Review of The Lion King (2019) by Davrosdaleks1 — 12 Aug 2019

Found this computer-generated remake to be an entertaining on the whole with a few caveats.

The movie looks so amazing and photo-realistic. The background in particular is really impressive, I'm surprised this film had only one real setting shot. You really can't tell the difference between this landscape and the real world. Director John Favreau (Iron Man; Jungle Book) has some interesting shots in this. At times, the movie feels like a nature documentary.

Plotwise, this is probably the least ambitious of the recent Disney remakes. Unlike Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, which clung to the plot structure of the originals but also added new elements, this one just retells the basic story. Still, I'm not hating it. This isn't the 90's Psycho. It's not word-by-word. What works for me here is that the jokes are almost all new and they work really well.

Cast is decent. All the funny characters jive. Donald Glover as adult Simba and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar do a good job as the hero and villain. However, Beyonce as adult Nala sometimes really comes across as reading off the page without a whole lot of effort.

The background music really sells the scenes, but admittedly Hans Zimmer basically just rehashes the music from the first film.

This contains all the classic songs from the original. However, "Be Prepared" has been changed to a half-it's-length spoken word song with reworked lyrics. I know at one point the news was that they were cutting this song. (Either for time or Ejiofor just didn't have the pipes.) I'm guessing this was added back due to the backlash but modified to accomodate either or both of the potential issues just mentioned. I actually would've preferred if they left the song out rather than going with this neutered version, which doesn't quite work.

If you feel that the recent Disney remakes are soulless cashgrabs, this really won't be the one to change your mind. Despite coasting with the story, I personally found this to be engaging.