The Lion King Review – The Lion Bores Tonight

The Lion King roared onto screens in 1994 and became arguably the most influential animated movie of all time (until a certain little clownfish went missing). With Lebo M’s iconic nants ingonyama echoing over a breathtaking African sunrise, stunning music and some of the most memorable characters ever created, Disney had a true hit. And goodness knows it hit us all in the feels.

So it was only a matter of time before Disney would strip the magic from a true classic and vomit up this horrible ‘remake’ that is ruining a timeless tale on screens around the world.

Remake vs Original

The obvious starting point to this review would be the remake vs original debate. It is inevitable and will serve as the backbone of this review.

There’s no beating around the bush here. This movie is a shot-for-shot remake of the original. So much so that it seriously feels as though the ‘filmmakers’ used the original as a storyboard. You might think, well, why the hate then? The problem is that even though the shots and beats are pretty much the same, the film feels… off. The experience is like listening to a bad cover of a great song. It sounds familiar. You recognise the notes, but something’s missing.

Not all Animation is Equal

The animation in The Lion King (2019) is undeniably gorgeous. Africa looks real. And the animals look real. That’s exactly what we signed up for, right? Well, here’s the rub. Reality comes at the cost of emotion.

To sell us the idea that Simba is a real lion, he also has to behave like one. And I know what I am about to say might shock you, so I hope you’re sitting down. Real lions don’t break out into spontaneous song. Nor do they plot against monarchs or eat grubs with meerkats and warthogs. Remember, Simba isn’t really real. He’s merely a collection of pixels on a flat screen tricking our brains to suspend disbelief.

This is about the point where I feel it’s fair to invoke Dr Ian Malcolm’s famous quote from Jurassic Park. It feels as though Disney was so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should. The repercussions of this single-minded focus on the reality of modern animation is precisely this film’s major downfall. It’s also Hollywood’s biggest issue, but that’s not a story for today.

The films in Disney’s Renaissance canon worked because of three factors. Most important was the animation. Skilled animators spent years honing their craft, balancing imagination with belief and breathing life into characters who wholly inhabit a make-believe world. The second factor is the music. The songs adhered to a very strict purpose. When a character’s emotions were too strong for mere spoken words, they would sing them. And these songs all served an integral character or plot purpose. Without it, the script would not make sense. Finally, the story. The stories were constructed around these character beats and moved with a purpose. Nothing was superfluous because animation is expensive.

This iteration throws all that out the window.

The animals are so real that they are not able to emote. Their faces rarely change apart from the odd sneer or snarl here and there. Disney admitted that they did this purposefully and tried to compensate for the lack of facial emotion with body language. But I must admit, I did not see it in the movie. It did not work for me at all. This is especially evident when we get a simple trip to a waterhole instead of an abstract, lively Busby Berkley- style ‘I Just Can’t Wait to be King‘.

The Story

The story in this version is pretty much the same, save for the odd addition every so often. The extra content extends the run time by about 15 minutes. What is most unsettling though is the shifts they made to the structure and pacing. It is as though they had a list of beats they knew they had to hit, and rushed through them so they can devote more time to being a tech demo.

Mufasa’s death is a key scene – it brings tears to my eyes to this day. Yet here, it was rushed through. It felt disconnected from the story, somehow.

Nala gets a bigger role in this one. At least, on paper. Her additions do not add anything to the tale. To be fair it does not take away either. It’s just inconsequential.

The Music

Speaking of Nala, let’s focus on the music for a second. Ugh, the music!

Much has been made about Beyoncé lending her talents to The Lion King (2019). She really only features on ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ and I have to say, congrats Queen Bey. You have proven yourself to be too extra for a Disney movie. These songs are not supposed to be performances… they are more organic than that. Yes, I know we are talking about a Disney movie here, but goddammit, to work these songs need nuance, passion and subtlety. Not a shaky Beyoncé solo.

As for the rest of the songs, they feel phoned in. Where Beyoncé went too far, the rest just kind of phone it in. ‘Be Prepared’ never reaches the menacing highs of the original, and Simba fails to convince me that he just can’t wait to be king.

The more’s the pity.

And the less said about the over-produced and misplaced ‘Spirit‘ the better.

The Cast

While the songs are already limp, the voice cast is just meh. Even the legendary James Earl Jones, who embodied Mufasa in 1994, reprises his role with so little power and majesty. Donald Glover as Simba is neither here nor there. Chiwetel Ejiofor does his best to sell Scar as a Shakespearean villain, but he feels neutered. Beyoncé’s Nala is unremarkable while John Oliver’s Zazu is no match for Rowan Atkinson’s zesty majordomo. The problem seems to be that these new actors are trying to deliver lines that are so intrinsically linked to other performers.

Timon and Pumbaa are great examples of this. Seth Rogen really does sound like a warthog, but his style does not suit Ernie Sabella’s lines. Props to Billy Eichner for at least attempting to make the role of Timon his own. Pity that they felt the need to modernise and update the banter with current slang, though.

Luckily, not all the performances are a bust. Florence Kasumba shines as a newer, more toothy Shenzi. She shines because her role is so removed from Whoopi Goldberg’s more comical take on the character that it actually works. A true stand-out performance along with John Kani’s Rafiki.

A Sorely Missed Opportunity

We can not forget that this is not the first ‘reimagining’ of The Lion King. Julie Taymor helmed an incredibly effective and successful stage production in the late 1990s that’s still drawing large crowds today.

What Taymor and her team understood was how to transpose the emotions from the original onto a new medium. It’s all about how it makes you feel. Not how real it looks. The stage version embraced its artifice so wholly that we were moved even though the gazelles were repurposed bicycles and the grasslands were a chorus.

I can’t help but feel Disney should have left well enough alone. But they have no reason to. A week after release, at the time of writing, it’s already crossed the US$1 billion mark. So I guess they win and we lose.

Do yourself a favour and enjoy the magic of the original film. It’s a monumental achievement compared to this new, bloated tech demo. I cannot recommend the remake to anyone.