The Lion King (2019)



Movie Title: The Lion King

Year Released: 2019

Rated: PG

Runtime: 1h 58min

Genre: Musical, Adventure, Drama

Director: Jon Favreau

Writer: Jeff Nathanson

Starring: Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner, John Kani, John Oliver, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, James Earl Jones, J.D. McCrary, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Florence Kasumba, Keegan-Michael Key, Eric Andre

Review: Simba (J.D. McCrary) idolizes his father, King Mufasa (James Earl Jones), and takes to heart his own royal destiny on the plains of Africa. But not everyone in the kingdom celebrates the new cub's arrival. Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Mufasa's brother -- and former heir to the throne -- has plans of his own. The battle for Pride Rock is soon ravaged with betrayal, tragedy and drama, ultimately resulting in Simba's exile. Now, with help from a curious pair of newfound friends named Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen), an aged Simba (Donald Glover) must figure out how to grow up and take back what is rightfully his.

The highly anticipated live-action/CGI adaptation of Disney's The Lion King is finally here and the reaction thus far has been mixed to say the least. The original animated version of The Lion King (1994) is not only one of my favorite Disney classics, but quite possibly one of my favorite movies ever. The expectations were high, and I have to say I actually enjoyed this film. Out of all of the Disney classics that have been adapted to live-action versions in recent years, this film is without a doubt the most straightforward and true to it's original. I think this works both positively and negatively for this film. On the positive side, I think that the plot of The Lion King is so fun and heartfelt that so many people can identify with the story and the characters. Aside from the beautiful animation and music that propelled the original, the story was simply great. This movie still has all of that, and I found myself caring about these characters all over again in the same way that I always have. This film also features an all-star cast with Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, and the great James Earl Jones, who reprises his role as Mufasa. These as well as many of the other cast members are fantastic and also musically talented. It was a seamless transition for Glover and Beyonce to participate in the recreation of some of these iconic songs that we all know and love. I think that aspect of this new film was also done perfectly.

The only area where I can acknowledge some of the fans' criticisms is with regards to some of the more emotional scenes in the film. In the original film, we had the benefit of animation. The original animators created an incredible, colorful setting for us to enjoy. Emotional scenes worked wonderfully due in large part to the ability of the animators to show emotion and facial expressions in the characters that they were drawing. Because this new film features CGI'd animals, they kind of lose their luster in some of these more intense, emotional scenes. Let's face it, for all intents and purposes, it's hard to decipher emotional states while looking at a real, live lion, warthog, or meerkat. This is where the voice actors really excel, in sort of picking up the slack. It's essentially a contrasting of styles where the original relied more on animation and this film relied more upon the actors to express the monumentality of a scene.

While the original will always be the king of Lion Kings, I really did enjoy this movie. All fans of The Lion King should see this film, and enjoy it as a more than adequate adaptation of a film that holds a special place in a lot of our hearts.

Stars (out of 4):
       

Fun Fact: According to Seth Rogen, his singing skills were so poor that the vocal coach hired for him (none other than Pharrell Williams) was "literally...banging his head against a wall trying to extract...a [bleeping] good note out of me."



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