Lion King 3D Premieres at El Capitan Theater

Crowds of fans bordered the El Capitan Theater, hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite stars.  You can always tell the non-stars on the red carpet, they’re the ones taking pictures FROM the red carpet!

I'm excited to be there!

Oh, another tell-tale sign that a person walking the red carpet isn’t a star is that they’re geeky and proud of the Disney guest badge they’re wearing!

To our complete surprise, the red carpet turned out to be green!  Disney had laid out a fake green grass runner to emphasize the Lion King movie.  Very clever.  All of the shrubbery above was imported and placed right on the side walk. A lane of Hollywood Blvd. was blocked off to accommodate the green carpet.  An authentic African band played as the stars and invited guests arrived.

The press lined Hollywood Blvd to catch stars and Disney Lion King film creators.  Pictured here are  the backs of Tony Bancroft, supervising animator for Pumbaa , and Mark Henn, supervising animator for Young Simba.  We had the opportunity to meet with them the previous day to talk about their experience in helping to animate the Lion King movie.

There were young Disney Channel stars galore.  Here Timon and Rafiki  are posing with Jake Short, Allie DeBerry, Stefanie Scott, and Aedin Mincks, all from Disney Channel’s A.N.T. Farm.

Ryan Ochoa is a very personable young man.  He happily obliged to photo requests from mom bloggers.  Ryan is best known as Lanny on the  Disney XD series Pair of Kings and as Chuck Chambers on the Nicelodeon series iCarly.

Disney’s Lion King, Co-Director, Rob Minkoff, stops to answer questions for the press.

The other Disney Lion King Co-Director, Roger Allers, whoops it up with a fan after the showing.

Once inside we were treated to a pail of popcorn.  I’ve never had so much popcorn in my life after two screenings of Lion King 3D in two days!  But it was yummy!

The renovated El Capitan Theater was beautifully adorned.  As we greatly anticipated the movie and gawked at the incoming stream of stars, we were treated to a live performance on the pipe organ.  The organist beautifully played all sorts of Disney movie classics.  Apparently, the pipe organ performance is a ritual before each Disney movie.

As the lights dimmed, we settled into our seats, dug into our large pails of half-eaten popcorn, and ceased talking…for the most part.  Even though we had just seen the movie the night before, I still didn’t get bored of it.  I promised myself I wouldn’t cry during the Mufasa’s death scene this time.  Well, I broke my promise but at least I didn’t cry for as long this time.

After having had the opportunity to hear from Robert Newman from Disney Studios on how he and his team converted Lion King from 2D to 3D, I found it very fascinating to watch when 3D was used to emphasize an emotion or closeness to a character.

As I said in my previous post,

Lion King presents 3D in away that adds depth and interest to the main characters, adding a new perspective and intimacy to the movie that wasn’t possible before.  Lion King movie was even better than I remembered.

 It really is a brilliant movie.

After leaving the movie theater, the African band, green rolling carpet, and Lion King cut-outs and backdrops were gone.  All lanes of Hollywood Blvd. were open.  All the fans and fuss had dwindled.  Our magical fairy tale of walking the “red” carpet had ended.  Now I know how Cinderella felt!

Fortunately, there’s always the after party!  Crossing the street, we went to the top floor of the Hollywood & Highland shopping center.  There, Disney created a fun Lion King vibe to celebrate Lion King 3D’s  premiere opening.

There was another great African band playing, games and activities for the kids, and fantastic food catered by Wolfgang Puck.  Stars and their kids were everywhere.

Several rooms were opened to accommodate space for the Lion King 3D premiere gathering.  Special couches were reserved for stars only.  There were caricature artists, tattoo artists, games, and even a very cool bead station where you could make your own jewelry with African looking beads.

Wow, what a day.  I couldn’t possibly write about everything I saw and did.  It’s always fun getting different perspectives on things so I invite you to read the recap my new great mom blogger friend Jennifer,  from The Mom Reviews – My Hollywood Premiere Experience: Lion King 3D.  She summarizes the weekend well.

At the end of the month I will publish “Disney Lion King 3D Mom Blogger Event:  Behind the Scenes.”  In this post I’ll go into more detail about meeting some of the voices, animators, and producer of Lion King.

If you don’t already have plans to see Lion King 3D this weekend, make them!  Lion King 3D will only be in theaters for 2 weeks.  There’s a whole new generation of kids who never got to experience Lion King in the movie theater before.  Now is their chance.  Disney will also be releasing Lion King 3D  Blu-ray 3D & Blu-ray Hi-Def Combo Packs on October 4th.

Want to see more about the Disney Lion King 3D Mom Blogger event and who attended?  See the Disney’s Lion King 3D Premiere Mom Blogger Event post.

Disney provided me with food, lodging, and incidentals for the three days.  All expressed opinions are my own.