When audiences sit down with their bucket of popcorn and big soda, ready to let Disney’s remake of “The Lion King” enter their eyeballs and earholes, the last thing on their mind will be whether or not they’re about to watch an animated feature or a live-action film. It just doesn’t matter. But you see, for some film fans, and ultimately, awards deciders, it’s all about the details. So, is “The Lion King” going to be considered as animation or live-action when it comes to discussions? Well, don’t look at Jon Favreau to help you decide.
Speaking to SlashFilm, the director of the new ‘Lion King’ remake has no clue what his film should be considered. And he hopes that when you sit down and watch the film, you’re not preoccupied with what category it might land in, come Oscar time.
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“Well, it’s difficult because it’s neither, really,” explained Favreau. “It depends what standard you’re using. Because there’s no real animals and there’s no real cameras and there’s not even any performance that’s being captured that’s underlying data that’s real.”
He continued, “Everything is coming through the hands of artists. But to say it’s animated I think is misleading as far as what the expectations might be.”
As Favreau mentions, and has gone into more detail about before, “The Lion King” is a wholly unique film in the realm of Disney remakes. Actually, it’s unique in all of film. You see, the film uses photorealistic CGI to create a world that looks completely real, with animals that look like the ones you’ll see in the wild. However, there isn’t one ounce of anything real in the film, as CGI wizards have created a completely fake world and fake animals for the film.
But to then put this on the same level as other CGI-animated films like “Toy Story” or even Favreau’s own “The Jungle Book” isn’t apt, either. It’s photorealistic, making it look like Disney used real locations and real animals, distancing itself from other CGI-animated films like the Pixar releases. However, there’s no motion capture used, so it’s not created in the same way as ‘Jungle Book.’ Instead, Favreau has described previously, a method that used virtual reality to move “cameras” around in virtual space, creating a pseudo-live-action set but in a fake reality.
“I think calling it live-action is also not appropriate either, because it sounds like we’re trying to present something that isn’t accurate,” the filmmaker said. “And I don’t know what we’re gonna call it. I don’t know. But remember, things have to sort of fit into one clickable headline, so it’s hard to have the nuance.”
Nuance is key. Unfortunately, it’s not just headlines that require binary classification. As mentioned, awards ceremonies are filled with rules and regulations. So, will “The Lion King” compete with the rest of the live-action films or will it be designated as only an animated film? We shall see. Either way, it’s going to make a billion dollars, so Disney probably doesn’t care.