December 27, 2002

The Lion Evolves

By Dave Kehr, New York Times

Disney's animated feature "The Lion King" is only eight years old, but for many people it feels like a classic, having already inspired an endlessly running Broadway musical as well as two direct-to-video sequels. Now, the original is back for an engagement at Imax theaters, digitally expanded to the eye-popping dimensions of the giant Imax screen.

"It seems like it's been there forever," said Matthew Broderick, who provided the voice of Simba, the princely young lion who struggles to regain his father's kingdom, stolen by his evil uncle, Scar (Jeremy Irons).

"I watched it evolve because I was cast very early on," Mr. Broderick said by phone from his New York home. "I was in Ireland, and I got a phone call asking if I wanted to be a lion in a Disney movie. I went to L.A., and they showed me drawings and sketches rather than a script. My memory is that it was pretty much based on `Hamlet' in the beginning. It's still an element in there, with the father being avenged by the son, but it was even more like that originally."

Three years of work followed. "I would come in and record and then go away, and then five months later I would come back and do some more, or redo a piece," Mr. Broderick remembered. "They do the recordings first, and then they do the drawings. And then half the time, you redo your voice to the animation."

For technical reasons voice actors usually record their parts alone, without other performers to react to. "I did record for a while with somebody whose name I don't remember," Mr. Broderick said. "She was playing my girlfriend, Nala, and they had us work together for a while, and then they recorded us separately. It wasn't until the premiere that I discovered Moira Kelly was playing the part. They had changed actresses, and I didn't even know it."

Mr. Broderick and his wife, the actress Sarah Jessica Parker, recently became parents, and he is looking forward to showing the film to his new son, James. "It's funny," Mr. Broderick said, "I thought about that when I was first invited to do it. With pretty much everybody, what you immediately think of is your kids or your future kids, because those cartoons had such an impact on me. But I don't know what it would be like if it were your father's voice coming out of a lion. It might make it harder to take the leap."