The Lion King (2019)

          I'm not sure where this year compares to years past, but Disney has been grinding out a lot of content since the beginning of 2019. So far, we've had 3 Marvel movies, 2 live-action remakes, a Pixar sequel, a documentary, and two sequels plus a Star Wars film set for later this year. I'm sure that y'all have forgotten about Dumbo by now and Aladdin is on the resolution of its box-office run, but Disney has decided to grace us with yet another live-action remake that audiences, including myself, have been looking forward to for a long time. The Lion King was confirmed for a remake in the fall of 2016 and it was announced that the director would be Jon Favreau who, during this time, had just gotten done enjoying the success of the amazing remake of The Jungle Book earlier that year. To this day, that film is still my favorite live-action remake that Disney has put out. Jon Favreau showed great care in not only the story, but also the visual effects. The photo-realism was gorgeous and it would eventually go on to win Best Visual Effects at the 2017 Oscars. Me, including many others, were pumped when it was confirmed that Favreau would be helming the Lion King remake. I thought the film would be in good hands. Then 2019 happened. Dumbo turned out to be an empty, forgettable entity of a film and Aladdin proved that just remaking a movie shot-for-shot was not enough the justify a film's existence. I was looking forward to The Lion King and was hoping that it would break the bad streak that Disney has been having lately with its remakes. That's not what I got.

          I don't know whether or not to start off with the stuff I liked or the stuff I didn't like so I'm gonna flip a coin. Heads for likes and tails for dislikes...likes it is. Much like The Jungle Book, Favreau put great importance on the visual effects The photo-realism is amazing and probably, in my opinion, a little bit better than his previous film. From a visual perspective, its as beautiful as I was hoping it would be. The majesty of the film's animals is one of the film's best traits. The songs are also done very well. Although they probably can't be as imaginative as the original animation due to live-action limitations (for example, the animal tower in "I Just Can't Wait to be King" is sadly nowhere to be found), I still thought they were done pretty faithfully. The A-list voice cast definitely contributes to this aspect. Well, Seth Rogen ain't the best singer, but the voice acting is still great across the board. Also, they brought James Earl Jones back as Mufasa. Just saying. 

          Before I go any further, I would like to point out that I am aware of the debate going on with this movie. If you don't know what I'm talking about then let me bring you up to date. I'm using the term "live-action" because that was the original idea behind this production, but there is a heavy argument to be made that this film is actually an animated film. Without the presence of anything alive and real like a person, it's hard for audiences to label this film as live-action and not as a "re-animation." Where you stand on the whole debate is up to you. The only context I can see this having any conflict is this year's awards season. Disney is definitely going to campaign for Best Visual Effects, but it could also technically try out for Best Animated Film if it wanted to. It wouldn't be the first time that an animated film was also nominated for a category that is mostly live-action based. In the same year that Jungle Book(2016) won for Visual Effects, Kubo and the Two Strings, an animated film, was also a nominee for that category. How Disney is going to submit The Lion King in the fall/winter is, at the moment, unknown to us. 

          Now onto the dislikes. Oh boy, I might lose some relationships after this. I have two major problems with this movie. Much like how they basically copy-and-pasted the original cartoon into a live-action format, I could essentially copy-and-paste my thoughts for Aladdin, change some words and it would be an honest, complete review for The Lion King. I might be exaggerating, but my biggest problem with Aladdin translates onto The Lion King and I feel like you guys know what I'm talking about. I'll sum it up: if Disney is going to do a live-action remake of a beloved classic, then they have to justify its existence. Remaking a film shot-for-shot is not doing that. The Lion King 2019 is almost exactly like the animated classic and that's a problem.  There are, I believe, two goals with the live-action remake mission. 1) To bring the beloved classics of old to a new generation. 2) to exploit the nostalgia of older audiences for profit. The latter has never been more present after seeing The Lion King. 

          My other problem with this movie is one that, before it was released, had some people concerned across social media. The visual effects are gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but this film proves that visual realism can be detrimental. The photorealism of the characters deprives them of their visual, emotional clarity. As realistic as they looked, I could barely tell if they were happy or sad and their puppet-like mouth movements aren't enough to translate emotion to the audience. All you have is the voice acting and to have it juxtaposed with realistic, emotionless faces dilutes any sort of connection you could have to the characters, especially for someone who has never seen the original cartoon. This, combined with the non-reinvention, causes the film to fail at recreating the heart and soul that was present in the original animation.

          Here's the thing: I have these criticisms, but I'm not entirely sure where the level of validity cuts off. I know that they didn't really try to do something different with the story, but there are two things I'm aware of that somewhat negate my claims. For starters, this movie wasn't made for me or others who probably have similar opinions. It was made for the nostalgia-driven moviegoer. To a person who loves the original, this film will be more than enough for them. Also, the level of visual artistry that's on display here is magnificent and to berate the story aspects, I feel, implies that I'm naive to the hard work that obviously went into this film which brings this review to my final thoughts and overall consensus. I was still entertained by this movie. I'll even admit that some tears were shed during the "Circle of Life" introduction, but as the film chugged along its runtime I continued to descend down into disappointment. I'm not unaware of the talent that was involved in the film's production, but the film forgot one thing: a reason to exist. 5/10