The Lion King (Review)
The Lion King Never Manages to Roar.
One of my favorite Disney movies of all time is the original The Lion King. It was a film that had a huge impact on my childhood and I loved everything about it. So, when I heard that Jon Favreau was going to be tackling the “live-action” remake (yes, I know it isn’t technically live-action), I was pretty excited. All this in spite of the fact that both Dumbo and Aladdin left much to be desired. Well, having sat down and watched it I have two primary thoughts on the new The Lion King 1) it’s breathtakingly beautiful with some jaw-dropping animation and 2) it’s absolutely soulless.
One thing that I appreciated about this new The Lion King is that it didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. As Favreau himself said in the inside look before the film started, they weren’t trying to reinvent the story, just the medium in which it was told. Well, that’s partly true, because even as great as the effects are in this film, it’s still very much an animated movie. Which begs the question of why it didn’t try to take a few more artistic liberties to make it more entertaining? Don’t get me wrong, the story is very much intact and the animals look incredibly life-like throughout the film. However, that proves to be both The Lion King’s greatest strength, but also its greatest weakness.
The biggest problem with this new adaptation is that it doesn’t pack the same emotional punch as the original, because it tries its best to ground itself in a sense of reality. Sure there are talking and singing animals, but they’re so realistic that their faces are pretty much void of emotion. I get that a lot of people can read the emotions on their pets, but outside of a few major emotions, the look on an animal’s face is usually pretty blank. Simba, for example, can’t smile or cry. Sure, his lips move while he’s spouting off some of his famous lines about “Hakuna Matata,” but his eyes don’t have that same sparkle that his traditionally animated predecessor did. That’s because animals communicate with body language more than facial features, and even then, they’re speaking a very different language than humans and much of it is lost in translation this time around. The end result is a movie that feels like some voices were dubbed over some very odd footage taken of animals in Africa.
That though is where The Lion King finds its strength. It sports an incredible voice cast with such talent as Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino), Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Seth Rogen, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Most importantly though, James Earl Jones returns to lend his voice once more to one of the greatest movie kings of all time, Mufasa. Glover and Knowles tackle the lead roles as the grown-up versions of Simba and Nala, which works perfectly considering they also happen to be incredibly talented singers. In fact, most of the cast manages to do justice to the characters I loved so much as a child. The only issues I had were that the emotion in the voices hardly ever seemed reflected in their characters actions or “expressions.” Still, if you closed your eyes, then the new The Lion King was a pretty great adaptation.
The Lion King simply lacks the emotional punch that the original did. The death of Mufasa (hopefully this isn’t actually a spoiler for anyone at this point) was one of the most traumatic experiences I ever went through as a child. It had to be in order for the message of the film to really pay off though. This time around though, I didn’t really feel anything. That’s because, without all the animated facial expressions or the majesty of the musical numbers (or even the visual humor), there wasn’t nearly the same emotional bond to the characters. I get that they were supposed to be as realistic as possible, but even a character like Rocket Racoon from the MCU had more of a gleam to his eye than any of the ones in The Lion King. Come to think of it, a lot of the animals in this movie had pretty cold, dead eyes.
Technologically, The Lion King is quite an achievement. It is a gorgeous film filled with very talented voice actors. However, it pales in comparison to the original. While I endorse seeing it on the big screen, just so you can take in all the beauty and detail of it. However, if you’re on the fence when it comes to this movie, I say you should just stay home and watch the original or maybe even a wildlife documentary. Unfortunately, The Lion King is just another pointless live-action Disney remake that offers nothing new or exciting to a story that most of us know inside and out.
