Photo via The Daily Mail

Disney will continue the trend of giving its classic animated movies the 21st-century remake treatment with The Lion King. Jon Favreau, the director of this year’s hugely popular and technologically trail-blazing film The Jungle Book, will be directing this remake as well. He announced the film via Twitter, which Disney later confirmed. Currently the cast is unknown, but Disney has stated that the film will include songs from the original animated musical.

Since the films in Disney’s recent batch of remakes have been live-action, there is a tendency to refer to this remake the same way. How-ever, Disney has not referred to the film as “live-action,” and the classification of the film as such has sparked some debate. The original movie does not feature any human characters, so it is unlikely that the remake will.

The new movie will supposedly feature the animation technique that The Jungle Book used, which is a combination of CGI and motion capture. Although The Jungle Book did contain one live actor, it is considered an animated film according the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For this reason, The Lion King remake cannot be considered a “live-action” film.

As to be expected, reactions to the news of the film have been contentious. While some are ex-cited about a new take on a classic film, others are upset that the integrity of the original film will be marred. People are also growing tired of the multitude of remakes, reboots, and sequels that are circulating cinemas in recent years, and are begging for more original content.

At the same time, Favreau has proven himself in projects like Iron Man, Elf, and, of course, The Jungle Book. Perhaps he can carry on the successes of these films into the re-imagined Lion King. The Lion King, however, is risky territory, since it is such a popular and beloved franchise.

The original animated musical is one of the highest grossing films of the 1990s and the 28th highest grossing film of all time. The movie also has won two Academy Awards, three Grammys, and three Golden Globes. The Broadway musical adaptation was also a huge success, spawning performances in theatres worldwide and winning six Tony Awards, making it the highest grossing Broadway show of all time. Favreau is certainly under a lot of pressure to make this remake good, especially considering the disappointment of the misbegotten Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride. This remake on the story should bring back the wonder while still bring-ing something new to the table and introducing younger audiences to the story.

Done correctly, it should not cause people to roll their eyes. Whether or not the movie lives up to people’s expectations remains to be seen. Disney has not yet set a release date for the film so only time will tell.