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Hi, this is Jon Favreau, and this is

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the director's commentary for the 2019

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version of The Lion King.

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This title sequence here

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for the Disney logo was actually created

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for The Jungle Book.

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There's one small difference,
which is you'll see Tinker Bell

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circles the top here.

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This is actually hand-painted
using the old multiplane techniques.

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Rob Legato, a name that
you'll be hearing a lot

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during this commentary,

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is our visual effects supervisor

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and second unit director...

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On both these projects.

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And we thought
a really low-tech beginning

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to honor the Disney roots

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was a clever way to go.

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This shot here

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is the only actually
photographed shot in the entire film.

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Of the 1,400 shots,
we wanted to put one real one in.

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Everything else is computer generated.

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But that first sunrise shot
is the mystery real shot.

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All the rest of these were
created, actually.

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The environments were created by MPC,

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which is the one vendor
that worked on this film.

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A lot of films use
a lot of visual effects houses.

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We used MPC.

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And the visual effects supervisor
from MPC, Adam Valdez,

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who also was a visual effects supervisor

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on Jungle Book, we met on that project
and much of the same team.

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Also, Andy Jones, the lead animator,

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was also involved with that project.

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Now, these environments were researched
pretty exhaustively in Africa,

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and we had done a lot of photography.

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There had been a scout
where we tried to find the locations

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that inspired the locations
from the original film

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'cause that was pretty well documented.

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And so James Chinlund,
who is our production designer,

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who is in charge of
the whole look of the film...

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Normally, production designers are
designing and building sets.

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In the case of a film where
we're using virtual photography,

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he was overseeing the building
of these virtual environments that,

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like this shot,
pays homage to the original,

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but yet grounds it, hopefully,

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more in the reality of the topography
of the real locations.

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Now, this shot is interesting

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'cause we wanted to make it
look like a helicopter shot,

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and we brought in some
drone pilots that actually...

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You know, we shrunk the set down
and had the drone fly around it

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like a helicopter shot.
It turned out quite well.

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And Audrey Ferrara is a name
I should mention as well.

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Her official title is

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MPC DFX Supervisor,

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but really her job is

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designing the environments
like an art director

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and working with the teams of dozens

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and actually hundreds of artists
that worked on this to help create

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this naturalism that we were going for.

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And of course,
every one of these characters is

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designed also by the artists
over there at MPC

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and overseen by the production team
working on the film.

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Now, if you're familiar
with the original Lion King,

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you could see that this sequence here,
the circle of life, is one

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where we really tried
to adhere as much as possible

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to the original shots

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to let the audience know,

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who were fans of the original,
that we really...

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We're gonna take... We go
to great efforts to honor the original.

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Of course,
there's a lot of shots in here

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that are different, but we found that

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transposing the 2D shots

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to 3D and to photorealism

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didn't always translate perfectly.
And so there are things like

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the fruit that gets broken open
with the juice inside,

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when we looked at
what kind of fruit that was

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and what was really inside of it,

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it wasn't filled with

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face paint. It was filled with,

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you know,

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a white fleshy fruit.

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And so we didn't want to depart
from reality more than we had to.

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And so in that case,
we switched it for pigments

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that were in different plant life there

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and things that you would
really find in nature.

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And we used that later when
Rafiki's actually painting on the tree.

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And so this Circle of Life sequence

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ending with this big drum boom...

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(DRUM BOOMS)

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...that, by the way, I got to play

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the big drum, the bass drum
in Hans Zimmer's orchestra,

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and I got to hit that drum.

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That was my big contribution.

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I might also add that

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the singer who sang that song,

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this version of the Circle of Life
was Lindiwe Mkhize,

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who had been with the London company

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of the musical production for 20 years
and had just retired.

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And Hans had the idea to include her

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as part of the legacy of the project

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and bring some of the musical
stage production feel to our film.

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Now, this sequence here,

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this is where
we really depart from the original.

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And we wanted to show,

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using the techniques that
I'll talk about later, a virtual camera,

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that we could create something
that felt more like a documentary.

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We wanted this thing to feel
not like an animated remake,

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but like as though it were
a live-action production,

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even though clearly
everything's animated here.

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There's nothing live action.

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The environments aren't,
the characters aren't.

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Everything is handmade,
hand animated, hand created.

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But everything was meant to

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contribute to the live-action
appearance of the film.

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And so we studied
a lot of the BBC documentaries

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like Planet Earth II, I think,

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which came out around the time
we were planning this.

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And we studied the way
that they used their cameras,

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the way they operated them,
the way they edited, used music,

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used speed changes,

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all the ways that they brought emotion,
anthropomorphic emotion

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to these naturalistic animals,

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these animals that
didn't have any expression.

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We wanted to limit the scope
as much as we could

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to the naturalism
of the animals' behavior.

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And so borrowing a lot
and learning a lot

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from the techniques
that are used in documentaries,

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we were able to, I think,

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bring a lot of the emotion to the film
that the original had

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while not being tempted to make them act
in too much of a cartoony fashion

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and break the illusion that we were
really photographing this.

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There's John Oliver playing Zazu,

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Chiwetel Ejiofor

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playing Scar.

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And here's

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James Earl Jones returning.

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And there's our
Man for All Seasons shot.

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Henry VIII, (CHUCKLES)

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blocking the sun.

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So, here we have
one of those situations where

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the scene kind of follows
what was in the original,

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though there was a lot more slapstick

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between Zazu and Scar.

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But yet I think we captured the spirit.

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And it's an interesting scene, too,
because here you have James Earl Jones,

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who's the only person returning

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with their voice to this production,

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other than Lebo M,

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whose voice is still,
is singing throughout the piece.

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But this is the only voice,
and he's playing against Chiwetel.

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And of course,

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Chiwetel's a new voice,
and Scar has a new look.

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Because if you just followed
what was originally there

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with a, you know, very dark mane,

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it would've seemed like

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that's a sign of dominance
in the animal kingdom among lions.

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And so from certain angles,
it looks dark, like here.

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But, really, we found if we went
with a black mane, it would look like

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he would've been the dominant lion,

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and part of the story
is that Mufasa is the alpha.

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And part of Scar's struggle is
that he wants to be the king.

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MUFASA: As long as I am king,
that will never change.

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Well, there's one
in every family, sire.

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I had a cousin who thought
he was a woodpecker.

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FAVREAU: Now,
it should be said that right now,

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I haven't seen this movie yet

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with an audience of people

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who weren't involved with
making the movie.

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So, the premiere is actually tomorrow.

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It would be the first time
I get to see it with a crowd,

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so it's a little bit odd
talking about this film

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without knowing
how it's going to be received.

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But I know that a lot of people

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worked very hard on it
and that we cared very deeply about

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honoring the legacy of the film.

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And all the people
that have worked on it

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and contributed to it
before we were ever even involved,

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before this production
was even launched,

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the stage production
and the original animated film.

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And of course, all of the music
and the culture that it reflects.

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Here was a difficult conundrum,

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because if you remember
from the old film, he was painting.

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And we felt Rafiki would
very easily turn anthropomorphic,

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and it would blow the illusion of him
being a real primate

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if we had him painting.

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And so the idea of

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these bugs magically kind of

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coming together and him nudging them

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to create some kind of a holdout

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for blowing pigment onto the tree,

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kind of like the old

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cave paintings where

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ancient humans would hold
their hand up against the cave wall

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and blow pigment against it

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and remove their hand,
and there would be the outline.

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Here, this was inspired
by time-lapse photography

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that you would find in a documentary.

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And now we transition out into

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a very memorable scene
from the original film.

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The more memorable the scene,

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the more we adhered to

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what people would remember.

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And we found that in certain scenes
we could deviate quite a bit

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and certain areas
we had to hold very close

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to what people's memories were.

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If I'm not mistaken, all of this is

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is pretty word-for-word

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and shot-for-shot.

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We found that Mufasa's dialogue

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actually held up very well.

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There are certain things
that hold up over, you know,

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25 years,

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better than other things.

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And the dialogue of Mufasa reflects

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timeless truths

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and lessons that
one generation passes to the next.

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Anything that addressed...

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That was too colloquial or that was

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comedy, was felt contemporary
at all at the time,

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that stuff didn't hold up as well,
we found.

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And then tonal things
that didn't translate well

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to live action also,

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we found that we were better off
exploring other possibilities there.

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But this sequence here of,

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"Everything the light touches
is your kingdom,"

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is definitely something
that people remember.

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And even getting the lion
to sit like that,

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that's not something
you see in nature that often.

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They do it from time to time,
but people remember it more

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from statues in front of museums...
(CHUCKLES)

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And less from the zoo.

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But we felt that
that was a very strong visual.

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And now you start to see
the camera movement.

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And here, hopefully, you could see

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the combination of things like
lighting, the first simulations here,

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which felt like something
that you hadn't seen before.

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The technology really took a big jump.

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But these shots,
these emulated helicopter shots

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and these long lens shots
and the camera movement, crane shots

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were all created using a technique
called virtual camera work

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where we actually built

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the animation, built the environments,

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and instead of just rendering it
for the film,

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we brought it into
a 3D virtual reality space.

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And that's where
we operated virtual cameras

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with a live-action film crew
within that virtual environment.

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Often we'd all be wearing the headsets
so that we could actually be there.

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So, like, for a scene like this,
I would be standing there

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watching the lion walk past me
with Caleb Deschanel,

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00:13:22,886 --> 00:13:24,972
and we would decide where
we should put the camera.

250
00:13:27,224 --> 00:13:30,769
This is some beautiful animation
right here, using the slow motion.

251
00:13:30,852 --> 00:13:32,270
See, their mouths aren't
moving back there.

252
00:13:32,354 --> 00:13:34,231
This is how you would
cut a doc together.

253
00:13:34,523 --> 00:13:35,816
And so we took certain leaps that

254
00:13:35,899 --> 00:13:37,651
you wouldn't do necessarily
in a live-action film,

255
00:13:37,734 --> 00:13:39,361
but you would do in a documentary.

256
00:13:39,695 --> 00:13:41,613
So, we're trying
to put little clues in here

257
00:13:41,697 --> 00:13:43,907
to subconsciously make you think
you're seeing something

258
00:13:43,991 --> 00:13:45,367
that was filmed in the wild.

259
00:13:46,410 --> 00:13:48,453
But if you watch
all these camera movements,

260
00:13:48,578 --> 00:13:50,288
you'll see that they're a bit imprecise.

261
00:13:50,372 --> 00:13:52,416
There's a lot of little
adjustments going on,

262
00:13:52,749 --> 00:13:55,544
because often times it would be
Caleb Deschanel on the wheels,

263
00:13:55,627 --> 00:13:59,715
operating a camera
within a virtual space.

264
00:14:00,215 --> 00:14:03,593
And we would generate dailies
from those camera movements

265
00:14:04,011 --> 00:14:06,263
and supply them to our editors,

266
00:14:06,346 --> 00:14:08,974
Mark Livolsi, Adam Gerstel.

267
00:14:09,307 --> 00:14:10,851
And they would take the dailies,

268
00:14:10,976 --> 00:14:12,477
as they would
in a live-action production,

269
00:14:12,561 --> 00:14:14,980
they would cut it together
into an assembly.

270
00:14:15,564 --> 00:14:18,316
And so it was very much
a pipeline of a live-action film

271
00:14:18,900 --> 00:14:20,152
in the middle section.

272
00:14:20,610 --> 00:14:22,654
So, in the beginning,
we would prepare it as,

273
00:14:23,655 --> 00:14:25,157
you know, animators always would,

274
00:14:25,282 --> 00:14:27,784
which is pencil drawings
in the story department

275
00:14:28,326 --> 00:14:30,746
and little animatics or show reels,

276
00:14:31,663 --> 00:14:34,207
as Disney Animation would do or Pixar.

277
00:14:34,291 --> 00:14:36,334
But then at the point where
we would go into layout,

278
00:14:36,418 --> 00:14:38,170
that's when we built everything.

279
00:14:38,253 --> 00:14:40,380
And Andy Jones oversaw all the animation

280
00:14:40,464 --> 00:14:43,300
so that we had some
simple versions of the animation

281
00:14:43,383 --> 00:14:45,260
done in a game engine called Unity.

282
00:14:45,635 --> 00:14:48,680
A company called Magnopus
built essentially,

283
00:14:49,222 --> 00:14:52,768
along with MPC,
essentially a multi-player

284
00:14:53,351 --> 00:14:55,520
virtual reality filmmaking game,

285
00:14:55,604 --> 00:14:57,773
where we could all be
in virtual reality together

286
00:14:57,856 --> 00:14:59,399
as though we're on a real film set.

287
00:14:59,816 --> 00:15:01,318
And here, you had a real crane.

288
00:15:01,401 --> 00:15:04,404
You know, we had a crane
that was in our facility,

289
00:15:04,488 --> 00:15:07,032
and we would operate the crane in a big,

290
00:15:08,909 --> 00:15:11,286
you know, room that looked
like a motion capture room.

291
00:15:11,828 --> 00:15:14,748
But instead of capturing the movements
of the animals or performers,

292
00:15:14,831 --> 00:15:17,209
we were instead capturing
the movements of the cameras.

293
00:15:17,584 --> 00:15:22,422
So, it was using similar techniques,
new hardware, virtual reality hardware,

294
00:15:23,548 --> 00:15:27,427
game engine technology and having
a live-action crew operating cameras.

295
00:15:27,928 --> 00:15:30,680
But the lions or the performers,
none of them were ever in the room.

296
00:15:30,764 --> 00:15:32,390
Those were all pre-animated.

297
00:15:32,557 --> 00:15:35,894
And so we would have sequences
like this bug sequence where

298
00:15:36,228 --> 00:15:37,521
we would decide where the cameras...

299
00:15:37,729 --> 00:15:40,440
We would walk around and observe it
as though it were a rehearsal,

300
00:15:40,732 --> 00:15:41,900
and then Caleb would decide,

301
00:15:41,983 --> 00:15:44,361
the camera goes here,
where we'd pull focus,

302
00:15:44,945 --> 00:15:45,946
how it would move.

303
00:15:46,655 --> 00:15:48,532
And so Andy Jones

304
00:15:48,990 --> 00:15:51,868
was tasked with our little animation lab

305
00:15:52,285 --> 00:15:54,454
to build very naturalistic performances.

306
00:15:54,538 --> 00:15:58,458
It's very easy to exaggerate
performances on a sequence like this.

307
00:15:58,959 --> 00:16:00,335
But it would feel a little bit...

308
00:16:00,418 --> 00:16:02,295
The physics would feel
a little cartoony.

309
00:16:02,420 --> 00:16:04,464
So I think there's
a really good sense of weight,

310
00:16:04,548 --> 00:16:06,258
how the characters move.

311
00:16:06,842 --> 00:16:07,968
And again,

312
00:16:08,468 --> 00:16:12,180
really no emotion in the face,
which is counterintuitive

313
00:16:12,264 --> 00:16:14,099
if you're doing a film
like Lion King where

314
00:16:14,182 --> 00:16:17,227
you want the animals
to express a lot of emotion.

315
00:16:17,727 --> 00:16:19,104
And so it fell upon the voice cast,

316
00:16:19,187 --> 00:16:21,898
in this case it's JD McCrary
and Chiwetel Ejiofor,

317
00:16:21,982 --> 00:16:26,111
to bring a lot of performance through
and emotion through their voices.

318
00:16:26,403 --> 00:16:27,863
And also, the camera work.

319
00:16:28,613 --> 00:16:32,367
So, you see a shot like this where
you start off on a close-up of Simba,

320
00:16:33,869 --> 00:16:37,706
and then you see the camera
slowly move and the focus rack.

321
00:16:37,789 --> 00:16:40,041
And so even though
there's no expression on Scar's face,

322
00:16:40,125 --> 00:16:42,002
you definitely read a lot (LAUGHS)

323
00:16:42,085 --> 00:16:43,920
into what he feels about

324
00:16:44,421 --> 00:16:45,839
his little nephew.

325
00:16:46,756 --> 00:16:48,508
And look at that beautiful environment.

326
00:16:49,259 --> 00:16:54,014
This is a shot that I am very proud
and impressed with the team.

327
00:16:54,973 --> 00:16:56,474
That's...

328
00:16:57,851 --> 00:17:00,979
It might not be obvious to people,
but that's probably

329
00:17:01,354 --> 00:17:02,772
one of the most difficult shots
in the movie,

330
00:17:02,856 --> 00:17:04,774
to make a naturalistic environment
where you could look at

331
00:17:04,858 --> 00:17:07,402
everything at the same time,
there's no camera movement,

332
00:17:08,028 --> 00:17:10,572
and for it to appear to be photographed.

333
00:17:12,073 --> 00:17:15,911
And then also a beautiful
environment inside Scar's cave,

334
00:17:15,994 --> 00:17:18,371
and look at the beautiful
lighting in here.

335
00:17:18,663 --> 00:17:21,291
I was so grateful
to have Caleb Deschanel,

336
00:17:21,374 --> 00:17:24,502
who, if you're unfamiliar with his work,

337
00:17:24,586 --> 00:17:26,504
you should start
with looking up his resume

338
00:17:26,588 --> 00:17:29,466
and then just one by one
start watching all of his films.

339
00:17:29,549 --> 00:17:33,303
It's film school, just watching his work
and how he's progressed

340
00:17:33,386 --> 00:17:36,765
over so many different periods
of filmmaking.

341
00:17:41,686 --> 00:17:44,397
And now... He started off at a time
when there was...

342
00:17:44,481 --> 00:17:47,442
On films with very little visual effects
and no CGI technology.

343
00:17:48,318 --> 00:17:49,361
And here he is

344
00:17:50,570 --> 00:17:53,281
operating cameras
and being the cinematographer

345
00:17:53,365 --> 00:17:55,492
on a very cutting-edge, technical film,

346
00:17:56,368 --> 00:17:59,454
which is to show you that
really the technology is just a tool

347
00:17:59,537 --> 00:18:02,916
and it's the artist
and the experience of the filmmakers,

348
00:18:03,500 --> 00:18:06,002
be it cinematographers
or camera operators,

349
00:18:06,544 --> 00:18:07,671
performers,

350
00:18:08,922 --> 00:18:10,715
people who design
environments, lighting,

351
00:18:10,799 --> 00:18:12,384
all of the people who are...

352
00:18:12,926 --> 00:18:15,428
All the artists and filmmakers
who are part of the team,

353
00:18:16,388 --> 00:18:19,349
if the set of tools are
presented in a way

354
00:18:19,766 --> 00:18:24,396
that will allow them
to take everything they've learned

355
00:18:25,272 --> 00:18:28,358
from the old way of making movies,
the more traditional way,

356
00:18:28,566 --> 00:18:31,736
and if you could tap into
that passion, that artistry

357
00:18:31,820 --> 00:18:33,238
and that level of skill,

358
00:18:33,321 --> 00:18:35,699
then you really get
the best of both worlds.

359
00:18:35,782 --> 00:18:37,909
You get to push the limits
of what the tech could do,

360
00:18:37,993 --> 00:18:39,452
but you also get

361
00:18:40,745 --> 00:18:42,789
this lifetime of experience

362
00:18:42,872 --> 00:18:45,875
that's often pushed to the side
as new technologies emerge.

363
00:18:45,959 --> 00:18:47,877
And so the effort that we were making

364
00:18:47,961 --> 00:18:52,465
and Rob Legato was certainly
a big part of this,

365
00:18:53,300 --> 00:18:55,176
creating this little infrastructure

366
00:18:55,552 --> 00:18:59,222
that we could hire people who didn't
have experience in visual effects,

367
00:18:59,306 --> 00:19:04,019
but you have a real dolly operator
who's pulling the camera and reacting

368
00:19:04,561 --> 00:19:06,521
to the movement of these characters

369
00:19:06,604 --> 00:19:09,566
like they would
if you were filming real performers.

370
00:19:10,275 --> 00:19:13,320
And I think, although it's not
obvious consciously to people,

371
00:19:13,403 --> 00:19:16,156
I think the subconscious takeaway is
that you feel like you're watching

372
00:19:16,239 --> 00:19:18,908
something more real
than an animated movie.

373
00:19:19,075 --> 00:19:21,244
At least, that was our contention.

374
00:19:21,578 --> 00:19:23,330
How we getting rid
of the dodo?

375
00:19:23,496 --> 00:19:25,123
Trust me, I got this.

376
00:19:25,290 --> 00:19:26,624
Follow me to freedom.

377
00:19:28,043 --> 00:19:29,919
ZAZU: Oh, how lovely it is...

378
00:19:31,004 --> 00:19:33,048
FAVREAU: So, now
we're about to enter into

379
00:19:33,131 --> 00:19:35,133
the Can't Wait to be King number.

380
00:19:35,425 --> 00:19:38,762
And this was a very challenging one
because everybody remembers it.

381
00:19:38,845 --> 00:19:40,472
It's a very upbeat number.

382
00:19:40,555 --> 00:19:42,891
In the original film,
it's extremely colorful.

383
00:19:43,016 --> 00:19:44,392
It's like a Busby Berkeley

384
00:19:45,018 --> 00:19:46,478
choreographed musical.

385
00:19:46,770 --> 00:19:49,689
It has very colorful, surreal imagery.

386
00:19:49,773 --> 00:19:52,734
If you remember, there's animals
standing on top of each other's heads.

387
00:19:52,859 --> 00:19:54,194
It's very...

388
00:19:54,444 --> 00:19:57,447
It almost exists partially
in the imagination of the characters,

389
00:19:57,530 --> 00:20:00,367
and it's very much
in the Disney tradition of the surreal,

390
00:20:01,034 --> 00:20:03,620
you know, visually-beautiful,

391
00:20:03,703 --> 00:20:06,998
semi-fantasy sequences that pop up,

392
00:20:07,082 --> 00:20:09,292
you know, that have been
popping up since Dumbo.

393
00:20:11,836 --> 00:20:15,465
Now, we didn't want to depart at all
from the reality of the film.

394
00:20:15,548 --> 00:20:19,928
We didn't want to blow
the illusion of real photography.

395
00:20:20,553 --> 00:20:22,180
And so part of the challenge

396
00:20:22,263 --> 00:20:24,724
with James Chinlund
and Audrey and Elliot Newman

397
00:20:24,933 --> 00:20:27,143
and the whole visual effects team
and Andy was...

398
00:20:27,268 --> 00:20:30,814
"How could we create the same feeling
that you had from the old movie

399
00:20:30,897 --> 00:20:32,857
"without going so stylistic?"

400
00:20:32,941 --> 00:20:35,443
And so as you'll see,
we start to embrace

401
00:20:35,527 --> 00:20:39,072
a different color palette
with the flamingos coming up.

402
00:20:39,155 --> 00:20:41,491
We used the animals to create this

403
00:20:41,908 --> 00:20:42,992
really cool environment,

404
00:20:43,076 --> 00:20:46,496
because to these little cubs,
those animals are the environment.

405
00:20:46,955 --> 00:20:50,667
We, you know, use the animals to create
architecture and color around them

406
00:20:51,167 --> 00:20:53,336
to hopefully capture
some of the same fun and energy

407
00:20:53,461 --> 00:20:55,088
that the original production had.

408
00:20:55,630 --> 00:20:56,881
ZAZU: Now, when I said that...

409
00:20:56,965 --> 00:20:58,299
NALA: (SINGING) No one saying "be there"

410
00:20:58,383 --> 00:20:59,384
ZAZU: What I meant was...

411
00:20:59,467 --> 00:21:01,261
FAVREAU: And so you see
the legs of the animals

412
00:21:01,344 --> 00:21:03,179
almost become like forests

413
00:21:03,721 --> 00:21:05,849
to these little characters.

414
00:21:06,224 --> 00:21:07,517
I should mention also

415
00:21:08,101 --> 00:21:09,978
that we have...

416
00:21:10,603 --> 00:21:14,274
Shahadi Wright Joseph
playing young Nala.

417
00:21:14,441 --> 00:21:18,445
Of course, the older Nala
is played by Beyoncé.

418
00:21:24,909 --> 00:21:28,830
And we kept the lyrics
the same here from the original.

419
00:21:29,414 --> 00:21:30,915
And this sequence was

420
00:21:32,083 --> 00:21:34,127
inspired by the original,
but we had to depart.

421
00:21:34,210 --> 00:21:36,004
And so Dave Lowery, I should mention,

422
00:21:36,129 --> 00:21:37,338
who's our head of story,

423
00:21:37,505 --> 00:21:40,175
was overseeing
a very talented story department

424
00:21:40,258 --> 00:21:42,385
that would come up with
all these little gags

425
00:21:42,594 --> 00:21:43,887
in much the same way

426
00:21:44,345 --> 00:21:46,347
it would've been done
in Walt Disney's time.

427
00:21:46,514 --> 00:21:50,852
You know, we would have sessions
where we'd review the storyboards.

428
00:21:51,144 --> 00:21:54,105
We'd do little animatics
to watch them play as pencil,

429
00:21:54,481 --> 00:21:56,274
and we would lay them against the music.

430
00:21:56,357 --> 00:21:58,776
And so when we're
on the set "photographing,"

431
00:21:58,860 --> 00:22:01,029
I say that in quotes.
When we're actually capturing

432
00:22:01,696 --> 00:22:05,366
the imagery in VR,
using virtual cameras,

433
00:22:05,658 --> 00:22:09,287
we would have usually Adam Gerstel
on the set, the editor.

434
00:22:09,370 --> 00:22:12,749
And he would cut in these shots

435
00:22:13,875 --> 00:22:19,422
over the pencil drawings
and have the music playing behind it.

436
00:22:20,340 --> 00:22:22,967
And we would see if the shots worked,

437
00:22:23,051 --> 00:22:24,969
and so we were kind of
building a sequence like this

438
00:22:25,053 --> 00:22:27,680
as we went, in real time.

439
00:22:28,723 --> 00:22:29,974
You could also hear,

440
00:22:30,850 --> 00:22:35,730
of course, Hans Zimmer is, you know,
the beating heart of this film.

441
00:22:35,813 --> 00:22:39,609
He really helped,
not just helped give advice

442
00:22:40,485 --> 00:22:42,737
about what Lion King was about
and what the original experience was,

443
00:22:42,820 --> 00:22:45,031
but musically, I mean, I think

444
00:22:45,406 --> 00:22:48,868
it's really, truly an inspired work.

445
00:22:52,789 --> 00:22:54,541
And, you know,
he partnered up with Pharrell.

446
00:22:54,624 --> 00:22:56,042
He's been working
with Pharrell for a while,

447
00:22:56,125 --> 00:22:57,669
and what's great in a song like this is

448
00:22:57,752 --> 00:22:59,587
you could hear both of the influences,

449
00:22:59,671 --> 00:23:02,131
that mixture
of two different perspectives

450
00:23:02,215 --> 00:23:04,217
but two people who
really see eye-to-eye creatively,

451
00:23:04,300 --> 00:23:06,886
but come from different traditions

452
00:23:06,970 --> 00:23:11,683
that just collaborate on a level of just

453
00:23:13,101 --> 00:23:16,104
trying to push the limits musically.
So, here we are.

454
00:23:16,187 --> 00:23:18,106
Hopefully, it feels
just like the old song,

455
00:23:18,189 --> 00:23:19,857
but, really, if you listen to this
compared to...

456
00:23:19,941 --> 00:23:22,110
The new one compared to the old one,

457
00:23:22,193 --> 00:23:24,028
you'll see that there's
quite a bit of difference.

458
00:23:24,112 --> 00:23:27,156
But, again, tried to capture
the essence and the spirit.

459
00:23:29,701 --> 00:23:32,161
Now, a shot like this is very...

460
00:23:32,620 --> 00:23:34,163
More challenging than it might seem.

461
00:23:34,247 --> 00:23:37,542
You could see we're using long lenses,
and we're using techniques

462
00:23:37,625 --> 00:23:39,002
that you would find in a documentary.

463
00:23:39,085 --> 00:23:42,463
So, here, we're going pretty natural.
You're looking through foreground.

464
00:23:44,382 --> 00:23:46,467
And here we have talking animals,
you know, and that's...

465
00:23:46,551 --> 00:23:49,429
One of the big challenges is,
can you make animals talk

466
00:23:49,804 --> 00:23:52,765
and not have it be distracting
and have it not blow the illusion

467
00:23:53,975 --> 00:23:56,477
of watching real animals
in a real environment?

468
00:23:57,478 --> 00:23:59,147
And part of it is how you photograph it,

469
00:23:59,230 --> 00:24:01,608
not drawing too much
attention to the talking,

470
00:24:01,691 --> 00:24:04,027
but photographing them
like they're really doing their thing

471
00:24:05,236 --> 00:24:07,238
and having them
behave like real animals.

472
00:24:08,072 --> 00:24:09,616
We learned a lot on Jungle Book,

473
00:24:11,075 --> 00:24:13,578
but we also learned a lot by watching
other movies that did it right.

474
00:24:13,661 --> 00:24:15,288
I mean, Babe, I still contend,

475
00:24:15,913 --> 00:24:17,123
you know, those are just real animals

476
00:24:17,206 --> 00:24:19,000
for the most part
that they filmed in Babe.

477
00:24:19,334 --> 00:24:21,085
It was a little bit of CG
to make the mouths move,

478
00:24:21,169 --> 00:24:26,507
but I feel tremendous connection
emotionally to those characters.

479
00:24:27,467 --> 00:24:30,887
So, you know, you got to look for people
who have done it well before

480
00:24:30,970 --> 00:24:34,182
and people that you want to emulate
and things that you want to avoid.

481
00:24:34,265 --> 00:24:36,309
That was certainly one
that I've always...

482
00:24:36,392 --> 00:24:38,144
I think holds up incredibly well.

483
00:24:43,107 --> 00:24:45,443
So, here's James,

484
00:24:46,361 --> 00:24:49,697
and his art department worked

485
00:24:50,615 --> 00:24:54,661
very hard to figure out what should
the elephant graveyard look like.

486
00:24:54,744 --> 00:24:56,537
And Audrey, you know,

487
00:24:56,829 --> 00:24:58,081
over the course of,

488
00:24:58,164 --> 00:25:00,500
you know, once
the original artwork was done,

489
00:25:00,583 --> 00:25:02,543
each one of these shots
had to be designed,

490
00:25:02,627 --> 00:25:04,253
and the environment had to be designed.

491
00:25:04,671 --> 00:25:05,797
How much do you have...

492
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:09,342
You didn't want to have,
like, boiling green lava

493
00:25:09,425 --> 00:25:11,427
like in the old one or the imagery of,

494
00:25:11,928 --> 00:25:13,721
you know, that kind of
Night on Bald Mountain look

495
00:25:13,805 --> 00:25:16,432
that inspired the original, I think.

496
00:25:17,350 --> 00:25:20,228
But we had to make it look like
they are things that really exist

497
00:25:20,436 --> 00:25:22,855
in the African landscape.

498
00:25:23,272 --> 00:25:26,025
And so a lot of this was
pulled from research.

499
00:25:26,109 --> 00:25:28,236
And James Chinlund had, you know,

500
00:25:28,319 --> 00:25:31,698
a lot of wonderful artists
doing key frame illustrations,

501
00:25:31,864 --> 00:25:34,450
trying to figure out
what the look of this should be.

502
00:25:34,534 --> 00:25:37,120
'Cause again, this is one
of those areas if we just adhered

503
00:25:37,245 --> 00:25:39,956
exactly to what was in the animated film
or the stage production,

504
00:25:40,456 --> 00:25:41,999
it would feel a bit out of place,

505
00:25:42,375 --> 00:25:45,336
both with the characterization
and with the environment,

506
00:25:45,545 --> 00:25:48,840
and with the number Be Prepared,

507
00:25:48,923 --> 00:25:51,843
that's gonna be coming up,
I think, in the next reel.

508
00:25:57,682 --> 00:26:00,143
So, this area here
and the casting of this area

509
00:26:00,226 --> 00:26:01,978
was something where we wanted to

510
00:26:02,353 --> 00:26:05,690
tip the hat to the original,
but we felt that this was an area where

511
00:26:06,023 --> 00:26:09,235
we needed to give ourselves
the freedom to depart

512
00:26:10,695 --> 00:26:12,321
creatively from what was there

513
00:26:12,405 --> 00:26:15,199
to help serve the story
and this particular project better.

514
00:26:16,075 --> 00:26:18,286
And so you have Keegan-Michael Key here

515
00:26:18,703 --> 00:26:22,749
paired up with Eric André,
two very funny improvisers who,

516
00:26:23,583 --> 00:26:27,462
if you see behind-the-scenes on this,
this is probably the only time

517
00:26:27,545 --> 00:26:28,546
they ever said it like this...

518
00:26:28,629 --> 00:26:33,176
(LAUGHING) And they did about
25 different versions of this.

519
00:26:35,470 --> 00:26:39,807
I had them together with JD, I believe.

520
00:26:39,891 --> 00:26:41,350
I certainly had them together recording.

521
00:26:41,434 --> 00:26:43,394
I tried to get the actors together
as much as I could

522
00:26:43,478 --> 00:26:45,313
so that the performances would feel...

523
00:26:45,897 --> 00:26:48,274
There'd be more organic chemistry
between them.

524
00:26:48,816 --> 00:26:53,237
And I encouraged a lot of improvisation,
especially for the comedy sequences.

525
00:26:54,405 --> 00:26:56,699
So I hired people
who had a improv background,

526
00:26:56,783 --> 00:26:58,993
a comedy background, writing background.

527
00:26:59,869 --> 00:27:02,705
And Eric and Keegan-Michael Key were

528
00:27:03,831 --> 00:27:05,166
very much,

529
00:27:06,375 --> 00:27:09,295
you know, creative collaborators.
And here is Florence Kasumba,

530
00:27:10,213 --> 00:27:14,801
who's a wonderful voice and performer,
and a lot of this we also filmed.

531
00:27:15,134 --> 00:27:16,886
We would film rehearsals, essentially.

532
00:27:16,969 --> 00:27:20,473
We'd record the voices, and we would
have a little black box theater,

533
00:27:21,098 --> 00:27:23,893
and we would mic all of the actors
so that we could use the sound,

534
00:27:23,976 --> 00:27:26,854
but we would shoot
video reference on long lenses.

535
00:27:26,938 --> 00:27:28,064
And we would just have them

536
00:27:28,523 --> 00:27:31,692
like... As though it were
a theater rehearsal,

537
00:27:32,026 --> 00:27:34,237
we would have them actually
walk around holding their scripts

538
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:35,947
and performing together

539
00:27:36,906 --> 00:27:38,199
to get that interactive energy

540
00:27:38,282 --> 00:27:40,743
that would also contribute
to the live-action feel.

541
00:27:41,077 --> 00:27:42,161
That's how you would film a movie.

542
00:27:42,245 --> 00:27:44,831
You would rehearse together,
and you would do a master,

543
00:27:44,914 --> 00:27:46,123
and you would do coverage.

544
00:27:46,374 --> 00:27:49,877
And so I wanted to capture
that interactive quality

545
00:27:49,961 --> 00:27:51,838
that animated films often don't have

546
00:27:51,921 --> 00:27:54,048
because they'll record people
separately, usually.

547
00:27:54,465 --> 00:27:58,177
Here, we tried to just record them in
the most natural environment we could.

548
00:27:58,636 --> 00:28:01,597
And I was there
to help direct and oversee

549
00:28:01,848 --> 00:28:04,183
if we wanted to depart
from the script or try things.

550
00:28:06,018 --> 00:28:07,436
You know, we would have Jeff Nathanson,

551
00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:09,856
who wrote this version
of the script around,

552
00:28:09,981 --> 00:28:12,650
and he would react
and offer suggestions, too.

553
00:28:14,777 --> 00:28:16,571
(HYENAS GROWLING)

554
00:28:18,489 --> 00:28:21,784
FAVREAU: And so now we're
kind of getting back to where...

555
00:28:22,869 --> 00:28:25,830
What was in the original film,
because now you're getting into areas

556
00:28:27,290 --> 00:28:31,586
that fit better and are very memorable

557
00:28:31,669 --> 00:28:34,046
and are plot points
for character progression.

558
00:28:35,464 --> 00:28:38,426
So, this appearance of Mufasa,

559
00:28:41,095 --> 00:28:42,138
and the roar.

560
00:28:42,638 --> 00:28:46,726
And of course, now you have
Hans Zimmer's themes come in again.

561
00:28:47,768 --> 00:28:49,312
And the one thing I learned was

562
00:28:49,395 --> 00:28:51,689
all this effort we put into
the visual effects

563
00:28:51,814 --> 00:28:56,611
and the performances and the casting
and the environments, you know,

564
00:28:56,694 --> 00:29:00,197
and here we were, everybody was
really working at the top of their game.

565
00:29:00,615 --> 00:29:04,327
But when you heard
the score being recorded,

566
00:29:04,410 --> 00:29:05,870
you realized that

567
00:29:06,203 --> 00:29:08,706
the real thing
that pulls you in emotionally

568
00:29:09,123 --> 00:29:12,168
on these Disney classics,
especially this one, is the music.

569
00:29:12,877 --> 00:29:14,253
These songs are...

570
00:29:15,171 --> 00:29:16,589
Somehow connect.

571
00:29:17,506 --> 00:29:20,760
They're so emotionally evocative,

572
00:29:21,469 --> 00:29:23,679
and they bring back
all the memories of how you felt

573
00:29:23,763 --> 00:29:26,515
when you were younger watching this.
There's something about music,

574
00:29:27,350 --> 00:29:28,976
especially music that's

575
00:29:29,894 --> 00:29:32,605
so beautifully conceived as this
and performed

576
00:29:32,688 --> 00:29:36,734
that just taps
directly into memory emotion.

577
00:29:37,151 --> 00:29:40,112
And, you know,
some of the stuff you'll see later on

578
00:29:40,196 --> 00:29:44,700
that's the most emotional,
really is just landing on an image,

579
00:29:44,784 --> 00:29:48,037
letting the audience look at the image,
and then letting the music just fill

580
00:29:48,704 --> 00:29:49,705
the theater.

581
00:29:54,835 --> 00:29:59,882
I was very grateful
to have this, you know, classic score,

582
00:30:00,758 --> 00:30:02,885
and the songs, too, of course,

583
00:30:02,969 --> 00:30:05,930
which, you know,
they really blend into one another.

584
00:30:06,013 --> 00:30:10,601
But you have the songs where
you have Elton John, Tim Rice, Lebo M,

585
00:30:10,685 --> 00:30:15,356
and all of them were involved, along
with Hans Zimmer, with this production.

586
00:30:15,439 --> 00:30:18,067
And I found that as I approached people

587
00:30:18,150 --> 00:30:20,277
who were involved
with the original productions,

588
00:30:20,361 --> 00:30:22,738
they were very...

589
00:30:22,822 --> 00:30:27,535
The original held
such a big place in their hearts

590
00:30:27,618 --> 00:30:29,412
that everybody was extremely generous,

591
00:30:29,495 --> 00:30:31,872
whether it was people
who worked on the original film,

592
00:30:31,956 --> 00:30:33,082
whether it was people
who worked on this film,

593
00:30:33,165 --> 00:30:38,546
or people that I just reached out to, to
ask about what the experience was like,

594
00:30:38,629 --> 00:30:40,339
what was important,
what they cared about,

595
00:30:40,423 --> 00:30:44,010
and I was really

596
00:30:44,844 --> 00:30:47,847
impressed with how much people cared
and how generous they were

597
00:30:47,930 --> 00:30:50,766
with offering their advice
and thoughts on it

598
00:30:50,850 --> 00:30:53,978
because they had all lived with this,
and it meant a lot to them,

599
00:30:54,061 --> 00:30:57,481
and they knew how important it was
to people who grew up watching this.

600
00:30:58,691 --> 00:31:02,153
And so there was a tremendous
responsibility that we all felt

601
00:31:02,236 --> 00:31:05,531
to make sure that we took into account,

602
00:31:06,157 --> 00:31:10,619
you know, all the various perspectives
of people who cared about the original

603
00:31:10,703 --> 00:31:12,038
and about this one.

604
00:31:12,121 --> 00:31:16,959
And so we found that we had
to fulfill people's expectations

605
00:31:17,043 --> 00:31:18,878
and not let them down,
make them understand

606
00:31:18,961 --> 00:31:22,214
that we really cared about this movie
as much as they did,

607
00:31:22,298 --> 00:31:26,844
but also to change things
and surprise people wherever possible.

608
00:31:30,514 --> 00:31:32,892
But you're not scared
of anything.

609
00:31:33,392 --> 00:31:34,894
I was today.

610
00:31:34,977 --> 00:31:36,062
You were?

611
00:31:36,145 --> 00:31:40,191
Yes. I thought
I might lose you.

612
00:31:40,274 --> 00:31:43,486
FAVREAU: But a sequence like this
is one of those where

613
00:31:45,112 --> 00:31:49,492
you kind of wanna play it
like how it is on the album,

614
00:31:49,575 --> 00:31:50,618
(CHUCKLES)

615
00:31:50,701 --> 00:31:52,578
to borrow from music.

616
00:31:52,661 --> 00:31:55,498
When you play this song live,
you want it to sound like on the album.

617
00:31:55,581 --> 00:31:57,917
You don't wanna change the solo here.

618
00:31:58,918 --> 00:32:01,796
You wanna stick to the same guitar solo,

619
00:32:01,879 --> 00:32:05,508
and the music and the imagery
and the stars and the dialogue

620
00:32:05,591 --> 00:32:09,470
and the performances
and James Earl Jones' voice.

621
00:32:09,553 --> 00:32:13,974
And how important this scene is,
how it sets up

622
00:32:14,725 --> 00:32:18,270
the sad moments to come,
and then the emotional, happier moments

623
00:32:18,354 --> 00:32:22,316
where he's remembering and realizing

624
00:32:22,399 --> 00:32:25,569
that his father really does live in him.

625
00:32:26,779 --> 00:32:30,866
And, you know, I think it's one of those
scenes that we all relate to,

626
00:32:31,992 --> 00:32:37,456
you know, as anybody who's been through,
who's experienced loss.

627
00:32:37,957 --> 00:32:40,751
And you think back
on a time before that,

628
00:32:40,835 --> 00:32:44,296
and you have very vivid memories
of those people in your life.

629
00:32:45,297 --> 00:32:50,261
And a conversation that might've
just been a casual conversation

630
00:32:50,344 --> 00:32:53,639
takes on greater importance
when you look back on it.

631
00:32:54,181 --> 00:32:57,726
And I think that the original film
and the people involved,

632
00:32:57,810 --> 00:33:01,814
the filmmakers and the people
performing the music,

633
00:33:01,897 --> 00:33:04,817
writing the music,
all really captured that so well there,

634
00:33:05,860 --> 00:33:08,612
and hopefully, we captured it as well.

635
00:33:10,698 --> 00:33:13,075
And now we get into Be Prepared.

636
00:33:13,826 --> 00:33:17,496
And this was a song
that we really wrestled with,

637
00:33:17,580 --> 00:33:21,125
because we knew
we wanted to have something

638
00:33:21,750 --> 00:33:26,463
that referenced the original,
but we weren't sure, at first,

639
00:33:26,547 --> 00:33:28,883
whether we could have
a whole song that was sung,

640
00:33:28,966 --> 00:33:31,635
because up until this point,

641
00:33:31,719 --> 00:33:38,142
everything else felt kind of justified
in the reality of the tone of this.

642
00:33:38,225 --> 00:33:41,854
But to have Scar break into song
and sing it, and if you look

643
00:33:41,937 --> 00:33:43,814
at the original lyrics,
it doesn't really fit

644
00:33:43,898 --> 00:33:46,775
with the way we've conceived
the story this time.

645
00:33:46,859 --> 00:33:48,861
And then, certainly, the environment,

646
00:33:48,944 --> 00:33:54,241
the choreography doesn't feel like
it fits into a live action,

647
00:33:54,658 --> 00:33:56,368
a film that appears to be live action.

648
00:33:59,955 --> 00:34:03,042
As we were wrestling whether
we would include the song or not,

649
00:34:03,125 --> 00:34:04,793
we reached out to Tim Rice.

650
00:34:04,877 --> 00:34:07,129
First, to Hans, which was like,

651
00:34:07,213 --> 00:34:11,884
"Hans, is there a version of this song
that we could do that fits into ours,

652
00:34:11,967 --> 00:34:13,761
"but still feels like the old one,

653
00:34:13,886 --> 00:34:20,643
"that still kinda honors people's
expectations and the original story?"

654
00:34:20,726 --> 00:34:23,520
And then, certainly, in the Disney...

655
00:34:23,604 --> 00:34:27,316
When you're doing a Disney movie,
a villain song is a big, important part.

656
00:34:27,399 --> 00:34:30,277
It's really when they lay
their cards on the table.

657
00:34:33,697 --> 00:34:37,368
And so, first, it was a monologue
that was written by Jeff.

658
00:34:37,743 --> 00:34:41,121
And then we started to say, "Well,
could we do this with the song?"

659
00:34:41,830 --> 00:34:44,959
And remember, in the old one,
he already was conspiring with them.

660
00:34:45,042 --> 00:34:50,089
In this one, he's presenting a scenario,

661
00:34:50,673 --> 00:34:54,885
and he's pitching them
on allying with him

662
00:34:54,969 --> 00:34:58,681
in a conspiracy against Mufasa.

663
00:35:00,015 --> 00:35:02,393
So, we switched it up enough.

664
00:35:02,476 --> 00:35:04,770
I mean, unless you know
the original movie well,

665
00:35:04,853 --> 00:35:06,105
that might've slid by you,

666
00:35:06,188 --> 00:35:08,190
but it's a slightly
different plot point.

667
00:35:08,274 --> 00:35:09,525
And so the lyrics in the original

668
00:35:09,608 --> 00:35:12,444
reflected a much different relationship
between Scar and the hyenas.

669
00:35:15,281 --> 00:35:19,493
And so this was the remnants
of the original monologue,

670
00:35:19,576 --> 00:35:24,248
and then Hans built a whole
musical take on this song,

671
00:35:24,331 --> 00:35:25,958
which you're seeing here.

672
00:35:26,041 --> 00:35:28,294
And then we approached Tim Rice

673
00:35:28,377 --> 00:35:33,757
and asked if he would be open
to reconceiving the lyrics of this song.

674
00:35:34,258 --> 00:35:39,596
And so we showed him the movie,
what we had, 'cause it was developing.

675
00:35:40,055 --> 00:35:41,515
A lot of this was still
in pencil at the time,

676
00:35:41,598 --> 00:35:43,225
but we showed him what we had,

677
00:35:43,309 --> 00:35:46,770
and he could not have
been more collaborative,

678
00:35:46,854 --> 00:35:49,648
and so he came up
with this beautiful poetry.

679
00:35:50,232 --> 00:35:52,860
And so it feels like
the old Be Prepared,

680
00:35:52,943 --> 00:35:54,695
but if you look in the credits,
you'll see it's actually

681
00:35:54,778 --> 00:35:57,281
Be Prepared, 2019 version.

682
00:35:59,742 --> 00:36:03,287
And so it feels like Be Prepared,

683
00:36:03,370 --> 00:36:06,915
but it actually deviates quite a bit.

684
00:36:06,999 --> 00:36:08,959
And of course, the visuals
deviate quite a bit as well.

685
00:36:09,084 --> 00:36:12,588
(SINGING) Decades of denial
Is simply why I'll

686
00:36:13,047 --> 00:36:14,965
Be king
Undisputed

687
00:36:15,132 --> 00:36:17,051
Respected
Saluted

688
00:36:17,217 --> 00:36:20,220
And seen for the wonder I am

689
00:36:20,763 --> 00:36:24,725
Yes, my teeth
and ambitions are bared

690
00:36:24,892 --> 00:36:26,769
Be prepared

691
00:36:29,104 --> 00:36:31,398
- HYENAS: Be prepared
- Be prepared

692
00:36:31,565 --> 00:36:34,902
FAVREAU: This is one of
the last sequences to be finished.

693
00:36:37,363 --> 00:36:39,740
I love this type of lighting, too.

694
00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:45,371
I think they talk about
Gustave Doré, the artist.

695
00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:50,584
You have that very dark foreground

696
00:36:50,667 --> 00:36:56,382
and bright, deep backgrounds
that create a very graphic quality.

697
00:36:56,465 --> 00:36:59,259
And there's the imagery that
we wanted to capture from the original.

698
00:36:59,343 --> 00:37:03,597
So, even though we deviated quite a bit,
we wanted the end of it to feel similar,

699
00:37:04,139 --> 00:37:07,101
with the sliver of a moon,

700
00:37:07,267 --> 00:37:09,061
the dark, starless sky
going into the sun.

701
00:37:14,149 --> 00:37:16,443
And now this is the scene

702
00:37:18,195 --> 00:37:19,571
where

703
00:37:21,573 --> 00:37:23,992
people start to get uncomfortable,

704
00:37:24,076 --> 00:37:27,538
because if they've seen the old movie,
they know what's coming here.

705
00:37:33,293 --> 00:37:35,754
And this is one of the first scenes...

706
00:37:35,838 --> 00:37:38,757
I mean, this is some
of the first shots we rendered.

707
00:37:38,841 --> 00:37:41,385
This sequence, certainly,
the stampede was...

708
00:37:41,468 --> 00:37:45,013
Even in the original film, the stampede
was the sequence that took

709
00:37:46,432 --> 00:37:49,393
the longest time,
because it was early visual effects,

710
00:37:49,476 --> 00:37:53,981
early computer sims to get
all the stampeding wildebeests

711
00:37:54,064 --> 00:37:56,692
to come down the cliff.

712
00:37:57,693 --> 00:38:00,696
If you look here,
you could see in the coverage

713
00:38:00,779 --> 00:38:03,949
Simba looks a little different
than the rest of the film.

714
00:38:05,659 --> 00:38:08,620
You see little things,
like the shape of the eyes.

715
00:38:08,704 --> 00:38:11,999
So, even though we had
an approved design of the character,

716
00:38:12,082 --> 00:38:13,834
the character evolved quite a bit.

717
00:38:13,917 --> 00:38:16,670
Scar stayed pretty much the same,

718
00:38:17,254 --> 00:38:20,757
'cause you're talking about
three years to make the movie,

719
00:38:20,841 --> 00:38:23,969
about two years from the first render
to the last render.

720
00:38:34,646 --> 00:38:37,107
So, here's a little sequence
that actually, I think...

721
00:38:37,191 --> 00:38:40,652
This is one of those areas that
people really remember the original,

722
00:38:40,736 --> 00:38:45,157
because it's so emotional,
this whole sequence coming up.

723
00:38:45,782 --> 00:38:47,993
So, I believe there was, I remember...

724
00:38:48,076 --> 00:38:50,829
We were constantly
referencing the old film.

725
00:38:50,913 --> 00:38:52,331
Even if we departed from it,

726
00:38:52,414 --> 00:38:55,167
we wanted to remind ourselves
what they did the first time around,

727
00:38:55,250 --> 00:38:57,377
because it really holds up quite well,

728
00:38:57,461 --> 00:39:00,172
and we knew that it was a movie
that people knew very well,

729
00:39:00,255 --> 00:39:01,882
and we wanted to make sure
that we understood it

730
00:39:01,965 --> 00:39:03,800
as well as the audience did,

731
00:39:03,884 --> 00:39:07,012
and if we were gonna depart from it,
we wanted to do it for a reason.

732
00:39:10,432 --> 00:39:12,601
So, here, now you're getting into...

733
00:39:13,477 --> 00:39:15,103
Although the shots
are slightly different,

734
00:39:15,187 --> 00:39:17,356
each story point is the same.

735
00:39:18,190 --> 00:39:21,151
And the idea of the vibration
and the movement,

736
00:39:22,110 --> 00:39:23,570
and, you know,

737
00:39:24,655 --> 00:39:28,825
arriving on this image because it
has to be different from the original,

738
00:39:28,909 --> 00:39:31,328
'cause it was so extreme
in the original,

739
00:39:31,411 --> 00:39:34,665
but you still wanted to get
that energy and the same feel.

740
00:39:36,250 --> 00:39:40,254
And again, a lot was...
Rob Legato had worked on Apollo 13,

741
00:39:40,337 --> 00:39:44,007
and in that film,
he had recreated the...

742
00:39:44,091 --> 00:39:48,262
This is my favorite sound moment,
as it goes through that virtual camera.

743
00:39:48,345 --> 00:39:52,808
We normally wouldn't have the camera
be quite that free or fly that freely,

744
00:39:52,891 --> 00:39:56,979
because that's a bit of a tell
that it's a CG camera move.

745
00:39:57,062 --> 00:39:59,439
We tended to want
to keep it very grounded

746
00:39:59,523 --> 00:40:02,025
in operating it, as though
it were a real camera platform.

747
00:40:02,109 --> 00:40:04,945
But that's one of the moments
where we let ourselves go a little,

748
00:40:05,028 --> 00:40:06,029
have a little fun with it,

749
00:40:06,113 --> 00:40:08,532
'cause it actually brings
a lot of energy if you do it.

750
00:40:08,615 --> 00:40:13,870
But, here, that's a real dolly track
that we had, and real camera operators.

751
00:40:15,622 --> 00:40:19,042
So, those moves were real, you know,
a dolly grip, a camera operator.

752
00:40:21,336 --> 00:40:25,841
It was done as you would
in live action, these moves, too.

753
00:40:27,259 --> 00:40:30,470
But as I was saying before,
Rob Legato had worked on Apollo 13,

754
00:40:30,554 --> 00:40:33,140
and they recreated the launch.

755
00:40:33,223 --> 00:40:37,603
And they looked at all the
old television footage of the launch,

756
00:40:37,686 --> 00:40:41,315
and all the cameras that they had
for the original launch of the Apollo.

757
00:40:41,398 --> 00:40:43,400
And then they...

758
00:40:44,192 --> 00:40:48,071
The trick was that they could deviate
from it. But you want...

759
00:40:48,155 --> 00:40:50,115
Sometimes, when you deviate from it,

760
00:40:50,198 --> 00:40:52,701
you do it in a way where
people remember it differently,

761
00:40:52,784 --> 00:40:56,747
and a lot of people who had been
involved with the original Apollo

762
00:40:56,830 --> 00:40:58,874
had asked where they got
certain footage from

763
00:40:58,957 --> 00:41:02,919
that they hadn't seen before,
and he was like, "No, we recreated it."

764
00:41:03,003 --> 00:41:06,089
I believe a lot of it was
in miniatures and early CG.

765
00:41:06,173 --> 00:41:09,009
And so sometimes,

766
00:41:09,468 --> 00:41:15,223
our memories are not
as photographic as we think.

767
00:41:16,016 --> 00:41:18,894
And often, if you can capture
the essence of what people remember

768
00:41:18,977 --> 00:41:20,479
and the emotional memory,

769
00:41:20,562 --> 00:41:23,523
you can actually take
quite a bit of liberty with it

770
00:41:23,607 --> 00:41:27,736
and still make it feel as though
you're emulating, shot for shot,

771
00:41:27,819 --> 00:41:29,446
what people are used to seeing.

772
00:41:29,780 --> 00:41:34,117
So, again, this area should feel
very close to shot for shot,

773
00:41:34,201 --> 00:41:36,286
but if you actually ran it up
against the other film,

774
00:41:36,370 --> 00:41:38,080
you'd see we actually
departed quite a bit

775
00:41:38,163 --> 00:41:41,166
to help maintain

776
00:41:43,460 --> 00:41:45,170
more of a plausibility.

777
00:41:47,381 --> 00:41:51,677
I love the subtlety of all
the performances, all the animators.

778
00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:55,013
I think we lose sight often,
because there's such a...

779
00:41:55,972 --> 00:41:58,725
It's so fascinating to hear about
the technology associated with this,

780
00:41:58,809 --> 00:42:02,437
but you realize that
these are handmade films,

781
00:42:03,855 --> 00:42:08,318
where every single shot, you know,
you have artists, dozens of artists,

782
00:42:08,402 --> 00:42:13,115
whether it's environment designers
or layout artists or animators,

783
00:42:13,615 --> 00:42:17,369
technical directors
overseeing the rendering,

784
00:42:17,452 --> 00:42:19,538
people refining the lighting,

785
00:42:19,621 --> 00:42:21,707
each of these is a handmade shot.

786
00:42:22,416 --> 00:42:24,167
And this moment,

787
00:42:24,251 --> 00:42:28,130
and just the human emotion
in this sequence right here,

788
00:42:28,213 --> 00:42:31,049
of the struggle to climb up the hill
and how the rocks tumble down

789
00:42:31,133 --> 00:42:35,929
and how the light,
the backlight makes the fur glow,

790
00:42:37,139 --> 00:42:42,436
and how the earth is colored there.

791
00:42:42,519 --> 00:42:45,772
And how, you know, it's still graphic,

792
00:42:45,856 --> 00:42:48,817
but still accurate
to what is really there,

793
00:42:48,900 --> 00:42:54,573
the way the camera is moving around,
the emotion in the face of young Simba.

794
00:42:54,656 --> 00:42:56,825
Even though he can't frown,

795
00:42:56,908 --> 00:42:59,745
even though he can't make a face
to see so much expression.

796
00:42:59,828 --> 00:43:01,580
And of course, the music.

797
00:43:02,330 --> 00:43:05,667
You realize that this is
a really supremely human medium.

798
00:43:11,381 --> 00:43:12,382
(GROWLS)

799
00:43:12,466 --> 00:43:14,050
(ROARS)

800
00:43:14,676 --> 00:43:18,096
Long live the king!

801
00:43:19,890 --> 00:43:21,266
(MUFASA SCREAMING)

802
00:43:22,851 --> 00:43:26,146
FAVREAU: And of course,
because it's so photorealistic,

803
00:43:26,938 --> 00:43:29,357
we wanted to capture
the images people remember,

804
00:43:29,441 --> 00:43:31,443
but also it's...

805
00:43:31,526 --> 00:43:35,238
There's definitely
a greater intensity to it,

806
00:43:35,322 --> 00:43:39,910
that we wanted to make sure
that we would capture the emotion

807
00:43:40,076 --> 00:43:42,662
without being too graphic
or seeing anything actually happen,

808
00:43:45,081 --> 00:43:48,084
which is kind of
a Disney tradition as well,

809
00:43:48,168 --> 00:43:50,670
but we felt it was
even more important here,

810
00:43:50,754 --> 00:43:53,256
and so we were very careful about...

811
00:43:53,590 --> 00:43:56,009
And this was the sequence
coming up right here

812
00:43:56,092 --> 00:43:58,512
that I was most concerned about.

813
00:43:58,595 --> 00:44:02,724
And part of... One of the big
reasons I wanted to hire Caleb is

814
00:44:02,808 --> 00:44:04,601
I knew that with

815
00:44:05,352 --> 00:44:08,230
such an accomplished
and talented photographer,

816
00:44:08,313 --> 00:44:09,940
you can have an image like this

817
00:44:10,524 --> 00:44:13,819
that relies more on
the lighting and composition.

818
00:44:14,528 --> 00:44:20,450
And we actually stay very long on
a long lens like this for a long time.

819
00:44:23,745 --> 00:44:26,164
And of course, the music comes in

820
00:44:28,416 --> 00:44:31,211
and really fills the whole thing out.

821
00:44:32,170 --> 00:44:34,005
And when I took on this job,

822
00:44:34,089 --> 00:44:37,509
I wasn't thinking about how much
I would have to watch this sequence.

823
00:44:38,093 --> 00:44:40,512
And it's not like it diminishes at all.

824
00:44:47,185 --> 00:44:49,354
I love how the animators did this,

825
00:44:50,146 --> 00:44:51,690
'cause there's no...

826
00:44:53,358 --> 00:44:57,863
They didn't create
a human performance on Simba's face,

827
00:44:57,946 --> 00:45:00,365
yet you feel tremendous emotion.

828
00:45:06,705 --> 00:45:12,002
And being in the recording studio
at Sony with the full orchestra

829
00:45:12,586 --> 00:45:15,255
and hearing them play this piece
while the footage

830
00:45:15,338 --> 00:45:21,303
played overhead on the screen
was so powerful.

831
00:45:21,386 --> 00:45:23,179
One of the things Hans Zimmer did,

832
00:45:23,263 --> 00:45:27,893
because he wanted to differentiate this
from the original recording,

833
00:45:27,976 --> 00:45:29,686
where he felt...

834
00:45:29,769 --> 00:45:32,147
At the time, when they were
making the original Lion King,

835
00:45:32,230 --> 00:45:35,734
it was not the classic that it is now.

836
00:45:35,817 --> 00:45:40,363
There wasn't a lot of time
or resources to get it right.

837
00:45:40,947 --> 00:45:43,742
And so, often times, on a film like that,

838
00:45:43,825 --> 00:45:46,369
you always feel like
you're rushing at times,

839
00:45:46,453 --> 00:45:49,205
or sometimes compromising
what you'd like to explore

840
00:45:49,289 --> 00:45:51,333
if you had more resources.

841
00:45:51,416 --> 00:45:54,294
And so when they came
together to do this,

842
00:45:54,377 --> 00:45:58,256
Hans was like, "Let me really
get in there and fill out the orchestra

843
00:45:58,340 --> 00:46:01,468
"in the way that I didn't have
the opportunity to do before

844
00:46:01,551 --> 00:46:05,013
"and let me take everything I've learned

845
00:46:05,096 --> 00:46:07,891
"in these last 25 years
and apply it to this."

846
00:46:07,974 --> 00:46:12,562
And one of the things that he had
learned was that if you have a...

847
00:46:12,646 --> 00:46:16,566
Because he's toured with an orchestra
and done his scores on the road.

848
00:46:17,067 --> 00:46:19,194
And it's a very powerful production,

849
00:46:19,277 --> 00:46:22,656
if you ever have the opportunity
to see one of Hans Zimmer's live shows.

850
00:46:23,698 --> 00:46:25,158
Not only does he have so many...

851
00:46:25,241 --> 00:46:30,914
I mean, Lion King is just one
of his very prolific catalogue.

852
00:46:31,289 --> 00:46:34,501
But hearing it played live with a band

853
00:46:34,584 --> 00:46:37,253
that has rehearsed it
is much different than...

854
00:46:38,129 --> 00:46:39,547
It's a much different energy

855
00:46:39,631 --> 00:46:44,010
than just an orchestra
recording for the first time.

856
00:46:44,094 --> 00:46:47,013
And so Hans Zimmer brought
the whole orchestra together

857
00:46:47,097 --> 00:46:50,141
and rehearsed them for close to a week,

858
00:46:50,225 --> 00:46:52,936
and when we actually recorded the score,

859
00:46:53,019 --> 00:46:56,606
he invited everybody
who worked on the movie to come.

860
00:46:56,690 --> 00:46:58,191
And we set up chairs,

861
00:46:58,274 --> 00:47:00,151
and they were actually
in the room with the musicians.

862
00:47:00,235 --> 00:47:04,823
And so you had the musicians meeting
the people who made the visual images

863
00:47:04,906 --> 00:47:10,829
and the people who created
the visual imagery able to be there,

864
00:47:10,912 --> 00:47:15,291
while they handed
this project off to the musicians,

865
00:47:15,375 --> 00:47:16,835
and they got to be in the room.

866
00:47:16,918 --> 00:47:19,796
And the orchestra played
the entire score

867
00:47:19,879 --> 00:47:23,258
with only short enough
breaks to change reels,

868
00:47:23,341 --> 00:47:24,634
and they had been rehearsing it.

869
00:47:24,718 --> 00:47:28,972
And so we were seeing a live production
of the score of The Lion King there,

870
00:47:29,055 --> 00:47:30,974
and it was incredibly moving.

871
00:47:31,057 --> 00:47:34,644
It's moving anyway,
but being in the room,

872
00:47:34,769 --> 00:47:37,147
where the air's moving around
and the performers are there,

873
00:47:37,230 --> 00:47:41,317
and you're seeing them
actually play their instruments,

874
00:47:41,401 --> 00:47:45,488
and it's just an experience
I'll never forget.

875
00:47:46,031 --> 00:47:49,117
And we were all very grateful
to Hans Zimmer

876
00:47:49,200 --> 00:47:52,454
for having the insight to create that,

877
00:47:52,537 --> 00:47:55,415
and I think it's reflected in...

878
00:47:55,498 --> 00:47:58,668
You could feel it,
as you hear his recordings here,

879
00:47:58,752 --> 00:48:04,090
how much he cared and how hard
the musicians worked to rehearse,

880
00:48:04,674 --> 00:48:10,013
and the energy and the heart that's
in all of these musical performances.

881
00:48:22,025 --> 00:48:24,444
Again, another theme.
What's so wonderful about this score

882
00:48:24,527 --> 00:48:28,448
is that here you have the theme played

883
00:48:28,531 --> 00:48:31,701
in such a lonely, sad way
with the flute,

884
00:48:31,785 --> 00:48:35,121
but when played with the full orchestra,
could feel extremely triumphant,

885
00:48:35,205 --> 00:48:38,333
and each of the themes
is really inspired,

886
00:48:38,416 --> 00:48:42,003
and then the choirs
that come in and support it,

887
00:48:42,087 --> 00:48:44,756
and all of the voices, just so strong.

888
00:48:44,839 --> 00:48:48,635
We have both American choirs
and African choirs.

889
00:48:48,718 --> 00:48:54,682
Lebo M recorded a lot of the choirs,
both in South Africa and also here.

890
00:48:55,058 --> 00:49:00,605
And Lebo was also just
a wonderful person to collaborate with,

891
00:49:02,273 --> 00:49:06,236
again giving insight into the story,
what the words meant,

892
00:49:06,319 --> 00:49:08,822
what it was like
when they made the original.

893
00:49:08,905 --> 00:49:12,867
It was around the time that Mandela...

894
00:49:12,951 --> 00:49:14,869
There was a lot going on
in South Africa.

895
00:49:14,953 --> 00:49:17,497
Mandela was freed.
There was a tremendous sense of hope.

896
00:49:17,580 --> 00:49:19,541
And a lot of the music,

897
00:49:19,624 --> 00:49:21,626
a lot of the energy of the music
of the original Lion King,

898
00:49:21,709 --> 00:49:24,921
as it was explained to me,
was really an expression of a time

899
00:49:25,004 --> 00:49:30,301
of positive transformation
in that country.

900
00:49:31,636 --> 00:49:34,139
And it was an expression of that.

901
00:49:34,222 --> 00:49:37,559
And I think that the original film
really captured

902
00:49:37,642 --> 00:49:41,396
an intersection
of so many different factors

903
00:49:41,479 --> 00:49:45,525
that contributed to this thing
that really feels timeless,

904
00:49:45,608 --> 00:49:50,822
and the music and the introduction
to those voices

905
00:49:51,781 --> 00:49:53,825
was a big part of it.

906
00:49:53,908 --> 00:49:56,703
The artistry of the filmmakers
and the timeless story,

907
00:49:56,786 --> 00:49:59,873
the way that the story came together
that was a reflection

908
00:49:59,956 --> 00:50:02,625
of not just Lion King,
but of Hamlet, and stories,

909
00:50:02,709 --> 00:50:05,211
even myths that came before.

910
00:50:05,295 --> 00:50:06,838
It really hit it right.

911
00:50:06,921 --> 00:50:11,384
And I think that as much as
it's part of a Disney tradition,

912
00:50:11,467 --> 00:50:14,512
it's also something
that feels like it's...

913
00:50:15,263 --> 00:50:21,060
That was part of something
tapped into something even larger.

914
00:50:22,103 --> 00:50:23,855
And that's part
of why it holds up so well.

915
00:50:23,938 --> 00:50:29,152
And of course, the stage production
has been drawing audiences

916
00:50:29,235 --> 00:50:32,363
and packing houses for decades now.

917
00:50:32,739 --> 00:50:37,035
And that's also a huge legacy.

918
00:50:37,869 --> 00:50:41,247
And what's interesting is
the stage show is,

919
00:50:41,331 --> 00:50:43,791
although it's Lion King,
it's quite different.

920
00:50:43,875 --> 00:50:46,377
It's quite different from the film,

921
00:50:47,545 --> 00:50:48,963
and that's part of what gave us
confidence that we might be able

922
00:50:49,047 --> 00:50:54,135
to do something here, because the stage
production is still seen as Lion King,

923
00:50:54,219 --> 00:50:56,137
and we felt that if we could
create something that felt like

924
00:50:56,221 --> 00:50:58,556
it was yet another medium,

925
00:50:58,640 --> 00:51:02,310
like a live-action documentary
take on the film.

926
00:51:04,062 --> 00:51:06,356
If we could emulate that feel,

927
00:51:06,439 --> 00:51:11,653
it would feel like yet another
interpretation of the story.

928
00:51:21,329 --> 00:51:26,417
So, you see a simple shot like that
is one where you have the technical,

929
00:51:26,501 --> 00:51:29,295
like, all of the beautiful sand
simulations, of blowing in the wind.

930
00:51:29,379 --> 00:51:32,757
You have the flute player.
You have Hans' score.

931
00:51:33,341 --> 00:51:37,053
You have Andy Jones' animation.

932
00:51:38,805 --> 00:51:45,144
Hans' interpretation of that cue.

933
00:51:47,981 --> 00:51:52,860
And all of it just works together
to make you feel something,

934
00:51:52,944 --> 00:51:56,823
which is I think what people
enjoy the most about Lion King,

935
00:51:56,906 --> 00:52:00,702
is how much of an emotional ride
they go on here.

936
00:52:01,744 --> 00:52:04,122
And of course, here,
there's our Lawrence of Arabia shot.

937
00:52:04,205 --> 00:52:05,748
We looked at that.

938
00:52:08,835 --> 00:52:11,087
That reflective sand.

939
00:52:13,548 --> 00:52:14,549
I really like this sequence.

940
00:52:14,632 --> 00:52:17,176
And this, whether
it's in the movie or the play,

941
00:52:18,678 --> 00:52:21,306
you're so ready
for these guys to show up.

942
00:52:23,641 --> 00:52:27,186
You got Billy Eichner,
and you got Seth Rogen here.

943
00:52:28,688 --> 00:52:30,857
Two of the hardest working people
in show business.

944
00:52:32,066 --> 00:52:33,568
Although we recorded them live,

945
00:52:33,651 --> 00:52:38,906
we recorded them
in the recording studio with Donald.

946
00:52:39,782 --> 00:52:44,454
But they kept coming in, because I knew
people who are comedy writers,

947
00:52:44,537 --> 00:52:48,124
they don't like
to put their pencils down.

948
00:52:48,207 --> 00:52:50,251
(LAUGHS) They keep going.

949
00:52:50,335 --> 00:52:53,880
And my thing was like, "I'll work on it
as much as you want to,"

950
00:52:53,963 --> 00:52:57,008
and so they would record.
We would edit it down.

951
00:52:57,091 --> 00:52:59,844
We would lay it up against pencils.
They'd come back in.

952
00:52:59,927 --> 00:53:01,763
They'd watch it.

953
00:53:01,846 --> 00:53:03,431
Billy, especially,
would be like, "I think I could...

954
00:53:03,514 --> 00:53:04,974
"Let me take another crack at this."

955
00:53:05,058 --> 00:53:09,437
And so I held off as much as I could
into the animation of the mouths.

956
00:53:10,063 --> 00:53:14,400
And eventually, you know,
we finalized everything,

957
00:53:14,484 --> 00:53:18,571
but we kept trying to beat what we had.

958
00:53:19,906 --> 00:53:21,866
And that's what's great about
hiring people who could improvise,

959
00:53:21,949 --> 00:53:25,870
who could write and perform and sing,
in this case, especially Billy.

960
00:53:25,953 --> 00:53:30,917
Everybody was very impressed
with what a beautiful voice Billy has.

961
00:53:31,000 --> 00:53:35,588
You know, it's an
important part of the movie,

962
00:53:35,671 --> 00:53:38,674
and you got big shoes to fill
with these characters,

963
00:53:38,758 --> 00:53:42,178
and so I was really proud
how they made it their own.

964
00:53:42,261 --> 00:53:45,932
They didn't try to just emulate
what had been done before.

965
00:53:46,015 --> 00:53:49,811
As good as it was,
they found their own interpretation.

966
00:53:49,894 --> 00:53:53,731
That also worked with a less
cartoony, physical performance,

967
00:53:53,815 --> 00:53:55,149
'cause these are two characters

968
00:53:55,233 --> 00:53:58,778
where the animators took a lot
of liberty with their performances.

969
00:54:02,198 --> 00:54:07,537
So, I just find these guys really funny.

970
00:54:07,995 --> 00:54:09,288
But you know
what you can change?

971
00:54:10,289 --> 00:54:12,333
The future.
That's our specialty.

972
00:54:12,500 --> 00:54:13,835
Kind of our thing.

973
00:54:16,087 --> 00:54:19,048
FAVREAU: And so the look of the film
changes a little bit here.

974
00:54:19,132 --> 00:54:22,844
We get that nice, sunny look
and blue sky.

975
00:54:24,053 --> 00:54:25,555
And I love all the little...

976
00:54:25,638 --> 00:54:30,977
We knew that once
we had the performances down vocally...

977
00:54:31,644 --> 00:54:33,438
Then I worked with Andy Jones,

978
00:54:33,521 --> 00:54:36,691
trying to figure out how could
we embellish all the little things

979
00:54:36,774 --> 00:54:39,944
without distracting from their dialogue.

980
00:54:40,486 --> 00:54:43,781
And so you see it a lot with Timon.

981
00:54:43,865 --> 00:54:49,287
You see him chasing that little bug
around or picking lice out of his hair.

982
00:54:49,370 --> 00:54:54,792
All these little things really
add to the performance, I think.

983
00:54:55,668 --> 00:54:58,004
And it's one of those
situations where...

984
00:54:58,087 --> 00:54:59,964
Like this little thing here. (LAUGHING)

985
00:55:00,882 --> 00:55:02,467
I like the little guy
bossing the big guy around.

986
00:55:03,801 --> 00:55:06,429
And he tries to be pushy,
but he's too little.

987
00:55:07,847 --> 00:55:10,475
And also 'cause he's so little,
it gives you permission

988
00:55:10,558 --> 00:55:13,895
for him to be a little more aggressive
and get away with something

989
00:55:13,978 --> 00:55:16,814
that would bump a little more

990
00:55:18,941 --> 00:55:20,818
if the bigger character was doing it.

991
00:55:20,902 --> 00:55:23,738
(CHUCKLES) But this little guy,
he's all tough.

992
00:55:23,821 --> 00:55:25,531
He's a little powerhouse.

993
00:55:27,700 --> 00:55:32,288
And there's the look,
and this was inspired by James Chinlund,

994
00:55:32,663 --> 00:55:34,874
felt that the cloud forests were...

995
00:55:35,583 --> 00:55:39,712
He researched those and took a lot
of photography on safari,

996
00:55:39,795 --> 00:55:43,007
and we pulled a lot
of photographic reference back in,

997
00:55:43,090 --> 00:55:47,512
because this look felt like it fit
with what's in the old movie,

998
00:55:47,595 --> 00:55:52,600
but didn't break the reality
of trying to keep it naturalistic.

999
00:55:52,683 --> 00:55:54,769
This next little sequence
I'm very proud of.

1000
00:55:55,686 --> 00:55:58,064
Here's where we could depart
in a way that I thought was fun,

1001
00:55:58,147 --> 00:56:01,526
'cause I think they used the regular
Pumbaa for the flashback.

1002
00:56:02,610 --> 00:56:05,404
We found a little...

1003
00:56:05,488 --> 00:56:06,697
On the Internet,
there's a little picture

1004
00:56:06,781 --> 00:56:08,533
of a little baby warthog. (CHUCKLES)

1005
00:56:08,616 --> 00:56:10,284
It was the cutest thing,
and I brought it in, and I was like,

1006
00:56:10,368 --> 00:56:12,286
"We gotta have this in the movie."

1007
00:56:13,329 --> 00:56:16,374
And I love a good flatulence joke.

1008
00:56:20,419 --> 00:56:21,504
I liked the little guy.

1009
00:56:21,587 --> 00:56:24,674
I liked him so much we brought him back
at the end for the curtain call.

1010
00:56:25,675 --> 00:56:27,426
I like how they all run away.
He's ashamed.

1011
00:56:27,510 --> 00:56:29,554
And that was based on some drawings
that Dave Lowery,

1012
00:56:29,637 --> 00:56:31,597
our head of story, did.

1013
00:56:31,681 --> 00:56:35,601
He started little drawings with a little
butterfly falling into the water.

1014
00:56:37,395 --> 00:56:38,813
And we had him sing "farted."

1015
00:56:38,896 --> 00:56:40,314
I thought that's one thing we could...

1016
00:56:40,398 --> 00:56:44,110
2019, we could say "farted."

1017
00:56:45,111 --> 00:56:47,321
Kids are ready. They're mature now.

1018
00:56:47,405 --> 00:56:49,407
With the Internet,
they know what farting is.

1019
00:56:51,409 --> 00:56:55,371
And here's a really nice... This took
a long time to get this reveal right,

1020
00:56:55,454 --> 00:56:58,583
'cause you had to catch them
singing the end of this verse,

1021
00:56:59,125 --> 00:57:01,502
and then reverse and see it.

1022
00:57:01,586 --> 00:57:03,087
I love the way the mist flies.

1023
00:57:03,170 --> 00:57:07,216
That's a really nice water sim there,
from the waterfall in the foreground.

1024
00:57:10,511 --> 00:57:15,224
And that little Garden of Eden,
and all these great little characters.

1025
00:57:15,308 --> 00:57:16,767
There's Amy Sedaris.

1026
00:57:17,518 --> 00:57:20,646
That's Chance,
Chance the Rapper in there.

1027
00:57:21,272 --> 00:57:22,356
- (GASPS)
- TIMON: Here we go.

1028
00:57:22,732 --> 00:57:25,318
Uh, no, no, no, kid,
we're fresh out of zebra.

1029
00:57:25,484 --> 00:57:26,652
Any antelope?

1030
00:57:27,320 --> 00:57:29,655
FAVREAU: Yeah, a lot of these
are Chance, actually. (LAUGHS)

1031
00:57:29,739 --> 00:57:32,199
He's playing about 50 different animals.

1032
00:57:32,700 --> 00:57:34,952
And there's Josh.
(CHUCKLES) That's JD's brother,

1033
00:57:35,036 --> 00:57:37,705
who was really good
as the elephant shrew.

1034
00:57:39,874 --> 00:57:43,419
This was the last shot that was finished
for the film, for trivia fans.

1035
00:57:43,502 --> 00:57:46,172
And there's the bugs. We never knew
what the bugs were gonna be like.

1036
00:57:46,255 --> 00:57:50,176
Like, we're looking at
all the turntables of the bug designs,

1037
00:57:50,259 --> 00:57:52,928
and we're like,
"This could be really disgusting."

1038
00:57:54,639 --> 00:57:57,808
I like that. "They're local."
I think that was an improv line.

1039
00:57:59,769 --> 00:58:02,063
And we just mixed
and matched everything.

1040
00:58:03,064 --> 00:58:04,690
That's a really good little model.

1041
00:58:06,108 --> 00:58:09,737
That's great.
I like how it's squirming around.

1042
00:58:09,820 --> 00:58:12,156
It really got it. It captured
what was in the original.

1043
00:58:12,239 --> 00:58:13,491
It's fun. It's gross.

1044
00:58:13,574 --> 00:58:15,785
It's not too gross
where it looks like...

1045
00:58:16,744 --> 00:58:19,246
Where it looks like, you know,

1046
00:58:19,664 --> 00:58:21,165
looks like a big

1047
00:58:22,083 --> 00:58:23,876
thing of maggots.

1048
00:58:24,502 --> 00:58:26,295
And it's very colorful.

1049
00:58:27,213 --> 00:58:30,758
And now, well, we had to get this shot.

1050
00:58:32,802 --> 00:58:34,053
And how do you get it?

1051
00:58:34,136 --> 00:58:39,141
I mean, look at this silhouette shot
with the edge of the moon burning away.

1052
00:58:40,267 --> 00:58:42,853
And there we go.
Oh, now I know I'm okay.

1053
00:58:42,937 --> 00:58:45,314
Whenever I'm watching a screening,
I know when I hear Donald Glover

1054
00:58:45,398 --> 00:58:47,942
sing this, I know I'm good now,

1055
00:58:49,318 --> 00:58:50,945
because

1056
00:58:51,904 --> 00:58:56,450
he's got such a great energy,
and the animators really captured it.

1057
00:58:58,119 --> 00:59:02,832
But I love hearing his voice,
and he just is like...

1058
00:59:06,502 --> 00:59:09,422
After what everybody's been through
emotionally in the movie,

1059
00:59:09,505 --> 00:59:12,758
and then you get to this part,
and you hear Donald singing this,

1060
00:59:13,175 --> 00:59:17,555
and them just all frolicking
in the forest together.

1061
00:59:22,852 --> 00:59:25,896
It's one of my...
As a filmmaker,

1062
00:59:25,980 --> 00:59:29,024
I love when I get
to this part of the movie,

1063
00:59:29,108 --> 00:59:33,070
'cause I know that the energy
of the film is changing.

1064
00:59:35,656 --> 00:59:40,077
And this little improvised
walk away is, of course,

1065
00:59:40,661 --> 00:59:44,373
cut and pasted from whatever
dozen times we did that.

1066
00:59:45,458 --> 00:59:48,210
And now we get back to the drought,

1067
00:59:50,296 --> 00:59:53,299
echoing the shots
from the original sequence.

1068
00:59:53,382 --> 00:59:56,469
The circle of life, it's like
the shadow version of circle of life.

1069
00:59:57,428 --> 00:59:58,763
When you don't...

1070
00:59:59,513 --> 01:00:00,848
When you don't

1071
01:00:03,017 --> 01:00:04,727
participate responsibly.

1072
01:00:06,187 --> 01:00:09,732
When the king is not in tune with

1073
01:00:11,317 --> 01:00:13,736
the past and the future.

1074
01:00:14,987 --> 01:00:16,614
And when they over-hunt the lands.

1075
01:00:18,616 --> 01:00:21,577
And here's our introduction of Beyoncé.

1076
01:00:22,286 --> 01:00:28,375
Gave her a nice movie star reveal there,
nice turn around and rack.

1077
01:00:29,627 --> 01:00:31,170
And here's Alfre Woodard.

1078
01:00:35,674 --> 01:00:38,928
Trouble with the...
Even in the original film,

1079
01:00:39,011 --> 01:00:41,764
the lionesses are designed
very similarly.

1080
01:00:42,598 --> 01:00:46,310
They don't have too many things
that distinguish them from one another.

1081
01:00:47,228 --> 01:00:50,022
And so it's a good thing
we have very distinct voices,

1082
01:00:50,105 --> 01:00:52,566
(LAUGHING) but there's a lot of

1083
01:00:52,650 --> 01:00:55,319
people saying each other's names
when they talk to them

1084
01:00:55,986 --> 01:00:57,154
to try to help.

1085
01:00:57,571 --> 01:00:59,114
"Nala." "Yes, Sarabi."

1086
01:01:01,158 --> 01:01:03,118
People don't do that in real life,

1087
01:01:03,869 --> 01:01:06,539
but it's one of things where we do.
Here's a nice little

1088
01:01:08,165 --> 01:01:10,042
slo-mo shot.

1089
01:01:10,125 --> 01:01:11,752
Again, something you would do in a...

1090
01:01:11,836 --> 01:01:14,672
Documentaries, they rarely go 24 frames.

1091
01:01:16,090 --> 01:01:18,133
Or, I guess, video it's 30.

1092
01:01:21,262 --> 01:01:23,931
But they rarely go 100% speed.

1093
01:01:24,014 --> 01:01:26,141
They usually
slow things down a little bit

1094
01:01:26,225 --> 01:01:29,270
to help create more
of an anthropomorphic look.

1095
01:01:29,353 --> 01:01:32,940
And so, close-ups, if you look
closely at documentaries,

1096
01:01:33,023 --> 01:01:35,568
they're often slowed down a little bit
just to give a little bit more

1097
01:01:35,651 --> 01:01:38,404
of a contemplative look and make it...

1098
01:01:38,487 --> 01:01:40,364
Their emotions feel a bit more human,

1099
01:01:40,447 --> 01:01:42,366
and so we snuck that in
whenever we could.

1100
01:01:42,449 --> 01:01:44,994
We slightly did speed changes,

1101
01:01:45,077 --> 01:01:47,955
again, as you would do
in a documentary to help

1102
01:01:48,038 --> 01:01:50,749
the lions feel a little bit...
There's a little more subtext.

1103
01:01:53,878 --> 01:01:55,671
The king wishes to see you.

1104
01:01:57,172 --> 01:01:58,465
FAVREAU: So, this is not...

1105
01:01:58,549 --> 01:02:00,676
I don't think this scene
exists in the original.

1106
01:02:02,553 --> 01:02:04,471
But it's a little bit...
We wanted to fill out

1107
01:02:04,555 --> 01:02:07,141
the characters of Nala and Sarabi more.

1108
01:02:07,683 --> 01:02:09,810
Actually, there was a bit of a...

1109
01:02:09,894 --> 01:02:11,770
This was inspired by outtakes

1110
01:02:11,854 --> 01:02:14,982
from the original film
and from what's in the show.

1111
01:02:15,065 --> 01:02:18,235
But in the show, he's...
Scar is interested in Nala,

1112
01:02:18,319 --> 01:02:20,195
which we didn't want to pursue.

1113
01:02:20,279 --> 01:02:23,240
But instead felt that
him pursuing Sarabi

1114
01:02:23,324 --> 01:02:26,452
felt like it was connected

1115
01:02:26,535 --> 01:02:29,246
a bit more to what's going on in Hamlet.

1116
01:02:30,039 --> 01:02:32,041
Which was often...

1117
01:02:32,833 --> 01:02:34,793
People draw inspiration...

1118
01:02:34,877 --> 01:02:38,380
People draw a connection
between Lion King and Hamlet

1119
01:02:38,464 --> 01:02:40,382
for story inspiration.

1120
01:02:40,466 --> 01:02:43,469
And so as we were looking
how to dimensionalize the story more

1121
01:02:43,552 --> 01:02:47,932
and these characters, the sense
that Scar might be seeking out...

1122
01:02:49,892 --> 01:02:53,020
That he felt jealous of Sarabi,

1123
01:02:53,103 --> 01:02:57,816
that Sarabi had been
Mufasa's queen, and that he's...

1124
01:02:59,109 --> 01:03:03,238
It added another emotional dimension
that was much more specific.

1125
01:03:04,114 --> 01:03:07,034
And again, Nala escaped, I believe,

1126
01:03:07,117 --> 01:03:11,455
if I have this right, Nala escaped
in the stage production

1127
01:03:11,538 --> 01:03:15,167
after Scar pursues her.

1128
01:03:15,250 --> 01:03:17,711
But in this case, we made it Sarabi

1129
01:03:17,795 --> 01:03:20,881
and it felt a bit more
like Hamlet's storyline

1130
01:03:21,924 --> 01:03:26,220
with his mother and uncle
and his father, who had been

1131
01:03:28,514 --> 01:03:29,890
murdered.

1132
01:03:30,766 --> 01:03:33,936
So, here we have Nala escapes.

1133
01:03:42,236 --> 01:03:45,447
And this is really interesting
because it's a night shoot.

1134
01:03:46,699 --> 01:03:50,536
This, by the way, looks particularly
good in extended dynamic range,

1135
01:03:50,619 --> 01:03:53,622
and in 3D.
It's a very beautiful movie in 3D.

1136
01:03:59,378 --> 01:04:02,756
And so this was a sequence where,

1137
01:04:02,840 --> 01:04:07,636
again, there's not a lot of dialogue,
so everything's about the animators

1138
01:04:08,470 --> 01:04:11,098
and about the virtual camera work

1139
01:04:11,181 --> 01:04:13,851
to get the camera moves just right.
So this was a bit more of...

1140
01:04:14,685 --> 01:04:16,353
This area's sort of like

1141
01:04:17,980 --> 01:04:19,273
a thriller,

1142
01:04:20,274 --> 01:04:21,775
the tension.

1143
01:04:24,653 --> 01:04:28,115
Telling a story through movement
of the cameras there, dolly moves.

1144
01:04:31,493 --> 01:04:35,873
And so this was...
Again, the visual storytelling here

1145
01:04:35,956 --> 01:04:39,835
is more closely akin
to what you would have in

1146
01:04:41,003 --> 01:04:44,339
just figuring out...
Working out a scene on the set,

1147
01:04:44,423 --> 01:04:48,343
using the camera and the actors
and telling the story through shots.

1148
01:04:49,053 --> 01:04:50,679
And this is something that...

1149
01:04:52,639 --> 01:04:56,977
This creative process really emulated
what it felt like to be

1150
01:04:57,686 --> 01:04:59,730
on a live-action film set.

1151
01:04:59,813 --> 01:05:03,442
Even though, again, we were looking
at pre-animated lions,

1152
01:05:04,485 --> 01:05:07,154
but the iterative process where we would

1153
01:05:08,572 --> 01:05:11,075
collaborate, try things, look at it,

1154
01:05:12,201 --> 01:05:13,911
you know, adjust it.

1155
01:05:13,994 --> 01:05:16,872
Because no matter
how well a movie is scripted

1156
01:05:16,955 --> 01:05:18,832
or how much shots are planned,

1157
01:05:18,916 --> 01:05:21,293
sequences like this, where you're
trying to tell a story visually,

1158
01:05:21,376 --> 01:05:23,921
you're kind of feeling your way
through it together as a group.

1159
01:05:27,424 --> 01:05:30,969
And you can only plan so much,
and this virtual camera arrangement

1160
01:05:31,053 --> 01:05:34,098
really allowed for us to have
that kind of collaborative conversation,

1161
01:05:34,181 --> 01:05:35,682
whereas in a traditionally animated film

1162
01:05:35,766 --> 01:05:38,143
you'd have a director
or somebody who's a layout artist

1163
01:05:38,227 --> 01:05:40,813
who would design
all the camera moves ahead of time

1164
01:05:40,896 --> 01:05:42,731
and then put them all together,

1165
01:05:42,815 --> 01:05:45,442
and hopefully, they would work and maybe
you would go back and adjust them.

1166
01:05:46,193 --> 01:05:50,155
Here, it felt more like we were

1167
01:05:51,156 --> 01:05:54,159
playing with a LEGO set,
like it feels on a real movie.

1168
01:05:54,243 --> 01:05:56,829
Everybody's kind of
rolling their sleeves up

1169
01:05:56,912 --> 01:05:58,831
and coming up with ideas
and trying things.

1170
01:06:01,250 --> 01:06:03,544
The difference, of course,
was that we would never run out

1171
01:06:04,253 --> 01:06:05,671
of daylight or night. (LAUGHS)

1172
01:06:05,754 --> 01:06:07,798
The sun would never come up
and end our day.

1173
01:06:07,881 --> 01:06:09,675
We could always go back
and work on it again.

1174
01:06:12,970 --> 01:06:14,847
And again here, so that we know,

1175
01:06:14,930 --> 01:06:17,933
(CHUCKLING) Sarabi has to say "Nala"
so you know who left.

1176
01:06:18,559 --> 01:06:20,394
I was always concerned about that,

1177
01:06:21,228 --> 01:06:22,437
that you'd lose track.

1178
01:06:23,147 --> 01:06:25,607
'Cause I'm the worst when it comes
to that stuff when I'm watching a movie.

1179
01:06:27,442 --> 01:06:29,653
(CHUCKLING) So I tried to make it
a little easier for people like me

1180
01:06:31,029 --> 01:06:32,781
who can't keep track of everything.

1181
01:06:34,116 --> 01:06:36,034
So this is nice 'cause
this should hopefully feel

1182
01:06:36,118 --> 01:06:37,744
like it's right out of a documentary.

1183
01:06:38,453 --> 01:06:41,081
And there we go,
that long lens photography,

1184
01:06:41,874 --> 01:06:43,292
and then we break all that tension.

1185
01:06:44,918 --> 01:06:46,795
Simba! It's you!
(SIGHS IN RELIEF)

1186
01:06:46,879 --> 01:06:48,255
Did you see that?

1187
01:06:48,338 --> 01:06:49,715
Man, that butterfly
was right there!

1188
01:06:49,882 --> 01:06:51,008
I almost had him.

1189
01:06:51,341 --> 01:06:52,634
I thought it was a lion.

1190
01:06:52,718 --> 01:06:54,052
(STAMMERS) You know,
the other kind of lion.

1191
01:06:54,261 --> 01:06:55,679
FAVREAU: Phil LaMarr.

1192
01:06:56,763 --> 01:06:58,140
Great voice actor.

1193
01:06:59,099 --> 01:07:00,475
Samurai Jack.

1194
01:07:01,935 --> 01:07:03,145
Actually,

1195
01:07:04,813 --> 01:07:07,608
Marvin from Pulp Fiction.

1196
01:07:13,864 --> 01:07:17,451
(CHUCKLES) Here's the whole
circle of life.

1197
01:07:17,534 --> 01:07:19,661
They came up with this.
This is, I think, a lot of this

1198
01:07:19,745 --> 01:07:21,622
was based on improvisation.

1199
01:07:22,539 --> 01:07:24,082
"It's not a circle, it's a line.

1200
01:07:24,166 --> 01:07:25,542
(LAUGHING)

1201
01:07:25,626 --> 01:07:27,794
"It's not a circle.
What are you talking about, a circle?

1202
01:07:27,878 --> 01:07:29,504
"No circle, it's just a line."

1203
01:07:31,924 --> 01:07:34,843
So this really... A lot of this
came out of, was inspired by stuff

1204
01:07:34,927 --> 01:07:38,263
when we had a scene written, but they...

1205
01:07:40,140 --> 01:07:42,559
So some of this was improv,

1206
01:07:42,643 --> 01:07:45,229
and then we would write it,
and then we would go back

1207
01:07:46,188 --> 01:07:48,857
and do it again, and improv again.

1208
01:07:50,943 --> 01:07:54,947
And then all the visuals had to be
designed by the story department, too.

1209
01:07:55,030 --> 01:07:58,700
So even though they're talking
about these existential issues,

1210
01:07:59,576 --> 01:08:03,413
you have all the fun, more bugs.

1211
01:08:04,331 --> 01:08:07,876
'Cause we added more scenes,
so we had to kind of...

1212
01:08:09,127 --> 01:08:11,755
If we added more scenes back,
we wanted to expand

1213
01:08:11,838 --> 01:08:13,966
on the storyline of what's happening
back in the Pride Lands,

1214
01:08:14,049 --> 01:08:16,093
then we had to add more stuff here, too.

1215
01:08:16,385 --> 01:08:17,844
Let me simplify this for you.

1216
01:08:18,011 --> 01:08:19,721
- Life is meaningless.
- PUMBAA: Yes.

1217
01:08:19,888 --> 01:08:21,723
That's why you just gotta
look out for yourself.

1218
01:08:21,890 --> 01:08:23,267
That's why you do you, Simba.

1219
01:08:23,642 --> 01:08:27,229
FAVREAU: So, this is really kind of
a downbeat to the scene that follows,

1220
01:08:27,312 --> 01:08:29,731
which, I think, is from the original.

1221
01:08:29,815 --> 01:08:32,109
For sure, it's from the original
'cause they...

1222
01:08:32,192 --> 01:08:33,860
I think you cut to them

1223
01:08:34,945 --> 01:08:36,613
after they've eaten all the bugs.

1224
01:08:37,656 --> 01:08:40,659
And they're looking up at the stars
and talking about

1225
01:08:41,868 --> 01:08:44,955
the balls of burning gas. That was
definitely from the original production.

1226
01:08:46,373 --> 01:08:50,419
So, again, having really talented
performers who could do...

1227
01:08:51,044 --> 01:08:54,673
Who could make it funny
but also getting into some, you know...

1228
01:08:55,465 --> 01:08:58,969
Kind of what the theme of the movie is.
Like, is it about...

1229
01:09:00,053 --> 01:09:02,306
Is it that you shouldn't worry?

1230
01:09:02,389 --> 01:09:03,765
You know, sometimes it is.

1231
01:09:03,849 --> 01:09:05,809
But sometimes,
you could take that too far.

1232
01:09:06,727 --> 01:09:10,063
And the idea that Nala shows up
and says, "Hey, we need you.

1233
01:09:11,189 --> 01:09:13,317
"You're more powerful than you think.

1234
01:09:14,234 --> 01:09:16,653
"We need you to be responsible.

1235
01:09:17,446 --> 01:09:18,989
"The rest of us need you."

1236
01:09:20,699 --> 01:09:23,410
And so it's sort of that balancing act,

1237
01:09:23,493 --> 01:09:26,830
where sometimes in life,
things are too heavy.

1238
01:09:26,913 --> 01:09:30,667
And you gotta... You need people
who can take your mind off of it,

1239
01:09:30,751 --> 01:09:33,045
but after a while,
you gotta get back in it.

1240
01:09:33,795 --> 01:09:35,213
You can't check out.

1241
01:09:36,506 --> 01:09:38,008
We need you out here.

1242
01:09:40,802 --> 01:09:43,305
And so, right here,
this is one of those memorable moments

1243
01:09:43,388 --> 01:09:45,682
where we kind of
stuck to what was there.

1244
01:09:47,184 --> 01:09:49,519
It's interpreted by the performers,

1245
01:09:49,603 --> 01:09:52,439
and there's sort of a naturalism
and casualness to it

1246
01:09:52,522 --> 01:09:54,733
and there might be a little bit
of improv or rewrites here and there,

1247
01:09:54,816 --> 01:09:56,693
but it's essentially the same old scene.

1248
01:09:57,611 --> 01:10:00,280
'Cause it's so important thematically,
he's remembering when the dad said,

1249
01:10:00,364 --> 01:10:02,616
"Hey, the kings are up there
looking down on you."

1250
01:10:04,576 --> 01:10:06,453
And, you know, he's...

1251
01:10:08,580 --> 01:10:10,374
They're making fun of him because

1252
01:10:12,542 --> 01:10:16,004
it doesn't logically make sense,
but in his heart he does feel that.

1253
01:10:17,172 --> 01:10:22,260
And so for the theme of the film,
this is such an important scene.

1254
01:10:24,846 --> 01:10:26,264
That it isn't all meaningless,

1255
01:10:26,348 --> 01:10:29,518
and that there is...
There is something bigger going on.

1256
01:10:29,601 --> 01:10:31,520
There's a circle of life that he has,

1257
01:10:31,603 --> 01:10:34,356
if he wants to be king,
he has to protect and participate in.

1258
01:10:36,274 --> 01:10:37,818
But right now he's sort of...

1259
01:10:37,901 --> 01:10:40,278
Something in him is telling him
that there's more to this

1260
01:10:41,071 --> 01:10:43,198
and his father's words, you know,

1261
01:10:43,281 --> 01:10:45,951
are there deep down, and they come out.

1262
01:10:47,202 --> 01:10:48,620
(CHUCKLES) And I like
this little scene here.

1263
01:10:48,703 --> 01:10:49,913
This is sort of improvised,

1264
01:10:49,996 --> 01:10:52,332
but I like that it shows that
they really care about him,

1265
01:10:52,416 --> 01:10:54,042
that they feel bad
about laughing at him.

1266
01:10:54,126 --> 01:10:56,670
In the old movie they just laugh at him.
Here, they actually feel bad.

1267
01:10:59,172 --> 01:11:00,632
Shows that they're good friends.

1268
01:11:01,633 --> 01:11:03,343
And in this sequence here...

1269
01:11:03,427 --> 01:11:06,513
So in the old movie, it was like
there was a little bit of wisp

1270
01:11:07,597 --> 01:11:10,934
of something that came
off of him and landed,

1271
01:11:11,017 --> 01:11:12,727
and I think Rafiki smells it.

1272
01:11:14,354 --> 01:11:18,567
And this was an opportunity to...
'Cause it wouldn't work as it was.

1273
01:11:19,401 --> 01:11:22,446
And so the idea came
of maybe we could have something

1274
01:11:22,529 --> 01:11:26,074
that really leans into that kind of
documentary-style exploration.

1275
01:11:26,700 --> 01:11:28,869
But also re-enforces
that the circle of life

1276
01:11:28,952 --> 01:11:30,579
actually works in a way that

1277
01:11:32,956 --> 01:11:35,709
where there's some forces
that are moving, that are...

1278
01:11:35,792 --> 01:11:38,753
That there's some hand
of some divine spirit that's...

1279
01:11:41,089 --> 01:11:43,508
That helps the circle of life continue.

1280
01:11:44,801 --> 01:11:47,888
And the idea that all these
little creatures and the wind

1281
01:11:48,388 --> 01:11:50,223
and the birds and the insects,

1282
01:11:51,892 --> 01:11:53,185
and all of it.

1283
01:11:54,936 --> 01:11:59,191
So, it's not just blowing in the wind,
but there's some chain...

1284
01:12:01,443 --> 01:12:04,446
Some, like, bucket brigade

1285
01:12:05,489 --> 01:12:09,201
of all the citizens

1286
01:12:11,244 --> 01:12:15,332
of the circle of life
are somehow magically getting there.

1287
01:12:17,209 --> 01:12:19,294
And just to be able...
We didn't even know if this would work,

1288
01:12:19,377 --> 01:12:21,505
if you'd be able to follow this
or people would understand it.

1289
01:12:21,588 --> 01:12:23,256
It's not from the old film.

1290
01:12:24,883 --> 01:12:26,676
But we drew it and we tried it,

1291
01:12:27,260 --> 01:12:29,429
and then the giraffe eats it.

1292
01:12:31,473 --> 01:12:33,600
And you think it's over.

1293
01:12:34,935 --> 01:12:37,103
But you can't stop
the circle of life that easy.

1294
01:12:40,815 --> 01:12:44,194
Here... I think this was...

1295
01:12:44,277 --> 01:12:46,446
There's some great documentary stuff
of dung beetles.

1296
01:12:46,530 --> 01:12:49,533
I think Microcosmos, I think that
was one of the films that had it.

1297
01:12:50,784 --> 01:12:53,912
But could we visually, actually,
make you see that in there

1298
01:12:53,995 --> 01:12:56,957
and connect visually
that that's the same fur?

1299
01:13:04,297 --> 01:13:07,676
And we knew if it didn't work,
we could always just cut it down

1300
01:13:07,759 --> 01:13:10,804
and make it that the fur flies,
and then ends up

1301
01:13:10,887 --> 01:13:13,807
at Rafiki's tree, and it would be
similar to what they had,

1302
01:13:14,766 --> 01:13:18,061
but we really wanted to try
to make this work,

1303
01:13:18,144 --> 01:13:22,107
and it's one of the moments
I really enjoy the most.

1304
01:13:22,732 --> 01:13:25,777
And I like when we showed
the movie to Elton John, he...

1305
01:13:25,860 --> 01:13:28,363
Of course, I'm a life-long fan.

1306
01:13:29,155 --> 01:13:31,199
And that he picked this sequence out

1307
01:13:32,158 --> 01:13:33,910
after he'd seen the film.

1308
01:13:33,994 --> 01:13:36,079
Of all the things that he's worked on
in it and everything,

1309
01:13:36,162 --> 01:13:38,081
for him to pick this out and say

1310
01:13:38,164 --> 01:13:40,458
that he really connected with it

1311
01:13:41,167 --> 01:13:43,962
made me very proud.
That's when we knew we pulled it off.

1312
01:13:44,045 --> 01:13:46,464
'Cause here was somebody who didn't know
that we were planning this

1313
01:13:46,548 --> 01:13:48,842
and watched it in the context
of the film and felt that

1314
01:13:49,801 --> 01:13:51,636
it fit in with what he had...

1315
01:13:53,346 --> 01:13:57,100
What they had created 25 years ago,

1316
01:13:57,183 --> 01:13:59,352
that he felt that it fit

1317
01:14:00,437 --> 01:14:02,772
into the story that he was
such a big part of.

1318
01:14:05,025 --> 01:14:06,443
And I love

1319
01:14:07,193 --> 01:14:11,114
just the eyes of that render
of how Rafiki looks.

1320
01:14:12,991 --> 01:14:16,953
And then we're back in the old movie,
how the old movie plays it out,

1321
01:14:17,037 --> 01:14:18,496
and there's the theme.

1322
01:14:18,580 --> 01:14:21,499
There's the theme, so triumphantly
played and the choir singing it.

1323
01:14:21,583 --> 01:14:24,252
That's the same theme
that's played on the flute

1324
01:14:24,336 --> 01:14:27,130
when Simba is alone,
wandering off into the desert.

1325
01:14:28,715 --> 01:14:31,843
And I love the way that
Hans Zimmer is able to

1326
01:14:33,470 --> 01:14:36,139
pull, make a theme sound triumphant

1327
01:14:36,890 --> 01:14:39,392
in one circumstance
and one instrumentation,

1328
01:14:39,476 --> 01:14:42,520
and then feel really lonely
and alone and isolated.

1329
01:14:43,229 --> 01:14:44,773
And I love this.

1330
01:14:45,815 --> 01:14:49,152
I love parrots.
That's African grey parrots. Well done.

1331
01:14:50,028 --> 01:14:54,574
Here was another area we wanted
to expand on what was there originally.

1332
01:14:55,867 --> 01:14:57,661
Which is, I think it's just
a bit of a throwaway.

1333
01:14:57,744 --> 01:15:00,997
And when I saw it on stage
and I saw it in the movie,

1334
01:15:01,081 --> 01:15:02,207
it's kind of like a laugh at first.

1335
01:15:02,290 --> 01:15:04,793
But then we wanted... It was an area
where we could expand out.

1336
01:15:05,752 --> 01:15:07,337
And we give this to Pharrell.

1337
01:15:07,879 --> 01:15:09,673
Hans Zimmer brought Pharrell in.

1338
01:15:09,756 --> 01:15:11,800
It was one of the first things
he worked on,

1339
01:15:11,883 --> 01:15:15,428
and so he developed a track for it
and a take on it

1340
01:15:15,929 --> 01:15:17,972
and all the different animals
chiming in.

1341
01:15:21,476 --> 01:15:23,353
And we had Chance.
There's Chance the Rapper.

1342
01:15:23,436 --> 01:15:25,397
He was there, singing.

1343
01:15:26,690 --> 01:15:28,233
Little hooks. They put it all together.

1344
01:15:28,316 --> 01:15:29,943
I don't know how they do it.
They're like alchemists,

1345
01:15:30,026 --> 01:15:31,277
putting it all together.

1346
01:15:32,404 --> 01:15:33,780
But I love the bopping along

1347
01:15:33,863 --> 01:15:37,033
and how it's sort of a little bit
of a nod to Steamboat Willie.

1348
01:15:37,117 --> 01:15:39,869
That was the first thing that
set Walt Disney's work apart,

1349
01:15:40,787 --> 01:15:43,164
was how they would coordinate.
Look how, even today,

1350
01:15:43,832 --> 01:15:47,085
when you coordinate picture
to the soundtrack,

1351
01:15:47,168 --> 01:15:49,129
when you lock those together,
there's something really

1352
01:15:50,714 --> 01:15:52,966
fulfilling about it,
there's something satisfying.

1353
01:15:54,426 --> 01:15:57,804
And then just as you get into it,
boom, we go right into... (LAUGHING)

1354
01:15:57,887 --> 01:16:00,390
Now, this hopefully looks like
just a straight-up documentary.

1355
01:16:00,974 --> 01:16:04,352
We looked at all the documentaries.
We looked at Apocalypto.

1356
01:16:04,436 --> 01:16:06,146
I think that's a shot
from Apocalypto there.

1357
01:16:07,272 --> 01:16:10,150
But just all that off-speed stuff,
that slo-mo,

1358
01:16:10,233 --> 01:16:13,528
and of course, just throwing in
Seth Rogen screaming, always good.

1359
01:16:14,154 --> 01:16:15,697
Never hurts.

1360
01:16:15,780 --> 01:16:17,824
And Billy Eichner screaming, too.

1361
01:16:18,199 --> 01:16:19,367
Pumbaa?

1362
01:16:19,659 --> 01:16:21,745
I'm gonna die! (YELLING)

1363
01:16:21,911 --> 01:16:23,913
FAVREAU: And this we shot
with virtual cameras

1364
01:16:23,997 --> 01:16:27,959
and we picked a path, and then
we built an environment around it.

1365
01:16:28,042 --> 01:16:30,587
Very technical. This was
a very challenging sequence

1366
01:16:30,670 --> 01:16:32,046
and of course, to get all that lighting

1367
01:16:32,130 --> 01:16:34,007
to look naturalistic
but still beautiful.

1368
01:16:35,175 --> 01:16:38,303
All that dapple in those environments.

1369
01:16:38,845 --> 01:16:39,846
No!

1370
01:16:42,015 --> 01:16:43,892
FAVREAU: And this.
I think this works really well.

1371
01:16:44,976 --> 01:16:47,812
And this animation,
I think, is fantastic.

1372
01:16:48,563 --> 01:16:51,524
'Cause this stuff's very hard
to do right, to get the physics right

1373
01:16:51,608 --> 01:16:53,193
'cause your mind, you just know.

1374
01:16:53,276 --> 01:16:56,905
Your eye will tell you it's wrong,
but by having this camera-work

1375
01:16:56,988 --> 01:16:59,115
and having these foreground elements
moving around,

1376
01:16:59,783 --> 01:17:03,578
all of it work together to make it feel
like you're watching real lions.

1377
01:17:03,661 --> 01:17:06,456
And of course, then we get back
to the pinning him down moment

1378
01:17:06,539 --> 01:17:08,666
like they did when they were little.

1379
01:17:09,709 --> 01:17:11,169
And here's Simba and Nala reunited,

1380
01:17:11,252 --> 01:17:13,880
except now,
it's Donald Glover and Beyoncé.

1381
01:17:13,963 --> 01:17:14,964
Nala, what're you doing?
Oh, my...

1382
01:17:15,048 --> 01:17:16,049
NALA: I don't believe it!

1383
01:17:16,216 --> 01:17:17,467
SIMBA: Look at you!

1384
01:17:18,301 --> 01:17:19,511
FAVREAU: And then,

1385
01:17:20,595 --> 01:17:22,639
you let the funny guys do their thing.

1386
01:17:24,015 --> 01:17:26,392
We wrote them stuff,
we pulled stuff in from the old one,

1387
01:17:27,560 --> 01:17:29,979
but they are super funny and so quick.

1388
01:17:30,271 --> 01:17:31,314
(LAUGHING) What fun!

1389
01:17:31,731 --> 01:17:34,526
FAVREAU: (LAUGHING) I love...

1390
01:17:34,609 --> 01:17:37,153
I don't know if people know...
I mean, from this they'll know him.

1391
01:17:37,987 --> 01:17:39,989
I think he'll have a whole new audience,

1392
01:17:40,073 --> 01:17:42,659
but his kind of persona
that he developed

1393
01:17:42,742 --> 01:17:43,785
from Billy on the Street,

1394
01:17:43,868 --> 01:17:48,373
which I was a fan of for a long time,
makes me laugh,

1395
01:17:48,456 --> 01:17:51,876
and then to plug him in as this guy,
I think it really worked well.

1396
01:17:53,920 --> 01:17:55,213
TIMON: King? Simba?

1397
01:17:57,090 --> 01:17:58,299
FAVREAU: And I love...

1398
01:17:59,592 --> 01:18:01,427
In this scene
and especially in the scene

1399
01:18:01,511 --> 01:18:02,971
after Can You Feel the Love Tonight,

1400
01:18:03,054 --> 01:18:05,598
and this whole run
with Beyoncé is like...

1401
01:18:06,808 --> 01:18:11,145
Really infuses the film
with this whole other level.

1402
01:18:12,438 --> 01:18:14,858
Just the curiosity of people hearing

1403
01:18:14,941 --> 01:18:17,777
how they're gonna both interpret
the song together 'cause everybody...

1404
01:18:19,362 --> 01:18:22,282
Their voices are so...

1405
01:18:24,659 --> 01:18:26,160
Everybody loves their music.

1406
01:18:28,162 --> 01:18:31,040
And to hear this old classic
done and interpreted

1407
01:18:32,083 --> 01:18:34,419
by these talented singers

1408
01:18:35,086 --> 01:18:37,672
is part of what people
love from, like...

1409
01:18:37,755 --> 01:18:40,925
When you hear somebody...
Somebody's gonna do a...

1410
01:18:42,510 --> 01:18:45,096
Where they're gonna do a revival
of a Broadway classic,

1411
01:18:45,179 --> 01:18:46,764
and then you hear
who's gonna be in the cast,

1412
01:18:46,848 --> 01:18:49,517
and part of it is, "I want to hear
how they interpret that role

1413
01:18:49,601 --> 01:18:50,768
"and those songs."

1414
01:18:51,686 --> 01:18:53,938
And so that's part of the fun
for me of this area.

1415
01:18:57,233 --> 01:19:00,403
And it's one of the reasons
that it feels like, you know...

1416
01:19:03,489 --> 01:19:06,451
The question is always why...

1417
01:19:06,534 --> 01:19:10,705
Is there room to do enough
that you should do the movie again?

1418
01:19:11,456 --> 01:19:15,251
Is it time for another version of this?
'Cause the old one still is so good.

1419
01:19:16,210 --> 01:19:18,963
And sequences like this
where it feels like

1420
01:19:19,047 --> 01:19:21,841
we're capturing the spirit of it,
but there's a lot of difference.

1421
01:19:23,551 --> 01:19:27,096
And the imagery from the old film

1422
01:19:28,139 --> 01:19:31,142
was a very heightened reality.

1423
01:19:31,643 --> 01:19:34,979
You can't have them splashing
and swimming at a swimming hole.

1424
01:19:36,064 --> 01:19:38,858
And if you look at it shot for shot,
it doesn't translate well.

1425
01:19:38,942 --> 01:19:41,152
But there are a few moments like this

1426
01:19:42,111 --> 01:19:43,821
we could kind of capture it.

1427
01:19:45,073 --> 01:19:46,908
Part of what

1428
01:19:48,034 --> 01:19:51,204
made me confident that we could
accomplish this in this way

1429
01:19:51,287 --> 01:19:54,332
was that a lot of the songs like this,
they're not actually singing on screen

1430
01:19:55,166 --> 01:19:57,168
in the original. It's in the score.

1431
01:19:57,877 --> 01:20:00,505
And so you're not forced to have
the mouths form the phonemes

1432
01:20:00,588 --> 01:20:02,882
and the shapes to have them
singing throughout,

1433
01:20:02,966 --> 01:20:07,428
so you can go for a much more
naturalistic sequence montage.

1434
01:20:10,014 --> 01:20:12,892
And then we knew we had to get...

1435
01:20:14,727 --> 01:20:16,813
We had to get the close-up of Nala here.

1436
01:20:17,772 --> 01:20:18,982
There you go.

1437
01:20:22,819 --> 01:20:26,072
And MPC really pulled off
that waterfall.

1438
01:20:26,155 --> 01:20:28,199
I get scared of waterfalls
as a director.

1439
01:20:28,282 --> 01:20:30,118
Whenever we say, "We're gonna
make the waterfall look great,"

1440
01:20:30,201 --> 01:20:32,286
that's one of those things
that takes a lot

1441
01:20:33,371 --> 01:20:35,707
of artistry and craftsmanship to do.

1442
01:20:36,582 --> 01:20:39,335
And you never know till the end
if it's gonna work out.

1443
01:20:40,253 --> 01:20:43,006
And so, you know, we've worked together
for so many years now.

1444
01:20:43,089 --> 01:20:44,674
I'm like, "Look,
can we really pull this off?"

1445
01:20:44,757 --> 01:20:47,427
And Adam Valdez was like,
"Yeah, I think we can pull it off.

1446
01:20:47,510 --> 01:20:48,970
"I think you're gonna like it."

1447
01:20:49,762 --> 01:20:52,432
And that's one of those things
where you're looking at

1448
01:20:52,515 --> 01:20:55,727
a temp effect for two years.
And then, finally,

1449
01:20:55,810 --> 01:20:57,895
something pops up,
and you're like, "Okay,

1450
01:20:58,396 --> 01:21:00,606
"this is pretty good. You were right."

1451
01:21:04,652 --> 01:21:07,238
This is some of my...
I don't know why this little shot

1452
01:21:07,321 --> 01:21:09,240
is some of my favorite animation
in the whole film.

1453
01:21:09,323 --> 01:21:12,201
Something about Seth's voice
and Billy's voice,

1454
01:21:12,285 --> 01:21:14,912
and then I love how
he stretches out. I have pets,

1455
01:21:16,914 --> 01:21:18,499
and I got a dog that does this,

1456
01:21:19,292 --> 01:21:21,294
that little...
(CHUCKLES) Move his little paw back.

1457
01:21:21,377 --> 01:21:23,671
I don't know. There's something
about that that's fantastic,

1458
01:21:23,755 --> 01:21:26,591
and those water sims.
Look how good those water sims are.

1459
01:21:28,092 --> 01:21:29,427
That's so good.

1460
01:21:30,053 --> 01:21:32,430
That sort of slow-moving brook.

1461
01:21:32,513 --> 01:21:35,016
That's not something that was able
to be done that long ago.

1462
01:21:35,099 --> 01:21:38,269
That's really part of the magic.

1463
01:21:39,771 --> 01:21:43,024
And this is a great little scene
here, man. I love this scene.

1464
01:21:43,691 --> 01:21:45,359
And I love the message of it.

1465
01:21:47,320 --> 01:21:51,908
If there's one scene that really
captures the theme of the film,

1466
01:21:52,867 --> 01:21:56,412
and to have these two actors
perform it like this

1467
01:21:56,496 --> 01:21:59,248
and bring so much feeling to it,

1468
01:21:59,332 --> 01:22:04,170
even though it's animals that aren't
really giving you a lot visually,

1469
01:22:04,253 --> 01:22:06,839
as far as meaning and emotion.

1470
01:22:07,882 --> 01:22:10,927
You know, so it's the camerawork,

1471
01:22:11,010 --> 01:22:13,679
and it's the writing
and it's the performance.

1472
01:22:14,806 --> 01:22:15,932
NALA: Scar told us that...

1473
01:22:16,099 --> 01:22:17,308
You wouldn't understand!

1474
01:22:17,600 --> 01:22:19,143
FAVREAU: And he doesn't want to face it.

1475
01:22:20,561 --> 01:22:21,562
What?

1476
01:22:21,729 --> 01:22:23,481
It's something
I learned out here, okay?

1477
01:22:23,648 --> 01:22:25,233
You see,
sometimes bad things happen,

1478
01:22:25,316 --> 01:22:26,984
and there's nothing
you can do about it.

1479
01:22:28,611 --> 01:22:30,780
FAVREAU: I like her here. "Why worry?"

1480
01:22:30,905 --> 01:22:32,782
What happened to you?

1481
01:22:32,949 --> 01:22:35,243
You're not
the Simba I remember.

1482
01:22:35,910 --> 01:22:37,578
FAVREAU: You know, and now I'm a parent.

1483
01:22:37,662 --> 01:22:40,915
I have three kids
that are almost all grown up.

1484
01:22:40,998 --> 01:22:43,876
And, you know,
as a parent, there's a balance.

1485
01:22:43,960 --> 01:22:45,670
You want to teach them
not to worry too much

1486
01:22:45,753 --> 01:22:49,298
and you want to teach them
that you gotta step up sometimes.

1487
01:22:51,008 --> 01:22:53,094
And, you know, "We need you."

1488
01:22:55,304 --> 01:22:58,683
And so this is a nice scene
that sort of captures the conundrum

1489
01:22:58,766 --> 01:23:01,310
that we all face, of when do you...

1490
01:23:02,937 --> 01:23:05,565
When are you not acting 'cause
you're scared or 'cause you're lazy?

1491
01:23:05,648 --> 01:23:07,608
When are you not doing it
'cause it's the right thing?

1492
01:23:08,151 --> 01:23:11,237
That's a very good story,

1493
01:23:11,821 --> 01:23:16,200
and I say the good story
dating back to the original

1494
01:23:16,284 --> 01:23:18,244
that they really caught something
and captured it.

1495
01:23:18,327 --> 01:23:20,204
And we just really tried to preserve it.

1496
01:23:21,873 --> 01:23:23,875
And I love that dropping down
into the forest,

1497
01:23:23,958 --> 01:23:26,294
if you're going deep, deep,
deep down into

1498
01:23:28,171 --> 01:23:29,714
your inner workings.

1499
01:23:30,673 --> 01:23:33,676
And you look at scenes like this,
and we really wanted to

1500
01:23:33,759 --> 01:23:38,181
keep true to the tropes.
You know, you think of, like,

1501
01:23:39,932 --> 01:23:41,601
Empire Strikes Back

1502
01:23:43,060 --> 01:23:44,312
and Dagobah,

1503
01:23:44,770 --> 01:23:48,065
you know, Yoda teaching Luke.

1504
01:23:48,149 --> 01:23:50,443
And here you have Rafiki,

1505
01:23:50,526 --> 01:23:55,281
John Kani, the great John Kani,
South African actor, who...

1506
01:23:57,450 --> 01:23:59,785
While we were working together,
he was in...

1507
01:24:01,370 --> 01:24:03,873
Black Panther came out
as we were working on this,

1508
01:24:03,956 --> 01:24:06,542
and he's in that and plays...

1509
01:24:07,418 --> 01:24:10,922
He plays T'Challa's father
and just was really good in that, too.

1510
01:24:12,548 --> 01:24:15,009
So, American audiences
have gotten to know John Kani,

1511
01:24:15,092 --> 01:24:17,178
but he's been a real fixture

1512
01:24:22,850 --> 01:24:25,770
as a South African actor
for a long time.

1513
01:24:28,981 --> 01:24:32,151
And here we have a mixture of Xhosa,

1514
01:24:34,028 --> 01:24:36,322
mixing the language with English.

1515
01:24:36,781 --> 01:24:38,950
He died a long time ago.

1516
01:24:39,033 --> 01:24:40,534
He's alive!

1517
01:24:40,618 --> 01:24:43,079
FAVREAU: And so John Kani would...
We'd give him what we wrote,

1518
01:24:43,162 --> 01:24:45,748
and a lot of it was based on
what was in the original film.

1519
01:24:46,457 --> 01:24:50,378
We definitely made him
more of a mentor-type figure,

1520
01:24:50,461 --> 01:24:52,296
and he's comic relief to some extent,

1521
01:24:52,380 --> 01:24:56,217
but really wanted to give him
more of a strong mentor presence.

1522
01:24:58,135 --> 01:25:02,932
And really good work here,
this is one of the later scenes.

1523
01:25:03,474 --> 01:25:05,351
But getting this camerawork
and these environments

1524
01:25:05,434 --> 01:25:07,603
using the tools that we had,
the virtual camera tools,

1525
01:25:08,229 --> 01:25:11,190
a little bit tricky 'cause those
environments aren't really there.

1526
01:25:11,274 --> 01:25:12,775
They're there on the screen,

1527
01:25:12,858 --> 01:25:15,486
but they're not there on the stage where
we're moving the cameras around.

1528
01:25:16,570 --> 01:25:19,240
But I think that the balance between

1529
01:25:19,323 --> 01:25:23,202
Rob and Caleb and Adam and Andy,

1530
01:25:24,078 --> 01:25:25,830
I think it really feels still

1531
01:25:25,913 --> 01:25:28,457
like the camera's really moving
through a real forest here.

1532
01:25:29,500 --> 01:25:31,836
And the music, of course,
is great, the percussion.

1533
01:25:35,881 --> 01:25:37,466
And then, boom,

1534
01:25:38,426 --> 01:25:39,510
it's really cool.

1535
01:25:43,264 --> 01:25:44,932
And now here is the scene.

1536
01:25:45,016 --> 01:25:48,477
This is some of the last stuff
to come in, and we had artwork,

1537
01:25:48,561 --> 01:25:50,146
and we had different interpretations.

1538
01:25:50,229 --> 01:25:53,024
How are we gonna make the father
appear in the clouds?

1539
01:25:53,107 --> 01:25:54,525
We knew we needed it.

1540
01:25:56,193 --> 01:25:58,696
But these are two sight gags here,

1541
01:25:58,779 --> 01:26:02,408
one is the reflection changing, which
we found that by changing lighting,

1542
01:26:02,491 --> 01:26:04,910
which is kind of an old trick
that they did

1543
01:26:06,203 --> 01:26:08,622
in the old movies,
when something would transform,

1544
01:26:08,706 --> 01:26:11,167
the old werewolf movies,
sometimes would be a light cue.

1545
01:26:12,084 --> 01:26:14,086
So, allowed us to distinguish between

1546
01:26:15,588 --> 01:26:18,632
Simba and Mufasa,

1547
01:26:20,509 --> 01:26:22,887
and actually make it look like
a transformation happens.

1548
01:26:22,970 --> 01:26:24,847
And then, of course,
you have James Earl Jones' voice

1549
01:26:24,930 --> 01:26:27,016
and the music, which gets you
most of the way there.

1550
01:26:27,933 --> 01:26:29,894
But then these cloud sims
and the lightning,

1551
01:26:29,977 --> 01:26:31,562
and how literal would you make it?

1552
01:26:31,645 --> 01:26:34,690
And how much would you make it
like you think you're seeing it?

1553
01:26:36,275 --> 01:26:39,362
And so there were some early drawings
where you have

1554
01:26:40,696 --> 01:26:42,782
the internal illumination,

1555
01:26:42,865 --> 01:26:45,493
making out pieces
of the eyes and the nose.

1556
01:26:45,576 --> 01:26:47,203
So, it's kind of there.

1557
01:26:49,372 --> 01:26:51,040
And it's more there
as the scene goes on.

1558
01:26:51,248 --> 01:26:54,043
MUFASA: You must remember who you are.

1559
01:26:54,126 --> 01:26:56,504
The one true king.

1560
01:26:56,837 --> 01:26:59,090
FAVREAU: Again, hopefully capturing
the spirit of the original

1561
01:26:59,173 --> 01:27:01,384
but not pushing it so far

1562
01:27:01,467 --> 01:27:04,011
'cause when you look at the original
trying to draw inspiration,

1563
01:27:04,095 --> 01:27:06,222
it was really like glowing, you know,

1564
01:27:06,305 --> 01:27:09,558
a lion sitting up there with
beams of light coming out of them.

1565
01:27:10,851 --> 01:27:13,062
I thought it felt too stylized for us.

1566
01:27:17,400 --> 01:27:20,319
And so I think it was done tastefully.

1567
01:27:22,071 --> 01:27:24,281
Anytime you're working with...
You have animators

1568
01:27:24,365 --> 01:27:27,201
and people working
on simulations like clouds,

1569
01:27:27,785 --> 01:27:30,621
it's always difficult
because you're trying to coordinate

1570
01:27:31,414 --> 01:27:34,208
groups that work differently
to try to tell one story.

1571
01:27:35,251 --> 01:27:37,545
And I think the lighting
and the color of the sky really helps

1572
01:27:37,628 --> 01:27:40,297
and the dawn breaking
and the stars going away.

1573
01:27:41,048 --> 01:27:42,883
And the clouds dissipating,
him feeling alone

1574
01:27:42,967 --> 01:27:44,593
but yet feeling his father's with him.

1575
01:27:45,261 --> 01:27:47,179
And of course, what a wonderful message

1576
01:27:48,139 --> 01:27:49,432
that he lives in you.

1577
01:27:50,433 --> 01:27:54,019
And that's a song from the show

1578
01:27:55,479 --> 01:27:58,357
and from one of the inspired-by albums
from the time.

1579
01:27:58,441 --> 01:28:00,484
He Lives In You. And in the end credits,

1580
01:28:01,444 --> 01:28:04,405
Lebo performs He Lives In You
as the second end credit song.

1581
01:28:09,285 --> 01:28:12,121
And here is roaring,
and here is the song Spirit,

1582
01:28:12,788 --> 01:28:14,290
performed by Beyoncé.

1583
01:28:14,373 --> 01:28:16,917
This is a song
that wasn't in the original film.

1584
01:28:17,001 --> 01:28:21,088
There's Lebo singing,
Lebo M bringing in the choir.

1585
01:28:25,384 --> 01:28:29,221
This is, I think, the only song in
the film that wasn't in the original.

1586
01:28:32,725 --> 01:28:36,770
And it fits over this
really beautiful montage,

1587
01:28:36,854 --> 01:28:41,233
and I think captures
the emotion of the moment.

1588
01:28:43,068 --> 01:28:44,403
It's a little thing,

1589
01:28:44,487 --> 01:28:47,364
but that simulation of the dust,
of the sand flying,

1590
01:28:47,448 --> 01:28:50,951
that backlit sand is so well done,

1591
01:28:51,035 --> 01:28:53,996
and it's those little details
that we concentrate on

1592
01:28:54,079 --> 01:28:57,500
that actually contribute
to the feeling of the movie.

1593
01:28:57,583 --> 01:28:59,543
It's those little details.

1594
01:29:01,045 --> 01:29:04,256
And of course, you lay the music
over it and it brings it all to life.

1595
01:29:07,718 --> 01:29:10,179
And you think of classics
like The Right Stuff

1596
01:29:10,554 --> 01:29:13,599
and Black Stallion
that Caleb Deschanel lit.

1597
01:29:13,682 --> 01:29:18,270
You see that aesthetic.

1598
01:29:18,354 --> 01:29:20,648
It's so interesting watching him
carry that aesthetic

1599
01:29:20,731 --> 01:29:24,276
over into a situation where he could
move the sun wherever he wants it,

1600
01:29:24,360 --> 01:29:26,529
and you can manipulate the environment.

1601
01:29:27,696 --> 01:29:29,823
You're not just selecting
from something that's there.

1602
01:29:29,907 --> 01:29:32,910
It's interesting watching that aesthetic
carry through into this technology.

1603
01:29:33,953 --> 01:29:35,454
And here we go. We're back.

1604
01:29:35,538 --> 01:29:38,457
Now we're in the part of the movie where

1605
01:29:39,500 --> 01:29:41,252
the big fight's about to happen.

1606
01:29:42,670 --> 01:29:44,922
Again, taking an environment
that was already designed,

1607
01:29:45,005 --> 01:29:46,090
trying to keep it photo-real,

1608
01:29:46,173 --> 01:29:48,676
but trying to make it
look like it's desolate.

1609
01:29:49,426 --> 01:29:51,387
And so a little bit's the bones,
a little bit's the dryness...

1610
01:29:51,679 --> 01:29:55,474
The color palette,
the lighting, the skies.

1611
01:29:55,891 --> 01:29:58,602
If I don't fight for it,
who will?

1612
01:30:00,020 --> 01:30:01,605
I will.

1613
01:30:01,772 --> 01:30:03,315
It's going to be dangerous.

1614
01:30:03,482 --> 01:30:05,442
Danger? Ha!

1615
01:30:05,526 --> 01:30:08,737
I laugh in the face of danger.

1616
01:30:08,988 --> 01:30:12,157
FAVREAU: And then we have
Zazu coming back.

1617
01:30:12,241 --> 01:30:13,784
And I think this is all basically...

1618
01:30:13,867 --> 01:30:15,661
I mean, although
the dialogue's a bit different,

1619
01:30:15,744 --> 01:30:17,830
I think it's the same
story point as in the original.

1620
01:30:18,998 --> 01:30:20,457
Showing up, regrouping,

1621
01:30:21,875 --> 01:30:24,086
the comic relief,
"the backup has arrived."

1622
01:30:26,630 --> 01:30:28,382
The backup has arrived!

1623
01:30:28,549 --> 01:30:30,092
What are you guys doing here?

1624
01:30:30,175 --> 01:30:33,429
- Um, we were not worried!
- Um... No, not worried.

1625
01:30:33,679 --> 01:30:35,055
FAVREAU: Pay off the...

1626
01:30:35,306 --> 01:30:37,141
Even they've come around, see?

1627
01:30:37,391 --> 01:30:38,892
Even they don't believe in...

1628
01:30:39,393 --> 01:30:41,270
They believe in the circle of life, too.

1629
01:30:45,149 --> 01:30:46,775
I like it.
They act like they don't care,

1630
01:30:46,859 --> 01:30:48,652
but really they're good friends.

1631
01:30:49,570 --> 01:30:53,449
And deep down they feel
a sense of shared responsibility, too.

1632
01:30:53,824 --> 01:30:57,786
(CHUCKLING) I like that little piece
of animation where he knocks him over.

1633
01:30:58,162 --> 01:31:00,414
Yes, Timon.
This is my home.

1634
01:31:00,581 --> 01:31:02,708
Is it behind
that terrifying rock?

1635
01:31:02,791 --> 01:31:03,917
FAVREAU: Yeah, that was it.

1636
01:31:04,251 --> 01:31:05,544
Improv line.

1637
01:31:07,838 --> 01:31:09,590
(CHUCKLES) I like that one.

1638
01:31:12,551 --> 01:31:14,386
This is an improv line, too.

1639
01:31:15,095 --> 01:31:16,180
"Puffin."

1640
01:31:16,263 --> 01:31:19,058
I figure a puffin would be good
for the fans of Elf,

1641
01:31:19,933 --> 01:31:21,352
the arctic puffin.

1642
01:31:22,728 --> 01:31:25,731
I don't know. Maybe that's why
I thought of saying "puffin."

1643
01:31:28,025 --> 01:31:30,152
That's a bonus question.

1644
01:31:33,072 --> 01:31:34,365
Here we go.

1645
01:31:35,115 --> 01:31:36,283
End of the reel.

1646
01:31:37,493 --> 01:31:39,036
End of the fifth reel,

1647
01:31:39,662 --> 01:31:40,996
slobbering guards.

1648
01:31:42,790 --> 01:31:44,750
This is basically from the original.

1649
01:31:46,794 --> 01:31:48,796
Live bait.

1650
01:31:50,089 --> 01:31:52,257
FAVREAU: These types of gags
are so hard.

1651
01:31:53,884 --> 01:31:55,344
There, it's all timing.

1652
01:31:56,470 --> 01:31:59,723
The animators timing, Seth's timing,

1653
01:32:01,517 --> 01:32:03,102
the editing.

1654
01:32:06,230 --> 01:32:08,357
Why is everyone looking at me?

1655
01:32:09,858 --> 01:32:10,984
FAVREAU: And here's our...

1656
01:32:11,068 --> 01:32:12,653
(SPEAKING FRENCH)

1657
01:32:14,196 --> 01:32:18,409
FAVREAU: ...little tip of the hat
to Beauty and the Beast.

1658
01:32:21,453 --> 01:32:25,290
I noticed in the stage show
they poke fun at Frozen,

1659
01:32:25,374 --> 01:32:28,335
which was another Broadway production.

1660
01:32:28,877 --> 01:32:34,258
So, here, we give a little nod
to Beauty and the Beast,

1661
01:32:34,758 --> 01:32:39,471
another classic animated film
turned live action.

1662
01:32:41,640 --> 01:32:42,975
There we go.

1663
01:32:45,185 --> 01:32:46,687
Oh, now it's gonna happen.

1664
01:32:48,480 --> 01:32:53,110
Now, we couldn't have Rafiki walking
around with a stick the whole time

1665
01:32:54,111 --> 01:32:56,280
because they just don't really do that.

1666
01:32:57,114 --> 01:32:58,615
It would have looked fake.

1667
01:32:59,950 --> 01:33:02,327
But he had to have
a stick for the fight,

1668
01:33:02,703 --> 01:33:04,538
so we figured he kept it hidden.

1669
01:33:05,706 --> 01:33:09,334
I'm curious if people get that
when we see it with an audience,

1670
01:33:11,128 --> 01:33:12,671
(LAUGHING) if people remember the stick.

1671
01:33:13,130 --> 01:33:14,465
It's like his lightsaber.

1672
01:33:18,260 --> 01:33:21,180
And so now we get back into...

1673
01:33:22,681 --> 01:33:24,099
Now we're getting back
to the part of the movie

1674
01:33:24,183 --> 01:33:25,559
where everybody remembers every shot.

1675
01:33:25,642 --> 01:33:29,605
So, we had to be very careful
when we deviated and for what reason.

1676
01:33:31,690 --> 01:33:33,776
I am ten times
the king Mufasa was!

1677
01:33:33,942 --> 01:33:36,528
You are nothing
compared to Mufasa!

1678
01:33:37,070 --> 01:33:38,071
(GROWLING)

1679
01:33:38,155 --> 01:33:44,912
FAVREAU: So, here's...
Here comes Simba breaking up the fight,

1680
01:33:45,412 --> 01:33:48,791
and they have to mistake him
for Mufasa at first.

1681
01:33:49,333 --> 01:33:50,375
It can't be.

1682
01:33:50,459 --> 01:33:52,544
Get away from my mother.

1683
01:33:52,628 --> 01:33:53,629
FAVREAU: That's a new line.

1684
01:33:56,632 --> 01:33:58,550
Then she recognizes him, too.

1685
01:33:59,259 --> 01:34:01,261
You're alive?

1686
01:34:01,428 --> 01:34:03,764
How can that be?

1687
01:34:04,014 --> 01:34:06,058
I'm here, Mother.

1688
01:34:06,225 --> 01:34:07,226
I'm home.

1689
01:34:07,392 --> 01:34:08,811
SCAR: Simba...

1690
01:34:09,311 --> 01:34:11,104
I'm so happy to see you.

1691
01:34:11,188 --> 01:34:13,649
FAVREAU: So, again, the themes
are paying off now,

1692
01:34:16,401 --> 01:34:18,070
the musical themes.

1693
01:34:20,197 --> 01:34:21,323
You see...

1694
01:34:21,698 --> 01:34:23,575
they think I'm king.

1695
01:34:25,244 --> 01:34:26,370
FAVREAU: And now here is...

1696
01:34:28,497 --> 01:34:29,790
Beyoncé comes in.

1697
01:34:31,959 --> 01:34:34,503
Simba is the rightful king!

1698
01:34:35,212 --> 01:34:38,006
FAVREAU: So, all of this
was inspired also

1699
01:34:39,299 --> 01:34:43,136
by seeing her performing live,
and there's that call and response.

1700
01:34:44,096 --> 01:34:45,889
And just the way he or she...

1701
01:34:47,766 --> 01:34:50,310
The stage presence that Nala has

1702
01:34:51,311 --> 01:34:58,277
you know, all looking
at Beyoncé as a performer,

1703
01:34:59,027 --> 01:35:00,696
just trying to carry some of that

1704
01:35:02,698 --> 01:35:03,866
energy into it.

1705
01:35:05,951 --> 01:35:10,080
And the idea that they're all
behind her, all the lionesses.

1706
01:35:11,748 --> 01:35:15,043
So you haven't told them
your little secret?

1707
01:35:15,377 --> 01:35:17,546
Well, Simba...

1708
01:35:18,046 --> 01:35:19,673
now's your chance to confess.

1709
01:35:19,756 --> 01:35:21,174
FAVREAU: And this gets into a part...

1710
01:35:21,258 --> 01:35:23,635
This is another little solve
that we have

1711
01:35:25,554 --> 01:35:27,347
'cause he gets Scar to admit it,

1712
01:35:29,182 --> 01:35:31,685
that he... Like, confess to everything.

1713
01:35:32,936 --> 01:35:38,567
And we thought it might be fun
if Sarabi figures it out

1714
01:35:39,359 --> 01:35:43,113
because he's... Even though he would
tell Simba that just to mess with him.

1715
01:35:43,739 --> 01:35:46,116
Once Simba gets the upper hand,

1716
01:35:47,409 --> 01:35:52,205
instead of Scar admitting
that he did it to everybody

1717
01:35:52,456 --> 01:35:54,291
that Sarabi would figure it out

1718
01:35:55,125 --> 01:35:57,044
by an inconsistency in his story,

1719
01:35:57,794 --> 01:35:58,795
which in this case is...

1720
01:35:59,379 --> 01:36:01,214
"You said you didn't get
to the gorge in time.

1721
01:36:01,465 --> 01:36:03,508
"Then how did you see
the look in his eye?"

1722
01:36:04,468 --> 01:36:08,847
And realizes that
there's a gap in his alibi.

1723
01:36:11,642 --> 01:36:15,729
And this stuff was really hard, too,
to get right for the animators

1724
01:36:15,812 --> 01:36:18,190
because you want that
image of him hanging on.

1725
01:36:18,774 --> 01:36:23,737
But it takes a lot of doing
to get the physics right

1726
01:36:23,820 --> 01:36:26,114
and it to feel natural without
it feeling just like it's a cartoon

1727
01:36:26,239 --> 01:36:30,953
with a guy hanging from his nails
from a branch or a tree.

1728
01:36:31,495 --> 01:36:36,083
And so the design of the surface
and how it's covered

1729
01:36:37,000 --> 01:36:39,795
and how the animators performed it,
the angles of the camera,

1730
01:36:39,878 --> 01:36:41,338
what you're seeing,
what you're not seeing,

1731
01:36:41,546 --> 01:36:46,385
to feel like it's as precarious
as it was for Mufasa at the canyon.

1732
01:36:47,427 --> 01:36:51,056
And I think this is really
nice animation when he tells him.

1733
01:36:52,140 --> 01:36:54,518
There's a little bit
of expression in the eyes.

1734
01:36:55,227 --> 01:36:59,439
And then the lighting with the fire
light when he says, "I killed Mufasa."

1735
01:37:01,817 --> 01:37:02,818
Right there.

1736
01:37:03,944 --> 01:37:05,237
Look at the way

1737
01:37:05,320 --> 01:37:10,117
the eyelid picks up just slightly
exposing the pupil and the iris.

1738
01:37:10,701 --> 01:37:12,452
It's really nice, subtle work.

1739
01:37:13,954 --> 01:37:15,539
And we flashback and then...

1740
01:37:16,957 --> 01:37:20,293
And using that bite to help
justify why he's pulled out.

1741
01:37:20,377 --> 01:37:22,379
Now, the fires building up
on the flashback.

1742
01:37:22,462 --> 01:37:23,755
We're able to cut to later.

1743
01:37:24,131 --> 01:37:25,340
All the sparks.

1744
01:37:25,424 --> 01:37:28,760
Rob Legato's big...
'Cause in 3D, the sparks look so good

1745
01:37:29,219 --> 01:37:32,431
moving around in The Volume.

1746
01:37:35,267 --> 01:37:36,518
That's true!

1747
01:37:36,685 --> 01:37:39,855
Then how did you see
the look in Mufasa's eyes?

1748
01:37:41,231 --> 01:37:42,899
Murderer!

1749
01:37:42,983 --> 01:37:43,984
FAVREAU: Here we go.

1750
01:37:49,573 --> 01:37:52,242
Beyoncé calls in the cavalry here.

1751
01:37:54,453 --> 01:37:55,746
Boom.

1752
01:37:55,829 --> 01:37:57,205
Here's the...

1753
01:37:57,372 --> 01:37:59,041
Now, we're getting into

1754
01:38:01,710 --> 01:38:05,338
the territory where you want
to have energy and power,

1755
01:38:05,464 --> 01:38:09,384
but you also don't want it
to be too graphic.

1756
01:38:09,468 --> 01:38:13,555
And so the lighting helps.
The silhouettes help. The energy helps.

1757
01:38:15,265 --> 01:38:18,477
There's a certain degree
of intensity, but never...

1758
01:38:18,810 --> 01:38:20,520
You know, we avoid showing bloodshed,

1759
01:38:21,229 --> 01:38:25,025
keeping it more suggested
than actually shown.

1760
01:38:26,777 --> 01:38:28,320
Here we go. That's J. Lee.

1761
01:38:30,280 --> 01:38:31,865
And we changed this one, too,

1762
01:38:33,075 --> 01:38:35,327
'cause "He called me Mr. Pigs,"

1763
01:38:37,454 --> 01:38:39,873
I think is the joke from the old one.
It felt a little...

1764
01:38:43,335 --> 01:38:44,669
It didn't feel contemporary. (CHUCKLES)

1765
01:38:44,753 --> 01:38:47,339
But I also like the idea

1766
01:38:48,090 --> 01:38:52,052
of him standing up
after he doesn't want to be shamed.

1767
01:38:52,511 --> 01:38:53,887
That he's proud.

1768
01:38:55,263 --> 01:38:58,225
He doesn't want to be bullied around.
It's a good message.

1769
01:39:00,268 --> 01:39:01,269
(FAVREAU CHUCKLES)

1770
01:39:02,395 --> 01:39:06,066
That was something, we were coming up
with different versions of that.

1771
01:39:06,817 --> 01:39:09,694
And we gave that one to Seth.
I said, "Try this one,"

1772
01:39:09,986 --> 01:39:12,197
and he came up with the wording of it.

1773
01:39:12,948 --> 01:39:14,324
But...

1774
01:39:15,617 --> 01:39:17,369
He was like,
"It's a good thing to say, man.

1775
01:39:17,452 --> 01:39:19,329
"I wish I said it when I was little."
(LAUGHING)

1776
01:39:21,331 --> 01:39:23,792
And I love here that
she's standing up to Shenzi,

1777
01:39:24,084 --> 01:39:26,753
that Nala when she was getting
picked on when she was little.

1778
01:39:27,170 --> 01:39:28,964
Now she's not little anymore.

1779
01:39:30,006 --> 01:39:31,383
I got him! I got him!

1780
01:39:33,093 --> 01:39:34,511
FAVREAU: When you're little,
you're scared of things.

1781
01:39:34,594 --> 01:39:38,306
You get older, you realize
you're not so little anymore.

1782
01:39:39,933 --> 01:39:41,351
- KAMARI: Get that bird!
- (ZAZU GRUNTS)

1783
01:39:42,811 --> 01:39:44,229
FAVREAU: Oh, this.

1784
01:39:45,856 --> 01:39:47,315
Here we go, and now we got...

1785
01:39:49,359 --> 01:39:53,530
So Rafiki in the old one
did a lot of martial arts here.

1786
01:39:53,947 --> 01:39:55,282
We couldn't quite go that far,

1787
01:39:55,365 --> 01:39:57,284
but we figured you give him
the stick back.

1788
01:39:57,742 --> 01:40:03,832
He could at least...
More like 2001 than The Matrix.

1789
01:40:03,999 --> 01:40:07,836
But I think it does the job.

1790
01:40:09,629 --> 01:40:11,047
(HYENAS WHINING)

1791
01:40:12,674 --> 01:40:14,509
(GRUNTS, YELLS)

1792
01:40:21,016 --> 01:40:22,726
That never gets old!

1793
01:40:23,685 --> 01:40:24,978
(BOTH GRUNTING)

1794
01:40:26,938 --> 01:40:30,775
FAVREAU: And that sort of
curtain of fire behind them

1795
01:40:30,859 --> 01:40:33,528
is something that was very much
inspired by the animated film.

1796
01:40:38,241 --> 01:40:39,409
As she takes care of...

1797
01:40:39,743 --> 01:40:42,454
Hopefully, you know it's Shenzi.

1798
01:40:43,330 --> 01:40:47,500
Again, tough in the dark
to tell the different animals,

1799
01:40:49,085 --> 01:40:50,837
which character is which.

1800
01:40:52,464 --> 01:40:53,798
But that's Scar,

1801
01:40:54,299 --> 01:40:56,885
and now they're being
chased off the rock there.

1802
01:40:57,719 --> 01:41:00,430
They've vanquished the hyenas.

1803
01:41:01,389 --> 01:41:02,682
And there we go.

1804
01:41:03,642 --> 01:41:06,478
Now we all know.
We all know where this is going.

1805
01:41:07,729 --> 01:41:09,898
This is, again,
very memorable from the old film.

1806
01:41:10,023 --> 01:41:12,651
So we wanted to try

1807
01:41:14,319 --> 01:41:15,654
to capture a lot of the same images.

1808
01:41:16,112 --> 01:41:20,408
We even tried some
of the stuttery slow motion

1809
01:41:20,700 --> 01:41:23,703
when he's fighting Scar 'cause
that's what they had in the original.

1810
01:41:23,912 --> 01:41:25,622
It just didn't feel right.

1811
01:41:25,997 --> 01:41:27,874
But we tried it.
We rendered it that way.

1812
01:41:28,583 --> 01:41:31,503
That kind of, like, the stutter frames.

1813
01:41:34,547 --> 01:41:38,677
It was a nice reference back,
but it didn't feel right in the movie.

1814
01:41:43,348 --> 01:41:46,977
But we kept the sparks
being kicked up in his face.

1815
01:41:49,688 --> 01:41:53,692
Wherever we could,
we tried to really stay

1816
01:41:55,151 --> 01:41:57,195
as close to these moments as we could.

1817
01:41:57,570 --> 01:42:00,323
This is one of those
memorable sequences where people

1818
01:42:01,783 --> 01:42:03,243
remember them clashing.

1819
01:42:05,620 --> 01:42:06,746
No, Scar.

1820
01:42:08,498 --> 01:42:10,041
I'm not like you.

1821
01:42:11,543 --> 01:42:13,503
FAVREAU: And this whole sequence here,
this fight,

1822
01:42:14,713 --> 01:42:17,465
so we decided that
we were gonna use a Steadicam,

1823
01:42:17,716 --> 01:42:20,844
and we had built tools
that would be fake Steadicams,

1824
01:42:20,969 --> 01:42:22,512
but none of them had the right feel,

1825
01:42:22,595 --> 01:42:25,181
and we actually brought in
a Steadicam operator

1826
01:42:25,265 --> 01:42:28,560
who used his full Steadicam rig,

1827
01:42:28,852 --> 01:42:30,979
like, weighted as though
it was a real camera,

1828
01:42:31,313 --> 01:42:32,605
even though we didn't need a camera.

1829
01:42:32,689 --> 01:42:36,735
We just had a positional
data puck on top

1830
01:42:36,818 --> 01:42:38,653
that we could read the position of.

1831
01:42:38,737 --> 01:42:43,033
So all we needed was one little thing
that weighs three ounces

1832
01:42:43,491 --> 01:42:44,617
to track the movement.

1833
01:42:44,993 --> 01:42:48,621
But to get the proper
feeling of a Steadicam,

1834
01:42:48,747 --> 01:42:52,417
we weighted it
and actually were in The Volume

1835
01:42:53,168 --> 01:42:56,421
in our offices,

1836
01:42:57,714 --> 01:42:59,049
in our warehouse.

1837
01:43:00,258 --> 01:43:01,551
And he would watch the screen,

1838
01:43:01,760 --> 01:43:05,180
and we would have
the movement choreographed.

1839
01:43:05,764 --> 01:43:07,557
And so...

1840
01:43:09,100 --> 01:43:11,978
And Caleb would direct him.

1841
01:43:12,062 --> 01:43:14,773
And so all of these shots,
that's why they're not perfect.

1842
01:43:14,856 --> 01:43:15,857
They're like a Steadicam,

1843
01:43:15,940 --> 01:43:18,443
where you get good movement
and you rehearse it,

1844
01:43:18,526 --> 01:43:20,570
and you try to get
the good part of the shot,

1845
01:43:20,653 --> 01:43:23,073
but there's always
a little bit of sloppiness to it.

1846
01:43:23,656 --> 01:43:25,909
And that helps it, I think,
bring energy to it,

1847
01:43:26,034 --> 01:43:27,535
and there he is falling down.

1848
01:43:29,245 --> 01:43:30,830
Again, like in Jungle Book,

1849
01:43:31,122 --> 01:43:33,333
(CHUCKLING) we borrow
a lot of this from Jungle Book

1850
01:43:33,458 --> 01:43:35,585
before I ever knew
I was gonna be doing Lion King.

1851
01:43:35,668 --> 01:43:37,420
So, like, the stampede

1852
01:43:37,587 --> 01:43:41,800
and Shere Khan
falling down into the fire

1853
01:43:42,425 --> 01:43:44,761
was very similar to what we have here.

1854
01:43:49,557 --> 01:43:53,311
And this is really nice.
Again, tricky to do.

1855
01:43:53,395 --> 01:43:57,440
It's hard to understand, but having
that fire light motivating it,

1856
01:43:58,483 --> 01:44:00,318
having that look and that environment,

1857
01:44:01,694 --> 01:44:03,113
I think this all came together well.

1858
01:44:04,114 --> 01:44:08,868
It sort of has a spooky,
Hitchcock-type look here,

1859
01:44:08,952 --> 01:44:14,791
especially with the twisting camera
going into Shenzi's push-in coming up.

1860
01:44:19,170 --> 01:44:22,841
This little one here
coming out of the smoke,

1861
01:44:23,925 --> 01:44:25,135
this little one.

1862
01:44:28,847 --> 01:44:29,848
And then this,

1863
01:44:29,931 --> 01:44:33,143
how you tilt up off of him
onto the shadow onto the wall.

1864
01:44:33,226 --> 01:44:34,686
Again, easy to do in a cartoon,

1865
01:44:34,769 --> 01:44:38,940
but a lot of work for the animators
and people lighting to get that look.

1866
01:44:40,733 --> 01:44:44,571
And then we go up to the rain
coming back down.

1867
01:44:45,447 --> 01:44:48,491
And then, of course, the amazing music.

1868
01:44:52,537 --> 01:44:55,165
And I'll take this moment
to mention Hans Zimmer,

1869
01:44:55,248 --> 01:44:57,333
although he's credited as, I think,

1870
01:44:57,417 --> 01:45:03,923
executive music producer
and composer involved.

1871
01:45:04,132 --> 01:45:06,676
But he was involved with
so much of this production,

1872
01:45:07,677 --> 01:45:12,348
certainly in helping bring together all
the people collaborating on the music.

1873
01:45:12,599 --> 01:45:16,227
And he had, of course,
relationships with Lebo,

1874
01:45:17,020 --> 01:45:19,105
with Elton, Tim, Pharrell.

1875
01:45:19,522 --> 01:45:22,233
But all the actors and making everybody,

1876
01:45:22,317 --> 01:45:27,864
even, like, Seth and Billy,
everybody feel comfortable.

1877
01:45:28,364 --> 01:45:31,868
And he's got his workshop
in Santa Monica,

1878
01:45:31,951 --> 01:45:33,411
and that became like our hub.

1879
01:45:34,078 --> 01:45:36,289
We listened to music there.
We'd record music there.

1880
01:45:36,372 --> 01:45:38,082
He'd mix it, produce it,

1881
01:45:38,333 --> 01:45:40,502
and would bring in
all these great musicians,

1882
01:45:40,585 --> 01:45:42,253
and he's just a...

1883
01:45:42,337 --> 01:45:45,590
And then, not only
does he have so much talent,

1884
01:45:46,758 --> 01:45:50,929
great person
to coordinate with everybody,

1885
01:45:51,971 --> 01:45:54,724
but also cares deeply about storytelling

1886
01:45:55,016 --> 01:45:58,436
and was, you know, if I was
ever wrestling with something

1887
01:45:59,020 --> 01:46:02,190
or should I do this or that,
he was always somebody who I would go to

1888
01:46:02,273 --> 01:46:04,275
because he was somebody
who was there for the original,

1889
01:46:04,442 --> 01:46:06,986
but he's not afraid of change

1890
01:46:07,820 --> 01:46:08,988
and not afraid of the future.

1891
01:46:09,405 --> 01:46:15,620
And he was just
a tremendous collaborator

1892
01:46:16,746 --> 01:46:18,915
throughout the whole process.
I'd known him before.

1893
01:46:18,998 --> 01:46:21,751
I had worked in Remote Control
back when we did...

1894
01:46:21,834 --> 01:46:25,255
I was working with
Ramin Djawadi on Iron Man

1895
01:46:25,338 --> 01:46:29,133
and the score for Iron Man
over at his workshop there.

1896
01:46:29,592 --> 01:46:31,177
And he was part of that process,

1897
01:46:31,261 --> 01:46:33,137
but this was the first time
he'd ever scored for me,

1898
01:46:33,221 --> 01:46:34,514
and he was just...

1899
01:46:34,597 --> 01:46:36,391
Gee, I don't know how
I would've done this without him.

1900
01:46:36,641 --> 01:46:39,811
He was so insightful in so many ways.

1901
01:46:41,187 --> 01:46:45,733
And here we go. Here's the mouse
from the beginning of the movie

1902
01:46:45,817 --> 01:46:47,610
that got away from Scar.

1903
01:46:48,319 --> 01:46:50,613
And he outlasted Scar.
How do you like that?

1904
01:46:51,406 --> 01:46:54,409
If that's not a lesson, kids,
I don't know what is.

1905
01:46:55,994 --> 01:46:57,370
He made it. Scar didn't.

1906
01:46:58,496 --> 01:47:00,164
And I love all the little children.

1907
01:47:00,248 --> 01:47:02,292
I made sure that
we had babies for every species.

1908
01:47:02,375 --> 01:47:05,420
(LAUGHING) There's the little
ostrich babies.

1909
01:47:07,130 --> 01:47:08,548
I love all the little kids.

1910
01:47:08,631 --> 01:47:12,135
Actually, we just passed by
a northern white rhino.

1911
01:47:12,218 --> 01:47:13,469
We had that.

1912
01:47:13,553 --> 01:47:16,347
Unfortunately, that species
had gone extinct

1913
01:47:17,015 --> 01:47:19,058
while we were prepping
the film, very sad,

1914
01:47:19,142 --> 01:47:24,731
and we wanted to at least memorialize
the memory of that species,

1915
01:47:24,814 --> 01:47:29,861
and this is why it's so important,
hopefully next generation...

1916
01:47:29,986 --> 01:47:32,030
Look at that little hippo there.

1917
01:47:32,322 --> 01:47:34,365
Hopefully, the next generation...
(CHUCKLES) There's the little warthog,

1918
01:47:34,449 --> 01:47:36,909
all the little characters
that get a curtain call.

1919
01:47:37,327 --> 01:47:39,329
Hopefully, this develops a relationship

1920
01:47:39,412 --> 01:47:44,208
as kids come up seeing this
as something that's just a fun movie,

1921
01:47:45,752 --> 01:47:47,086
something that's
entertaining emotionally,

1922
01:47:48,463 --> 01:47:51,257
you know, fun sometimes, emotionally,
too, but certainly memorable.

1923
01:47:51,341 --> 01:47:53,217
It's an emotional ride.

1924
01:47:53,676 --> 01:47:55,928
But hopefully,
if they feel connected to this film,

1925
01:47:56,012 --> 01:48:00,016
it'll make them seek out what's
really out there in the real world

1926
01:48:00,099 --> 01:48:04,062
and help protect what's still there.

1927
01:48:04,312 --> 01:48:09,359
And this might be
somebody's first exposure

1928
01:48:09,525 --> 01:48:13,696
to all of these species
and all of these parts of the world,

1929
01:48:13,780 --> 01:48:17,950
and, you know,
just like the circle of life,

1930
01:48:18,034 --> 01:48:24,207
it's our job to keep it going
for those that come after us.

1931
01:48:26,250 --> 01:48:28,670
So, and there's...

1932
01:48:29,295 --> 01:48:30,505
There you go.

1933
01:48:30,797 --> 01:48:34,050
There's Elton John singing and Lebo

1934
01:48:35,843 --> 01:48:38,346
pulled the choir together for that.

1935
01:48:38,805 --> 01:48:43,226
And of course, Tim Rice, lyricist.

1936
01:48:44,185 --> 01:48:46,104
So, again, collaborating
like on the old one.

1937
01:48:46,187 --> 01:48:50,274
This is an original song
that was written for this.

1938
01:48:52,193 --> 01:48:55,363
And what a treat for me

1939
01:48:55,446 --> 01:48:59,742
to be able to collaborate
with Elton John.

1940
01:48:59,826 --> 01:49:02,078
I'm of the generation that we...

1941
01:49:02,245 --> 01:49:04,872
My whole childhood
was informed by his music.

1942
01:49:05,540 --> 01:49:10,878
And to get to work with him on this
was a huge honor, huge treat.

1943
01:49:11,421 --> 01:49:13,089
And of course, Tim Rice,

1944
01:49:13,965 --> 01:49:20,763
great to collaborate with, you know,
genius from musical theater, lyricist.

1945
01:49:21,389 --> 01:49:25,059
Again, all of them, what was so fun
is now they all have kids and families,

1946
01:49:25,143 --> 01:49:28,855
and those kids either are
or have grown up with the original.

1947
01:49:29,397 --> 01:49:36,362
(CHUCKLING) And so it really felt like
a family picnic where it wasn't just...

1948
01:49:36,612 --> 01:49:38,614
You wouldn't just have
the person you collaborate with,

1949
01:49:38,698 --> 01:49:40,491
but their kids were coming by
and everybody...

1950
01:49:40,575 --> 01:49:42,118
And my kids were coming by.

1951
01:49:42,243 --> 01:49:45,538
And it really felt like...
Everybody knew what it was.

1952
01:49:45,621 --> 01:49:47,165
You didn't have to explain it.
It's The Lion King.

1953
01:49:47,248 --> 01:49:49,417
You showed them the visuals.
They got it.

1954
01:49:49,625 --> 01:49:53,463
Everybody was kind of, you know,
wanted to see it turn out well

1955
01:49:53,671 --> 01:49:55,923
and wanted to be around it
while it was happening.

1956
01:49:56,007 --> 01:49:58,176
It was a real treat

1957
01:49:58,259 --> 01:50:04,098
to be able to carry the torch on this
for the three years we worked on it,

1958
01:50:04,182 --> 01:50:08,060
knowing how many people
had worked so hard before

1959
01:50:08,352 --> 01:50:10,146
and how much people care about the movie

1960
01:50:10,229 --> 01:50:12,273
and people who worked on it,
people who just love it

1961
01:50:12,356 --> 01:50:13,357
and feel it's part of their lives

1962
01:50:13,441 --> 01:50:16,110
'cause they've seen it
so many times growing up.

1963
01:50:17,278 --> 01:50:20,865
So, hopefully, we did our job.

1964
01:50:20,948 --> 01:50:25,703
And we've written another chapter
in the book of Lion King

1965
01:50:26,204 --> 01:50:28,706
and pass it onto the next generation.

1966
01:50:29,999 --> 01:50:32,668
And there,
we see it's based on Lion King.

1967
01:50:33,127 --> 01:50:35,755
And those are the original writers.

1968
01:50:36,172 --> 01:50:37,757
And also the filmmakers...

1969
01:50:37,965 --> 01:50:41,135
Because although
we put a lot of work into it,

1970
01:50:41,219 --> 01:50:46,140
we really were just building on
what the filmmakers, writers,

1971
01:50:46,224 --> 01:50:50,937
and everybody involved
with the theater production,

1972
01:50:51,020 --> 01:50:54,148
we're just building on something
that they had already made

1973
01:50:54,982 --> 01:50:57,610
and bringing new technology to bear,

1974
01:50:57,693 --> 01:51:00,780
new performers interpreting
the music and the roles,

1975
01:51:00,863 --> 01:51:03,741
but really trying to honor
the original as much as we could.

1976
01:51:05,535 --> 01:51:09,080
And that's about it.

1977
01:51:09,163 --> 01:51:11,249
We got coming up...

1978
01:51:11,332 --> 01:51:16,546
(CHUCKLES) Like a DJ, "Coming up is
He Lives In You, performed by Lebo M."

1979
01:51:17,255 --> 01:51:20,383
And then Lebo also performs
at the end, Mbube,

1980
01:51:20,466 --> 01:51:26,180
which I thought was a really,
really great way to end the credits

1981
01:51:26,597 --> 01:51:28,516
because that's the original song

1982
01:51:29,642 --> 01:51:36,148
written by Solomon Linda in South Africa
back in the '20s or '30s,

1983
01:51:36,691 --> 01:51:40,486
which was the tune that inspired
The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

1984
01:51:40,570 --> 01:51:43,990
Many people don't know that actually
comes from a South African song.

1985
01:51:44,907 --> 01:51:46,784
It was thought to be a traditional

1986
01:51:46,868 --> 01:51:51,330
back when Pete Seeger recorded it,
called Wimoweh.

1987
01:51:52,248 --> 01:51:55,585
And it actually goes back to
Solomon Linda, who performed it.

1988
01:51:56,002 --> 01:51:57,795
And the tune from
The Lion Sleeps Tonight

1989
01:51:57,879 --> 01:52:03,509
that everybody thinks, most people think
is just a doo-wop song from New York,

1990
01:52:03,593 --> 01:52:05,553
you know, from the doo-wop scene,

1991
01:52:05,636 --> 01:52:09,348
was actually a tune
that was rediscovered

1992
01:52:09,765 --> 01:52:11,767
for a third time for that version.

1993
01:52:12,351 --> 01:52:17,440
But the original, we have Lebo M
performing the original, Mbube,

1994
01:52:18,065 --> 01:52:19,275
which is the lion

1995
01:52:19,358 --> 01:52:24,488
and trying to pay honor to Solomon Linda

1996
01:52:24,614 --> 01:52:29,285
who wrote and performed it originally,
getting back to the earliest...

1997
01:52:29,368 --> 01:52:32,747
Getting back to the roots
of what inspired all this.

1998
01:52:33,289 --> 01:52:40,046
So, thank you for your patience (LAUGHS)
as I talk through the whole thing.

1999
01:52:40,129 --> 01:52:42,924
There's so much to talk about.
So much went into this.

2000
01:52:43,007 --> 01:52:45,343
But just looking at the list of names,

2001
01:52:45,426 --> 01:52:49,305
people collaborating on this

2002
01:52:49,388 --> 01:52:55,561
from Africa, America, Europe, and Asia.

2003
01:52:56,479 --> 01:52:58,731
Everybody contributing
to this production,

2004
01:52:59,023 --> 01:53:00,608
and you could see
how many people it takes

2005
01:53:00,691 --> 01:53:03,402
to bring this to life

2006
01:53:03,486 --> 01:53:07,073
and hopefully make
all the work look invisible.

2007
01:53:07,156 --> 01:53:08,741
There's no brush strokes.

2008
01:53:08,950 --> 01:53:10,117
It should just look like

2009
01:53:10,201 --> 01:53:12,995
hopefully you're looking at
real animals doing their thing.

2010
01:53:13,371 --> 01:53:14,747
But this was quite an adventure,

2011
01:53:14,830 --> 01:53:16,624
and I'm very proud
to have been a part of it,

2012
01:53:16,707 --> 01:53:19,835
to get the opportunity to collaborate
with all these great people

2013
01:53:20,127 --> 01:53:21,671
and learn so much in the process

2014
01:53:21,754 --> 01:53:26,384
and hopefully do justice
to the legacy of this story.

2015
01:53:27,343 --> 01:53:28,678
Thank you.