AC14: Random Movie Review - The Lion King (2019)

Of all the Disney remakes to come out this year, this was the one that had me worried the most. Many of you know that I love the original film to death and beyond so of course I would have worries. While technically it is a remake, it doesn't necessarily count as live action because apart from the opening, its all photo realistic CGI which makes sense given that its all animals and no humans in this and the original film. But with some recognisable faces being involved with the film that includes old and new faces, this hopefully will make the film work. So let's see if its Hakuna Matata or the opposite:

The film follows the same story as the original in which a young Simba (voiced by JD McCrary and Donald Glover) is presented to the inhabitants of the Pride Lands, all except for Scar (voiced by Chiwetel Ejiofor) who chooses to not go out of spite for the royal family. Simba's dad Mufasa (reprised by James Earl Jones) shows Simba the Pride Lands and explains the all so important "Circle of Life". Determined to be like his father, Simba follows advice from Scar which ultimately leads to his disappearance from the Pride Lands and his father's demise which allows Scar to take over and putting animals like Zazu (voiced by John Oliver), Rafiki (voiced by John Kani) and the lionesses Nala (voiced by Shahadi Wright Joseph and Beyonce Knowles) and Sarabi (voiced by Alfre Woodard) in great danger. Meanwhile, Simba is rescued by and befriends Timon (voiced by Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (voiced by Seth Rogen) and spends most of his life with them learning the meaning of Hakuna Matata and remaining unaware of what's going on back home and turning his back on his true calling.

Same story, but some things are different such as other animals living where Timon and Pumbaa are and a scene that shows the motivation that made Nala seek out help. Doing almost the exact same thing as the original film won't necessarily make it better or worse. The photo realism isn't too bad, but some may confuse this with a Disneynature documentary. Also I'm pretty sure that the real animals that the animals are supposed to be like, are able to express emotions facially rather than just have a blank expression all the time, leaving their voices and ears to do the work. Also where you instantly recognise the characters from the original film, here you get easily confused because the characters look too much like their real life counterparts. I also didn't like the new version of "Be Prepared" as its not as dramatic or Nazi like than Jeremy Irons and Jim Cummings' take on it (seriously the German version of the song is pretty terrifying). But aside from that, you get what you paid money for and even with the bad stuff, it does look visually impressive and manages to do some very good versions of the original songs along with some new ones too. So overall not too bad of a remake, but lots of things could have been done to make it better than it is. 7/10