My Review of 'The Lion King' 2019

I know a lot of people have reservations for The Lion King. The old 90s Lion King movie is, and will always be, a classic to some, so a lot of people already have their minds set for this movie. I liked the old movie, but didn't have high expectations for the new movie. I try to keep an open mind, but I realize the movie may also be ruined, because I already know what's going to happen.

For the most part, this movie is almost a shot for shot remake of the original Lion King. Some of the cool things that this movie has going for it include that James Earl Jones is still the voice actor for Mufasa. They retain all of the classic songs for this movie, and it's literally a shot for shot remake of the classic.

The visuals are absolutely stunning. There's no question they put a ton of money into making this movie look beautiful. No one can argue about the quality of the CGI.

The animals look straight out of a National Geographic channel documentary. I think Disney actually owns National Geographic, and they often make animal documentaries. This is probably where all of those millions of dollars in research and development helped out.

One of my complaints does concern the beautiful animal renderings. I recognize that they wanted the animals to look real as possible, but in doing so, they didn't have the artistic freedom to give the animals eyebrows and such to give the characters more expressions in their faces. Some of the voice acting didn't really fit the CGI faces of the characters. It would often look like an emotionless animal with a voice actor practically crying or something, and it truly felt off and threw me out of the movie going experience. This wasn't an issue with the original, because with cartoons they were allowed to exaggerate the characters expressions to fit in with the voice acting.

I would also say that some of the voice acting was pretty spot on with the original movie's voice acting. Like the side characters Timon and Pumba still sounded and felt like the original character voice actors. Even Simba seemed similar to the original. There were a few that didn't quite meet up to the old voice actors in the past.

I would say Rafiki, the monkey in this iteration, was way toned down compared to the original Rafiki. The original character was way more animated and lively. The new version seemed way more subdued.

I'm not sure if it was the movie theatre I was at, or the new way the sound systems work, but I found that some of the voices aren't as booming as they were before. In the original Lion King, I remember James Earl Jones' voice would boom with more bass and authority. In this version of The Lion King it seemed a lot more tame and subdued. Why? I'm not sure, they kind of needed this, because it's what makes his character a lot more authoritative.

I was also surprised that they would remake The Lion King movie in the first place, seeing as it tells a tale of an old patriarchal system that Disney wants to get away from telling. I mean if pride of female lions wanted to overtake scar, I think they should just go ahead and do it instead of wait for a rightful heir to overtake the throne. The theme of The Lion King doesn't really fit into today's climate, even though it does have some thoughtful themes behind it. Nobody has called them out on it too. I don't know maybe I'm over thinking things.

Overall, I thought the CGI was brilliantly done, and is probably Oscar worthy special effects. The downfall of the movie is the execution. I found myself bored throughout the movie. Keep in mind that I've seen the original movie a number of times, so my boredom could have stemmed from knowing exactly what's going to happen next in the movie. New moviegoers might truly enjoy this film, as they have no reference point, and to be honest, this movie is supposed to be geared toward them. For someone that's seen the original Lion King I would have to give this movie a four out of ten. You don't need to see this version, and probably shouldn't see this version, unless you want to be wowed by visual effects. For those of you that have not seen the movie, I would give this movie a six out of ten. You may enjoy it, but still some of the points that I mentioned earlier may bother you as well. Children might really like it, I don't really know. It's probably going to do well no matter what, so what does it all really matter?