The Lion King is still one of my favorite movies. It was the high point of the Disney Renaissance: a beautifully animated film with a lively score, memorable characters, and the courage to push into some pretty dark and violent territory for a "kid's movie." It was also one of my fondest childhood memories. I remember being stunned when I saw it and pretty much ecstatic after I left the theatre. I bought all the toys, filled in all the coloring books perfectly, and when it came out on video, I watched it after school every day for a year.

So I was a little reluctant to see it in 3D. I remember a while back (2004, I think.) when it was rereleased on DVD and in IMAX with a song added…and a pretty bad one at that. They did the same for Beauty and the Beast. God knows why they felt the need to pull a "George Lucas" and add bows and glitter to a masterpiece, but at least it wasn't as awful as the two train wrecks that were its sequels.

3D, in my opinion, is just a gimmick. It's a way to raise the ticket price without adding anything to the film and give a wow factor to gullible people. The conversion process isn't very expensive, so the studios make a huge profit off it and audiences get a headache, a movie two shades too dark, and lighter wallets. If I'm given the option of watching a movie the traditional way or in 3D, I'll always pick the former, but unfortunately, a lot of movies today you can't see in 2D.

I had no idea how they were going to take a hand-drawn film and make it three-dimensional without it looking like cutout pieces of animation moving around on popsicle sticks. But I went and bought my overpriced ticket with the glasses and sat though it.

I have to admit it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. The 3D was mediocre, but not abysmal. There was a lot of the cutout look going on with the backgrounds, but the characters had more depth to them. This was really distracting, though. There's some shading on the characters, but not much so when Mufasa's legs are pushed back but his muzzle is poking out at you, and it's all the same color, it looks a bit like a funhouse mirror. My brain struggled trying to reconcile the 3D technology with the knowledge that this character is flat drawing. It's a bit disorienting.

There's a lot of detail in the grass and the mists during the "Be Prepared" song and I have to wonder whether Disney was able to bring that out or if it was added in. I did notice when Simba flops down and the flowers and weeds float into the air, you can't see the infamous "SFX" that everyone things is "SEX." Nothing happens in that whole section of the screen.

I must admit how thrilling it was to see the wildebeest stampede and the movie's opening on the big screen again. I guess it's worth watching, but not at $12.00. It's another way for Disney to make a buck without actually creating anything new, but at least they left out that goddamn "Morning Report" song.

I don't exactly feel scammed, but I left feeling a little bittersweet.

However, I did see a lot of younger kids in the theatre (even a 70-year-old man with his granddaughter) who were probably seeing this movie for the first time. It was worth going for that at least.