Culture

Director: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff (4/5)

It’s a movie dear to the hearts of Gen Y-ers everywhere. For a time, if there was an occasion that required a group of children to shut up and be quiet, it was the movie that fit the brief; if there was a need for a new song to update the school assembly song sheet, it would be from the soundtrack. Perhaps it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that The Lion King is the movie of the Nineties child. Hell, I collected the bloody magazine.
Seventeen years after its first release, The Lion King is back once more, this time with the magic of 3D. I was among those in their late teens and early twenties who rode the wave of nostalgia to the cinema, excited about seeing Simba frolicking once more with Pumbaa and Timon.
And I wasn’t disappointed. I’m certainly no Disney-o-phile, but the story had lost none of its magic, the witty jokes appeared to have only got more ingenious. Jokes that would have flown right over my head as a tender four year old finally made sense. I still loved Simba and Nala’s friendship/ flirting/wild sexy time and I still got teary when Mufasa died (although, at least I managed to sit it out. My friend’s toilet break suspiciously coincided with Mufasa’s fateful tumble). I laughed with the hyenas, I swooned over Scar (apparently I have developed a penchant for bad boys since my childhood), I got very philosophical with mention of “circle of life” and “the kings of the past”.
But, when it came down to it, did the 3D really add anything? In truth, I barely noticed the difference. Sure, feathers blowing past Rafiki came fractionally closer, and arguably the elephant graveyard seemed slightly further afield. But really, the 3D was just a feeble advertising gimmick, and an embarrassingly successful one at that, to hook us Gen Y-ers back into the Disney profit machine. It didn’t ruin anything, but it certainly didn’t better anything either.
The Lion King will forever be the movie of our childhood, but it doesn’t need the 3D effects to make it magical.