THE LION KING (2019)

THE LION KING (2019)

Tagline:  The King Has Returned.

(CGI, Adventure, Drama) [PG]

Life's - not fair - is it, my little friend? While some are born to feast - others spend their lives in the dark... begging for scraps. The way I see it, you and I are exactly the same, we both want to find a way out.

In this one, we basically get the same exact story we got in the original. A lion cub named Simba  (voiced by JD McCrary and Donald Glover) is born and will be the future kind of the animal kingdom (everything the light touches and when the light is the sun, that’s a lot to be king of). Simba is the son of Mufasa (voiced by James Earl Jones best known for doing the voice work for DARTH VADER) and Sarabi (voiced by the versatile Alfre Woodard best known for the series LUKE CAGE) and Mufasa is teaching Simba to be King one day. Simba has an uncle named Scar (effectively voiced by Chiwetel Ejiofor who was a fantastic villain in SERENITY) that is very jealous of Simba and devises a plan to not only endanger Simba but kill Mufasa and take the kingdom for his own with the help of some sinister hyenas. Can Simba embrace his destiny before it’s too late and the lands his father had once reigned are lost forever?

Voice acting wise unfortunately there are a few areas where I feel like the team could have been better. I think Seth Rogan is vastly overrated and his version of Pumbaa is challenged at best. He also can’t sing for crap, so I just thought the role was mailed in. Billy Eichner (probably best known for being the crazy librarian on Bob’s Burgers) actually does a pretty good job as Timon so I didn’t have as much an issue there. I also wasn’t crazy about the cast of Beyoncé for the role of the older version of Nala. I’d have tried to get Lyndie Greenwood whose voice has more fire and urgency that I think would have mirrored the original a bit better. I am not saying that director Jon Favreau (who did IRON MAN) was going for a duplicate of the original, but to be honest, this is almost exactly that. Of all the live versions of Disney animated films I have seen so far, this one rode the closest to the “let’s just make the same movie again” cliff. The most genius move was getting James Earl Jones back as Mufasa because when you have a chance to hire Mr. Jones, you do that ZERO questions asked. Getting John Oliver for Zazu was also not a terrible idea. 

Energy-wise and CGI-wise everything looks both beautiful and bad at the same time. The CGI felt like it didn’t allow these characters' expressions to shine, so some of the scenes lack “soul” if that makes any sense. To me all of them just kind of looked odd and honestly that’s a discredit to the voice actors that did crush it. The movements also looked stiffer than they should have to me, but part of that might just be because I have super high expectations when Disney is doing something. 

I like that they included the songs they did, but wish they had gone more sinister with Scar. In the original, he’s freaking evil and cunning as hell (you want Simba to jack him up fast). In this one, he’s basically dismissive and comes across as too readable. I think this was a writing issue and perhaps the producers fearing taking things to the level they needed to make this character more dynamic and fierce. They also cut part of his "Be Prepared" number which kind of shows we live in a far more skittish and fearful world now. 

Overall this is an okay effort, but it misses the mark personality-wise, aesthetically the animal CGI don’t cut it, even the comedy was stripped from the hyenas. Come on Disney, if you are going to redo your own work at least attempt to hit it out of the park and don’t pull punches. This is a 3 out of 7 for me just because without the charm and personality it's forgettable even with the strong cinematic contrasts of dark and light and a wonderful setting. If you want LION KING, go back to the original or start a petition to get Disney to swing for the freaking fences next time. They should have given this voice cast the freedom to throw everything at this.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF WALT DISNEY PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless.