On 13 September 2019, after weeks of promising myself to go, I finally went to my local cinema to see Walt Disney's 'photo-realistic', CGI-driven 2019 remake, directed by Jon Favreau, of their earlier 'traditional animation' classic, The Lion King, and it was certainly worth the wait.
Just over a year earlier, I had marvelled at the realism of their CGI version of The Jungle Book, but in the relatively brief interim period between that film and this one, the animation quality has increased exponentially. Here and there is a brief occurrence of unnatural movement, but for most of the time it is like watching real, living animals on screen.
Intriguingly, I've read that some film critics have bemoaned the lack or reduction of facial expressions exhibited by the animals, but that is only to be expected if you're aiming for photo-realism. After all, it would be a very uncomfortable, mis-matched combination to have photo-realistic animals exhibiting anthropomorphic expressions, because these are not cartoon animals in the traditional sense like they were in the original 1994 Lion King movie.
That said, lack of expression is taken to an absolute extreme with Scar (voiced here by Chiwetel Ejiofor), Mufasa's villainous brother, who seems to have overdosed on Botox, because his facial expression rarely show even the barest flicker of emotion, regardless of whether he is being sly, murderous, evil, frightened, or envious. By comparison, the original movie's Scar (voiced by Jeremy Irons) was a veritable (and virtuoso) 'Jim Carrey on speed' performance! Meanwhile, James Earl Jones reprises his role on the original as the stately, regal voice of Mufasa.
This new Lion King's storyline is much the same as in the original, plus a few unexpected additions, but none more so than, for no apparent reason, lion cub Simba, meerkat Timon, and warthog Pumbaa suddenly launching into a lengthy version of the chorus from 'Wimoweh - The Lion Sleeps Tonight', which isn't even a Disney song. There is also an admittedly amusing steal of the opening lines of 'Be Our Guest' from Disney's very own Beauty and the Beast when Pumbaa (voiced by Seth Rogen) is briefly offered up to a pack of pursuing hyaenas as a very edible distraction subterfuge! The hyaenas in this version, incidentally, are decidedly menacing and malevolent, whereas they were merely buffoonish for the most part in the original one.
A new song, 'Spirit', co-written by Beyoncé Knowles (who voices Nala and was nominated for both a Grammy Award and a Golden Globe Award for it), appears in the film itself. A second new song, 'Never Too Late', co-written by Tim Rice and Elton John, was sung by Elton over the end-credits.
By the time that I saw it at the cinema back in September 2019, this new Lion King version had already overtaken Frozen as the highest-grossing animated feature film ever at the box office (as for its longstanding record in this capacity, therefore, Frozen has had to Let It Go - sorry, couldn't resist!). It is also the highest-grossing film musical of all time. Moreover, there can be no mystery whatsoever for this movie's phenomenal success – it is totally breathtaking and astonishing to watch, simple as that. Long may this leonine wonder reign over the box office records
In short, I loved it!! And if you'd like to see why, just click here to watch a stirring, fittingly-majestic trailer for 2019's CGI-crowned, resplendent re-coronation of The Lion King!
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