Anticipation for the live-action The Lion King from director Jon Favreau has been building since we got that first epic trailer and now those in attendance at CinemaCon were able to see new footage that dazzled the audience.
In the footage, a young and playful Simba hops on his sleeping parents, not so subtly trying to wake them and greet the morning. James Earl Jones’s Mufasa tells his young cub, “Look, Simba, everything the light touches is our Kingdom.” One day, he says, “the sun will set on my time here and will rise with you as the new king. It will be yours to protect.” The footage also showed that Mufasa has a playful side as he and Simba look to pull a prank on John Oliver’s neurotic hornbill Zazu.
When the teaser trailer was released in November, it became the studio’s then-biggest bow ever and the No. 2 most-viewed from any studio of all time. The film follows Favreau and Disney’s blockbuster collaboration on The Jungle Book which went on to gross $967 million worldwide in 2016.
The Lion King was originally released in 1994 and is one of the highest-grossing animated films of all time with a lifetime global box office of $968.8 million. It won Academy Awards for Elton John and Tim Rice’s original song, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and Hans Zimmer’s original score.
