Film Review: The Lion King (2019)

Sexuality/Nudity No Objection
Violence Acceptable 
Vulgarity No Objection
Anti-Catholic Philosophy No Objection

There is nothing really bad about The Lion King remake.  It's just that everything truly great is directly from the original.

The movie follows the same plot, almost beat-by-beat, as the first Lion King:  Simba (JD McCray/Donald Glover) is born the Lion King Mufasa (James Earl Jones) and Sarabi (Alfre Woodard), much to the chagrin of Mufasa's brother Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor).  For reasons know to anyone who saw the original, Simba flees his home to be raised by the meerkat Timon (Billy Eichner) and warthog Pumba (Seth Rogen).  But his childhood friend Nala (Shahadi Wright Joseph/ Beyonce) comes to rouse him back to the throne.

I have to say that this movie really made me appreciate the original.  I never realize how utterly iconic the movie is, and I mean that literally, not culturally.  The frames from the original are so vivid and burned into my memory that it would be impossible to not recreate them.  Think about all of the other modern Disney remakes.  Many of them may borrow some of the most important shots, but they are, for the most part, the product of the director's vision.  Not so with the new Lion King.  Director Jon Favreau is completely bound by the visuals set forth by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, the directors of the original.  The fortunate thing is that the visuals are so powerful that the lack of originality is forgivable.

There is a process in film called rotoscoping.  In the past, someone would capture a performance on film and then hand draw animated cells on top of the captured images.  This was used very famously in A-Ha's music video "Take On Me."  This movie feels like reverse rotoscoping where they laid down the original animation cells and covered them over with photo-realistic CGI.

The animation is gorgeous.  The creatures and the environments look and feel real, almost as if you could reach out and pet Simba's mane.  But this ultra-realistic approach as two distinct disadvantages.  The first is that it is difficult to distinguish characters, particularly the female lions.  There is a scene where the hyena Shenzi (Florence Kasumba) is about to begin a dramatic face off with a lion and I had no idea if it was Nala or Sarabi.  It was also hard to keep track of which was Simba and Scar in their final confrontation.  The second is that the human face is so incredibly expressive and we are attuned to even the most subtle changes there.  Because all the anthropomorphism is removed from these animals, a great deal of the nuanced emotion that you got in the original is lost.

Watching this movie feels like going to to see a live stage production of a movie you've seen or vice-versa.  It is different, but if the quality is high enough, you don't care.  And the makers of this film did a fine enough job.  All of the voice actors are spot on, especially James Earl Jones who hasn't lost an ounce of the regalness in his voice.

The movie kept intact all of the wonderful themes of responsibility, dignity, and memory.  The movie serves as an important reminder for the role of fathers in shaping the souls of their sons.  The few times Favreau deviates from the original, he attempts to show how in the eyes of a son, the father is a larger-than-life giant, one to whom the son can't imagine living up.  Combining the themes with the timeless Elton John music, makes the time spent in the theater even more enjoyable than this summer's other Disney remake Aladdin.

The Lion King delivers exactly what you would expect and it does it very well.  It has all of the original's beauty and heart and is just different enough to warrant a viewing.