Disney's "live-action" adaptation of
The Lion King is off to a roaring start. The Jon Favreau-directed remake of the 1994 animated classic
made its highly anticipated debut via a teaser trailer that was released Thanksgiving night and audiences gobbled it up to the tune of 224.6 million global views in 24 hours. Disney celebrated the milestone with a simple post that thanked the "entire pride" for a successful debut.
The teaser for the upcoming remake, which blends CGI with live-action to bring Pride Rock to life with stunning realism, offered us a glimpse of the iconic "Circle of Life" sequence. It featured the great James Earl Jones — returning to voice Mufasa — giving his "everything the light touches" speech before we break into
The Circle of Life song.
We are then treated to brief sequences of animals gathering to celebrate the birth of Simba; there's also a scene that offers a bit of foreshadowing regarding Mufasa's well-known fate.
Though the teaser was brief, it absolutely got fans excited as evidenced by the massive number of views. In fact,
The Lion King teaser is second only to the trailer for Marvel's
Avengers: Infinity War for most views in 24 hours. The
first trailer Infinity War racked up over 230 million views in the first 24 hours, so
The Lion King was a very close second. However, both trailers will likely be knocked down a peg when Marvel debuts the highly anticipated trailer for
Avengers 4, which is expected to arrive before the end of 2018.
In case you missed
The Lion King teaser the first time, here it is:
From Disney Live Action, director Jon Favreau’s all-new “The Lion King” journeys to the African savanna where a future king must overcome betrayal and tragedy to assume his rightful place on Pride Rock.
2019 is shaping up to be another massive year for Disney. The company's movie studios will release several big titles including
Captain Marvel (March 8),
Avengers 4 (May 3),
Aladdin (May 24),
Toy Story 4 (June 21),
The Lion King (July 19),
Frozen 2 (November 22), and
Star Wars: Episode IX (December 20).