A couple weeks ago, Jason and I went to see The Lion King at the Fox.
The Lion King is one of the pieces of entertainment from my childhood where I can look back and say, "this is when I started appreciating things on a more adult level." The movie came out when I was 12. I remember, very specifically, watching the scene where the wildebeest stampede begins, flowing over the cliff like water, and being just blown away at how real it looked. I remember thinking about it on a level beyond simple entertainment, thinking about the work that must have gone into it to make it look so good.
I remember also feeling that way about the soundtrack. Not the songs (which, don't get me wrong, are great), but the instrumental score. The Lion King soundtrack was one of the first CDs I owned. The other was classical music (and that right there should tell you A LOT about my personality in middle school and high school). Now, I had other Disney soundtracks before - I know I had a cassette of the Aladdin soundtrack, and I'm pretty sure I would have had Beauty and the Beast, too. But I had those for the fun songs. I had Lion King for the reflective, relaxing, and sometimes goose-bump-inducing* instrumental pieces.
So, with all of the above, I went to see the stage production, knowing it would be drastically different, but still hoping it would hold up, not to the fond childhood memories, but to the pedestal I had set it on at 12 as an incredible production, different than all the kids' movies that had come before. And you know what? It did.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the stage version, the live musical incorporates masks, puppetry, and kind of abstract costumes. There is no way to perfectly replicate animated animals on stage, so they don't really try. The scenery, costumes, masks, etc. are stylized and abstract. You find yourself forgetting that Zazu's actor is wearing a blue suit and bowler hat, and his face is painted to match - you focus on the puppet. You find yourself forgetting that there is a dude underneath Scar's mask - you watch the mask move around like you would focus on the face of a lion about to pounce at you.
And then we came to the stampede. Here it was, the moment of truth, the scene that stands out as a stark red line of Before and After in mind. I won't try to explain how they made the scene work. (I've tried typing it and it really loses something in nailing it down with words.) I watched that scene. I listened to the music build. I knew what was coming. And my hair still stood on end.
If you can tell a story, if you can replicate that orignal awe across years and multiple media, you have done what many of us only dream of.
*"Mufassa!" "Oooh... Do it again!"