The Lion King (2019)

This article is about the 2019 photo-realistic computer-animated film. You may be looking for the 1994 traditionally-animated film of the same name.

The Lion King

What was the point of remaking the original film if you barely do anything new about it?

Genre:	Musical Drama
Directed By:	Jon Favreau
Produced By:	Jon Favreau Jeffrey Silver Karen Gilchrist
Written By:	Jeff Nathanson
Based On:	The Lion King by Irene Mecchi Jonathan Roberts Linda Woolverton Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff
Starring:	Donald Glover Seth Rogen Chiwetel Ejiofor Alfre Woodard Billy Eichner John Kani John Oliver Beyoncé Knowles-Carter James Earl Jones
Cinematography:	Caleb Deschanel
Distributed By:	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release Date:	July 9, 2019 (Hollywood) July 19, 2019 (United States)
Runtime:	118 minutes
Country:	United States
Language:	English
Budget:	$250–260 million
Box Office:	$1.657 billion^[1]
Franchise:	The Lion King
Sequel:	Untitled The Lion King follow-up

The Lion King is a 2019 American musical drama film directed and produced by Jon Favreau, written by Jeff Nathanson, and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is a photo-realistic computer-animated remake of Disney's traditionally-animated 1994 film of the same name. It premiered in Hollywood on July 9, 2019 and was theatrically released in the United States on July 19, 2019.

In September 2020, it was confirmed that a follow-up film was in development with Barry Jenkins, the director of Moonlight, attached to direct.

Plot

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.

Bad Qualities

False advertising: It was marketed as a "live-action" film, even though in reality it is a computer-animated film with photo-realistic imagery. Jon Favreau himself repeatedly claimed that it was live-action, before admitting that every scene is computer-animated except for the opening shot of the sun rising.
Poor and bland direction of vocal performances; even James Earl Jones as Mufasa obviously wasn't trying here, with the scene where he is killed having sub-par acting from him; similarly, Donald Glover's performance as Simba sounds as if he were sleepwalking the entire time.
- On the subject of Jones, it was hypocritical for them to get him to reprise his role as Mufasa but never get any of the other voice actors from the original film such as Whoopi Goldberg or Jeremy Irons; thus, it was clearly a way to pander to nostalgia for Jones.
The movie is rather pointless, as there are almost zero changes to the overall story at all and it even takes some of the exact same shots from the original film.
- What makes the movie even more pointless is the fact that by the time of its release, the original canonical continuity was still prominent through The Lion Guard.
Several of the changes that have been done for this remake are also either mediocre or pointless, and specific scenes in the original film are cut for no discernible reason:
- The role of Rafiki, who played a significant role in guiding Simba in the original film, was severely reduced.
- Banzai and Ed had their names changed for some reason, with the only likely reason being to make them Swahili-sounding.
- Timon and Pumbaa have several animal friends, all of whom serve no purpose in the story whatsoever.
- One message from the original, "take responsibility for your past," along with the grassland background drop in the same scene in which it appears, has been removed in favor of a lake background drop to "find" Mufasa from there.
- Even individual scenes from the original film are pointlessly extended simply to pad out the runtime of this film; one notable example is when Simba's fur is being blown away by the wind as it makes its way towards Rafiki.
- In the original film Simba taunts the hyenas about how they should pick on somebody their own size after they launched Zazu out of a small geyser and later he saves Nala and scratches Shenzi in the face at the elephant graveyard during the chase, minutes before Nala points out how she thought Simba was brave; instead, in the remake Simba never does anything like that and instead just attempts to escape from the hyenas alongside Nala. This isn't really an issue on its own, but for some reason Nala still points out about how she thought Simba was brave.
- On the topic of Nala, she was changed from a tomboy-esque sarcastic lioness with an adventurous risk-taking attitude into one who is pretty much naggy a lot of the time, to the point where in the scene at the elephant graveyard all she can do is nag Simba about how worried she is they'll get caught; as a result, it becomes harder to relate to her when she tries to convince Simba to return to the Pride Lands, and thus more difficult to see how it is the right thing for Simba to take his place as king because his best friend sees him in such a dutiful and inconsiderate way.
- Parts of specific scenes are either removed or changed, and thus some of them lose their original meaning; in the original film, it was Simba's boredom and subsequent attempt to pounce a grasshopper that motivated Mufasa to teach him a "pouncing lesson" (with him essentially taking a break from listening to Zazu's morning report), which adds to the relationship between the two characters and establishes how much Mufasa cares for his son; but here in the remake Mufasa is implied to have only did so out of boredom of listening to Zazu's morning report, and thus the meaning of the original scene is lost.
At times, the music does not match the intended tone of what is occurring in the scene, and as a result it feels out-of-place; notably, when Zazu informs Mufasa about the presence of hyenas in the Pride Lands after the pouncing lesson, you can clearly hear calm and upbeat music playing, which feels out-of-place in a scene that is supposed to be urgent.
- The song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" also takes place during the day, despite the word "night" being in the title.
The film also lacks the charm, depth and emotion that made the original film so memorable and iconic:
- John Oliver's performance as Zazu lacks the charm that Rowan Atkinson's performance as the aforementioned character had in the original film.
- The hyenas, including Shenzi, are no longer the comedic goofballs they were in the original film, and as a result they are now forgettable and empty shells of characters.
- Scar was also stripped of his sarcastic and sly attitude, and thus he is now miserable and gloomy, as well as blatantly bitter and dismissive towards everyone around him; as a result, he is now unlikable and boring from the start.
Even though the computer-generated imagery for the characters looks amazing and incredibly lifelike, the issue is that they barely show any expression of any emotion at all; part of the reason why the original film, alongside its sequel and midquel, worked is because of the magnificent and intensely expressive animation. None of that is adapted, and thus not shown, in this remake.
- Most of the song sequences suffer from this. First and foremost, "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" is mostly just Simba and Nala running with no colorful visuals whatsoever; "Be Prepared" is not only set in a dark area without any smoke, geysers or fire whatsoever, but also just Scar climbing to the top of a cliff as the hyenas watch; lastly, "Hakuna Matata" is just Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa walking while awkwardly miming the song.
  - On the topic of the songs, there is an orchestra-like version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", which is a failed attempt of being current with the Internet.
  - Continuing the aforementioned topic, in "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", the volume for the vocal performances for Donald Glover and Beyoncé sounds uneven, with the sound for Glover's performance being lower whereas the one for Beyoncé's is much higher.
- Additionally, many species of animals in real life can express more emotions than the ones in this movie, which is simply illogical; this is because in comparison, the animal characters featured in every other Disney live-action remake, do express actual emotions, similar to real-life animals, yet the makers seemingly forgot that aspect for this film.
- Scar suffers the most from this, as the realistic approach completely removes the ability to squash-and-stretch his facial proportions to convey his sinister nature and ends up looking like just an ordinary lion with brown fur and a slight scar that isn't intimidating at all.
- The colorful and vibrant color palette from the original film is also completely lost, and as a result, the film looks drab and dull.
- Overall, the film looks and even feels rather like a nature documentary than a remake of The Lion King; unironically, this was actually Jon Faverau's intention, as stated in one interview.
Continuing the topic of the realistic look of the film, there are at least a few instances in which the viewer can barely tell the difference between any of the lion characters; two of the most blatant examples include when Nala flees from Pride Rock after which Sarabi literally has to say the former's name so the audience would know who the lioness who was shown leaving Pride Rock actually was to avoid any confusion, and in the climactic battle between Simba and Scar.
The scene where Mufasa is killed by Scar is worse than in the original, as it is made to look like Scar hit him on the face with his paw instead of brutally tossing him off the cliff. Also, Scar's delivery of his famous line "Long live the king!" is rather angry, over-the-top and bland compared to in the original, where it is actually menancing and scary.
Plot hole: Scar sends Zazu to get the pride after convincing him that he will help Simba and Mufasa, yet he later convinces the pride that he didn't reach the gorge in time to help Simba and Mufasa. Given that Zazu still visited the pride at Pride Rock to relay information, it is unclear as to why he didn't realize this and reveal to the pride that Scar was lying.
Subpar dialogue, with the fact that one of Scar's lines begins with, "As you know...", is quite generic and cliché; Simba also states, "You said I could patrol with you today, and today has started," in his first scene as a cub.

Good Qualities

The updated songs are decent, except for "Be Prepared".
- In particular, the original opening featuring "Circle of Life" returns.
- Speaking of which, the score by Hans Zimmer is decent, although some of the tracks are superior over in the original film.
Despite the given flaws, the computer-generated imagery is magnificent and looks incredibly realistic, and all the main characters along with the other animals (including some that were changed in the film) are very accurate-looking to their species.
Timon and Pumbaa are still enjoyable and arguably funnier than in the original film thanks to Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen.
The new version of Mufasa's spirit in the clouds is the only one that this movie does an okay job at, despite the fact that the spirit didn't fully move in the original.
The hyenas, particularly Shenzi, are more powerful, menacing and terrifying than their original counterparts; in particular, Scar's death in this film manages to be very faithful to the original, but also manages to be much more terrifying than the original version, since he fights the hyenas back before being eaten alive and delivering a terrifying scream before dying, something that the original didn't have.
Beautiful scenery.
Some of the cast manages to deliver decent performances, despite some of them being bland.

Reception

Critical response

The Lion King received generally mixed reviews from critics and fans alike, with praise for its visual effects, music, and vocal performances (particularly Rogen and Eichner), but criticism for its lack of originality, and facial emotion on the characters. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently scoring a 53% based on 422 reviews, and an average rating of 5.98/10. The website critic consensus that states, "While it can take pride in its visual achievements, The Lion King is a by-the-numbers retelling that lacks the energy and heart that made the original so beloved--though for some fans that may just be enough.". Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 54 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews", and the film holds a 6.9/10 on IMDb.

The audience score was more positive, with currently hold at 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Box office

The Lion King opened up at #1 on its opening weekend grossing $191,770,759 domestically. The film earned $543.6 million domestic and $1.1 billion internationally. Overall, it has made $1.65 billion against its $250 to $260 million dollar budget, making it the highest grossing animated film of all time. It is also the second-highest-grossing film of 2019, and the seventh-highest of all time as well as large box office success.^[2]

Accolades

Despite the mixed reviews, it received nominations for Best Animated Feature Film and Original Song categories at the 77th Golden Globe Awards and 25th Critics' Choice Awards. It was also nominated at 73rd British Academy Film Awards and 92nd Academy Awards, both for visual effects.

Upcoming follow-up film

In September 2020, it was reported that a follow-up film was in development with Barry Jenkins, the director of Moonlight, attached to direct. It would be focusing on both Mufasa's origins and the events after the first film, similar to The Godfather Part II. Jeff Nathanson, the screenwriter for the remake, has reportedly finished a draft.

Videos

Trivia

Elton John disowned the film in an interview and stated that the film was a disappointment.
This serves as the final credit for film editor Mark Livolsi, who died in September 2018.