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“The Lion King” recently was re-released theatrically in a 3D edition, snaring the top spot at the box office for two straight weeks before settling for third over the Oct. 1-3 weekend.

“Lion King” producer Don Hahn’s impressive credits include “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” the first animated film nominated for Best Picture Oscar. In 1996, Hahn published a book entitled “Disney’s Animation Magic,” explaining the step-by-step process of making an animated film. Currently, he is working with director Tim Burton on “Frankenweenie,” scheduled to hit theaters in October 2012.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Hahn on the development of “The Lion King” and how he and his team made what was a stunning 2D picture into a 3D masterpiece. I asked Hahn how he originally began production for “The Lion King.”

“We hoped it would be special, and we all knew it was a little bit of a risk since we haven’t made a film with just animals,” Hahn says. “At first, it was hard to get people to work on it since it was unconventional and seen as kind of the B-movie in the studio. But we did some test screenings before the movie was released, and people really responded to it. It’s astounding 17 years later to see the phenomenon it’s become.”

Hahn feels lucky to have “The Lion King” compared to other Disney classics.

“We stand on the shoulders of so many Walt Disney animation movies in the past like “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Aladdin,” so to be favorably compared to those and not be a disappointment was like winning the lottery,” he says.

Hahn credits “King’s” recent box office success to people going back and revisiting this story on the big screen with family and friends.

“The kind of audience reaction we’ve had in these last two weeks has been wonderful. I think it’s fun for them to hear the music with all the other people in the theatre and applaud with them. It’s an emotional story that people love hearing again and again,” he says.

I asked Hahn how the 3D conversion process started, and what steps he and his team had to take in developing it for the big screen.

“When we all got together again, the main question was ‘how do we enhance the storytelling in this movie by using 3D?’ Whether that be to show the audience Africa or an intimate moment between father and son with the technology of 3D was very fun for us, and it was very much like a class reunion for all of us to come together again,” he says. “We remixed the entire movie with a 3D sound mix so it feels like you’re sitting in the middle of Hans Zimmer’s orchestra and feels like you’re in the center of a wildebeest stampede and have to duck your head when they run. We wanted to make it as experiential as possible and feel like you’re there.”

Hahn took part in the film’s Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack, including work on a hilarious blooper reel.

“Well, we had never done [a blooper reel] before since there are no outtakes in animation,” he says. “But we went back to the original recording sessions from the early 1990s and our editor found some of the funnier moments from James Earl Jones or Jeremy Irons and strung those up. Then, I went back and called the original animators and asked them if they could come back and animate Scar or Mufasa and all of them said ‘yes.’”

Hahn is no different than any fan of “The Lion King” – he has his own favorite character.

“I have a soft spot in my heart for Pumba. He ’s a gentle soul who probably knows a lot more than he thinks he knows. He’s a big, huggable warthog so I’m a big fan of Pumba,” he says.

“The Lion King” Diamond Edition will be released October 4.

Take a look-see, for yourself, see.

Yes, the AP headline reads: “NY car bomb suspect cooperates, but motive mystery.”

Yeah it’s only a mystery if you’re in the media, and really stupid. Everyone else pretty much understands why the terrorist left a fuel bomb in an area filled with families.

He hates us. He hate our country, our culture. He wants you dead.

But the media – an entity full of fragile egos and bubble-encased boobs – just can’t see that. In fact, it’s kinda awesome how huge and gaping their blind spot toward radical Islamic fundamentalism is. If only there could be other motives for the mayhem, so they’d never having to place blame on anything (except America, of course).

So I thought I’d help them out, and find motives the media could be comfortable with.

So why did Faisal Shahzad try to blow up Time Square?

-Obviously, Global Warming. The increasing temperature forced him to jog at night, and he found the sunlight oppressive. Plus, it made his beard itch.

-Wall Street greed. Faisal had just seen “Capitalism: A Love Story,” became enraged, but got lost and ended up in the theater district. Better luck next time.

-Bill Ayers never returned his sweatpants after that weekend in Catalina. Sure, it was a great time, but those sweatpants had sentimental value.

-Lenscrafters was completely out of the Rachel Maddow collection. So he had to settle for a David Shuster knockoff.

-The latest incarnation of “The Lion King” was unoriginal and passionless. Worse, it didn’t reflect the damage George Bush did to the world the way “American Idiot” did.

-They’re building a Wal-Mart down the road, and their affordable prices deeply offended his “mom and pop” sensibilities.

-Norman Mailer doesn’t blog nearly as much on the Huffington Post as he used to.

-The electrolysis didn’t work on his pubes.

-The lack of diversity in the workplace is disgusting – well, except for MSNBC. They get a pass because their hearts are in the right place.

-That same sex marriage won’t lead to the option of marrying a goat.

- That George Clooney didn’t find anyone at the end of “Up in the Air.” Although I suppose – he did find himself.

And..

-Those evil tea partiers made of mockery of Islam with their delightful bacon and egg salad sandwiches.

I’ll stop there, because it really is the tea partier’s fault–for they created the climate of hate that only encouraged Shazhad’s actions In fact – I’d say the car bomb was a direct result of the tea partiers, the new Arizona immigration bill, Rush Limbaugh, offshore drilling, and of course, Fox News.

Because all that stuff is evil. Unlike, you know, real evil.

Should be a delightful showcase of intelligent talent on this here show!

We’ve got..

comedian Joe Devito

all around entertainer Steven Crowder!

the delightful and beautiful Brooke Goldstein

and finally, Gail Lebowitz, from Sunset Daze!

That was the best year for movies that I can recall. That summer alone we had “Forrest Gump,” “True Lies,” “Speed,” and everyone was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Cannes winner “Pulp Fiction.” And we also had “The Lion King.” I remember the critic for my campus newspaper, The Red & Black (Go Dawgs!), panned the film, noting that the “Circle of Life” song, sung by a gay man, was really about keeping groups of people, particularly minorities, in their place. I thought this was bizarre and brought it up with some of my classmates.

I was a drama major. Hellooooo! What was I thinking!

Turns out the movie was homophobic and racist. Scar, the villain, was clearly gay, I was told. I missed that. By missing it, i.e. not having an opinion on the sexual preference of a cartoon lion, I was also a homophobe. Huh? As for the charge of racism, the hyenas, famously voiced by Cheech Marin and Whoopi Goldberg, were stereotypes of blacks and Mexicans. But, as I pointed out, James Earl Jones, a black man, voiced the role of Mufasa. The response still floors me: Yes, but he wasn’t portrayed as a black person.

Did you catch that?

Because Mufasa’s not shucking and jiving, he’s not a black person. I can’t pretend to have called my friends on this; frankly, I was stunned. The PC mindset had led my friends to charge the film with racism, and in doing so they revealed themselves to be slaves to stereotypes. Racists? Probably not. But certainly not deserving of their pious attitude toward Uncle Walt and Company.

Which brings me back to “Borat.” I happen to agree with Christopher Hitchens, who notes that the film makes Americans look more tolerant than the left seems to believe. The sequence in a “black” Atlanta neighborhood doesn’t work as humor if the viewer doesn’t have some pre-conceived notions about black street culture. The elitists were falling all over themselves to point out the rodeo audience cheering Borat’s pro-Bush, pro-War on Terror speech–guess they didn’t notice the woman rolling her eyes. I bet there were more reactions like this…on the cutting room floor, of course.

The elitists’ favorite scene, though, was the one that made fun of them intolerant southerners. The one where Borat insulted the host, crapped in a bag, and, in a move that busted up the party, invited over a prostitute. To the elites, the fact that she was OBVIOUSLY a prostitute had NOTHING to do with her presence breaking up the party. You remember, she was black. And this crowd was clearly offended to be in the presence of a black woman.

I don’t think this is the case and the reaction reveals more about the elites than the scene itself reveals about the great unwashed southern masses. In the end, the Liberal elites had to interpret the movie in this way, if only to excuse themselves for embracing a movie with wall-to-wall juvenile poop and penis jokes. With “Brüno,” they’re taking the “Lion King” approach, embracing it less than they did “Borat” and pointing out the stereotypes. I can’t wait to see what it reveals about them.