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THE LION KING
Starring: James Earl Jones, Donald Glover Jr, Seth Rogan
Director: Jon Favreau
Genre: Theatrical, fiction
Rating: PG
RUNTIME: 118 Mins
Remember when Disney used to be the pinnacle creative, unique and heart-warming tales told using the best technology of the time? Yeah, I do too, fondly.
Recent years have seen Disney cashing in on existing brand names by redoing classic movies with photorealistic computer generated imagery with a sprinkle of live action, choosing marketing gimmicks and special effects over originality and creativity
The Jungle Book, Dumbo, Aladdin, Christopher Robbin, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, the list goes on and on. And don’t get me wrong I loved The Jungle Book and as a rule, I love Jon Favreau, who directed both The Lion King and The Jungle Book. Although, he will forever be remembered by me as Happy Hogan in the Marvel Universe.
But with this movie, which was one of my favourites growing up, something simply does not work. It has so many of the right ingredients but feels desperately reheated and then overcooked.
There are legendary voices like James Earl Jones (Star Wars) reprising his role as Mufasa, Donald Glover Jr. (Community, Solo: A Star Wars Story) as Simba, Seth Rogen (Superbad, Pineapple Express) as Pumbaa, Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave, Doctor Strange) as Scar, John Oliver (The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight) as Zazu and heck, they even got Beyonce to voice Nala.
The music is scored by virtuoso composer Hans Zimmer, who had composed the unforgettable soundtrack for the original 1994 movie.
And despite all this going for it, the movie just felt dull. The photorealism which is supposed to immerse us in the lives of lions, did so a bit too well, but that took the magic out of the story. I wondered why I had enjoyed The Jungle Book more than I did this movie, since they had the same director, featured photorealistic animals and was generally loyal to the original script.
The Lion King was about telling a human story (i.e. Shakespeare’s Hamlet) through the medium of wildlife, not regale the audience with a lion documentary featuring songs.
The Jungle Book on the other hand was always a story about wild animals and the human relation to them. So in that case, the photorealism further immersed us in the movie, and we could see and feel why a jungle, while lush and interesting, may be too dangerous for a child.
This brings me to another drab factor of this movie: the ambience. I understand that lions are supposed to be savannah animals, but the original, because it didn’t try to imitate reality at all, could use mise en scène like the sky and the lighting to tell a visual story.
The 2019 movie might as well be called 50 shades of dusty brown. Everything was a shade of beige. And every animal’s facial gestures were indiscernible. Only by listening to the voice would you know if they are scared, happy or just plain bored.
In the original, the sky was green when Scar sang his deliciously devilish diapason, Be Prepared; the hyenas conveyed his authoritarian desires and I have re-watched just those two minutes endless times.
And while we are on the subject of Scar, the original one was so much more interesting. He was evil yet entertaining, scary yet somehow sympathetic. He was visually and personality-wise mesmerising. This one, while he may seem scarier at first because of the photorealism, ultimately just looks pathetic and acts cruel, all while sporting a terrible haircut. Or is it manecut?
And while Chiwetel’s dialogue delivery is on point, Jeremy Irons just seemed to have more fun with his character in the original. Maybe it was the animation too.
The animation seemed like the biggest lost opportunity. In the original, the faces conveyed so much inner dialogue. But in its pursuit of realism, this movie sacrificed the emotional subtext of most scenes. The songs unfortunately didn’t help regain any of that.
Of course, no discussion of any Lion King rendition is complete without discussing the songs. I actually loved the lyrics of this movie’s songs. I had listened to the soundtrack even before watching the movie and was excited. The songs themselves are fun, lyrically complex and often poke good-natured fun at their 1994 selves. And of course, every voice is majestic, from Beyonce’s Nala to Childish Gambino’s Simba. But when the scene was limited by the bounds of reality, the magic is quickly lost.
All in all, I left with the same feeling one has when you order your favourite dish at a subpar restaurant. It could have been truly spellbinding but despite all the ingredients, the recipe was all wrong. I give this a measly reheated one of five popcorns, perhaps judging it too harshly because of my childhood love for the original.
Naman’s verdict: 1/5
