55% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 288 reviews)
Runtime: 118 minutes
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Starring: A famous cast that usually just sounded bored
From: Disney
I just can't wait to... forget this movie exists.
This is my first experience with these pointless Disney remakes; I know why they keep on making them but all the bad buzz surrounding it from film fans were enough to keep me away. Credit me being in a town I am rarely in (resulting in my attending an AMC in an outdoor shopping mall after I had dinner there and purchased items from a few different stores) and due to the AMC A-List app I decided to check this out. It was on a giant screen in 3D-of course, most of the time the third dimension served little purpose-and indeed the computer animation looked tremendous.
Regrettably, they decided to make this both a shot for shot remake & “serious”-even though it's based on a cartoon that was inspired by Hamlet-and also probably the old Japanese anime Kimba, but Disney would like to “shhh” that detail-and as even pages on Tumblr have noted, lions and other animals have plenty of facial expressions so having every creature have a blank face and that resulting in vocal performances to match... a terrible, terrible idea, even if you don't compare it to the cartoon from a quarter century ago. It makes for a movie that only has its great visuals and sound to keep you interested. Sure, Timon and Pumbaa do inspire some laughs but overall The Lion King '94 is far superior; two summers ago I got to see that again theatrically and the movie is still great with its traditional animation, unforgettable musical numbers-the ones here are incredibly lame as there's no room for theatricality here-and exciting story that everyone can enjoy.
Worst of all, not only is a tremendous moment from Rafiki completely excised, but Scar as a villain is so bland. I don't blame Chitwetel Ejiofor here... if let loose like Jeremy Irons was, I am sure it'd be a lot better. I know that children seeing this story for the first time here will love it-they'd be better served with the OG property instead of something that is totally lacking in personality and wastes a talented, diverse cast. If nothing else, I now can say with certainty that in the future I'll avoid most if not all of these superfluous cash grab motion pictures from Disney or whomever else decides to be creatively bankrupt like this.
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