The Lion King (2019)
I didn’t have high hopes for this movie, and coming out of it fresh, I feel like it was a big mixed bag.
Visually the movie hit some incredible highs. Lots of beautiful landscapes and the CGI animals were incredibly well done. Right from the start, with “Circle of Life” I could tell this movie would be beautiful. The hundreds and hundreds of animals, all with amazing design (like their fur, holy crap!!) and the way they moved felt uncannily realistic. They looked amazing.. until they needed to show “emotion”. Because of the attempt to portray the animals, they couldn’t make them emote the same way they did in the original animation.
This was at its worst in the scene when Mufasa dies. Young Simba climbs back down to the gorge and finds his fathers dead body. This is supposed to be a somber, tearful scene, with us seeing Simba absolutely distraught. Instead he comes across as emotionless and the scene lacks the emotional hit.
Most of the expression you got from the animals came from their voices. Oh, and did those voice actors carry a heavy weight. Most notably I was ridiculously pleased with the pair of Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumba (Seth Rogan), they played off each other incredibly well and were probably the most expressive of the whole cast. Those two stole the show for me. Alfre Woodard was a great choice for Sarabe and it just felt right that James Earl Jones returned as Mufasa. Donald Glover as Adult Simba and Beyonce as Adult Nala both were incredible picks. They each sounded fantastic individually, however, when they sang together in “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” it felt super disjointed.
Speaking of which, several scenes just felt like tonal failure. The song I just mentioned, it felt like the tone was so sharply different from what was going on with the story. Nala had just had this powerful moment where she left the pride to go find help, lest they starve to death. And then *BOOM* they reunite and suddenly are lovey-dovey for three minutes. And literally the moment the song ends Nala and Simba are fighting over what to do and Simba refusing to help save his home.
Another scene that was a let-down was the song “Be Prepared”. The scene in the original movie was so wild and unrealistic (erupting green geysers, hyenas marching in formation) and Scar was more flamboyant in character, while in the remake, it was just Scar slinking around in the dark and the singing just didn’t fit with his character at all.
The one song I was surprisingly pleased with was “Just Can’t Wait to be King”. Like “Be Prepared”, the original was an over-the-top, crazy colorful musical number. They did an incredibly good job translating this song into the more realistic environment while still keeping the upbeat and carefree nature of the song. I had to fight the mild temptation to sing along in the theater.
As of right now I’d give the movie a 6.5 out of 10. Maybe someday I’ll watch it again, but to be honest I might just skip to the Timon and Pumba scenes.