★★
After the murder of his father, a young lion prince flees his kingdom only to learn the true meaning of responsibility and bravery.
Classification: PG
You've seen this film already, like most you probably saw it 25 years ago when it was first released to mass critical and commercial success. You saw it again when you watched at home either on the Disney channel or on home video as you rewound the Hakuna Matata song over and over. You've laughed, cried and cheered over this film many a time, You'll likely see this film again when you show it to your own children and those same experiences will come over you once more. We've all seen The Lion King, an animated experience evoking beauty, heroism, comedy and memorable performances that still resonate with audiences today. So why does the 2019 remake feel like a hollow, lifeless and unnecessary cash-grab?
Spoiler Alert! because it is, from the very first shots of the film you can see that Disney and director Jon Favreau's intentions were not to reimagine a classic tale but instead to mine every last shred of your nostalgia in exchange for your hard-earned money. The fully computer-animated environments and animals are gorgeous, at frequent intervals I had to remind myself that it was all digital but that realism comes at a cost. The lack of expression and emotion in the animal's faces robs the most crucial scenes of their impact; Mufasa's fear, Simba's exuberance, Scar's maliciousness, and Timon and Pumbaa's energetic tenacity are all absent in the film's recreations of the iconic moments. The Lion King falls into the same trap that 2019's Aladdin and many other Disney remakes have, that the over-reliance on the animated original's visuals, iconic sequences, music and story beats just makes this film feel like a warped mirror image. This new visual design forces changes in how musical numbers are performed, how certain jokes are told and how the characters emote through the story, while change can be good the issue is that Favreau wants to do all those scenes the exact same way despite these changes. There was an opportunity to tell the story a different way but Favreau doesn't take a single one, having the song and dialogue barrel through awkwardly so he can get to the next iconic set-piece on his checklist.
The character's photo-realistic redesign while technically impressive does bring harm to the vocal performances. Overall these performances are a mixed bag with Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, John Oliver and James Earl Jones being the only actors to bring their characters to life. Jones is the only returning cast member from the animated original, which doesn't help Favreau's interpretation stand on its own feet. Mufasa's booming iconic voice is a double-edged sword as it immerses you back into the world of The Lion King with his scenes being the most entertaining because of his presence. On the flip side, Jones's connection to the original just brings unfair comparisons to the other actors, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar for example. When James as Mufasa speaks you subconsciously expect Jeremy Irons to speak back, it's like that for many of the characters, that instead of the actors making the characters their own, like Favreau they're relying on the animated film to do all the legwork and they'll earn praise through association alone. Glover and Beyonce as Simba and Nala are nothing noteworthy in fact their younger counterparts are the more entertaining pair in the storyline, its the lack of originality from almost every element of the film that just keeps hurting any chance that this interpretation can create its own experience.
Despite all these issues, The Lion King is still an enjoyable viewing even if awkward in various points of its runtime. It's a visual spectacle undeniably and the visual effects artists and design teams should be commended for the level of detail put to every frame as updated scenes from the original are gorgeous spectacles. Favreau and Disney pull out every stop to lull you into your fond memories of The Lion King to hide this film's imperfections but it's this methodology that leads to this film's downfall. It is never given a chance to have its own voice, to have its own moment and have the impact the original had all those years ago. This is merely the work of better filmmakers and animators being blatantly imitated but Disney believes modern star power with a heavy dose of nostalgia will make the audience think that this film has a creative obligation to exist.
It doesn't when time passes and it comes time to watch The Lion King this remake will be nothing but a mild curiosity that will most likely be passed in favour of a far superior version. Favreau's pacing of the story is bizarre, drawing out scenes and moments from the original to increase the runtime but then rushes through key plot points to keep momentum in the story. More likely because the animated film was 88 minutes and the producers wanted a longer runtime to somehow justify this creation but didn't want to put any work into additional story. A new scene or piece of dialogue doesn't mean this The Lion King is its own creation or that an updated joke means this remake is a modern retelling, it's all just window dressing to make an audience think that they weren't swindled into paying to see a movie they already saw.
If you want to give Disney money for The Lion King go right ahead, it's a free country at least for capitalism but may I make a suggestion. Buy a copy of the animated 1994 version instead, celebrate an animated classic that has creative musical numbers, expressive villains and heroes, comic relief like no other and tremendous atmosphere that will inspire both adults and children. You saw this movie 25 years ago so why not go watch it again, in the way you remember and in a way that doesn't enable this creatively bankrupt procedure to make a movie.
Director: #JonFavreau
Cast: #DonaldGlover, #SethRogen, #ChiwetelEjiofor, #AlfreWoodard, #BillyEichner, #JohnKani, #JohnOliver, #FlorenceKasumba, #KeeganMichaelKey, #EricAndre, #BeyonceKnowlesCarter, #JamesEarlJones
Release Date: July 19th 2019
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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