Did you notice?
Jon Favreau, director of the new, all-CG but very uncannily realistic The Lion King, is expecting you didn’t. Notice what, you ask? Well, the real shot, the one piece of actual meatspace photography in the otherwise computer-generated film. If you didn’t—and, let’s be honest, you didn’t—then worry not, because Favreau was generous enough to share it on Twitter.
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. pic.twitter.com/CO0spSyCv4
— Jon Favreau (@Jon_Favreau) July 26, 2019
As it turns out, the opening of “The Circle of Life”—the first shot in the film—was just a real picture of Africa. A lovely picture, at that. I’m honestly a little troubled that I couldn’t tell the difference. Computer graphics are maybe a bit too convincing for my addled brain this morning.
https://gizmodo.com/the-lion-king-is-a-gorgeous-but-completely-unnecessary-1836244494
The Lion King is in theaters now.
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