"The Lion King (2019)" Review - Deja Vu Worries

“The Lion King” is an instant classic; a true testament to animation and cinematic storytelling that blends gorgeous colors, life-like characters, and incredible songs with a thrilling and soaring score by the genius, Hans Zimmer. It is honestly one of the best films ever made.

What I just described was the 1994 animated movie. Sure, we are talking about the remake, but you can’t talk about one without the other, especially when it comes to ”The Lion King”, which joins Disney’s streak of remakes that have also been best-selling musicals. After Jon Faverou’s monster hit and only good remake, Jungle Book, who wouldn’t want him to put his magic touch on everything. I even said if he were to manage every remake Disney wanted, I would be more excited for these kinds of cash grabs. Today, I learned sometimes master directing doesn’t always mean a big win.

Are the effects stunning? Absolutely. Is there anything else about it that’s stunning? Not necessarily. The thing is Jon Faverou basically copied and pasted the entire movie. Everything from the script to the scenery to the story to even “Circle Of Life” note to note is all the same. That’s what the audience wants correct (well, that and Beyonce)? So you get the exact same film, which bares the question; why don’t you just watch the animated film? There’s nothing better about this since nothing got changed. In fact, because “The Lion King” is such a revered film, in my opinion, things just got worse. The biggest thing this remake proved is 2-D animation is superior. It bridges the gap between magic and whatever the hell this or the Cats movie adaption is trying to do. With hand drawn animation, you can add various expressions to the animals, build pyramids in “I Just Can’t Wait to be King”, control the angles and lighting, and have a warthog and a meerkat dress in drag and do the hula! None of those things translate to real life, and it results in this live action do over to be so lifeless and boring. There’s nothing going on in the songs except running around. I kid you not. Because what you are seeing is the equivalent to a National Geographic special, you don’t get any magic that you truly are wishing for. Even the broadway musical, which doesn’t have a single animal, gives more expression to their characters than this CGI cluster. So this movie doesn’t really have any weight to it besides Disney and Beyonce making money on what they do best.

It’s disappointing because Lion King is one of my favorite films of all time. In fact, a lot of Disney films are because they bring a type of wonder that no other movies bring today. All this 2019 adaption has is great effects, a fantastic redone score by Hans Zimmer, and two talented young performers who kill “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King”. The rest is either money making musicians and actors who can’t sing and can’t come close to the performances done in the original. Not even James Earl Jones is the same unfortunately. But he is in the 80s so I don’t fully blame him.

In conclusion, this remake of a classic will just remind you to watch the classic. There was no good reason for this to be made, and anyone who keeps defending these cash grabs are just fooling themselves in believing there’s nothing else out there in the film or TV world to see. It’s okay to be nostalgic and look to the past, but it’s also important to put your behind in your past. Wait, am I saying that right?

One Nebs Down!