A Stunningly Beautiful, Yet Soulless Remake of a Disney Classic
The inhabitants of the Pride Lands welcome the new prince, Simba, the newborn son of King Mufasa. The entire savanna seems to rejoice in the birth of the lion cub, except for Mufasa’s brother, Scar, who cannot reconcile himself to the idea that he will not become king. Scar then decides to join forces with a pack of hyenas to eliminate the king and the young heir to the throne.
The number of Hollywood remakes of beloved Disney classics grows every year, and it was only a matter of time before “The Lion King” was reimagined. Among other animated films, Simba’s story is something of a sacred cow, to be treated with the utmost care, lest one incur the wrath of the righteous masses. But the moment has arrived, and it was decided to employ the most advanced animation technologies, making the savanna and its inhabitants as realistic as possible. The voice casting was approached with imagination, bringing Beyoncé into the project is no joke, add to the queen Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, and James Earl Jones (the voice of Mufasa in the original animated film) - you get a pretty explosive mix. All this was insured by Jon Favreau, who has a perfect track record in big cinema.
The Visuals
In the end, as expected, the film turned out to be impeccably beautiful. The fairytale Pride Lands literally came to life before our eyes, and it is indeed an incredible sight. Unfortunately, that’s where the advantages of the adaptation end. The greatest asset of the film - realistic CGI characters - also became a stumbling block for the remake. As we know, it’s difficult for animals to convey human-like facial expressions (unless it’s a smiling dog), and emotions can only be discerned through their voices, so it’s no longer possible to connect with the main characters as before. For the most part, the whole thing is more like a nature documentary on the Discovery Channel, with your drunk friends providing the voice-over. As a result, the most dramatic moments that were heart-wrenching in the 1994 animated film, simply don’t work in the new version.
The Story
Adding to the problems of the new “Lion King” is the fact that it is almost a step-by-step adaptation of the animated film. Of course, in this case, the creators found themselves in a difficult situation, because, as we have seen from several Disney remakes, nostalgia is not to be trifled with - at the slightest thing, the viewer can freak out. Disney generally likes to make its projects as safe as possible, but because of the fear of taking risks, the product often turns out bland and completely useless, as was recently the case with “Dumbo”, and now with “The Lion King”. The studio clearly isn’t learning from its mistakes, so the forecasts for the upcoming reincarnations of animated films are not the most encouraging.