Review of The Lion King (1994) by Movieznp — 09 Mar 2019

I haven't watched this film for ages. Since a live action CGI remake is coming soon, I decided to rewatch it. And for reasons unknown, I liked it more than I did, when I was a kid. .

Good : A. Family. Entertainer. Those three words have apparently lost the meaning at the present date, or should I say, they have lost the quality. This is a movie that everyone will enjoy. At a time where a movie with a G rating usually means "Garbage", revisiting a really incredible G rated movie is a really strange experience. A kid's movie will usually have unrealistic optimism, a ton of cheese and boredom. Even kids don't like them so much. This being a kid's film is still a very excellent movie, with no cheese or unrealistic optimism. The characters are excellent. Every character has a strong distinction from one another. That's something I noted yesterday when I rewatched it. Not just that they're distinct, but they're believable. Mufasa is a noble king, a true leader. Scar is a pure evil, and has a tremendously menacing presence. Simba is a naive kid who feels guilty for something that he didn't even do. And, none of that feels too on the nose. That is a big plus point because there are films we may be forced to watch with the kids and we get an utter cringe out of it. Apart from the characters, the interaction between the characters is another awesome stuff to talk about in this movie. Simba and Mufasa's conversations exhibit the father-son love in an excellent manner. Scar may feel like a generic villain, but his actions are too f**king menacing for a kid's movie. His conversations with Simba add the evilness I am talking about. Timon and Pumbaa are quite interesting characters. Timon reminded me of Rocket Raccoon from the Marvel movies. They resemble each other in many ways and both are very likable characters. It was this recent viewing which made me notice the similarities between the characters. They also serve for a comedic purposes very well. The animation of this movie is also pretty awesome. Some '90s animations do not age well. This does age very well. Take away everything - story, characters, etc and look only at the animation. It still is very beautiful and holds up to this date. Speaking of the story, it may feel a little familiar. The popular movies like Thor, Aquaman, Black Panther, etc have a similar story. But since it came out decades before they did, I must say that they did a very good job because even if you have watched films like the ones I mentioned, and you haven't watched this, you will still be entertained with it. There is a very good character development of Simba and Scar is given enough reasons to be a likable villain. All the goods I mentioned are the goods I noted years ago when I first watched it, which hold up even to this date. The voices for the characters, I almost forgot to mention it. The voices for each of the characters were on simply perfect. All the voices suited the characters and those voice performances integrated whatever the characters were feeling. Yet another excellent thing. All in all, a really good family entertainment. It has dated just like wine. Mixed. The runtime is too less. It should've been around 2 hours or a little longer. There are some elements of the story which are completed in a montage, some reveals are given abruptly and things happen really fast without enough excitement and drama behind it, specially towards the end. The final battle between Simba and Scar could've been a lot more interesting. Not meaning that it was boring, but could've been great. Even that f**king whacked a$$ s**t named "Jason Takes Manhattan" is 100 minutes long, which could've been over at around 55 minutes. This movie needed to be longer. That's all the issues I had with it. .

Conclusion : Though it has some story issues, it doesn't make the movie a bad movie. Thoroughly enjoyable and memorable. They are going to release the remake this year. The trailers exhibit very god CGI and looks quite promising. Hope they will retain all its great aspects and fix the issues with it. .

Rating. .

Score : 8.