If you expected to see Donald Glover and Beyoncé appear in Disney's Lion King remake [1] in the literal sense, chances are you were surprised by the first trailer [2]. While the highly anticipated movie has been colloquially referred to as a live-action remake, similar to the previous Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast remakes, the truth is that it's still technically an animated movie — except with way better technology than the 1994 original.
In an early interview with Coming Soon following the initial announcement of the movie, director Jon Favreau [3] said he would be relying on similar photorealistic computer-generated animation [4] and virtual reality technology to that he used in his 2016 remake of The Jungle Book. This of course differs from the traditional hand-drawn animation used in Disney classics.
While it's a shame we won't get to literally see the star-studded cast [5], it's probably for the best they're not just roaming around in masks à la Lion King the Broadway musical. Ahead, read reactions from others who were confused by the whole live-action vs. animation mix-up.
