Title: The Lion King

Year: 2019

Genre: Adventure | Animation |Drama |

Runtime: 118 min

Director: Jon Favreau

Starring: Donald Glover, James Earl Jones, Beyoncé

 7,2/10

 

 

 

 

NOSTALGIA, PALE AND BEAUTIFUL CRAFTED

The animated movie  The Lion King from 1994, has always been such significant and a personal favorite of mine. Regardless of the many, many rewatches, it still one of my favorite movies I’ve ever seen. It brought the movie and Disney to a major milestone, where it instantly became a classic for many. But with age, there is a problem. The studio wants to do a remake of it, like so many other movies. A live-action or in this particular case it’s a fucking replica of the original story. Basically, a shot-by-shot version of the first movie.

Even if so, many have complained about the unfulfilled construction of these characters, it has a bland and empty character design and a mediocre choice of cast. The whole cast of this Lion King is not good. It was decent considering how it was animated but there is no emotional connection to any of those characters. To any of these classical characters. So, it gained over one billion dollars at the box office. But that ain’t because of the ambitious craft it offers… No! It’s probably more for the nostalgic feeling that audience goes to this movie. Donald Glover as Simba feels empty and wrong cast for the part. James Earl Jones returns but there’s no difference there from when he voiced Mufasa for the first time.  Beyoncé does a decent job but mostly Seth Rogen and Billy even Eichner as Timon and Pumbaa give good performances.

Even scar feels altered with a more non-personal impression. The voice of Chiwetel Ejiofor adapts a far more Shakespearean touch to this villain. Strapping every character doesn’t do it justice. It gives these lions way too much of a serious feeling. A more life-like feeling, which this production went all in for.

And it’s a shame to experience on how a major studio manages to butcher a well-known and beloved story. Sure, the original does have its flaws, but it doesn’t apply the fact that this movie does everything in its power to be a cash grab. Nonetheless, the CGI is a stunning and interacted achievement that doesn’t really rely on anything but itself. The authentic realistic atmosphere provides also the downside of this picture. It apprehended the fact that it tries more to become realistic and therefore loses the emotional connection you might’ve felt in the first one. The songs are in a limit way told in this story. Maybe, what they could lose the kid stuff. And go all in. Even if they’re dependable on families who bring this legacy on to the next generation, it wouldn’t suffer to have a more mature content instead of having to rely heavily on old classics. But this is a Disney-produced movie, so that is just wishful thinking.

It brings all the nostalgia you wanted from the original but it’s not the same here. The feeling and emotion are gone. The look is superb, but the characters don’t fit the story itself.

Jon Favreau did a magnificent work on adapting The Jungle Book (2016) but that doesn’t have the same impact as this movie does. By the end, I’m a little torn apart for this movie. Doesn’t know how to overcome this but hopefully, it passed. It barely did with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Hard to comprehend. Unless they don’t do a sequel.  So, I wish Favreau has some ambitious to give these characters the life and color that these deserve instead of looking at the technologic.