Movie Review- The Lion King (Part-I)

           The Lion King was directed by Jon Favreau this time around this is the

adaptation I hesitate to say live-action there was a massive debate about this

online of the 1994 classic animated film and in case you somehow do not know the

plot of this movie Simba gets his right to the throne of Pride Rock challenged

when his evil uncle Scar causes tragedy to occur and banishes Simba from the

pride lands this is another live-action remake from Disney we already had

Aladdin this year and we've had  Cinderella in The Jungle Book and Beauty

and the Beast and Pete's dragon and Dumbo which I still haven't seen and

probably won't because I've heard rough things about it and I was never a

massive fan of the original number film anyway but when it comes to live-action

remakes the Jungle Book which was also directed by Favreau and I really enjoyed

that at least had a young actor in it who was surrounded by a digital

environment in the case of this film  though it's basically another form of

animation just not the traditional hand-drawn that the original Lion King

did so well and I'm not gonna get too hard into that debate here because I

think it's pointless and we really want to talk about the film in regards to

visuals and the technical achievement that this film shows us mind blowing no

matter what you think of this movie you must praise the artists that worked on

it they have created a beautiful world that absolutely looks photorealistic the

trees the sky the mountaintops the blades of grass insects all of the

animals everything looks incredible and it's impossible to deny the technical

brilliance that's on display constantly the voice cast is also really good James

Earl Jones once again as Mufasa is obviously music to my ears and seth

rogen as Pumbaa is essentially perfect casting he laughs as Pumbaa and I heard

Seth Rogen laugh as Pumbaa in a movie which was vastly satisfying to me and

that's about where I'm gonna stop at the praising the rest of the movie has some

great stuff too but it's all just stuff from the 94 film I mean Hans Zimmer score I

 got that on vinyl I love it I've always loved it  but this movie didn't create it the opening scene with the circle of

life song is an iconic scene that is recreated here

the story is emotionally affecting like it was in 1994 the characters are

entertaining like they were in 1994  Timon and Pumbaa bickering that's funny

just like it was in 1994 are you getting where I'm going with this this movie is

a shot-for-shot remake of The Lion King there's no personality of its own it's

completely predictable in every way there's no surprises there's very little

that's new and the things that are new are mostly things that have just been

removed or shortened like the be prepared song for instance is heavily

shortened there's a new song that's added and hilariously the song can you

feel the love tonight was originally featured in a scene that took place at

night but in this movie the scene is in broad daylight so the song title no

longer makes sense can you feel the love this afternoon I guess but what

disappointed me the most about this film is not that some songs have been

shortened or that some scenes have been removed but that the personality of the

original film is non-existent here this film is soulless much of the humor and

mysticism of the original film has been completely removed and replaced with an

overly serious attempt at an epic movie and it does not have to be I love Jon

Favreau he's one of my favorite filmmakers working today.