The Lion King (2019) Review- A Visually Outstanding, Rushed, Unjustified Remake
The trend in Hollywood for ages, more so now than then, is the calling for retellings of stories of the past, which we now call remakes. Disney is more notable of this than others as many of their animated classics have been given updates into live-action remakes; from Cinderella to Beauty and the Beast to Aladdin. Now, they return with an updated animated retelling in the form of "The Lion King".
It is directed by Jon Favereu, who also helmed the 2016 remake of "The Jungle Book". So, how was the film? How does it compare to the original? Let's talk about it.
For those not familiar with the story, "The Lion King" tells the story of Simba(voiced by JD Mccrary and Donald Glover) as he is preparing to become the new king of Pride Rock. But, once tragedy strikes and his uncle, Scar(voiced by Chiwetel Ejiofor), becomes the new ruler, he adventures on a journey that will lead him to finding his place in the circle of life.
The visuals and animation are outstanding and stunning. Its a groundbreaking achievement and pushes the boundaries for what many can do with the current technology in animation and VFX.
The voice cast, for the most part, held themselves together well. The standouts can be found in the young talents of the voices of Young Simba and Nala, who were easily the best of the film.
The songs and score work well and never felt tired or forced. The musical numbers work well on their own and the performers themselves; particularly with Beyonce, bring huge amounts of life to the songs they are performing.
With all that being said though, the film does suffer with some glaring issues.
The first of which is that the animals rarely emote. With them wanting to create a photorealistic version of the story, they then unfortunately lost the element of expression and emotion, which made scenes where the film wants us to have emotion to not receive any due to the characters on screen not being able to express any because of how they are designed.
It also felt rushed throughout. Its pacing was needlessly fast and breezes through points of the narrative that need the most attention and thus more time. Because of this, many of what follows up after particular scenes never feel earned or justified.
"The Lion King" is a disappointing retread that delivers outstanding visuals packaged in a remake that, at the end of the day, just can't wait to make profit than to bring a new version to a new generation.
"The Lion King" (2019) Rating: C
