The Lion King (2019)

2019 PG 118 Minutes

Simba idolizes his father, King Mufasa, and takes to heart his own royal destiny. But not everyone in the kingdom celebrates the new cub's arrival. Scar, Mufasa's brother—and former heir to the t...

Overall Rating

7 / 10

Verdict: Good

User Review

d_riptide

5 / 10

Nostalgia can be a pretty big pill to swallow; for some are better than others. I’ve only FULLY enjoyed three of Disney’s live-action remakes or adaptations of similar projects they’ve done before: Beauty And The Beast (2017), The Jungle Book (2016) and Christopher Robin (2018). When it comes to “The Lion King (2019)” and as someone who ADORED the original to bits, this was difficult to sit through at times. The voice cast boasts an A-list roster, some moments from the original that return here bolster a few laughs, the songs are still an earworm to listen to with one exception and the story is still just as emotionally moving and invigorating as before. The main problem however I have that barely kills this rendition of a top-their Disney classic is LITERALLY the same issue with almost every other live-action Disney remake: there’s either no charm, no magic, no spectacle, no soul or its severely lacking of it.....and yet somehow out of all the live-action remakes that had this issue, this was the worst offender to me.

While it doesn’t trade good characters and setting and a great story, It does trades vitality and heart and comfort in favor of telling a more darker tale on the classic story while also making it look as realistic as possible.....both of which drastically take away its credibility. The more I think about it, that’s practically all this film does: when it’s not pestering you with nostalgia, it only takes away whatever else made it phenomenal. The subtle changes they made don’t really alter the story, Jon Favreau took no risks with telling the same story a different way (despite knowing the backlash he would’ve gotten for it) and the fact that every single one of these characters while beautifully animated don’t emote whatsoever, it’s soulless, it’s dreary, it’s unacceptable and quite frankly, bizarrely insulting.

You know what this is? This is the 1998 Psycho of Disney remakes: A shot for shot remake that captures the nostalgia of the past but butchers the heart and soul that made its predecessor a beloved spectacle and somehow makes it worse. Insulting lazy and solely made to bank and cash in on some nostalgia, this film only proves which version is superior and which version has absolutely no reason to exist.

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