actually liked it. Yes, the 3-D critic
who denounces all the migraine-inducing schlock that permeates the market liked
it. But even as much as I denounce 3-D, I must admit that the 3-D enhances the
animation with the one thing that I had always felt it lacked: depth.
The film no longer seems like a standard 2-D pencil
animation. The shading and texturing of the foreground and background lets you
really see into the picture and draws the audience deeper into the frame much
more than the simple blurring effect used in the original version.
Beyond that, there isn’t much difference between the
original and the new version. The people involved did a good job of keeping the
sound quality perfect and improving the video quality.
The movie is world-renowned for its amazing soundtrack with
the classic song written by Elton John, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and my
favorite villain song from any Disney musical “Be Prepared.”
If you have never seen the movie on the big screen, now is
your chance. I fully recommend that you do go see this flick. Right now it’s
still in a very limited showing at Cinemark 22 but soon will be heading into
the dollar movies.
