The Lion King was and arguably still is one of Disney’s biggest and most respected films. While it does certainly carry its own problems, no one can deny the impact the film hand for the company and for animation overall, wowing people with its grand visuals and storytelling, memorable characters and gorgeous visuals and colors. The mere idea of remaking the film feels a little ridiculous, but if the idea was to re-imagine it with a new presentation, tone, and delivery, it maybe could’ve resulted in something (kind of like what the insanely popular musical did), but this isn’t what Disney was thinking about when they came up with this idea. It’s never about ”what we can do different with a beloved IP” but rather ”how else can we milk our IP for all its worth”, which has been felt every single one of these live action Disney remakes. While the execution for pretty much all of them have been poor and pretty much always fail in any attempts at branching out into new directions and developing under-cooked ideas, it’s at least safe to say that each one has at least provided something of value whether it be a nice visual, a decently handled song number, a memorable performance or even just a nice new idea (it’s not a lot but you start to grab straws with these films. So, it’s delightful to see that the 2019 CG version of The Lion King has managed to do the impossible, producing a film that is someone even more pathetic and abysmal than every other Disney live-action remake which came before it combined, producing a film that is nothing short of lazy useless trash. As if there’s any point in recounting what even happens, a young lion cub named Simba (voiced by JD McCray) is born and is set to become the new prince of the pride lands and is being taught about the circle of life from his father, King Mufasa (voiced again by a distractingly tired-sounding James Earl Jones). However, any plans of an easy succession are crushed by Simba’s uncle and Mufasa’s brother, Scar (voiced by Chiwetel Ejiofor) who pins for the title of king himself and gets his wish by murdering Mufasa and convincing Simba that it was his fault, causing him to flee the Pride Lands and leaving Scar as the only other option to rule. After coming across a band of animal outcasts, led by a meerkat named Timon and a warthog named Pumbaa (voiced by Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen), they convince him to forget his past and live a life of ”no worries”. Now grown up (and being voiced by Donald Glover), Simba learns from his old friend, Nala (voiced by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter) that Scar’s rule over the kingdom has ruined the land and that he must come back and face him in order to restore proper balance, while also coming to grips with the guilt that has lay over him all this time. This movie has absolutely no reason for existing, to the point that its almost impressive how little effort was put in to try at the very least to give a different experience. All the good that came from the original film, including the artistry, the acting, the element of risk taking and upping the standards for animated movies, is all washed out and replaced with everything that didn’t work in the original like the boring songs, the overly simple characters, the hastily rushed ending, except pushed to a far greater extreme due to being in a film that is by definition a sloppy second.

It almost feels pointless to call this film a ”remake” as little to nothing is changed, altered, or even tweaked in a way that would make anything feel different from its original animated counterpart, feeling more like a tech demo for new visual technology rather than an actual film. Even though the film never advertised itself as a live-action film, Disney was definitely banking on their latest trend to draw people in (which definitely worked considering the amount of money it made at the box office), and the film is going out its way to try and be portrayed as realistically as possible from the backgrounds and character designs, almost to a fault.  Everything in this movie is so familiar and so repetitive of its original version that it calls into question exactly what screenwriter Jeff Nathanson did outside of just watch the animated movie and copy-paste the dialogue (considering he wrote Speed 2: Cruise Control, Rush Hour 3, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tale, these results aren’t too surprising). The lines are mostly the same, the scenes are exactly the same, the songs are pretty much the same (unless they are made ten times worse), it’s pretty pathetic how little this movie tries to be its own thing. While the original story wasn’t delivered in the strongest way, it definitely took risks with its ideas and presentation and that left a dramatic impression, whereas here, it’s too distracting and single-minded to allow its audience to appreciate it as its own thing and the way its retold with so little passion and care just props up the original by default rather than itself. Director Jon Favreau has made good movies in the past, but his work within these Disney remakes feel so useless and lacking care that they don’t even feel like top priorities for him, rather just an excuse to test new tricks in filmmaking and earn a bit of money while he spends time on projects he actually cares about (if that’s how The Mandalorian was born, that’s a little silver lining).

The characters in the original film were a little archetypal and maybe not the most fleshed out, but they had likeable voice actors and memorable designs whilst this film trades all that away by featuring horribly dull designs with ill-fitting voice talent. Th e repeated nature of the film mixed with the distinct lack of passion and spark in the filmmaking no doubt lowers the impressionable nature of the cast and their portrayals, but this more ”realistic” tone means that any sense of cartoonish personality is horrifically neutered from its cast, making them insanely dull, hollow, and lifeless. While it is appreciated that the film actually tried to cast black actors to portray a story set within and heavily featuring Africa, they still manage to miscast a lot of these roles to the point that they feel out of place. Donald Glover as Simba doesn’t feel like it works, with a tone and attitude that feels too light-hearted and lacking weight for a character that should at least have a sense of that appeal. Beyonce as Nala is actually not doing too bad from an acting standpoint, but the character (both young and old) is so overly serious and one-note that it takes what was otherwise a simple but fine enough character from the original and make her ten times more obnoxious. Scar loses all of his great personality and is instead turned into some generic thuggish archetype despite getting a great British actor like Chiwetel Ejiofor to portraying him. John Oliver as Zasu is pretty annoying and bottom of the barrel, John Kani as Rafiki doesn’t leave much of an impression, and even the great James Earl Jones clearly has no passion in his delivery in scenes that he’s far too familiar with. The only people that feel like they come out of this film with a little dignity are Billy Eichner and Seth Rogan as Timon and Pumba, who at least get a few good scenes and the only lines with a sense of life and freshness (probably because they were improvised), and Florence Kasumba as the lead hyena Shenzi, who is barely used and contributes next to nothing in the overall film, but is at least made a little intimidating and different enough from the original version to be her own thing.

The only real selling point and purpose for this film even existing seems to be the technology and seeing this animated classic in three dimensions, and from a technical level, it is definitely impressive. While some of the animals don’t always look very realistic and can look a little uncanny in moments, they move and react in a way that makes them feel real, but that also leads into one of the worst parts of this movie. The effects may be trying to feign reality, but that also comes through in the expressions of the character which are flat, lifeless, and never once feel alive which kills a lot of emotional moments in the film. The movie lacks that complex reactions of a living animal so it can’t feel authentic, but it also lacks the complex reactions of an animated character so it can’t be cinematically expressive either, it fails on both fronts, and it kills so many moments in this film (Mufusa’s death has gone from one of the most harrowing moments in animation to something almost borderline laughable). This is also true for the landscapes, which look realistic enough that it could fool people into thinking at least some of it was filmed out-doors (literally the only live-action shot is the film’s first frame), but it makes a country as beautifully and culturally rich as Africa look unbelievably ugly. There’s no variety of color, the lighting is always faded, the locations always look so barren and unimpressive, and even the cinematography by Caleb Deschanel never shows the landscapes in an eye-catching or cinematic manner (outside of a few shots in Circle of Life). Its honestly amazing how ugly this film is. The music in the original film felt a little place and not the right fit for the Shakespearean tone of the story, but they were still well regarded by fans, and you can feel how much better than were done in comparison to this film. The song numbers, though sung well enough despite the strong use of auto-tuning, are visually unimpressive to look at and are sometimes flat out retooled to the point that they completely ruin the number (Be Prepared, one of the best Disney villain songs of all time, is cut out altogether). Even the score by Hans Zimmer (who returned to score the film again) is lacking that booming heart-pounding quality that made the original so engaging and tense in the right moments, everything about this film just feels like its lacking effort.

Nothing in this movie is worth seeing, it’s a shallow attempt at retelling a movie that is regarded by many as one of the best Disney movies of all time. Whether or not that’s true, this movie will help that statement with how terrible this 2019 film turned out to be. Instead of adding more complexities, it dumbs it down even further, instead of breathing new life into its premise and world, it comes across as dead and washed out, and instead of reintroducing a beloved movie with a fresh coat of paint, it smothers the original in new technology and claims it’s a new product. While nothing morally bad is in this movie for kids to watch and nostalgia-hungry fans who want nothing new will undoubtedly like this film fine, The Lion King has never felt so out of balance. Whether consider the ‘’live action’’ version, the 2019 film, or just the bad version of the animated one, nothing in this movie is worth any sort of pride.

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