Simba idolizes his father, King Mufasa, and takes to heart his own royal destiny on the plains of Africa. But not everyone in the kingdom celebrates the new cub's arrival. Scar, Mufasa's brother -- and former heir to the throne -- has plans of his own. The battle for Pride Rock is soon ravaged with betrayal, tragedy and drama, ultimately resulting in Simba's exile. Now, with help from a curious pair of newfound friends, Simba must figure out how to grow up and take back what is rightfully his.
This is a complicated film to review. Mainly, because it's near-impossible to separate it from the original animated film from 1994. Even more so, because this new "live-action" animated adaptation is almost an exact shot-for-shot remake. Taking that into consideration, I'll split my review into two halves, talking about the 2019 film in the first half, and then how it fares compared to the original 1994 film in the latter half.
This new version of The Lion King is directed by Jon Favreau and has an all-star cast of voice actors; John Oliver, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Donald Glover, James Earl Jones, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner, John Kani, and Beyoncé. It's good to see that they went ahead and made sure to cast comedians for the comedic characters, and people that can sing for the other parts (with the exception of Ejiofor who is very reserved in his performances).
The biggest pull for the film is, of course, the high-quality animation. It is absolutely incredible the level of detail and photorealism that is in play. Unfortunately, the butterflies and birds aren't quite as well done, but the insects and the mammals are exceptional and breathtaking. Remarkable work on the technical side of things and the animation crew definitely deserve their paychecks.
Where the quality of the visuals starts to become negative, however, is when you start to introduce their voices. The likes of Chiwetel Ejiofor and James Earl Jones have luxuriously deep voices that really suit their host bodies (the lions Scar and Mufasa, respectively) and the way in which they speak works with the serious and life-like faces of the lions. This can't quite be said for some of the other cast. The higher voices and the more emotive vocal performances don't show through because of the lack of expressions that we get to see on the animals' faces. John Oliver's Zazu can hardly keep up with the fast manic pace of his dialogue, and this leads to a fair amount of the dialogue not syncing up with the mouths and feeling separated from their characters.
Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen are a marvellous team as Timon and Pumbaa and have great chemistry together, proving to be the standout performances of the film (even with them really pushing the fart jokes to the extreme). The rest of the cast have the issue of an inconsistent tone. As the film is practically a shot-for-shot remake, with more realism and less emotive animation, the dialogue used doesn't match the temperament and personality of these characters.
The score works really well to create tension and suspense (and that is even more impressive when you know exactly what is going to happen already), but what surprised me, was the film's use of jump scares. On at least three occasions, the audience would be shocked by a jump scare, which gets the adrenaline pumping but did actually frighten a few of the younger children in the theatre into tears.
As this latest iteration is the same plot as the original, you can't get away without comparing the two, and the first thing that you notice is the soundtrack. Most of the original songs are there, just adapted and performed by other people, but the mixing felt off. On many occasions, the vocals were turned up so high that it felt as if it was distorting and felt abrasive to the ears. An assault on the ears is a definite change compared to the dulcet tones of Elton John on the piano.
It's as if the emotional anchor of the film is missing in this new film. While the landscapes are gorgeous, the cinematography fails to really bring that sense of wonder when it comes to setting the scene. I still find that the best of the "live-action" adaptations is still 2016's The Jungle Book, as it built upon the existing story to provide something new, while also hitting a good balance of realism and emotive expressions in the new CGI animals. The Lion King has lost all sense of emotion and has new voice actors trying to do justice reprising old dialogue written for a different iteration of their character.
The graphics are beautifully done, but in the process of updating the film, they have removed everything that made you care about the characters. I can't understand how they can create such emotionless creatures when Dreamwork's How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World manages to do it so well with characters that can't even talk.
It was certainly interesting to see how they approached each scene this time around, but ultimately, it doesn't provide enough to make me want to see it again. Definitely worth checking out once though, even if it's just to talk farts with Timon and Pumbaa.