Jon Favreau’s follow-up to Oscar-winning CGI The Jungle Book features voiceovers from Donald Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Beyoncé.

The Lion King trailer

The first trailer for The Lion King, Disney’s much-anticipated remake of its beloved animation has been released. The teaser debuted on US TV during an ad break on the Thanksgiving NFL game.

The film, which will be released in July 2019, is the latest CGI transfer from director Jon Favreau, whose remake of The Jungle Book in 2016 won an Oscar for its visual effects and took nearly $1bn at the worldwide box office.

A similar approach appears to have been adopted for The Lion King, with painstakingly rendered CGI motion capture of big cats lolloping about sunlit plains.

Disney’s 1994 cartoon is the ninth-highest-grossing animated film of all time, and won much praise for its score by Elton John and Tim Rice. It also spawned a stage musical that is still running in New York and London. Including global productions, the show has been seen by an estimated 95 million people.

James Earl Jones, who voiced Mufasa in 1994, returns in the same role for this remake, joined by Donald Glover (as Simba), Chiwetel Ejiofor (as Scar), Seth Rogen (as warthog Pumbaa), and Beyoncé (as Simba’s friend Nala).

The Lion King is among almost a dozen big titles Disney is planning to release next year, including Tim Burton’s live-action Dumbo, sequels to Frozen and Toy Story, and new instalments in the Avengers and Star Wars franchises.

This article is originally from The Guardian.