WALT DISNEY has been an inspiration to Indian animators when animation was such a foreign thing that no parents wanted their kids to pursue it as a career option in India. However, on the flipside for the kids it was a world of drawings and making one’s fantasies a reality. Walt Disney meant another world and time with Lion King, the Jungle Book and Winnie the Pooh making each Sunday pleasurable, they used to create magic with the simple power of drawing.

Walt Disney never wavered from the idea of hand drawing even with their latest Lion King movie that is making a comeback to the theatres after 17 years. Although they have incorporated new technologies but the core of their existence remains and it is the old people who are working in the movie to be released on September 16. It was the Lion King that got many of the Indian kids to be fascinated and showed them the world of animation.

The makers of the Lion King, back in 1994, thought it to be a B grade movie as they themselves didn’t know that they were giving birth to a legend. Talking about it, producer Don Hahn said, “People were flocking to the other movies we were working on at the studio. This was seen as an experimental film and a kind of second-tier film. We worked really hard on it, and we tried to make it something special and unique, to take risks, and do the best we could. It’s always flattering and humbling that people liked it — but no, we didn’t see any of this coming.”

With Elton john, who created memorable music for the film, this became one of the films that defined many kids childhood. In 2011, Walt Disney is again bringing on the much loved animated beings among our midst that too in 3D. Most of the people are excited about it but many people are disappointed to know that their favourite film has been made in 3D. Twitter gives many such examples. However, Robert Neuman, the 3D stereographer in charge of the conversion process, knows full well the complexities of 3D and says, “3D always has to be used intelligently — because extremes can be wearing on the audience.”

Moreover, it rests on Neuman to not deviate from the hand drawn part of the film as that is what Lion King is. It took Neuman and his team four months to complete the conversion and he had to write a complete 3D script to go ahead with the film. He also agrees that his top priority is to honour the ‘glory of traditional hand-drawn animation.’

Apart from that he says, “The beauty of that is what audiences respond to when they see the great classic animated features. But if you take this traditional animated film and put it into a stereoscopic space, it all of a sudden takes on this new life. It has all the character of the original Lion King, but now it has this more tangible quality. It feels like an entirely new thing. And it doesn’t feel like (computer-generated imagery).” Fans all over the world are psyched about the arrival of the old Lion King in a new format. When asked Neeraj, who is a big animation movie fan, he said, “Lion King was my favourite movie. I can’t wait to see it in 3D.”