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THE LION KING (2019)
Director: Jon Favreau Cast: The voices of Donald Glover, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Billy Eichner, Seth Rogen, John Oliver, JD McCrary, James Earl Jones, Alfre Woodard, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Keegan-Michael Key, Eric André, Florence Kasumba, John Kani MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:58 Release Date: 7/19/19 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 18, 2019 This new version of The Lion King, featuring photorealistic computer-animated animals against real backdrops of Africa, is just that: a new version of the 1994 film, in which the elegant hand-drawn animation has been replaced by backgrounds that are real and animal characters that look real. This is far from the first time that filmmakers remaking a piece of the Disney animated canon simply re-did the same story with living people and creatures that look to be alive through visual effects. It surely will not be the last time, either. It's starting to get to the point that one wonders who asked for this and, more importantly, whom we have to ask to make it stop. The more successful of these live-action (or, in this case, "live-action") remakes have understood that a mere copy of the established story, characters, and songs, using a different technique of filmmaking, is not enough. Something has to be changed from the original film. That change has to be significant enough to warrant a new version of a film that has captured and maintained imaginations of children and adults alike for decades and generations. An overwhelming majority of the Disney animated films came from some previous source material (fairy tales and fables and myths and literature), and that can be a source of new-ish story ideas, tonal approaches, and, in general, inspiration for those who set out to remake these films. The original version of The Lion King, though, is one of those noteworthy exceptions, in that it has no established foundation in a previous tale. Yes, it was kind of a light variation of Hamlet (Let's also not forget the accusations that the story and characters came from a Japanese animated TV series), but for all intents and purposes, the story of Simba, the lion cub whose father is murdered by his uncle and who—after some indecisiveness, of course—sets out to defeat the avuncular enactor of regicide, was an original story. This fact leaves the remake with nothing other than its predecessor on which to fall back (An early scene, in which the soon-to-be murderous uncle praises the lion queen, teases the possibility of getting closer to Shakespeare, but that goes nowhere). It's a fancier, more expensive-looking rehash of the original. Judging the new version on its own is nearly impossible. Beyond the switch from stylistic hand-drawn animation to photorealism, we're basically getting the same thing we already have had for 25 years again. The story remains the same. Young Simba (voice of JD McCrary), heir apparent to the monarchy of the African savannah, learns of his place in the circle of life from his father Mufasa (voiced, as the character was in the original, by James Earl Jones). Scar (voice of Chiwetel Ejiofor, taking over the imposing vocal presence of Jeremy Irons with significant success), the current king's brother, plots against Mufasa with some equally treacherous hyenas. He kills the king and, after blaming the son for his father's death, nearly kills Simba. In self-imposed exile, the cub meets the carefree pairing of the meerkat Timon (voice of Billy Eichner) and the warthog Pumbaa (voice of Seth Rogen). An older Simba (voice of Donald Glover) receives a reminder of his place in the world by his old friend Nala (voice of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter). This tale remains strong, especially in its straightforward respect for and respectful straightforwardness about nature, as well as moments such as Mufasa's death (The cub curls up beneath his father's head in a sad act of mourning) and the jovial outcasts in the jungle, whom Eichner and Rogen voice with considerable amusement. There are some new additions, such as a leader hyena and some scenes showing Scar's devastation of the savannah and Nala's decision to escape (She also has a new and forgettable song, presumably because the character is voiced by the most famous recording artist on the planet). Otherwise, all of this is the same old story with different voices and a new, shiny CG coat. The visual effects bringing these animals to life are, admittedly, astounding most of the time. They look realistic in terms of appearance and movement, including a real sense of weight, and it's impressive how well the animators convey a subtle range of emotion within the limitations of the faces of the animals re-created here (A lot of that is communicated in the eyes of the major characters, which might be the only body part the artists anthropomorphize in any noticeable way). The more difficult thing to communicate convincingly, though, is the characters' talking and especially their singing, which sees the mouths of young Simba and Nala opening only slightly while the actors belt out a rousing, final note. The musical numbers themselves are transformed into underwhelming sequences, too—mainly characters walking in a straight line while singing. That's the big gamble of turning works of imaginative freedom into movies that primarily care about so-called realism. There's nothing realistic about the original film, so in taking away the imagination and freedom of its predecessor's style, The Lion King ultimately feels like a sedate imitation—technically impressive but drained of any real personality. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for sequences of violence and peril, and some thematic elements)
