The Lion King (2019) - Movie Review

This has been quite a year for Disney revamping its classic properties. Alongside sequels to their genuine classics like Mary Poppins Returns and Toy Story 4, 2019 has also marked the year where they have given us not one but three remakes/retoolings of some of their older works. We started with the surprisingly strong Dumbo that basically took Disney itself to task for its business practices, and then we had the astoundingly shite Aladdin which can rest easily among Disney’s worst productions ever. And now, we have a remake of the perennial favourite Lion King, with the director of the quite fantastic Jungle Book remake returning for another bit of photorealistic animal shenanigans. The end result, however, is… well, it’s certainly not the worst to come out of this trend, but it is easily the most pointless.

The voice cast here are all well-fitted to their roles, from Donald Glover retaining his own throne as the king of singing actors in the modern age to John Oliver as an skittish news reporter who relies on order to function (there’s a reason why his casting here has been a running gag on his own show Last Week Tonight for a long-ass time).

However, they also represent the first major feeling of disconnect in this production: While their voices deliver a lot of emotion, the facial animations are… practically lifeless. After how fucking great the animation work was with Jungle Book, seeing the lack of expressiveness here is kind of baffling. The animation overall is quite effective in terms of realism, but in actually making the characters feel like they are more than just walking lumps of fur with moving jaws, it falls disappointingly flat.

Then there’s the music, which has Hans Zimmer returning on the soundtrack front as well as utilizing the original Elton John/Tim Rice musical numbers. The songs themselves are still effective, if let down a bit by the lack of energy in the visuals (much like Aladdin, the transition from traditional animation to ‘live-action’ saps it a bit), and while the singing is mostly fine, it’s also very showy. A lot of vocal riffing, a lot of Aguilera-style embellishments, and yet somehow, a lot of it is buried in the sound mixing, letting the orchestrations take control. The only real high point musically is when Timon and Pumbaa kick up an acapella rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, and that’s mainly because it’s something new.

Which brings us to the biggest problem, the reason why I declare this as pointless: Of all the Disney remakes to date, this is the one that adheres the closest to the original. No real deviation, and only mild whispers of trying a different take on the material; it’s the exact same story, just given a naturalistic face-lift. The reason why I have been as fair with these remakes as I have is because, even with the worst of them, they tried to take the original story in a new direction. Whether it was the darkly mystical air of Jungle Book or the environmentally-friendly Pete’s Dragon, or even Beauty & The Beast and Aladdin which both tried to give supporting characters more agency in the main story, there is some kind of postmodern twist that, while not outright making the films worth watching, made them worth at least existing.

The Lion King doesn’t have that, which is honestly surprising since it’s not as if the original story is without criticism. I mean, the crux of the story is about a prince learning to grow up and take responsibility as the true heir to the throne; dynastic nepotism as ‘the natural order of things’. In the time since its original release (or hell, even in the time since its 3D rerelease in 2011), sentiments regarding royalty and blood lines determining who is the ‘true’ ruler of an area of land have definitely dropped in popular favour, and if Disney is willing to even take a look at its own company through these remakes, a bit of class warfare isn’t exactly out of the question.

There is room for some examination there, something that kind of exists with how Scar (voiced rather blandly by Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a more grounded villain here, rather than the deliciously camp take Jeremy Irons gave us in the original. Taking the character from ‘leading an army of goose-stepping hyenas’ into something more nuanced could’ve given this film the push it needed, but alas, he’s been toned down without anything extra being added in.

The only thing this film has going for it is its more realistic visuals, but even they end up only existing for their own sake rather than, say, giving a more tangible texture to a more grounded story than the bright and colourful original. It doesn’t even come close to the depths of Aladdin or B&TB, but in its own way, this one is a lot more disappointing.

Knowing how interesting the other remakes have been for me personally, and knowing that director Jon Favreau can pull off entertaining and realistically-rendered animal drama, this film really should’ve turned out better than it did. I have been more than fair with all of these remakes so far, but this is the one where I have to recognise it as the needless cash-grab that it is.