The Lion King director Jon Favreau reveals the only real shot in the entire film, leaves fans stunned. See it here

Director Jon Favreau has revealed the only real shot in his Disney film, The Lion King. The film has been described as a ‘photorealistic animated movie’, which is entirely computer generated, but made to look as if it is real.

He took to social media on Friday and wrote, alongside a still of the only live-action shot in the film, “This is the only real shot in #TheLionKing. There are 1490 rendered shots created by animators and CG artists. I slipped in one single shot that we actually photographed in Africa to see if anyone would notice. It is the first shot of the movie that begins The Circle of Life.”

For The Lion King, Favreau and his team of visual effects artists used cutting-edge technology to create photorealistic characters on screen. Favreau had previously used the same technology in his 2016 remake of The Jungle Book.

“Well that’s mind-blowing and confirms my wondering, what an age we live in. Breathtaking. Loved Chef too! And thank you for Iron Man,” one fan wrote in the comments. “Thank you for bringing such an important movie from my childhood back and in such a beautiful way. Both versions hold such a special place in my heart!” wrote another.

Speaking about whether the film should be classified as live-action or computer generated, Favreau was quoted by SlashFilm as saying, “Well, it’s difficult because it’s neither, really. It depends what standard you’re using. Because there’s no real animals and there’s no real cameras and there’s not even any performance that’s being captured that’s underlying data that’s real. Everything is coming through the hands of artists. But to say it’s animated I think is misleading as far as what the expectations might be. And it also changes the way you sit and watch it. Because hopefully, you could just watch it without it being introduced.”

Also read: Can we talk about the glaring classism in Shah Rukh Khan-Aryan Khan’s Hindi Lion King?

He continued, “If we put up that Rafiki footage and didn’t say what it was, some people might know, some people might not know how it was done, but it causes you to be present and mindful and pay attention because you’re trying to figure out what you’re looking at. And that’s a great disposition to be in as an audience member.”

The Lion King has been received with mixed critical reviews, which hailed its visuals as groundbreaking, but its narrative as stale. However, the film has made over $700 million worldwide in a little over a week of release, including close to ₹100 crore in India.

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