The Lion King is a remake of the 1994 animated classic and everyone pretty much knows what it's about. For those that don't, The Lion King tells the story of a lion cub named Simba, who must deal with the loss of his father, Mufasa. While Simba is away, recovering from this tragedy, he runs into Timon and Pumba, a meerkat and warthog, who try and teach him how to live a carefree life. As Simba gets older, life starts to catch up with him and he must return home and take what is rightfully his.
Let's start with what I like about The Lion King. The first one is pretty obvious, but it's the visuals. This movie looks fantastic. For most of the movie, it's impossible to tell that all of it is computer generated. It looks just like one of those Disney Nature documentaries that come out every year. I loved the way the animals moved and would interact with one another. It was all just so life like. Also baby Simba was absolutely adorable. Every time he showed up on screen, I couldn't help but let out a little "Awwwwww, he's so cute!".
Another thing I really enjoyed about The Lion King was Timon and Pumba. They were voiced by Billy Eichner and Seth Rogan and they couldn't have been more perfect for these roles. They brought this energy to the movie that was severely lacking before they showed up roughly halfway through the movie. For the most part all of their jokes landed and their rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight was absolutely wonderful.
I also surprisingly really enjoyed Chiwetel Ejiofor's performance as the villainous Scar, Simba's uncle. When the first trailer came out, I was part of #NotMyScar, but after seeing this version, I am no longer a part of that hashtag. He did a great job of being menacing and commanding the screen whenever he was around.
Now let me get to the part that hurts me the most, what I didn't like about The Lion King. Unfortunately for me, there is a lot that didn't work with this movie. The first thing was the way the animals looked when they talked. The mouth movement for the most part did not match what was coming out of their mouths. At times it was really distracting and would take me out of the movie. Also, there was no emotion coming from the animals. The worst part was when Simba's dad dies and Simba is extremely distraught. The look on his face was completely flat, he looked just like he had previously in the movie when he was happy. There wasn't any sort of movement in the ears or eyes that normally appear when an animal is sad.
Another disappointing part of the movie was the lack of energy during the first half of the movie. All of the musical numbers that take place in the first half felt flat, there was no life to them. It was one of those things where I felt like the writers should have done some rewriting and completely remove the songs and find a way to tell the story without them. The musical score by Hans Zimmer also did not help with this. By itself, the score is great, but it did not work with what was happening on the screen. It never seemed to match up with the characters movements on the screen or the emotion of the scenes.
Overall, The Lion King was really disappointing. Yes, it's gorgeous to look at and contains a few solid performances, but as a whole it doesn't work. The animals don't show any emotion and the mouth movement when talking is super distracting. This is one of those movies, where I'm not sure I can recommend people go see this in theaters. You most likely own the animated version and would be better served to just watch that one from the comfort of your home. Maybe when this new one comes to a streaming service, you can give it a watch at home.
2 1/2 out of 5 Stars
