Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: The Lion King (2019)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

The Lion King (2019)

As I watch another Disney remake of an animated classic I have to ask myself “What’s the purpose of remakes?”.   The obvious cynical answer is they are cash grabs.  Studios (not just Disney) know people will go back to visit a story they love.  The question then is why would a filmmaker attempt to do a remake?  The answer to that question is not as easy. Maybe they want to tell the story differently, maybe there is a different perspective they want to do, or for most Disney remakes they want to take an animated movie and turn it into a live action movie.  The weird thing about The Lion King is that none of those are true.  Unlike other Disney remakes they remade an animated movie into a differently animated movie. The only reason I can see (besides money) for Disney to remake The Lion King is to show off their new photorealistic animation technology.  Disney pushed so hard to make people believe that this wasn’t an animated film they didn’t even submit it for consideration for Best Feature Animated Film at the Oscars.  Another hard question to answer is why do some remakes work and some don’t?  Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast didn’t fully work for me, but  oddly The Lion King did.  Maybe it’s because I didn’t really like the original animated version so it didn’t have high expectations for this one.  

Let’s start with the things that I did enjoy about this movie.  Obviously the animation is amazing.  Everything really does look photorealistic and it is truly mind blowing.  While most of the voices were just alright, I really loved John Oliver as Zazu.  He added an extra comedic element to that role.  Also, based on trailers and bits and parts that I saw it seemed that the movie was a shot for shot remake (but somehow 30 minutes longer), which I’m glad is not the case. The one major difference was the “Be Prepared” number.  Originally they weren’t going to include it at all but the did a much shorter version without the Nazi imagery.  

On the flip side, while not truly a shot for shot remake it is a very, very faithful adaptation.  That being said I pretty much had the same feelings about this one as I had about the original.  The story still doesn’t work for me. Simba is still a bratty kid.  The voice actors don’t bring a whole lot new to the characters, and some of the songs sounded worse.

Overall: If the only reason Disney made this movie is to show off their photorealistic technology then they succeeded.  If the only reason they made this movie was to make money then they succeeded at that too.  The movie doesn’t add anything or change a whole lot about the original so doesn’t feel like a necessary movie.  If you liked the original you will probably like this version as they are basically the same.  If you are like me and didn’t particularly care for the original then this version isn’t going to make you think any differently.  But you cannot deny that  those visuals are stunning.