The Lion King (2019)

The Lion King (2019) is the newest remake from Disney, this time directed by Jon Favreau, and stars Donald Glover, JD McCrary, Chiwitel Ejiofor, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Alfre Woodward, and James Earl Jones as Mufasa, the only actor from the original cast to reprise his role. If you haven’t heard the story, Simba is the cub prince of Pride Rock, destined to follow in his father’s footsteps. However, after his involvement in a stampede causes the death of his father, the Pride Lands are left under the reign of Simba’s uncle, Scar, while he tries to contemplate with his actions.

The year 1994 is often pointed as one of the definitive years for movies, and The Lion King (1994) is one of their examples. Being developed by Disney’s B-team at the time while the A-team worked on Pocohontas (1995), this film skyrocketed to becoming the highest grossing traditionally animated film, along with the highest selling film on VHS. A whole generation of audiences fell in love with the bright animation, the charming voice acting, the catchy soundtrack by Elton John and Tim Rice, and also a decent introduction into Shakespeare, since the film is both a modern day Hamlet and americanized Kimba the White Lion. 

After the success of The Jungle Book (2016), with its excellent use of photorealistic CGI for the animals and forest, Disney was open to letting Jon Favreau helm a remake of The Lion King. This got me scared, because the previous two films that Disney remade from their Renaissance era, Beauty & the Beast (2017) and Aladdin (2019), were complete duds; they tried to change up some elements to feel more modern, but then take out elements that obviously made the character who he or she really was, in order to seem more perfect to these Disney lemmings. Granted, The Lion King isn’t even my favorite of the D.R, but that doesn’t mean there’s something to live up to.

Prejudice aside, I went and saw the film kept an open mind, thinking maybe there could be something that will make me want to go back again to give a second look. I will admit first hand, the CGI is a vast improvement over The Jungle Book, completely fooling me that we’re watching real animals on screen. While at first I had some problems with the designs and color palet, it didn’t take long to adjust to who was who and the world they inhabit. The Pride Lands are perfectly realized, and had I not been told this was The Lion King, I would have sworn it was a Disneynature documentary that they do every Earth Day.

However, great technical advancements don’t quite excuse the rest of this movie being a bit of a show-off piece. While I congratulate them for making the lions and hyenas looking as realistic as possible, you also run the same problem The Jungle Book had with these animals showing emotion, without a human character to work off of. They look so stoic, and especially with Mufasa’s death scene, I could care less about how that was executed; Simba’s cries just don’t quite match the character’s onscreen emotions. For a remake of a less than 90 minute movie, the padding out to two hours is definitely noticeable; the padding put in says that they really wanted to impress you with how realistic everything looks, but they didn’t bother to think whether or not it would be serviceable to the story. They bring up this whole escape mission scene for Nala, Simba going after a beetle, a few of the song numbers have extended instrumentals, and even some jokes from side characters that aren’t that funny. It just makes the film feel padded out and boring.

The music is fine as is. Nearly all of Hans Zimmer’s score is reused for this film, with some slight re-orchestrations, and he’s always been a composer to always deliver. However, the musical performances felt pretty underwhelming; as much as I respect them getting the original singers for “Circle of Life” to come back, it has been twenty-five years, so they can’t bring as much booming triumph as they used to. And aside from “Just Can’t Wait to be King” and maybe “Hakuna Matata,” much like Aladdin (2019), some of the songs just feel like they’re put there to pass the time, and not making me feel into the moment; for example, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” is performed in broad daylight...where’s the love, if there is no damn night?! The worst offender to me, was “Be Prepared,” which is such a great number from the animated film, and easily Scar’s best scene; and yet it’s cut down to a two minute sing-talk chant...would have liked a little more than two minutes. Hell, they extended and PROMOTED “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and that’s not even an Elton John song to begin with!

While it was nice to hear James Earl Jones return as Mufasa, it did become distracting when he’s contrasting with the rest of the new cast members, with the exception of Alfre Woodward as Sarabi (taking over for Madge Sinclair who passed away in 1995). Donald Glover and JD McCrary are good as young and older Simba; they both capture that playful attitude he’s known for, how carefree he can get, and also the unpreparedness that comes with life. Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen do fine as Timon and Pumba, and have their usual meta-humor schtick every so often. John Oliver was also delightful, in his usual John Oliver fashion; honestly, I think he has more fun with the role than Rowan Atkinson.

However, not every cast member was perfect, specifically with Beyonce as Nala; as great of a singer as she may be, she’s a terrible actress and was completely miscast. In my opinion, she should have been played by Zoe Saldana or even Cynthia Erivo, at least for Nala’s acting. Half the time when Beyonce’s singing, she can’t help but show off with high notes and tends to go out of character when delivering her lines. In her argument with Simba, Nala’s supposed to be crushed and furious about how cowardly he’s become, yet Beyonce makes her sound irritated like a lunch with a friend was ruined. And that song she included into the movie, that nearly cut “Be Prepared” out of the movie, just felt completely out of touch with the rest of the numbers in the movie.

This brings me to Chiwatel Ejiofor as Scar. When I first heard the announcement he would take the role Jeremy Irons played, I was sold; Ejiofor is a fantastic performer and knows how to really get into a role with enjoyment. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with how Scar’s personality is toned down to where you hardly even notice them; he acts more like a grumpy cat, and just comes off as bossy. While I get how Ejiofor wanted to make him more menacing and empathetic, he just sort of becomes another Sher’ Khan from The Jungle Book (2016). The worst was how he delivered “Long live the king!” like he thought it was dumb to say. I know some have said Scar in the original loses interest after taking over (which I agree with to an extent), but he’s at that level for me when he first pops up.

The Lion King (2019) proves technology has come a long way, but it should have been used for a completely different project. I respect what Jon Favreau was trying to accomplish, and kudos for not doing a shot-for-shot remake, but the changes that were made just felt unnecessary, and its harder to relate to barely emoting characters. This is the third Disney remake this year, after Aladdin (2019) and Tim Burton’s Dumbo, and we still have two more to go, and I’ve felt like I’m repeating myself over and over again. I’m sick and tired of getting the same mediocre recreation of something that was fondly remembered to begin with, and it feels really insulting.

Rating: C-