The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Full disclosure: This reviewer is a huge Disney fan, especially when it
comes to their classic musicals.

Before going to see the film, this reviewer was irked at Disney. Releasing
The Lion King in 3D was almost
tantamount to a confession that they were incapable of making any more films that
were of a Disney classics calibre.

Now let’s be straight here. The 3D in The Lion King 3D was wholly unnecessary. It just adds
a subtle sense of depth to the images, which are completely spectacular in
regular 2D. The only sequence that might have actually benefitted from the 3D
was Scar’s ‘Be Prepared’, one of the more underappreciated songs in the Disney
canon. Forever eclipsed by ‘I Just Can’t Wait to Be King’, ‘Hakuna Matata’ and ‘The
Circle Of Life’, ‘Be Prepared’ shines especially brightly here, adding to
Scar’s already highly menacing presence.

The big draw here is seeing The
Lion King in a form befitting its majesty; on the silver screen in the
middle of a hulk of like-minded fans. The vast majority of the cinema audience grew
up being charmed by Disney’s classics on video, watching them on repeat and
singing along. On a huge screen with the sound engulfing you, this charm is
magnified into grandeur. Sharing this with others only adds to the
experience.  

And while the animation is universally lauded, you come
away with a new appreciation for the magnificent voice work, in particular
Rowan Atkinson’s prissy Zazu and Jeremy Iron’s deceitful Scar. Many of the
characters in this film tread the line between comic and campy perfectly, in
particular the Hyenas and Timon and Pumba. One absolutely golden scene that this
reviewer had forgotten was Timon dressed in drag and hula dancing, backed up by
Pumba in a ploy to distract the hyenas so that Simba could get past them to
Scar. This scene in
particular had us in stitches. 

This is truly what you’d deem a classic. It’s timeless and hasn’t aged a
bit despite everyone knowing every scene by heart. The story is every
bit as relatable today and the jokes are still thigh-slappingly funny even if
you find yourself supplying the punchline before the characters do. Mufasa’s
death is still as traumatic as the first time we watched him get murdered and
Simba’s reclamation of his throne is euphoric. Go see The Lion King 3D and take with you one of those kids that were born in the
wrong millennium.