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Watch The First ‘Lion King’ Live-Action Trailer – It’s Incredible!

It recreates the original ‘Circle Of Life’ opening scene

Photo: Disney / YouTube

We wonder how many wings and drinks were knocked over when Disney surprised the Americans with the first teaser trailer of The Lion King remake in the middle of their Thanksgiving football game.

Even oceans away in Singapore, we’re freaking out over the trailer. It really brings back all the nostalgic feels about the 1994 classic movie.

Right off the bat, we hear the iconic lines. “Everything the light touches is our kingdom,” Mufasa (with James Earl Jones reprising his role) reminds his son Simba, while the camera pans over the African savanna. Can you see our goosebumps from here?

Just how adorable is baby Simba?! Let’s look at him again in endless GIF format:

If you watch the trailer close enough, you might notice something very familiar in the choice of camera shots. The first teaser trailer almost identically recreates the opening shots of the iconic “Circle of Life” from the original movie! Now looking more realistic, the scene feels even more majestic.

Someone at Twitter made a side-by-side comparison so it’s clearer:

And nothing can really beat the animated original, but seriously. Pride Rock looks visually stunning:

In addition to many sequels in the works, Disney has quite a lot of live-action remakes lined up for 2019, but this one here, which comes out June 2019, is at the top of our must-watch list. Directed by Jon Favreau, who also impressed us with the 2016 live-action remake of The Jungle Book, this trip back to Pride Rock has an insanely star-studded cast of voice actors.

Let’s go through them again to remind ourselves that this casting is actually real: besides the OG James Earl Jones as Mufasa, we’ve got Donald Glover as Simba, Beyoncé as Nala, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Uncle Scar, John Oliver as Zazu, Billy Eichner as Timon, and Seth Rogen as Pumbaa.

Just as Simba can’t wait to be king, we just can’t wait for the new Lion King!

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