Review of The Lion King (2019) by Metempsychosis — 20 Jul 2019

Someone do something. Disney needs help. As in, an intervention.

Just came back from watching it and... It's The Lion King. You can't ruin the Lion King, but it's borderline cringe worthy. The only moment this whole thing has a facial animation to go along with the feeling was when Sarabi recognized Simba. And even still, it seems like all their facial expressions are in the mouth. Maybe the producers were afraid the characters would look too cartoony, but I really feel like the facial animations where missing. The original felt much more alive because of them. Even their body language feels a little stifled, like those are animals that don't know they should be emoting.

In the same line, the songs feel lifeless. It's like they tried to make a live action remake of an original animated piece. It just loses its appeal in the translation... There is just so much more freedom that animation can give your characters when you're not obsessed with making the damn cats look so real they loose all identifiable emotion you could see on REAL lions.

I feel like they changed certain details, like Mufasa telling Zazu to turn around on Simba's pouncing lesson or the way Scar throws him off the cliff because of that and a lot of the impact was lost. Yeah, cats don't point with their claws. They also don't have kingdoms with succession laws and lionesses that are as proactive as a 1964 damsel in distress.

Speaking of that, poor Sarabi. Look at the scene where she's talking to Scar in the original. She looks like a goddamn queen with a hurt pride instead of a emotionless cat that is just staring like it's trainer is just outside the screen.

I also feel like the story didn't age that well. And since some scenes and dialogue was changed, I think they missed an opportunity to have the lionesses appear in the graveyard and help Mufasa kick some hyena butt. The point is, in this remake, their agency left a lot to be desired. It seemed that Nala was the only one that had a personality besides silent obedience and that was bad already in the original.

Finally, another opportunity was lost in not incorporating the sequel. Zira would've been a great counterpoint to Sarabi, IF she had stood up to Scar and the hyenas. Again, the lionesses felt like they didn't have much of an opinion. And that is when Timon and Pumbaa got a lot of other friends that really didn't need to be there. The whole scene about the tuft of fur was unnecessary, when the plot could've used some updating.

In the end, it's a remake that could've improved, but instead, it felt less alive, despite being more life-like; the songs lost a lot of their presence because of visual style that didn't keep up with the music; characters lost their dynamism and presence with an end result that looked like a Lion King themed tech demo or a National Geographic documentary trying to be cute with Lion King voice-overs.

It's not bad, but instead of hitting the nostalgia, it made me want to watch the original again. I was disappointed and I went in not expecting much. The nice visuals looked generic for being s life-like and I feel like the whole point of animation was lost to the producers. So, I don't care about how nice it looked: that was what damaged the movie as a whole.

Simba and Nala's reunion was... Goddamn Disney. Nala looked like she had come right out of a Christopher Nolan movie where she completely turned into a plot device to express how important Simba is and how much she loves him within seconds. You just don't do that to your characters! If I hadn't seem the original, Nala would've come out as that trophy romantic interest you give to the main character just because he's important to the story.

To top it off, the pacing felt so awkward. I don't really know why, but it felt like someone was going through the scenes checking boxes off a list instead of telling a story.