A visit to my childhood

For the last few weeks I’ve seen advertisements on TV for a special two-week showing of the The Lion King in 3D. While I like 3D just fine I’m not of the opinion that everything should be 3D as seems to be the trend.

But in this case, I was intrigued.

The Lion King happens to be one of my favorite Disney movies of all time. I remember clearly the first time I saw it in the theater (I was a fifth grader, if I recall correctly), and I was completely enchanted with it. I loved the music, the storyline, the characters, the beautiful scenery, everything.

So when I saw it was going to be released in 3D I decided I’d bite on Disney’s latest money-making scheme and check it out. It was a neat experience.

I liked seeing the depth to the scenes I hadn’t noticed or enjoyed before. Probably one of the coolest was the dust blowing from Simba to Rafiki when he realizes Simba is still alive. This is probably because the dust looks like it’s going to fly right at you. The fight between Simba and Scar at the end was pretty cool too.

I was struck tonight in a way I never have been before with the scene when Mufasa dies. It’s always made me sad, but having just experienced a very personal loss of a loved one, it touched me in a way it never has before. A good friend of mine wrote on her Facebook a few weeks ago about how since her baby died she can’t look at death the same anymore. I’ve been thinking about that comment ever since and tonight proved to me that I don’t think I can either.

On the whole I’m not sorry I paid the extra $2 to go see it. It reminded me of my past and made me smile thinking of that time in my life, when life was a whole lot simpler, although I didn’t know it then. It made me think of childhood and innocence, and sometimes it’s refreshing to be reminded of that.