Oscars: New 'The Lion King' Poster And TV Spot Debuts

With the world watching the 91st Academy Awards, Walt Disney Studios took the chance to debut a [...]

By Adam Barnhardt

With the world watching the 91st Academy Awards, Walt Disney Studios took the chance to debut a new television spot for their upcoming live-action remake. Not just that, they took to Twitter shortly after the commercial aired to drop a stunning new movie poster.

The poster features Mufasa and Simba as they look at the sunset from the top of Pride Rock. Mufasa will be voiced by Star Wars alum James Earl Jones while the voice of Simba will be provided by Donald Glover (Atlanta). According to Disney chairman Alan Horn, The Lion King is bound the be a tear-jerker.

"Four," Horn replied. "Bring a handkerchief. It's so emotional. But it's a remake of an animated film, so there must be some percentage of the audience who will say, 'Well, I saw the first picture.' All I can say for sure is you cannot tell these animals aren't real."

Continuing, Horn explained the pressures of recreating the classic animated film for live-action.

"It's always a challenge because — and I say this with love and respect for media — the thing about these big movies is they get a lot of attention, whether positive or negative," he said. "So when they don't work, like Solo, the media says it's a failure. I think it was a pretty good movie. It didn't resonate as much as we'd hoped it would, but the press writes it up in a more negative way than I would. These are very high-profile movies. If Aladdin, which I happen to think is a terrific film, doesn't work somehow, that's big news and much bigger news than if a movie somewhere else, like The Kid Who Would Be King [at Fox,] doesn't work."

The Lion King opens July 19th.

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