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Disney's The Lion King first reactions are in: 'Worthy of the 1994 original'

Can you feel the love tonight? Yes. Yes, you can, Disney.

Jennifer Bisset Former Senior Editor / Culture
Jennifer Bisset was a senior editor for CNET. She covered film and TV news and reviews. The movie that inspired her to want a career in film is Lost in Translation. She won Best New Journalist in 2019 at the Australian IT Journalism Awards.
Expertise Film and TV Credentials
  • Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Jennifer Bisset
The Lion King

We accept this gift.

Disney

In 2016, we learned Disney would be making a live-action version of The Lion King. After we raised our collective eyebrows and punched "live action" into Google Search, Disney made another announcement. Nala, Simba's best friend, the lion cub you know is "pretty" but don't understand why -- Nala is going to be played by Beyonce Knowles-Carter.

Disney, make the heck out of that thing!

That it did, and now the social media reactions from the world premiere in Hollywood are rolling in. Before that, you can journey through the promotional posters, trailers, teasers and a song preview -- a duet with Beyonce and Donald Glover, who plays Simba. You can also listen to said duet, Can You Feel The Love Tonight, on The Lion King album now. There's also this totally related  clip of one lion fighting 20 hyenas.

Here's what people thought of Disney's The Lion King remake, also starring Seth Rogen as Pumbaa, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, Billy Eichner as Timon, John Oliver as Zazu and James Earl Jones reprising his role as Mufasa.

"The Lion King ... was more than anything I ever could've wanted," one Twitter user wrote. Wrote another: "It's a visual masterpiece that will leave you smiling and crying the whole time."

2019 movies to geek out over

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Watch this: Lion King's first full-length trailer drops