The Lion King (2019)

The Lion King (2019)

5/10

Starring the voices of

Donald Glover

Seth Rogen

Chiwetel Ejiofor

John Oliver

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter

James Earl Jones

Directed by Jon Favreau

When watching the movie you get to understand the criticism. The movie is almost a scene by scene kind of replication of the animation, some of the lines are almost similar. Sad thing is, when the lines differ - you very much prefer the animation's take on the lines rather than the simplified method of the movie. Other than that the movie is fun to watch, if you feel liked watching The Lion King as a photorealistic live-action remake of Disney's 1994 animation of the same name.

The CGI is just amazing, it reminds you so much of The Jungle Book (2016) although that movie has a one up on this one. In The Jungle Book (2016) there were many human to animals interaction, the young man who played Mowgli was outstanding acting along these photorealistic animals. Here it is just the animals along side themselves.

Like Beauty and the Beast (2017) the songs were lifted from the animation the same way there were in the movie.

If you have seen the animation then you already know the story. In the world of animals in Africa the Lion is the king of the jungle. The leader of the pack is Mufasa and he is the king. The movie starts with the introduction of the pride lands in Africa which Mufasa rules over. We see the animals gather to see the dedication of Simba, Mufasa’s son as he was introduced to all the animals.

Someone who was not present at this event was Scar, Mufasa’s brother who was waiting for the death of his elder brother so he can become king. The birth of Simba means Simba becomes king when Mufasa dies.

Scar not ready to wait for father and son to die before he can rule, so he decided to concoct plans so that he can rid himself of the ones ahead of him. The movie is about his plans working out at first and crumbling as it gets along.

As Disney continues to make live-action remakes of their classics, I very much appreciate the work and also enjoyed this movie. Although, I will not give this movie a score as high as the animation, because there did not add anything new to make the movie have a different feel.

Disney have had like three previous live-action remakes.

It was in 2010 that they started to seriously turn all their renaissance classics into live-action films. We have had so far, Alice in Wonderland (2010), Maleficent (2014), Cinderella (2015). Then from 2016 they did two The Jungle Book (2016) and Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016). One in 2017 and 2018 which were Beauty and the Beast and Christopher Robin respectively. We are expecting five in 2019 which are in order, Dumbo, Aladdin, The Lion King and in the future Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Lady and the Tramp.