Lion King Junket Los Angeles

THE LION KING arrives in theaters everywhere on July 19th! 

I am not sure if you know this, but the Lion King is my favorite movie of all times. I am so excited to see what Disney can do with this remake and I was even more excited when I got the invite to cover the junket

​To be honest, part of my was expecting Beyonce to be there, so it was a little sad moment when I knew she was not being part of the junket, but then I realized that the room was going to be full of an spectacular cast and that momentary sadness went away.

Since I was traveling for vacation, my amazing friend Bobby covered the junket for me. Here are the list of those on attendance to the junket.

• ​Donald Glover (voice of “Simba”)
• Seth Rogen (voice of “Pumbaa”)
• Billy Eichner (voice of “Timon”)
• Chiwetel Ejiofor (voice of “Scar”)
• Alfre Woodard (voice of “Sarabi”)
• Keegan-Michael Key (voice of “Kamari”)
• Florence Kasumba (voice of “Shenzi”)
• Eric Andre (voice of “Azizi”)
• John Kani (voice of “Rafiki”)
• JD McCrary (voice of “Young Simba”)
• Shahadi Wright Joseph (voice of “Young Nala”)
• Director Jon Favreau
• Composer Hans Zimmer
• Lebo M (African Music Consultant / Performer)

What a cast, right? So many talented people in one room and they treated everyone at the junket with a little introductory performance that is was breathtaking and have a few attendees in tears

Now the highlights of the conference

• Jon Favreau's talents truly have no limits in the entertainment industry and was constantly praised by the cast for his incredible innovative work. Jon was adamant about letting the actors truly immerse themselves in the movement and physicality of the characters. He described how, using VR technology, they recreated the Pride Lands and all of the areas in it, and used an open space to let the actors roam in this digitally created world.
  
• Each of the actors agreed that it added a sense of realism to the movement and actions of each of the scenes and continued to help bridge the gap from voice acting to reality theater.
  
• Some of the villains characters you remember from the film pulled from new inspiration other than the animated classic. Chiwetel Ejiofor (Scar) and Florence Kasumba (Shenzi) both used the theatrical version of their characters from the theater version to draw a little bit of a darker side of their villainous characters.
  
• Seth Rogan (Pumbaa) and Billy Eichner (Timon) credit being able to play off each other during the recording of their scenes as the real reason the film keep you laughing amidst some of the intensity.
  
• Hans Zimmer brings this new film back to life with remastered classics, keeping true to the already iconic nature of the original. The music remains to be one of the most powerful motivators driving not only the story, but succeeds at pulling your heart.

Time to go shopping for amazing Lion King products

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