The Lion King (2019) | Film Review

Hey Guys x

I ended up seeing this on opening day, and I wasn't feeling anything about it one way or the other, but I'm glad that I finally got to see it.

We all know this story, right? Lion cub Simba (JD McCray) knows that one day, he will inherit the kingdom from his father Mufasa (James Earl Jones). When tragedy befalls Pride Rock, Simba leaves his home, and his family, behind. But as time passes, can a new adult Simba (Donald Glover) find his way back home?

I have to say, I wasn't excited to see this film. In fact, if my sister hadn't wanted to see it, I would have waited for the DVD. Nothing about it really appealed to me at all.
And after seeing it, I feel the same way. Nonchalant.

Some things about the film were great. First of all, the child versions of Simba and Nala (Shahadi Wright Joseph) were fantastic. Honestly it was kind of disappointing when the characters grew up because I thought that the child actors did a phenomenal job.

Other people who did a phenomenal job were Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen who played Timon and Pumbaa respectively. Now, I know I said I wasn't interested in seeing the film, but the only thing that I was really looking forward to was Seth Rogen as Pumbaa, because I'm just such a huge fan of his in general. But he and Billy Eichner did an amazing job with these roles. They really brought them to life, and who knew Billy Eichner had such a great singing voice?!

The visuals were also great, for the most part. I mean, there's only so many times you can see a shot of a sun or moon in the sky and this film did that way too much, but the locations themselves were beautiful, and the actual animals all looked realistic. You can tell that the VFX team worked really hard on that, and it shows.

And the soundtrack was really great. I love the fact that, they kept all of the original songs, and in almost all cases, they improved on the original versions. Or, at the very least, they didn't ruin the songs. The new versions of 'I Just Can't Wait To Be King' and 'Hakuna Matata' in particular are amazing.

Now, for the things I didn't like.

While I said that the child voice actors blew me away, their adult counterparts were disappointing. Donald Glover had the greatest entrance (in 'Hakuna Matata', the same as the animated version), but I feel like from there, it was just... okay. I think the problem is that, as great as Glover was, he didn't have a lot to do as adult Simba. Young Simba gets all the best bits, and all his adult counterpart does is fall for Nala, and battle for Pride Rock. And that battle was really docile, even though it was pretty much exactly the same as the original version.

And then there's adult Nala, played by Beyonce Knowles-Carter. For a start, I'm not a huge fan of hers anyway, so when I was looking at her performance, I was looking at her as an actress and singer rather than as 'Beyonce'. And while the singing was amazing (she also has a solo song that isn't on the original soundtrack, called 'Spirit', that's such a beautiful song), the acting didn't do anything for me. While watching it, I didn't feel like I was watching adult Nala, and I didn't really feel or believe anything she was saying. Her delivery was flat, there was no emotion in her words, and to quote something that I saw in the comment section of an article, it was just 'Beyonce saying words'. I think I would have preferred it if she was just on the soundtrack.

Then there's Scar. While Chiwetel Ejiofor did an amazing job portraying him, and his look in the film was great, I was a bit disappointed with the film's version of 'Be Prepared'. It's one of the best villain songs in Disney (right behind 'Hellfire' from 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'), and while I acknowledge that they made it creepier by making it more of a speech than a song, I did miss the original version. Personal preference.

Another personal preference thing - for the most part, the film is a shot-for-shot remake of the original. But the one big change they made was the Hyenas. The three animals (apart from Timon and Pumba) who provided the most levity in the original film, perfectly walking the edge of funny and scary, were just threatening in this version, and I missed the jokes they provided. Again, I understand what the director was going for, making them scary only, but I felt like I needed that fun to not make the film so dark.

Because that's another thing I didn't really expect, for the film to be so dark. In the UK, the film has a PG rating, and there were a lot of little kids in the cinema when I went. While as kids everyone my age had to go through the loss of Mufasa, it definitely felt like this version of the film was catering more for teenagers than the little kids experiencing this world for the first time.

Overall, what I get from this film is that, because it's so close to the original in so many ways, you'll probably feel the same way about it as you felt about the original. The original Lion King was never my favourite Disney movie, so this will never be my favourite reboot.

6/10