THE
LION KING (2019)
Featuring
the voices of Donald Glover, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Chiwetel
Ejiofor, Seth Rogan, Billy Eichner, John Oliver, John Kani, Florence
Kasumba, Keegan-Michael Key, Eric Andre. Directed by John Favreau.
(118 min)
ON
BLU-RAY FROM DISNEY
Review
by Stinky the Destroyer😼
Did
The Lion King need to be remade? Of course not, but you can
say that about any movie.
However,
this one isn’t simply a remake. As nearly everyone already knows by now,
it’s almost the exact same film, right down to the songs,
music score, title card, jokes, dialogue and iconic
scenes (many of which are shot at identical angles or
perspectives). James Earl Jones even returns to voice Mufasa. The only
significant difference is the animation...CGI and motion-capture that
makes everything (mostly) look like live action.
My
initial reaction was that this version might be as redundant as Gus
Van Sant’s misguided scene-for-scene remake of Psycho. Why
crank out the same thing when the original was not-only
groundbreaking, it remains culturally relevant
decades later? Even though I’m a middle-aged curmudgeon who
remembers – and often misses – the days of traditional hand-drawn
animation, I certainly understand the aesthetic appeal of computer
animation...as long as it still looks like animation.
The
family dog notwithstanding, animals ain’t all that expressive, so
by designing the characters in the new Lion King to be as
realistic as their counterparts in the wild, their personalities are
severely muted, as is our emotional investment in them. That also
makes it pretty tough for the exact same dialogue, jokes and songs to
go over as effectively as they did 25 years ago, despite an
impressive cast (though Seth Rogan, voicing Pumba, comes close).
 |
| The morning commute. |
A
few new wrinkles are sprinkled-in here and there. How Rafiki learns
Simba’s still alive is creatively amusing (like anything involving
dung beetles) and the hyenas have a few more chuckleworthy scenes.
But most of the added material is inconsequential. Other than that,
this is the shiny penny version of The Lion King you
grew up with.
But
people like shiny things, and in that respect, The Lion King
admittedly hits a home run (and is therefore not as redundant as Psycho).
The animation is meticulous, an astounding amount of detail poured
into every shot. It’s a technological wonder and the imagery alone
makes it worth checking out at least once. Director Jon Favreau and
his crew of computer nerds may not have added anything significant to the narrative, but visually, they’ve certainly taken what they
learned from The Jungle Book and amplified it tenfold.
For
a lot of viewers - kids especially - the eye candy may be enough, perhaps even
preferable to the barbaric methods used to animate critters back
in the ancient ‘90s. Since the story itself is bereft of any
surprises whatsoever, The Lion King is obviously intended for
those who enjoy paying to have their cars detailed: It’s still the
same old vehicle, but for a brief time, you feel like you’re
driving a shiny new set o’ wheels.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
"THE
JOURNEY TO THE LION KING” - 3-part
documentary.
"MORE
TO BE SCENE” - Behind the scenes of 3 major musical sequences.
AUDIO
COMMENTARY – By Director Jon Favreau.
OPTIONAL
INTRO BY JON FAVREAU
"PROTECT
THE PRIDE”
MUSIC
VIDEOS - “Spirit” by Beyonce; “Never to Late” by Elton
John
SING-ALONG
OPTION
DVD
& DIGITAL COPIES
KITTY CONSENSUS:
NOT BAD. LIKE CAT CHOW.
No comments:
Post a Comment