The Lion King (2019)

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From a technical aspect, the remake of The Lion King is stunning. It’s beautiful to look at. Yet, the film just feels hollow, almost like an imitation of something better that came before. I think the Disney remake this reminded me of the most was Beauty and the Beast. Yeah, I didn’t really like this movie very much. Don’t get me wrong there are good things about the film. The voice actors do an admirable enough job. I’ve already mentioned the film’s visual effects. At the same time, I feel like the attempt to make the film look more realistic is also one of the film’s biggest hindrances. The original made the characters emote. You could understand what they were going through. Here, their faces are blank slates. What makes it even harder for me to feel any real attachment to this remake is that some of the original film’s biggest moments come across as though they have less weight and impact. The musical numbers feel restrained here, like they are being held back. The stampede scene doesn’t have the same ominous feeling because it lacks the scale and the shadows. For the first hour of the film, it’s just the original movie beat by beat. At that point, some changes come in. They’re fine, but they don’t really stand out too much. Now, I don’t normally like to compare a remake to its original. The problem is this film doesn’t do enough to stand out and be its own thing. The thing that makes it so strange is knowing how little this movie deviates, despite being a half hour longer. Overall, this isn’t the worst movie ever made, but it’s still pretty bad.

4 / 10