'The Lion King'

The Lion King is the newest Disney remake, and the film is directed by Jon Favreau. I know there are people who hate these Disney remakes, and they have a valid reason, but honestly I will keep watching them. It’s very obvious that Disney is just making money off our nostalgia and it’s fine, but I do think they need to step up and make more original content. The other problem I have with these remakes is that I feel like it pushes the idea that animation is subpar, or less than live-actions, which is not true at all. Animated films deserve so much more love, and I hope Disney releases more original animated movies. I love The Lion King, it is one of my favorite Disney movies of all time. I love it so much, I actually have a dog named Simba. Let's get to it, this movie was a photo-realistic computer animated film, which means the setting and the animals were made to look like how they actually are in real life.

There were certain scenes that were gorgeous; the animals and the surroundings were breathtaking. The animals, especially the lions, looked majestic, and they were truly very beautiful. Although, there were scenes that were stunning, I did have problems with the animation.

One of my biggest problems with the movie is the facial expressions. I know it’s not realistic for the real animals to have the facial expressions humans do, but I think it could have been better. If time was the issue then I wish the movie would have taken another year to make, and had the animals be more expressive. Most of the emotion comes from the vocal performances. The voice actors did do really good in my opinion, and you could hear the emotion in their voice, which helped balance out the lack of facial expressions, but I don’t think it was enough. I don’t think there is going to be a day where I don’t cry at Mufasa’s death, but I think the emotional kick in this version was still lacking a bit. Mufasa’s death was one of the saddest moments of my childhood, the scene should have ripped my heart out and stomped all over it. Don’t get me wrong, of course it was sad, and of course I cried, but it should have been worse. I think part of this has to do with Simba’s expressions and mannerisms, I don’t think the photo-realistic computer animation delivered on the pain as much as the original did.

The animals also did not do other actions that are more human, like when Mufasa did not hug Rafiki during the “Circle of Life.” Also all the fantasy moments from the original were taken away, which was sad. I understand that they wanted to keep it as realistic as possible, but we all know it's a movie; I think they should have had those moments. For example, the “Be Prepared” scene was lacking, and nowhere near as good as the original. The singing was great, but it was not as intense or villainous as the original movie, which was sad because “Be Prepared” was always such a cool scene when I was a kid. There was no Timon dressing in drag and dancing, which was also disappointing. I once again understand that does not happen in real life, but real life is boring, and that’s why movies are so fun to watch because they’re nothing like real life. I think the one that was the worst for me is that they did not show Mufasa in the clouds like they did in the original. That moment is so important and intense, and this movie totally failed to deliver that. They should have edited Mufasa into the clouds, just like the original. I don’t care that it would not happen in real life, that moment is so pivotal to Simba, and this movie messed it up. There were also so many lines that were taken out and they took out the best ones. For example, Scar’s iconic, “I’m surrounded by idiots,” and where the hyenas are saying “Mufasa, oooo, Mufasa, oooo.”

I really loved Donald Glover as Simba. Before the movie I was not sure if it was going to work, but it definitely did. I was sold the second it changed from kid Simba to adult Simba singing. James Earl Jones is, and always will be Mufasa, he is perfect. I thought some lines were delivered differently than in the original, so I like the performance in the original more. Her singing was amazing, but I felt Beyonce lacked in the voice acting component, it wasn’t terrible, but they could have chosen someone better. I absolutely loved Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner as Pumba and Timon. They vibed off each other so much, and they were hilarious. The singing was great, but the original still wins.

There were a lot of other things, but I did not want to do a very in-depth review. This remake of The Lion King was very visually impressive and did have some breathtaking moments, but it does not surpass the original. This remake did not elevate the original material, or make a revolutionary change to it. The movie is enjoyable, but the original will always be king.