Transcript: Review – The Lion King in 3d 2011
It great to see The Lion King again, and I loved seeing all the tiny details and bright colours on the big screen.
Now, on to the 3d. In general I liked the stereoscopic 3d conversion.
If you want a quick run-down on how the movie was converted to the stereoscopic 3d format, then you might like to check out the article at animatedviews.com: ‘Allers & Minkoff: The Legacy of The Lion King’
Scroll down to the end of the article, and you will find the 3D Depth Map created by Robert Neuman, the 3D Stereographer on the film.
I thought the stereoscopic 3d worked really well on backgrounds and effects. It was lovely to see the animated grass moving gently in 3d space, and on the odd occasion when things ‘popped’ out of the screen it didn’t seem too gimmicky.
However, there was the odd occasion where the 3d conversion as it was applied to the animated characters really bothered me.
Often this happened when a character was in a three quarter view. The side of the muzzle that was furthest away from the camera seemed somehow oddly stretched or elongated. This meant that instead of bawling my eyes out at Mufasa’s death, I spent most of the scene trying to work out whether his muzzle was foreshortened at an odd angle or whether the 3d process had somehow pushed it forwards to make it seem flatter than it should be.
At that point I found myself wondering whether the movie really should have been converted for 3d.
When compared with early 3d conversions such as the The Nightmare Before Christmas, overall the quality of the conversion was excellent. The film was crystal clear and not blurry. My eyes took very little time to adjust to the 3d glasses.
Of course though, I am going to give the Lion King 3d five stars! The 3d was well done, although I still think that the movie stands on it’s own in the original 2d format. If you haven’t seen it yet, go while it’s still running! Support traditional animation now and maybe we’ll see some new traditionally animated classics from Disney in the future.