Disney Unveils Chinese Trailer and Posters for The Lion King

With Toy Story 4 arriving in theaters in this weekend, the attention of the House of Mouse will finally turn to perhaps its biggest non-Avengers: Endgame release of the year. Jon Favreau‘s reimagining of The Lion King, which was made to look as if it’s a live-action film made with real animals, is hitting the big screen next month, both in North America and around the globe. The advertising campaign for the star-studded blockbuster has been picking up in recent weeks, and now Disney is making a substantial push over in China.

On Monday, Disney unveiled its Chinese teaser trailer for The Lion King, along with a couple of new international posters. Check out the trailer in the video above, and keep scrolling to see the two new posters!

The trailer doesn’t show much new footage from the film, and heavily leans on the narration by James Earl Jones as Mufasa, a role he’s reprising from the original animated classic. There is also some dialogue from Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Scar, the villainous character previously voiced by Jeremy Irons.

The first of the two Chinese Posters focuses on Simba’s relationship to his father, with both characters coming face-to-face in front of a white background.

Poster number two sees the beloved lion taking his place back atop Pride Rock, looking down over his entire kingdom. Unlike the first poster, this gives fans a great view of the entire Savannah, which was recreated digitally for the movie.

While The Lion King does look as though it was filmed on location with actual animals, everything was built with computers with the intention of making it feel authentic.

“We’re really giving them the time to do it right,” director Jon Favreau said of his effects team. “That was relatively early footage, rushed for that event because we wanted to get it out. But I’m here working with them. It’s a lot of the same people I worked with on Jungle Book. There was probably a big learning curve for me on that one. Now I’m up to speed and I’m used to working with all of them, and I know what the tech could do and there’s all new tech. A lot of the consumer facing VR stuff that’s out there that wasn’t out there back around the time of Jungle Book.”

“We were using mostly motion capture tech, and now using game engine tech and consumer facing VR stuff, we’re able to create virtual production,” he continued. “It’s a very cool, efficient way of working and helps contribute to a live action feel because we’re able to actually go into VR and set cameras and operate real cameras that drive virtual cameras. It has a look that, hopefully will feel photo real. Even though everything’s animated in it, it still should have a look of a live action film. You’ll see.”

Disney’s The Lion King arrives in theaters on July 19th.