#tlk2019

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

[grimconversations]

Three years ago: chatting with my neighbor/teacher who was a consultant for facial expressions on the live action lion king remake and hearing him get frustrated that they didn't understand that it was important to have them emote.

A review of the movie from today:

Guys maybe u should have listened to Gary when he told you this

[meghansbest]

July 14th 2019 || The Duke and Duchess of Sussex greeting crowds during the European Premiere of the 'Lion King' in Leicester Square, London.

[champawattigress]

the lion king remake was completely worth it

[augustdementhe]

I gotta talk about The Lion King 2019 Scar.

And not just aesthetically.

You know what I missed most from the new TLK?

Simba and Scar.

The animated version made it clear— with no explicitly stated exposition, and all of three short scenes with them together in Simba’s youth— that Simba loved his uncle, and hung around him fairly often.

The way Simba visits him on his own time, and climbs and flops all over him, and Scar’s sardonic tolerance and missable (to a kid) sarcasm over what would have been the equivalent of lion years, until he put his plan in motion--that’s all GONE in favor of ‘Fuck off kid, ya bother me’, and Scar just happening to be near where the beetle Simba chased landed.

Like...assume Simba did immediately fuck off and go play with the other cubs in TLK2019 like Scar told him to. The rest of the movie doesn’t happen.

TLK90s doesn’t have that problem. Scar was explicitly known by the hyenas, and had been friendly with them for a long time. If Simba didn’t visit him that day, the plan still happens somehow. He has influence over his spotted friends, and his nephew, and now that Simba’s allowed to wander off without an apex predator adult, the plans can go into motion even if the elephant graveyard exploration doesn’t pan out.

TLK2019 only has Scar making plans with the hyenas that day. He meets them THAT. DAY. AND what’s worse, you put Nala in danger for all the STUPID lyrical changes they made to the castrated version of Be Prepared, they STILL KEPT THE LINE ‘Meticulous planning,  Tenacity spanning, DECADES OF DENIAL...’, when clearly this plan and also the alliance was being fucking improvised on the spot.

It made 2019′s “It’s our little secret” so...hollow. Why keep this line? Where would this conspiratorial nod and wink even come from? This Scar and this Simba don’t even hang out!

And what was so tragic about Mufasa’s death scene in TLK90s was the way Scar was going out of his way to be a stone cold dick to a little kid that literally went running to his arms for comfort.

Like he took the time to go down there and fuck with Simba’s head right before he was supposed to die knowing full well this child loved him, and wanted his company.

It made all the evil and malice so much HEAVIER.

TLK2019 wiped all that away.

It added a few interesting things to Scar’s character—holding food and the wellbeing of all the other lionesses over Sarabi’s head if he can’t get her in bed, where he got his scar and why he’s always separated from the rest of the pride because of his fight with Mufasa, but ultimately, what it took made for a less villainous villain.

Gonna do a rundown about my disappointment with the hyenas as well.

[wolpard]

Lion King (2019) thoughts.

Don't know what really counts as a spoiler since, as what has been said often, it really was a scene-for-scene remake with some minor changes in dialogue (usually jokes, or additions), and one tiny plot change that didn't really effect the movie at all and it almost seemed like a waste (imo). Note that this post spoils any changes + additions made.

TLDR; It’s the same film just duller with some new jokes.

All the original (so no "Morning Report") songs did make it into the film, plus one original song which happens when Simba and Nala are running back to the Pride Lands to challenge Scar. Though "Be Prepared" is hardly a song, and it sucks ass.

Speaking of Scar and "Be Prepared," Scar's line delivery and character acting was just plain bad. I don't know if I was comparing it too hard to the original, but he dragged out every line and whenever he lied to Simba it felt really half-assed coming from Scar. I don't know much about Chiwetel Ejiofor's other roles, but regardless I think we was a poor fit for Scar. It almost seemed like he was bored with the role.

I don't know what happened with James Earl Jones, but his line delivery as Mufasa was a lot less impactful and emotional in this version.

In terms of positive voice acting, Zazu, Timon, and Pumbaa were all entertaining. They all at least had several pretty damn funny lines that weren't in the original (Timon lets Pumbaa say "farted" during Hakuna Matata and they make a meta joke about it). Donald Glover also made a nice Simba. I feel like I would have enjoyed Florence Kasumba as Shenzi more if they actually bothered to give her proper screentime.

Notable changes: 

-Scar does not already work with the hyenas, he starts working with them after Simba and Nala wander into the Elephant graveyard and fail to kill them. He already knew it was their territory and purposefully encouraged Simba to go, he just hadn't conspired with the hyenas before doing so. This does not effect the rest of the film, which I think seemed like a waste (especially with Shenzi's character, who was seemingly set up to take a bigger leadership role, but never did and is tossed aside for the rest of the film). 

-Nala leaves before Simba to go back to pride rock. 

-Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa have a number of nameless animal friends that hang around them in several scenes (and even eventually come to Pride Rock).

-Timon and Pumbaa sing "Be Our Guest" instead of do the hula to distract the hyenas, which I think was a good decision.

-They cut out one of my FAVORITE pieces of dialogue from the original. This. In fact, Rafiki doesn't even have a stick until the very end of the film, where he brings it out to beat the hyenas with it.

There really was a lot of issues with conveying emotion in this film. Just like I feared, it was really hard for them to put emotions on these animals. There were some tiny curling lips to convey smiles but it really wasn't much. Mufasa's death scene was not emotional at all. (I felt really bad because @poketin and I were trying to hold in laughter when Simba screamed after Mufasa was pushed off the cliff, because it just showed a tiny lion screaming with motion blur, and we could NOT take it seriously.)

I couldn't tell if I was looking at Nala or Simba when they were cubs and it only showed one of them in a single shot. Same goes for any of the adult lionesses. I also couldn't tell who was who during the final battle between Simba and Scar during a lot of the action scenes.

The actions a lot of the characters did felt lousy in comparison to the old film. There wasn't a lot of energy present for a lot of it, notable when Simba and Nala are wrestling as cubs and Nala keeps pinning Simba. "Pinned ya!" No you didn't??? You just slowly rolled him over on his back? You're not even on top of him.

The hyenas looked awful. Why were all their faces bald?

Rafiki also looked really weird and I feel like they didn't even bother to look at actual mandrills as reference. His anatomy is just SUPER off and they didn't even give him a butt. He had a butt in the old version, is it really that much of an issue to slap on some blue skin?

Pumbaa straight up changes species in his "when I was a young warthog" flashback. More like "when I was a young wild boar even though they aren't native to sub-Saharan Africa," because that's what they used instead. Is it really that hard to just google search what a baby warthog looks like?? Was it not "cute" enough? Or did they REALLY just use that fake "baby warthog" image that was going around for a split second without double checking it? I don't get it.

I know why they did it, but hyper realistic animals walking around with 0 genitalia is so funny to me.

A giraffe eats Simba's shed fur and shits it out before it gets to Rafiki.

[somanystarfish]

Not saying Disney doesn't deserve all the cynicism we can shove at them but I’m not worried about The Lion King animation

I’m fully expecting this to not live up to the original because what Disney remake has so far? But there’s still no movie I’ve been more excited for this year than this one

I get that they’re not expressive but, and I could totally be off the mark here with my comparisons, think of the depth of emotion conveyed by the actor V in the V for Vendetta movie. The audience could pick up a lot from the body language and voice even though we could only see a blank mask. Depending on how they animate and edit this movie, there’s still a chance that we’ll have no problem emphasizing with these animals. The clips we’ve been given so far just don’t allow enough time to let that happen.

And personally, even if this style just can’t draw out emotion, I’m perfectly happy to watch Hamlet: the nature documentary while I geek out on how cool it is that technology and animation have come this far.

[straysketches]

Pencil sketch (+ sketchy colored pencil coloring) commission for @/genkiwriter (twitter)/@/Noratcat (DA), ft. Bhati and her mate Jengo 🐾 Bhati is the client's interpretation of the bat-eared fox from TLK 2019