Fresh out of the theatre, something didn’t sit right with me. The Lion King is my favorite Disney movie. We all know that the Disney remakes have been so-so, but it was supposed to be different with The Lion King. It was the best Disney film of the 1990s. Yet, it is the perfect example of why live-action remakes simply don’t translate well relative to their 2D animation counterparts. The Lion King is the epitome of this, though not for the reasons you may think. The Lion King 2019 is a bad remake because it fails to capture the magic of the original and changes key scenes that lose their visceral, emotional power.
I’m not even going to go into the lack of facial expressions because they didn’t matter all that much to me. John Olliver was horrible as Zazu. The pouncing lesson was altered. Scar’s song was cut down dramatically. Rafiki’s role was drastically cut. Simba, instead of traveling back to the kingdom on his own, is accompanied by Nala. That was such a defining moment for Simba, making that decision on his own, and Rafiki lost his moment (actually a few of them) informing everyone that Simba is returning to Pride Rock. For a movie that extended its time by roughly thirty minutes, there’s a lot that the film is missing. It feels hollow. They even managed to screw up Mufasa’s speech to an adult Simba, which greatly differed in tone and didn’t even include a silhouette of Mufasa, which may have been due to the fact that it was 3D instead of 2D animation. Regardless, it just goes to show that in many instances 2D animation is superior to 3D remakes.
The hyenas are all generic. Shenzi is in the film, but she has a very small part. The tone of the entire last half of the film simply doesn’t. There are too many alterations. Maybe this was to modernize the film, but it doesn’t work. Yes, most of the scenes that are altered aren’t large alterations, but the changes have a monumental effect on the story. The Lion King released when I was eight years old. It’s my favorite Disney film and I’m incredibly detail-oriented. It’s unfortunate that so many small changes culminated into such a disaster of a film. Most of the actors did a great job with what they were given, though Beyonce was the weak link in the cast. Timon and Pumba worked well for what it’s worth.
The Lion King 2019 is a bad remake. It fails to capture what made the original so magical. And if Disney cannot even manage that, the rest of their live-action films of their classics will fail as well. Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast were bad enough. Disney needs to start coming up with new ideas and stop re-hashing old ones. If it can’t be done with The Lion King, it can’t be done with any of their films. It’s time for them to start doing 2D animated films again, becaus 3D live-action remakes simply aren’t cutting it.