4.48 - THE LION KING (2019) & Hyperrealism

This week, after some...reviews of Disney’s most recent take on THE LION KING, we talk about how colour and contrast can make or break a film, the importance of myth to the original movie, and what it means to consider style versus substance when the film is as hyperrealistic as this one.

Next Up The final film in our Disney mini-season is 1998’s MULAN.

Recent Media
TED LASSO (2020–): Brendan Hunt, Jason Sudekis, Hannah Waddingham
PARKER (2013): Taylor Hackford, Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez

Recommendations
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (2018): Ron Howard, Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson 12 YEARS A SLAVE (2013): Steve McQueen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams SWINGERS (1996): Doug Liman, Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn THE AFRICAN LION (1955): James Algar, Winston Hibler

Footnotes Given that one of our opening topics was the use of colour in these films, there was surprisingly little from the former specialist in this area; this article redresses the balance somewhat: whatweknow.tinkertaylor.tv/post/102fg5e/what-is-colour-grading-in-film-and-why-is-it-so-important. Rob discusses the changes wrought on Scar’s ideology by these alterations in colour, and this is an interesting exploration of just what his intentions are: the-take.com/watch/in-the-lion-king-what-is-scars-political-ideology. We say a lot about the (admittedly stunning) VFX on this film, and you can see more here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5bTjenLGj0 and read more here: www.animationboss.net/the-lion-king-vfx. Finally, for more reliable lion facts than provided by Sam this week, see here: www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/african-lion.