A little movie by the name of The Lion King is releasing in theaters this week.

The live action remake of the Disney classic is directed by Jon Favreau. It brings your favorite characters to life using cutting edge CG and technology. But did you know Favreau and his crew used VR to make this ambitious project a reality?

The director himself spoke a little bit about the process on Jimmy Kimmel last week. You can see him talk about it at the 8:45 mark in the video below.

“The other interesting thing that makes it look live action is we took all of those digital files, brought them into VR,” Favreau explained, “and created this multiplayer VR filmmaking game where all the crew put on headsets and they were able to walk around and look around the Pride Lands and watch the animated performances and set cameras inside VR so it felt like we were making a live action film inside virtual reality.”

It’s a pretty unique use for VR headsets. Favreau is no stranger to VR, of course. The director has long been working on narrative-driven VR experience called Gnomes and Goblins in which players interact with a tiny creature. We’re still eagerly awaiting to see what becomes of that project. We’d also love to see some of Favreau’s VR work on The Lion King but Disney hasn’t said it it might release it or not.

Elsewhere, though, Disney is soon set to debut its second VR animation, A Kite’s Tale.