As a part of my recent trip to Los Angeles we got to see a preview screening of The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar, which airs on Sunday 11/22 at 7|6c on Disney Junior.
The Lion Guard features Kion, the son of Simba and brother to Kiara. When Kion’s roar is amplified, “The Return of the Roar”, Simba tells him of the Lion Guard and how he will now be in charge of leading and selecting the members of the all new Lion Guard. The show continues with the comedy that comes from all Disney shows, as Kion sets out to pick the new Lion Guard that will consists of the bravest, strongest, fastest, and keenest of sight. Kion picks out Bunga the honey badger, Beshte the hippo, Fuli the cheetah, and Ono the egret. One problem with this – NONE of them are lions.
I cannot encourage you enough to watch this show on Sunday and the upcoming 26 half hour episodes that will air on Disney Junior. You’ll see the new Lion Guard’s first opportunity to work together as a team and all that comes from that. We will be watching this show as a family, I am so excited to share the new generation of Lion King with my daughter. New traditions, new stories, what fun – thank you to Disney for making this possible!!
As a part of this screening we also got to sit down with the talent who made The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar a possibility. Ford Riley, Executive Produce, Christopher Willis, Composer, Beau Black, Singer/Songwriter, and Sarah Mirza Language and Cultural Advisor. After our interview with this extremely talented group we got to sit down, via video conferencing, with Animal Kingdom’s Dr. Jill Mellen.
Ford Riley developed and serves as executive producer of Disney’s highly anticipated animated television movie “The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar” and subsequent series “The Lion Guard.”
During our interview Ford Riley told us of his adventures in creating Special Agent Oso, another Disney Junior show (which Gradie loves!) and how he came to make the show. Sharing with us a personal story that his son has autism. While he is a high functioning young man he has his challenges he faces and in Agent Oso, he created the 3 special steps as this is how his son faces daily tasks he is faced with.
Ford went on to explain that The Lion Guard came about when he found his son playing with his animals with his friends, he was 8 at the time. Ford asked him what he was playing and he said that they were The Lion Guard – they protect everyone. What a great idea Ford thought, as he was working to come up with an idea for a spin off of the Lion King story. Now he’s son is 12 and cannot wait for the toy line to come out for The Lion Guard, which I am sure it will soon, he is also excited to see the show air on Sunday, a few years in the making!
Author and Swahili expert Sarah Mirza is the language and cultural advisor for Disney’s highly anticipated animated television movie “The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar” and subsequent series “The Lion Guard.”
My favorite part of interviewing Sarah is her absolute passion for Swahili, you can tell from how she speaks of her work with The Lion Guard. Her desire is to get the use of the language correct and accurately portrayed throughout the show. She spoke of her work on the songs as well as the use of Swahili within the script for each episode. She excitedly told us what Zuka Zama means – Get Up, Dive In. I am so excited about this new song and catch phrase from the show, like we had Hakuna matata growing up, our kids will have Zuka Zama. Just wait until you watch the show, you’ll see how catchy it is, I am sure your kids will be running around yelling it out.
Beau Black is singer/songwriter for Disney’s TV movie “The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar” and subsequent series. In addition to writing the music for all of the songs featured in the movie and series, Black performs the series’ theme song and the songs “A Beautiful Day” and “The Lion Guard” from the TV movie.
Beau was very insightful into his work on the show. He spoke the music being created and the episode coming to life around the music. This was interesting to me, I hadn’t thought of how that process would be. That’s what makes all of these interviews so much more interesting to me, I love learning how things are done on TV shoes like this. I am happy to report that Beau also said there will be a song in each and every episode of The Lion Guard series – how exciting is that. The sound track will be available to purchase in January.
Multiple Annie Award winner Christopher Willis is the composer for “The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar” and subsequent series. Willis is also the composer for Disney Channel’s multiple Emmy Award-winning “Mickey Mouse” cartoon shorts produced by Disney Television Animation, and co-composer for HBO’s Emmy Award-winning comedy series “Veep.”
Christopher explained to us how they considered going to South Africa to get an African choir to sing some of the songs, but in the end decided to use the talented Sarah Mirza to teach an African American choir from Los Angeles the correct usage of the Swahili language and record the songs locally.
I asked Ford if, during production, any cast/producers went over to Africa to do research. He said that they hadn’t but that they did extensive research within the USA with those familiar with Africa and with the animals they feature in the show, like Dr Mellen from Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We got to sit down with Dr Mellen via video conference. Getting to see her passion for the animals is so uplifting.
She spoke to her involvement with The Lion Guard, she reviews each script as they are written, and her and her team provide input and feedback to the production team. I love that they are working so hard to get their ‘cast’ accurately portrayed to our children as they watch the show. Of course Africa has a special place that is very close to my heart, so portraying this accurately is very important. Dr. Mellen also spoke to the animals at the Animal Kingdom being ambassadors for kids of today that wouldn’t otherwise be able to experience them in their natural habitat and of course the invaluable work they do for animal research, knowledge and understanding.
Again, I cannot encourage you to watch The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar enough, your family will love it!!
I also want to tell you of a fun promotion that Disney is currently running up to the airing of The Lion Guard on 11/22, post a video of you, your kids, your family, ROARING. Like I have shown in the snippet below, along with the hashtag #ReturnofTheRoar and for each video posted Disney will donate $1 (up to $25,000) to the Disney Conservation Fund.
The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar airs this Sunday November 22 at 7|6c on Disney Junior.
We are so excited for this movie! It’s in the schedule to watch as a family this Sunday night! About time Lion King is back in our lives!
I know your family will love it Danielle!!!!
We are so excited to watch this. I have always been a Lion KiNG fan so can’t wait for this. This has been fun reading about your experience and seeing your posts about it. You make me feel almost as if I was there with you….almost. Thanks for another great post. Keep em coming.
Looks like a good movie.Love Disney films!
Such a great movie!