The world seemed to collectively take a beat when Disney announced their plans to remake The Lion King in the same vein as Jon Favreau’s excellent 2016 remake of The Jungle Book, utilizing photorealistic computer technology to bring the animals to life on the big screen. It’s not that the announcement was unexpected – with Disney clearly on a path to remake every animated feature they’ve ever produced – it’s more that the 1994 film is the defining Disney film for so many people, a seminal achievement in animation and storytelling at the time and one of the biggest animated films of all time. For good reason too, as the original still holds up today; featuring some stellar voice work, a pace that moves at a clip, and vivid, bright animation that captures your attention and never lets go. Favreau’s 2019 remake is truly a visual spectacle – somehow it actually looks better than The Jungle Book – yet it’s one that lacks the heart and charm of the original due to the limits of the real animal’s ability to express the emotion and depth of the dialogue. It’s an impressive demonstration of just how far modern technology has come, but ultimately, like most of Disney’s live-action remakes, it doesn’t bring enough new material to the table to justify its existence.
Given the praise I’ve just heaped on the original it’s no surprise that Favreau opts to stick pretty close to the source material, in fact the film is almost a shot-for-shot recreation of the 1994 film. If you’ve been living under (sorry in advance) Pride Rock and aren’t familiar with the story, it revolves around young lion Simba (JD McCrary), son of the king Mufasa (James Earl Jones) and his journey to find out who he is and just why he is the right choice to take on the mantle of king. The first half of the story focuses on Simba as a cub learning about the kingdom his father rules over and frolicking with fellow lion Nala (Shahadi Wright Joseph). When the two young cubs are tricked by Simba’s uncle Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor) into entering an elephant graveyard infested with Hyena, they set off a chain of events that ultimately lead to a tragedy which Simba is held accountable for. As he flees into exile, Simba encounters the dynamic duo of Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen), a meerkat and warthog who roam the jungle doing what they want when they want, a philosophy they refer to as Hakuna Matata. The pair take young Simba under their wing and live out their days carefree until Simba finds himself drawn back to the family and kingdom he had left behind, with a choice to make between living a selfish life or rising to the mantle of his father and becoming king of the pridelands.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way first, The Lion King is gorgeous to look at. Never has computer animated imagery looked this life-like and real with such an amazing attention to detail. From the large spanning savannah planes and lush jungle landscapes down to the way the wind moves the individual strands of fur on the animals, nothing has been left out and it makes for a completely immersive experience where you feel as if you are actually in Africa. Several establishing shots, usually focusing on a small animal or insect and panning into the larger scene, are so lifelike that you’d be forgiven for thinking you were watching a National Geographic or David Attenborough special. It’s amazing to see the advancement of this technology when you reflect on films from last decade where CGI creatures stood out like a sore thumb, and it’s even more impressive from a technological standpoint to know that almost the entire film has been created digitally on a soundstage in Los Angeles. The decision to basically recreate the original film in this computer animated form is a strange one however, given that the only notable addition to the film is a new song by Beyoncé that serves as odd background music in a later scene. There was such an opportunity to really add to the story of The Lion King for new generations who will discover it through this film and the fact that this wasn’t capitalised on calls into question the purpose of the film. Why make this if you’re not going to play with it and introduce new or different ideas? It makes the film seem like more of a technical demonstration and less of a fully formed decision to bring something new to a classic tale.
Whilst a monumental technical achievement there is something of a fatal flaw in this hyper realistic approach to the animals, namely the loss of the ability to convey a lot of emotion in the animal’s delivery of dialogue. It’s a strange sight to see lions and warthogs speaking English, their mouths contorting in awkward ways to form the words or just not moving at all as the speech is dubbed over; a few instances of this are glaringly obvious and make you feel like you’re watching some kind of children’s show with a story dubbed over animal footage, taking you out of the experience entirely. On top of this, there’s the simple fact that there’s only so much emotion that you can get out of an animal’s face. The original animated film circumvented this by using a medium where it wasn’t uncommon for almost human like features to be given to an animal and the facial movements were just a part of the animation style. The remake attempts to hit every single beat of the original script-wise and some of it just doesn’t work plain and simple. It will never not be creepy to see a lion’s mouth flap awkwardly to simulate laughter or stay stretched open for a comical amount of time to hold a high note. On a side note, Seth Rogen’s iconic laugh is his and his alone and the times that it is delivered by his Pumbaa counterpart should make the man feel good about never losing any roles to a real warthog. It’s a disappointing reality that comes with the territory of this kind of animation animation that takes you right out of the film, somewhat undercutting all the hard work that has gone into rendering the beautiful environments and animals.
One of the aspects of the remake that assuaged audiences fears was the announcement of an absolutely stellar voice cast made up of old and new talents, with a distinctly more musical bend than the original in the form of leads Donald Glover and Beyoncé as the adult Simba and Nala. For the most part these casting choices work extremely well, the voice acting similar enough to the previous interpretations to be comforting yet bringing a different take on the material in the inflections and delivery of certain lines. If, like me, you’re a big fan of the original it might be a good idea to check your expectations at the door. The characters are never going to sound exactly as they did before, with the exception of James Earl Jones who reprises his role as Mufasa, and the key is to be open to the new versions. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Scar perfectly, delivering all the menace and underhandedness you expect from the character, which works particularly well with the visual aesthetic of the lion himself; a disheveled, almost malnourished beast hungry for his next kill. Donald Glover and Beyoncé give competent musical performances, infusing their personal styles into the classic songs. This may be a deal breaker for some who prefer the older versions but with the two stars in huge demand at the moment, it was certainly a choice made to please as big a modern audience as possible and most will likely enjoy their iterations. Whilst Glover gives terrific voice work – channelling a younger, more naive voice akin to some of his earlier work on Community – Beyoncé seems to struggle with the material and the delivery of her lines comes across as abrupt and jarring at times. The real stars of the show, like the original, are Timon and Pumbaa, voiced by Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen respectively. They have an extremely difficult job, taking over the roles of such iconic characters, and they do so brilliantly with Eichner giving a more biting, sassy performance than Nathan Lane’s original while Rogen makes Pumbaa an adorable idiot, delivering his lines with a charming innocence, even if the sight of a real warthog speaking is nightmare fuel.
The Lion King ultimately ends up like most of the recent Disney remakes, albeit far more advanced and successful in its technical achievements. With barely an addition or change to be seen to the original story however, this is the studio’s most barebones remake to date and doesn’t do much to justify its existence outside of the visual effects. It’s a fun experience to hear the songs again and revisit the story on the big screen but without the charm of the original or the ability to really latch on and care about the characters, due to the photorealism of the animals, the whole affair seems cold and there isn’t much incentive for repeat viewings. If you’re a fan of the original this might be worth your time to see how the story you know and love translates to real life and what the new voice cast do with the material but you’ll most likely find yourself gravitating back to the comforting classic 1994 masterpiece.
The Lion King stars Donald Glover, Beyoncé, James Earl Jones, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Keegan-Michael Key, Eric Andre, Florence Kasumba, John Kani and John Oliver – in cinemas now.