“I know I just recently talked about this for my top 100 project, but in all honesty, I wasn’t paying much attention on that viewing. Watching it in a theater is such a different experience, I just had to share a few thoughts on it.
I hadn’t really sat down and really watched this movie in a long time. As many times as I’ve seen it (for proof, I was quoting along with most of the movie) I was still blown away by it. The animation is stunning, and the 3D for this release worked incredibly well. If anything, I was sad I wasn’t at an IMAX to experience it even more. I knew every twist of the story and was still caught off guard by some points and choked up by others.
I also had a greater appreciation for Timon and Pumba this time. Maybe its just because I’m now a big Nathan Lane fan, but I used to always think they were borderline superfluous before. Fun factoid: Pumba is apparently the first Disney character to fart on film. True story.
And it’s not just the nostalgia factor that makes this movie so amazing. I’d put out a general invite to my theater group, which was answered by a friend who had *gasp* never seen this movie before (OMG Wha huh?). I could sense her skepticism in chatting before the film, but afterwards she was completely blown away by it. We sat there thru all the end credits just gushing over it, which included a lot of “”Why did I wait so long to see this””‘s. Certainly one of the most fun movie experiences I’ve had in a while.”